QB 2003 PRO for Machine Builder

[Manchester]

I am considering purchasing QB 2003 PRO for our Machine Design and Building company. We offer the following services:
1. A. Design charging by the hour
B. Design by contract (Actual cost may be +/- invoiced cost)

2. A. Design and manufacture complete machines by contract.
Need to track the following costs:
1. Engineering costs (time cards)
2. Purchased components (from vendors)
3. Sub-Contractor costs
4. Manufacturing costs (Parts machined in our own shop)
a. material
b. special tools
c. labor
d. outside contract labor
5. Assembly Costs
a. labor
b. outside contract labor

From what I have read, I can sort by Customer, Job, Sub-Job.
Customer = ABC Company
Job = Assembly Machine XXX
Sub-Job = Engineering
Purchased Parts
Sub-Contractor A, B, etc.
Manufacturing Costs
Assembly Costs

Can I further break down the manufacturing costs by individual parts that are manufactured? ie: Part 101, 102, 103, etc? So that I can develop costs for future replacement repair parts.

Is anyone else using QB PRO for the same purpose?
Does anyone have a chart of accounts for this sort of business?
I would appreciate any suggestions you have to offer.

[BFRieck]

I believe you can probably make QB do what you want; creating a chart of accounts to serve your purposes is problematic - you just have to figure it out by trial and error (assuming you are knowledgeable with charts of accounts otherwise). However, consider this: Based on a number of years experience I would caution you against over-complicating your bookkeeping. You can create an input and record-keeping nightmare by trying to keep track of too much detail. If I were you I would keep my financial statement books as simple as possible and use spreadsheets or data base managers such as Access to track the kinds of cost information you seek. If you insist, you probably ought to consider another software package more specifically designed for cost accounting.