Charging employee time against an estimate in an invoice

Thanks for reaching out to the Community, Prostang. I appreciate your detailed information.

With a Plus subscription, you can track billable time by job by setting up jobs as sub-customers. This enables you to invoice billable time and keep billable expenses organized.

Initially, you'll need to add the job as a sub-customer of your customer you're doing the work for.

Here's how:
 

1. In your left navigation bar, go to Sales, then Customers.
2. Click New customer.
3. Enter all of the appropriate details for your sub-customer.
4. Turn on the Is sub-customer option.
5. From your Enter parent customer ▼ drop-down list, choose a parent customer.
6. Pick Bill with parent.
7. Select Save.

Next, you can turn on and record billable time. Once you've entered billable timesheets, you'll see them available to add to new invoices.

Please feel welcome to send a reply if there's any questions. Have a great Tuesday!

I have all that setup.

My issue is that the time entered by the employee is not being billed against the Estimate.

We're glad to have you again, Prostang. Thank you for ensuring that everything is set up correctly.

I'm here to assist you further with the issue of time not being billed against estimates in QBO.  Let's ensure that your tracking preferences are properly configured by allowing time to be billable. Here are the necessary steps. 

1. Go to Settings ⚙ and select Account and settings.
2. Select the Time tab.
3. Edit the General and Timesheet sections to set your time tracking preferences:
   • Who tracks time: Select team members to choose who tracks time.
     • Turn the switch on for any team members who need time tracked.
     • To allow 1099 contractors to track time, select Show contractors, and turn the setting on. Select Save.
   • First day of work week: This affects how employees and contractors view weekly timesheets.
   • Show service field: When on, team members who fill out timesheets can specify if activities should be billed to a customer.
   • Allow time to be billable: Adds a checkbox on timesheets to specify whether activities should be billed to the customer. Check Show billing rate to users entering time if you want your team members to see the billable rates.

I've got this article for reference: Turn on and set up time tracking in QuickBooks Online.

To learn about the project feature and invoices, please check out these articles: 

• Invoice customers for project expenses
• Set up and create projects in QuickBooks Online

Please let me know in your reply if you require additional information about the process or other concerns. I'll be right here to help. Take care!

All that was set.  I can bill the hours.  Always been able to since setup a few years back.  What I cannot do is to have those hours x billable rate and that amount be removed from the Estimate.

Tracking the remaining billable time on a project is fundamental for the project and financial management of your consulting firm, Prostang. We can use the progress invoicing feature to update the hours left against customer estimates. I'll also take note of the inconvenience you experienced during your previous help session.

The amount from the converted estimate to an invoice will only be reduced if you entered a negative billable time entry. With this, I'd like to know how you recorded the transactions in the program. When converting the estimate to an invoice, did you add the billable time entry? If so, please ensure that the progress invoicing feature is enabled so that the billable time entry does not get included in the next conversion.

Moreover, the progress invoicing feature allows you to organize project payments from start to finish. If you haven't enabled it, follow the steps below:

1. Go to the Gear icon and select Account and settings.
2. Navigate to the Sales tab.
3. In the Progress Invoicing section, click Edit.
4. Turn on the Create multiple partial invoices from a single estimate switch.
5. In the Update your invoice template? window, select Update.
6. Click Save, then Done.

Check out this material for more details: Set up and send progress invoices in QuickBooks Online.

Furthermore, explore QuickBooks Payroll to streamline the time-tracking process and handle entries effectively.

To explore more ways to include paid or unpaid invoices, refer to this article: Add existing invoices to projects in QuickBooks Online.

For future reference, use this guide to learn ways to trace expenses related to work made by your employees: Track hourly labor costs and profitability by project in QuickBooks Online.

Our goal is to provide an efficient method to manage the balance to be billed seamlessly. For further assistance, please do not hesitate to reach out again. Have a wonderful day!

This was already set.  I have been able to invoice based on % of items, Line Items, or the other option since the beginning.

This is what I need:

Estimate = $1,000

Employee works 10 hours @ $25/hour billable

I add employee's time entries for project into invoice and the $250 is taken from the $1,000 estimate.

Leaving $750 left on estimate for next invoicing.

Thanks for updating us here in the Community, Prostang. Allow me to provide the steps in charging your employee time to a converted estimate.

First, you'll need to create an estimate amounting of $1,000, then convert it to invoice. After converting, you'll then add the billable time to the converted invoice to calculate the amount in QBO.

Here's how:

1. Go to the +New icon, then select Estimate. 
2. Choose a customer on who you want to send the estimate to.
3. Enter the product and amount. Then, click Save and Send.
4. Go back to Estimates and locate the transaction, click Mark as accepted.
5. Click OK, then hit Conver to invoice.
6. Once routed to the invoice page, add the billable time to the invoice. Then, click Add.
7. Once done, you'll need to manually locate the transaction on the Customers section in QBO.

Feel free to visit this article to have details in recording billable time in QBO, enabling users to effectively track and invoice their billable hours.

Additionally, refer to this article to have a detailed guide in customizing invoices, estimates, and sales receipts in QBO.

Also, to elevate your financial management to new dimensions with the guidance of our QuickBooks Live Expert Assisted team. Our experts excel at refining your financial processes and imparting personalized advice that aligns with your business objectives. A click is all it takes to embark on a journey toward financial excellence.

Let's maximize the benefits of QuickBooks together, Prostang. If you encounter any questions during the migration process, know that I'm here to support and assist you in finding the best solutions.

This doesn't do what I am asking.  This is currently how I am doing invoices.  See attached image.

In the image, the $10k doesn't get subtracted from the $50k that is the estimate.

Thanks for getting back here in the thread, Prostang. I appreciate the screenshot you've provided to understand the process better. In QuickBooks, deducting the billable amount from your estimate is unavailable. Let’s discuss the details below.

Deducting the billable time from your estimates is not possible since billable entries are used to charge expenses to your customers and estimates are only used to create a bid, proposal, or quote. The estimate can later be turned into a sales order or an invoice.

Based on the screenshot you provided, QuickBooks calculates the amount based on the dollar value rather than the rate. Since the current amount is zero, it will continue to display as $10,000 unless you adjust the billable entry to a negative value; however, making the billable amount negative is not possible.

Moreover, you can check out this article for detailed information about adding billable hours to an invoice: Enter billable time by job in QuickBooks Online.

Additionally, I've added this article if you want to get a quick overview of your business performance in QuickBooks, here's an article you can check: Run a report in QuickBooks Online.

Keep us posted if you have further concerns or questions about deducting the billable time amount from your estimates. The Community is always here to lend a hand.