Thanks. Actually, I have accounts with 3 nonprofits in QBO now.  i don't want to experiment in their production files though.  It does look like projects are Jobs but without the sub customer. 

Sub-customers have their uses. I set up all the properties in our HOA installed QB  as customer/jobs then used a prime customer record if someone owned more than one property. Worked like a charm and easy to set up the sub customer as a primary if the property was sold to an individual owner.  Thanks again

Jobs in quickbooks desktop are linked with specific customer. What if I need to create a job (lets say a real estate project) and track its developing process before I even get customers. Can I use jobs for this? Same way it can be done in QBO with projects

Thanks for joining us here, @afereos.

I'll share some information about creating a job before getting a customer. Currently, we're unable to add a job only in QuickBooks Desktop. You need a particular customer to create a job.

Here's an article for the step-by-step instruction: Track job costs in QuickBooks Desktop.

I'm also attaching this link here in case you need help with other customer-related tasks. It has articles that'll guide along. Feel free to browse: Sales and customers.

Keep me posted if you have other questions or concerns with jobs. I'm more than happy to answer them for you. Take care and have a good one.

I find them very similar but projects have a bit more functionality.  In QBO Plus and above, you get a dashboard for watching all your projects at a glance.  QBO has canned reports for projects.  Projects do seem to be the same sub-customer type of object as jobs.  You can create sub customers in QBO but I have never bothered as projects are much more functional.