QuickBooks Online (QBO) handles bills differently than QuickBooks Desktop (QBDT), contractor-q-notafan.

In QBO, bills are linked only to vendors, not directly to customers or projects. So the customer and project fields on bill-level reports often appear blank. While you can assign projects to individual bill line items, the bill itself does not carry that project or customer information, which limits reporting options.

QBO’s project tracking primarily helps track income and expenses, but it lacks a built-in report for unpaid bills by project or customer, unlike QBDT. QBDT allows for a closer link between bills and projects and offers better customization options for reports, which is why it can provide that type of report.

For now, contractors needing to view unpaid bills by project in QBO can take the following steps:

• Assign projects to each bill line item,
• Use the Project Profit and Loss report to view expenses by project (though it won’t show unpaid bills),
• Export bill data to Excel for custom reports,
• Use third-party apps that integrate with QBO to get detailed job costing and billing reports.

If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment below.