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Set it, expense it, invoice it – making billable expenses easy!

By Nora Tucker

Published on August 28, 20141 min read

As you probably know, we’re all about making things easy and that’s something we know both our existing customers and those trying Intuit QuickBooks Online for the first time love about us. In fact, small business owners and employees recently told us as part of a product comparison survey that they found QuickBooks easier to use than competitor Xero.

One example of how easy it is to use QuickBooks for key tasks is can be seen in this video which shows how to record a billable expense – just set it, expense it and invoice it!

How to record a billable expense

What’s a billable expense?

A billable expense is a work expense you can bill a customer for. For example, if your customer reimburses travel expenses, and you take a taxi to meet them, you can record your fare as a billable expense and then add it to their next invoice.

Step 1: Set it

Click the Gear icon > Company Settings > Expenses > Bills and expenses
Turn on (1) Track expenses and items by customer and (2) Make expenses and items billable

Step 2: Expense it

Click Create (+) > Expense, then enter the expense and (3) mark it billable, and (4) specify a customer
(Optional) At the bottom of the expense form, attach the actual taxi receipt!

Step 3: Invoice it

Click Create (+) > Invoice
When you enter a customer’s name, (5) related billable items appear on the right
Click (6) Add to move a billable expense to the invoice

Your invoice will then look like this:

Click the (7) link icon to view more about a billable item or remove it from the invoice
If you click the (8) trash icon to delete a line, you can choose to unlink its related billable item as well

Notes

The billable expense feature is available in QuickBooks Plus only
If you see the old Preferences screen instead of the Settings screen, click Vendors & Purchases in the left column, and then select the ‘Use billable expenses and products/services’ checkbox

Want to try billable expenses? Enter a sample one at the QuickBooks test drive.

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