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Intuit

Enter billable expenses

Find out how to record billable expenses in QuickBooks Online Plus.

A billable expense is an expense you incur on your customer’s behalf when you perform a work for them. You can easily record and track billable expenses so your customer can reimburse them when they receive their invoice.

Step 1: Turn on billable expense

To record billable expenses, turn on billable expense tracking.

  1. Go to Settings ⚙, then select Account and settings.
  2. Go to the Expenses tab.
  3. From the Bills and expenses section, select Edit ✎.
  4. Turn on the following:
    • Show Items table on expense and purchase forms
    • Track expenses and items by customer.
    • Make expenses and items billable.
  5. (Optional) Set up the following:
    • Markup rate
    • Billable expense tracking
  6. Bill payment terms.
  7. Select Save.

Step 2: Enter a billable expense

Here’s how to bill a customer for an expense.

  1. Select + New.
  2. Select the transaction (Bill, Expense, or Check) you want to create.
  3. Select the payee.
  4. In the Category column, select the expense account for transaction.
  5. Enter the description and amount of the expense, then select the Billable checkbox.
  6. In the Customer column, select the customer you want to bill for this expense.
  7. (Optional) Enter or make sure the markup % is correct, then select the Tax checkbox or choose a tax agency if you want to charge tax.
  8. Select Save and close.

Step 3: Add billable expenses to invoices

To reimburse the cost, link the billable expense to your customer's invoice.

  1. Select + New.
  2. Select Invoice.
  3. In the Customer ▼ dropdown menu, select the customer you created a billable expense for. This opens the Add to invoice window.
  4. Select Add on the billable expense you want to charge to your customer.
  5. Select Save and close.
Ringwaldt
Level 2

Manage suppliers and expenses

This sounds great, however, when i go to settings, account & settings, and click on the expenses tab, the option to turn it on is not there:

 

Instead mine just shows the following.

image.png

 

How do i enable this?

JasroV
QuickBooks Team

Manage suppliers and expenses

Thanks for providing us a screenshot, @Ringwaldt.

 

The steps above only works when you have QuickBooks Online (QBO) Plus. If you want to avail of the Billable expenses option, you'll want to upgrade to QBO Plus. Let me guide you how.

 

In your QBO account:

  1. Go to the Gear icon.
  2. Select Account and Settings.
  3. Go to the Billing & Subscription section.
  4. Select Upgrade your plan. 1.png
  5. Follow on the onscreen instructions to finish the process.

However, if you don't want to upgrade to QBO Plus, you can try our free (30) thirty days trial. This way, you can try and see if this version of QBO suites your needs before upgrading. Don't worry though, our free (30) thirty days trial is 100% percent free.

 

Then, in case you want to copy a quote onto a purchase order, I've got you this great article for reference: Copy an Estimate or Quote to a Purchase Order.

 

If you have other concerns or questions, feel free to reach out to us anytime. I'm always here to help. Take care!