Change sub-customers into projects QuickBooks Online

Step 1: Turn on Projects

If you haven't already, turn on the Projects feature.

Step 2: Review your sub-customer settings

Before you can convert a sub-customer, adjust these settings:

1. Go to Sales and select Customers (Take me there).
2. Find and select the sub-customer. If it's inactive, select Make Active.
3. Select Edit.
4. Make sure you tick the Is a sub-customer box.
5. Review and select the Parent customer. This is the account that's connected to the project.
6. Tick Bill parent customer box.

Step 3: Check the parent customer for the sub-customer

Make sure the sub-customer is connected to only one parent customer. It can't be a sub-customer of a sub-customer.

1. Go to Sales and select Customers (Take me there).
2. Look for the sub-customer you want to convert.
3. Select the sub-customer's profile and then Edit.
4. From the Sub-customer dropdown, select the Parent customer.

Also, make sure your sub-customer doesn't have any sub-customers:

1. Go to Sales and select Customers (Take me there).
2. Look for any sub-customers of the sub-customer you want to convert.
3. Select the sub-customer's profile and then Edit.
4. Select and untick the Is a sub-customer box. If there are more sub-customers, remove them as well.

Step 4: Convert a sub-customer to a project

You can either create a new project from a sub-customer or merge the sub-customer with an existing project.

Create a new project from a sub-customer

This wipes the slate clean. Your sub-customer's existing transactions won't transfer over.

1. Go to Sales and select Customers (Take me there).
2. Look for the Do you organise sub-customers as projects? message and select the Convert now link. Or, go to Projects, the New project ▼ dropdown and select Convert from sub-customer.
3. Select the sub-customer you want to convert.
4. When you're ready, select Convert and then Continue to confirm. Remember, your existing transactions won't transfer over.

This creates a brand new project. Now you can go to the Projects menu to start working on it.

Merge a sub-customer with an existing project

This transfers your existing sub-customer transactions to an existing project.

1. Go to Projects (Take me there).
2. Find the project you want to merge your sub-customer with.
3. Copy the name of the project.
4. Go to Sales, then select Customers (Take me there).
5. Find and select the sub-customer's profile.
6. Select Edit.
7. In the edit window, change the Customer display name to match the project name exactly.
8. When you're ready, select Save and Yes to confirm the merge.

Note: Your sub-customer info such as addresses, tax code, and payment and billing info won't transfer over to the project.

Follow "Step 4: Add existing expenses to a project" and "Step 5: Add existing timesheets to a project" in the main project article. Use these steps to add any transaction to a project.