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gmer10
Level 2

Product/Services do not automatically populate when adding Billable Expenses when creating an Invoice

I've created expenses for a customer which I check-marked as "Billable". Once I start creating an invoice for that customer, I add the billable expense, but the Product/Services line is left blank. If I choose a Product/Service from my list, everything (description and amount) gets deleted - I know QBO has no way of fixing this at the moment. Instead of wasting time copying and pasting, how do I get the Products/Services to automatically populate when I add a billable expense when creating an invoice? 

Solved
Best answer February 11, 2020

Best Answers
LauraAB
QuickBooks Team

Product/Services do not automatically populate when adding Billable Expenses when creating an Invoice

Hello gmer10,

 

Welcome and thanks for joining us! Billable expenses are a useful tool in QuickBooks Online Plus accounts that allow you to keep track of costs incurred by the business that you'll then need your customer to pay for afterward. I can help explain what's going on.

 

When you're creating a bill and using the Item section, the Product/Service and related information should automatically be populating on the sales form to your customer. If it's not, there may be a problem that we'll want support to look into further.

 

I have a feeling what you may be referring to is when you're using the Category details section of an expense or bill and you're looking for that information to automatically populate on the sales form. Information you enter into the Description section will, but the category itself doesn't appear on the sales form because it's not a product or service. Rather, these categories are linked to expense accounts in your Chart of Accounts and a sales form wants a product or service. This is why entering a product or service overwrites the information you've entered: because the expense account is separate from it.

 

To help with this, I recommend using the Description section of the expense or bill to fill in the information you want your customer to see. Since these automatically copy over, it should help cut down on the time you're spending filling the information in. You can also use the Item section on an invoice to choose products and services that already exist if you're looking to bill your customers specific items.

 

Check out my screenshots below to see what I mean by my above explanations. The first is how the billable expenses appear on the expense form.

 

 

This second image is how these two items appear on an invoice.

 

 

I hope that helps clarify how this feature works and why. You can clear more about billable expenses here: Enter billable expenses

 

Give me a shout if you have further questions. Enjoy your day!

View solution in original post

11 Comments 11
LauraAB
QuickBooks Team

Product/Services do not automatically populate when adding Billable Expenses when creating an Invoice

Hello gmer10,

 

Welcome and thanks for joining us! Billable expenses are a useful tool in QuickBooks Online Plus accounts that allow you to keep track of costs incurred by the business that you'll then need your customer to pay for afterward. I can help explain what's going on.

 

When you're creating a bill and using the Item section, the Product/Service and related information should automatically be populating on the sales form to your customer. If it's not, there may be a problem that we'll want support to look into further.

 

I have a feeling what you may be referring to is when you're using the Category details section of an expense or bill and you're looking for that information to automatically populate on the sales form. Information you enter into the Description section will, but the category itself doesn't appear on the sales form because it's not a product or service. Rather, these categories are linked to expense accounts in your Chart of Accounts and a sales form wants a product or service. This is why entering a product or service overwrites the information you've entered: because the expense account is separate from it.

 

To help with this, I recommend using the Description section of the expense or bill to fill in the information you want your customer to see. Since these automatically copy over, it should help cut down on the time you're spending filling the information in. You can also use the Item section on an invoice to choose products and services that already exist if you're looking to bill your customers specific items.

 

Check out my screenshots below to see what I mean by my above explanations. The first is how the billable expenses appear on the expense form.

 

 

This second image is how these two items appear on an invoice.

 

 

I hope that helps clarify how this feature works and why. You can clear more about billable expenses here: Enter billable expenses

 

Give me a shout if you have further questions. Enjoy your day!

gmer10
Level 2

Product/Services do not automatically populate when adding Billable Expenses when creating an Invoice

Thanks @LauraAB 

 

That's exactly what I'm looking for. Thanks for making your explanation clear.

LauraAB
QuickBooks Team

Product/Services do not automatically populate when adding Billable Expenses when creating an Invoice

You're very welcome! I'm glad to hear that my response helped you sort out what's been going on with your billable expenses. :)

 

I realize in rereading my response that I mentioned initially that if you were using the Item details section and it wasn't coming over that you might need to contact support, but then didn't give the support details. That's my mistake! I know you don't need them this time around, but in case you ever do, here are the options for getting in touch with support outside of community.

 

Phone and chat: Click Contact Us to learn how to reach phone and chat support.

Schedule a Callback: click (?)Help in the upper right > click Contact Us > explain your situation > click Let's Talk > choose Get a callback (Note: Callback hours are the same as regular phone hours.)

Social MediaFacebook and Twitter from Monday to Friday between 9 a.m. and 8 p.m. ET

 

See you next time.

MarkM3
Level 1

Product/Services do not automatically populate when adding Billable Expenses when creating an Invoice

I have a slightly different problem. I have set up a number of "Items" with lengthy descriptions and prices. But when I enter time using the weekly timesheet and select one of these "Items" it does NOT populate the description into the "notes" section of the entry. How can I make that happen? The only way I have been able to make these Items populate the description is by actually creating an invoice and selecting the Item; but I only want to create invoices once per month. I have to enter time every day. How can I make this populate through weekly timesheet entries?

Alex M
QuickBooks Team

Product/Services do not automatically populate when adding Billable Expenses when creating an Invoice

Hi there mkschweigert,

 

It's vital that all your transactions be entered correctly so that your records are up to date. QuickBooks Online is a great tool able to help you keep track of hours worked so you can have them billable to your customers. I can point you in the right direction for assistance with time activities.

 

For assistance with entering information in your single time activities as well as weekly timesheets, I recommend reaching out to our support team outside of the Community. They'll be able to view how your products are set up as well as the transactions in question in order to assist you with the memo of time activities. You can reach out to them using one of these methods:

 

Schedule a Callback or start a Chat: click (?)Help in the upper right > type and enter "Contact support" into the QB Assistant > click Contact Us > explain your situation > click Let's Talk > choose Get a callback or Start a Chat.
Social Media: Facebook and Twitter.

 

If you have any other questions, feel free to reach out here.

 

laineybriley
Level 1

Product/Services do not automatically populate when adding Billable Expenses when creating an Invoice

I am having this same issue. My product/service field remains blank for the expense items. I do included a description, so the line item is not completely blank (as you suggested). However, my issue is that when I run my product/service report all of the expenses that I have billed out to my customers (the lines within my invoices with a blank "product/service" field) they are all categorized under a "Not Specified" category within my report. This is also not a MAJOR issue, but something I would prefer to be included in some sort of category - even if i have to create a new one for these types of transactions. My MAIN CONCERN is when I bill the customer the sales taxes are not accurate. Because the line does not have a designated "product/service" the sales taxes are shown as "Uncategorized - Standard Tax Rate Applied." I discovered this when I was checking off the "Tax" box within the invoice and the sales tax remained at $0.00. I have also tried to figure a way to assign sales tax for these uncategorized product/service lines within the invoice, but I was not able to get this figured out.

**BELOW IS AN EXAMPLE INVOICE FOR YOU TO SEE WHAT I AM SEEING. THE PRODUCT/SERVICE FIELDS ARE BLANK FROM THE BILLABLE EXPENSE ITEM, EACH LINE IS CHECKED OFF AS TAXABLE. THE SALES TAX TOTAL AT THE BOTTOM OF THE INVOICE SHOWS $0.00. SEE THE NEXT SCREENSHOT FOR THE INFO I AM SHOWN WHEN I CLICK ON "SEE THE MATH" FOR THE SALES TAXES.
QBO-INVOICE SAMPLE-PRODSVC ISSUE_01.png

 

**THIS IS A SCREENSHOT OF THE WINDOW I AM SHOWN WHEN I CLICK "SEE THE MATH" WITHIN THE INVOICE NEAR THE SALES TAXES -- IT SHOWS ME THAT THE CUSTOMER IS NOT TAX-EXEMPT, THE STANDARD TAX RATE IS 10.45%, AND UNDER THE PRODUCTS/SERVICE CHART IT SHOWS THE TWO LINE ITEMS IN MY INVOICE AND DIRECTLY UNDER BOTH IT SAYS " UNCATEGORIZED - STANDARD RATE APPLIED" AND SHOWS $0.00. I AM ABLE TO OVERRIDE THIS AMOUNT, BUT THIS WILL BECOME A HUGE HEADACHE WHEN I PAY MY SALES TAXES AND HAVE TO DO THIS FOR EVERY INVOICE THAT I CREATE WITH BILLABLE EXPENSES.

QBO-INVOICE SAMPLE-PRODSVC ISSUE_02.png

Trish_T
QuickBooks Team

Product/Services do not automatically populate when adding Billable Expenses when creating an Invoice

Hi laineybriley,

 

Thanks for joining us here.  I see that you're using QuickBooks Online U.S.A.  I recommend reaching out to their Customer Care team so they can work with you directly and ensure you're able to accomplish your QuickBooks goals as soon as possible.

 

Hope this helps!

 

 

binvoice
Level 1

Product/Services do not automatically populate when adding Billable Expenses when creating an Invoice

Hi there,

I have been doing this for billable expenses - leaving the products and services blank on my invoices so it does not change anything. Here's the big problem - these expenses are now showing up as a negative in my expese account! Since there is no product/service selected, it is making the expense hit an expense account twice-as an income and expense. I have no way of changing what account it hits since there is no product/service for me to edit!

I have so many invoices now with this problem, all the way from 2021. See attached to see how my P&L looks.

Please help! How do I get these out of my expense account as negatives??

 

Trish_T
QuickBooks Team

Product/Services do not automatically populate when adding Billable Expenses when creating an Invoice

Hi binvoice,

 

Thanks for joining us here.  In addition to the valuable information provided here, having your expenses show as negatives isn't the outcome you'd want to see.  When the transactions date back to a previous year, it's best to reach out to an accounting professional for the best course of action, to ensure a positive outcome on your books.  If you don't have an accountant, we can help you locate a ProAdvisor in your local area.

 

Please feel free to reach back out if you have any other questions.  We'd be glad to help!

binvoice
Level 1

Product/Services do not automatically populate when adding Billable Expenses when creating an Invoice

What do you suggest I do now when adding these to invoices so they don't show as negatives in my expense account?

Trish_T
QuickBooks Team

Product/Services do not automatically populate when adding Billable Expenses when creating an Invoice

Hi binvoice,

 

In addition to my reply previously, I recommend taking a look at this helpful guide to ensure you're on the right track with entering billable expenses in QuickBooks Online

 

Please don't hesitate to contact us outside of Community for additional assistance.  It would be our pleasure to work with you directly and ensure you're able to complete your goals successfully.

 

Schedule a Callback or start a Chat: click (?) Help in the upper right in QuickBooks Online > enter "Contact support" > hit Contact Us > provide a brief summary of your situation > hit Let's Talk > choose Get a callback or Start a Chat.
Social Media: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Support hours are from Monday to Friday between 9 a.m. and 8 p.m. ET.

 

We're here for you if you have additional questions or concerns!
 

Need to get in touch?

Contact us