How do I update my hourly rate that I bill out to my customers on an invoice so that I don't have to change it every time I write up an invoice?

Hi JMsPlumbing

From the menu, select Invoicing-> Products and Services

Here you should see - or can create - your sales item which has an hourly rate associated with it.

Then when you invoice your customers, you simply select the sale, enter a quantity (hours) and it shows up on your invoice that way.

Hope this helps!

Hi there jmsplumbinghac,

Adjusting the rates of your Products and Services is an awesome way to ensure that you don't have to manually adjust prices every time you enter a sales transaction. @LeithG has started you off on the right track, but I'd like to expand with some additional details on how to change the Rate of your services in QuickBooks Online.

As indicated above, you'll want to navigate to the Sales menu from the left, then choose Products and Services. There are two defaults in QBO called Sales and Hours. These are probably what you've been using already, but when you navigate to this page you'll be able to Add a Product or Service. Choose between Non-inventory, Service, Bundle, or Inventory depending on what version of QBO you're using. 

Let's say you want to add a new item to represent your hourly rate. You'll want to choose Service. Enter a Name for your service, a SKU and Category if applicable, a Description, and a Sales price/rate. You'll also need to select an Income account, unless you don't mind using the default Sales account that's pre-selected. Choose whether you'd like to make this item Inclusive of tax and select a Tax rate if you know it'll always be the same for this item. If you purchase this item you can select that box and fill in those relevant details as well.

Hit Save and close once you've finished entering the details for your item. Now you'll see a Products and Services list, with the default Hours and Sales that you were likely using before. If you'd like to adjust the price of either of these you can use the Edit option from the Action column. This should have you sorted out so that you don't need to do that extra work every time you enter a transaction. You'll simply need to enter the amount.

If you come across any other questions, give me a shout. I'm here to help! 

Is there a way to change the rate per customer for an Invoice? We are a grain hauling company with many customers, each customer has their own rate based on their mileage. Can I create an invoice with say a farmer name John Doe and his rate will automatically populate? Product would be grain hauling; Qty is the tonne and I would like the rate to populate per Customer; as soon a I create an invoice for the customer.. is this possible. if so how do i input a rate for all these customers to automate when creating an invoice?

Hi highway16. Thanks for connecting with us here. I can see the benefit of having the rate populate automatically on the invoice when you select a customer. This feature is unavailable and I encourage you to send feedback about this to our engineers. To send feedback, click on the Gear icon and look for Feedback. New product enhancements are influenced by the valuable feedback we get from users like you. 

Feel free to ask other questions. 

Hi Highway16

Though this feature isn't available in QBO (yet) if you leave the price blank on the item setup it will prompt you to enter the price when you add the item to an invoice.  It's not perfect, but it often prevents me from going on auto-pilot and using the wrong price for the wrong customer.

Hope this helps!

Just wondering when I change a billing rate to reflect an increase, is it used for every new invoice I make after that or only for invoices after the change date?  I want all my hours up to Dec 31 at the old rate, and all the hours after that at the new rate.  Is this possible?  

I have projects that span both years and would prefer not to issue "interim" invoices.

Hi paul57,

Thanks for joining us here.  There's so much great information provided and much appreciated!  QuickBooks Online is a versatile program with everything you need to complete your daily bookkeeping tasks.  I'd be happy to provide additional information!

When following the steps provided above for adding products and services, you have the option to set a default rate and you can edit the amount at any time by going to the Gear in the top right > Products and Services > locate the item and hit Edit in the Action column.  It will apply to new invoices moving forward.

In addition, you may want to have a look at this article for setting price rules.  Once you set a price rule QuickBooks will automatically pull the correct custom price, whenever you create a new transaction for the customer or project you've included in the rule.  The option to adjust prices manually or on individual transactions is still available when needed, but this will save you time and allow you to meet your daily goals in a timely fashion.  I hope this helps!

Please feel free to reach back out if you have additional questions.  We'd like to help!

I need to update my billing rate, but to a date back on September 1, 2023. I am doing the change on October 1, 2023.

How do I accomplish that? It looks like I can only change the billing rate going forward.

Hello schroeder2. In order to change the rates on previous transactions you'll have to do this manually. If you'd like to have an automatically approach that allows you to retro-actively change the rate, I suggest searching for third-party app to help accomplish this goal. You can search for transaction management apps on our site www.apps.com. I recommend choosing an app that suits your business needs based on the app reviews and description. In the meantime, feel free to ask other questions, I'm here to guide you in the right direction. 

I was afraid of that. Not a bid deal, I just expected it to behave like my 2014 Quickbooks Desktop to function.

This way is more proper than the way the 2014 Desktop version worked. 

I hear you on this. I'll be here in case you have other questions.