Invoicing a customer for billable expenses

Brocsan · ‎January 20, 2022

We are using Quickbooks Desktop Premier in Quebec, Canada with the Contractor Edition. We have just embarked on a job costing project...never done this before.

We have been recording all our vendor bills and assigning them to jobs and checking the billable box. So far so good. We've been able to run a report that shows all the unbilled costs by job by vendor and all looks great! In Quebec, Canada, we have GST and QST. The unbilled costs by job by vendor report shows the expenses before GST and QST which is correct.

However, when it is time to invoice the customer:job and the menu appears where we have to select the unbilled expenses we want to invoice, they appear with taxes included. It should not do this. The expenses that we bill to the customer should appear before taxes. Then we could decide to charge or not charge the tax by checking the box "these expenses are taxable".

This is soooo frustrating because we spent a month going to every bill and assigning them to jobs and making them billable so we could automate our job costing and invoicing to our customers.

Can anyone help with this??

Trish_T · ‎January 21, 2022

Hi Brocsan,

Welcome to Community! It's essential that you're able to create your invoices with the applicable sales tax as necessary. QuickBooks makes it easy for you to manage your accounting and I'll be glad to share more information on this.

If you've assigned the sales tax on the bill, it will be reflected when you move it over to the invoice. Here's a helpful article to assist you with job costs.

Please don't hesitate to contact us if you require additional assistance. It would be a pleasure to work with you in real time and ensure you're able to reach your QuickBooks goals!

Feel free to reach back out if you have any other questions. We'd be glad to assist!

Brocsan · ‎January 22, 2022

Thank you for your reply. Unfortunately it does not address the issue. We have already done everything as explained in the links you sent. The issue is not how to do job costing.

The issue is when we’ve tagged the expense as billable in the Enter Bill screen, that is the amount that should appear in the window when it is time to create an invoice to the customer from billable expenses. The taxes on the bill should not be included in the expense amount billable to the customer.

I will try to do some screen shots and will send them to better explain the problem.

Brocsan · ‎January 23, 2022

Hello Trish_T

Further to my last response:

It would appear that Quickbooks is incorrectly carrying over billable amounts to customer invoices. In fact, it is not consistent. Let me explain.

When using a bill to record a purchase through the Items tab, it carries over the cost amount to the invoice without the taxes - this is correct.

When using a bill to record a purchase through the Expenses tab, it carries over the cost amount to the invoice with the taxes - this is not correct.

The taxes should not be included in the billable expenses because they are not expenses to the company. In Canada they (GST/QST/HST) are claimable as a refund back from the Government tax department.

There seems to be a fundamental flaw in the coding logic. I am attaching screenshots for your your review. Please help!

Brocsan · ‎January 23, 2022

screenshot of a bill using items tab

Brocsan · ‎January 23, 2022

screenshot of the screen with billable items during invoicing process. Notice the amounts are before tax

Brocsan · ‎January 23, 2022

screenshot of a bill using Expenses tab

Brocsan · ‎January 23, 2022

screenshot of billable expenses screen during invoicing process - notice the expense includes sales tax

JamesM4 · ‎January 24, 2022

Hi Brocsan. Glad to hear back from you. I want to make sure you get the help you need with this. From here, I'd recommend contacting our support team directly so they can take a closer look at your account and help you get to the bottom of this. You can contact our support team, by calling 1-833-317-2226. To find out more about our hours and other contact methods, please follow this link here: Intuit QuickBooks Desktop software support policies. Feel free to ask other questions, I've got your back.

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Invoicing a customer for billable expenses