QuickBooks HelpQuickBooksHelpIntuit

Create and manage projects in QuickBooks Online and Accountant

by Intuit1 Updated 3 weeks ago

Learn how to set up and manage projects in QuickBooks Online Plus, Advanced, and Accountant.

Use Projects in QuickBooks Online to track your project’s profitability. You can add project income, expenses, labour costs, and run project-specific reports from a single dashboard. If you need to, you can add old transactions to new or ongoing projects.

Projects is only available in QuickBooks Online Plus, Advanced, and Accountant.

Learn how to:

Turn on Projects

If it isn't already, turn on the Projects feature in QuickBooks Online:

  1. Select Settings Settings gear icon., then select Account and settings.
  2. Go to the Advanced tab.
  3. Find the Projects section and select Edit ✎ to expand it.
  4. Turn on Organise all job-related activity in one place.
  5. Select Save and then Done.

If you use QuickBooks Online Accountant, you’ll need to turn projects on.

Note: If you turn on Projects in QuickBooks Online Accountant, it’s a permanent setting and can’t be turned off.

  1. Select Settings . Then select Company settings.
  2. Select the Advanced tab.
  3. Find the Projects section and select Edit ✎ to expand it.
  4. Select the Use project financial tracking switch_QBO_US_Ext_021623.PNG switch.
  5. Select Save, then OK to confirm.
  6. Select Done.

You need to be a primary admin to turn off the Projects feature:

  • Go to Settings Settings gear icon. and select Accounts and settings.
  • Select the Advanced tab.
  • Find the Projects section and select Edit ✎ to expand it
  • Select the switch to turn off Organise all job-related activity in one place.
  • Select Save and then Done.

(back to top)

Create a new project

  1. Sign in to QuickBooks Online.
  2. Go to Projects (Take me there).
  3. Select New project.
  4. In the Project name field, enter the project name.
  5. Select a customer from the Customer ▼ dropdown.
  6. Enter a Start date and End date for the project.
  7. Select a project status from the Project Status ▼ dropdown.
    Note: You can also add more project info in the Notes field.
  8. Select Save.

    You can now add both new and existing transactions to the project.

Yes. If your project has no transactions and no balance owed, you can delete it.

If you need to delete an active project that has a balance, move the transactions to another project, sub-customer, or customer first. Then you can delete it.

You can also reactivate deleted projects. Here's how:

  1. Go to Projects, then select the Settings icon above the list of projects.
  2. Select the Show deleted projects checkbox.
  3. Select the Options ▼ dropdown, then select what you want to do with your deleted project.

(back to top)

Change the customer assigned to a project

Note:

  • All past invoices and quotes for the project will link to your new customer.
  • You’ll need to send any unpaid invoices or pending quotes to your new customer.
  1. Go to Projects (Take me there).
  2. Find and select the project you want to change the assigned customer for.
  3. Select Edit.
  4. Select the new customer from the Customer ▼ dropdown.
  5. Select Save.
  6. Review the prompt, then select Assign new customer.

(back to top)

Add new transactions to a project

Add new transactions like invoices, expenses, or quotes to your project. This won’t affect any of your accounts or change how your transactions are categorised. You just mark them as a part of a project, so you can keep track of its income and expenses.

There are two ways to add new transactions. You can create the transaction in QuickBooks as you normally would. Just enter the project name in the Customer/Project ▼ dropdown. Or follow these steps to create a new transaction from within projects:

  1. Go to Projects (Take me there).
  2. Find and select the project you want to add a transaction to.
  3. From the Add to project ▼ dropdown, select the type of transaction you want to add.
  4. Enter the details for the transaction like you normally would.
  5. Select Save and close.
Tip: Are you working from an existing project quote? Add them to projects before you convert them to invoices for customers. You can also use progress invoicing to create multiple invoices from a single quote. That way, instead of asking for full payment at the beginning, you can invoice for partial payments throughout the project.

(back to top)

Add existing expenses to a project

If you have existing expense transactions in QuickBooks, you may add them to a project. This helps you keep track of your project's expenses.

  1. Go to Expenses, then Expenses (Take me there).
  2. Find and select the transaction you want to add to your project.
  3. In the Customer / Project column, select the ▼ dropdown, then select the project you want to add the transaction to.
    Note:
    • Do this for each expense item you want to add to your project. This is different from the payee for the expense.
    • If you don’t see the Customer / Project column, go to Settings and select Account and settings. Then, turn on Track expenses and items by customer from the Expense section.
  4. Select Save and close. You may also select other save options.

(back to top)

Add existing timesheets to a project

If timesheets are not billable, but you still want to add them to a project to track your profitability, you can find and add them in the Weekly Timesheet.

  1. Select + New.
  2. Select Weekly timesheet.
  3. From the dropdown ▼ select the employee or supplier whose timesheets you want to add to the project.
  4. Select the date range dropdown ▼ and choose the correct week for the timesheets you want to add to the project.
  5. Find the correct timesheets. Then, select the Customer or Project dropdown ▼ and select the project.
  6. Fill in any other details as needed.
  7. Select Save.

Tip: If you have existing timesheets that are marked as billable, you can create an invoice from the timesheets.

(back to top)

Add existing invoices to a project

Creating new invoices to add to a project is simple (see Add new transactions to a project), but adding existing invoices to your project—especially ones linked to a payment—requires a little caution before you edit them. Here’s how to add existing invoices to your project.

(back to top)

Track your labour costs

You can add the hourly cost rate for each employee and QuickBooks will multiply the hourly cost rate by the hours worked to calculate your labour costs.

Learn how to set up, track and view your hourly labour costs.

(back to top)

Keep everything running smoothly

Now that you understand how to track project costs and profits, here’s how to make sure what you’re seeing is accurate. Select a project to view each of these tabs.

  • In the Overview tab, use the Income and Costs columns as guides. Make sure the correct column total increases when you add invoices, expenses, and weekly timesheets.You can see these costs on the Time Activity tab or your Time cost by employee or supplier report if you’ve set up hourly cost rates.
  • The Time Activity tab breaks down your team’s work by date. It also provides the total labour costs for each employee and service you offer so you can track the costs of different parts of your project.
  • The Transactions tab lists all transactions associated with a project. You can complete tasks directly from this screen, such as converting an estimate to an invoice.
  • Review your Time cost by employee or supplier reports every month. Make sure you’ve correctly tracked all project-related work hours. If you’re missing hours or counting too many hours, your profit totals will be inaccurate.

(back to top)

Sign in now for personalized help

See articles customized for your product and join our large community of QuickBooks users.