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Create and manage projects in QuickBooks

by Intuit•26• Updated 1 week ago

Learn how to set up and manage projects in QuickBooks. This article provides an overview of project management tools, walking you through essential steps for setup, transaction management, and accurate cost tracking. Projects is only available in QuickBooks Online Plus, Advanced, and Accountant.

🛈 This article is for customers who use QuickBooks Online (Plus or Advanced), or QuickBooks Online Accountant.

Before you begin

Turning on projects:

In QuickBooks Online Plus and Advanced, the Projects feature is usually enabled by default.
In QuickBooks Online Accountant, you'll need to manually turn it on.
Important: Keep in mind that once activated, this setting cannot be turned off.

Turn on Projects in QuickBooks Online Accountant

Select Settings ⚙, then select Company settings.
Select the Advanced tab.
Find the Projects section and select Edit ✎ to expand it.
Select the Use project financial tracking switch.
Select Save, then OK to confirm.

Learn how to create projects in QuickBooks Online Plus, Advanced, and Accountant.

Create a new project

Sign in to QuickBooks Online.
Go to Projects (Take me there).
Select New project.
Fill in the required details:
Project name, Customer, Start date, End date, (Optional) Project status and Notes.
Select Save.

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

Assign a customer to a project

Go to Projects.
Locate and select the project you wish to modify.
Select Edit.
Choose the new customer from the dropdown menu.
Select Save.
Review the prompt and select Assign new customer.

Note: Remember that reassigning a customer will link all past invoices and estimates to the new customer. You'll need to resend any outstanding invoices or estimates to the newly assigned customer.

Add transactions to a project

You can add transactions, expenses, and timesheets directly to a project, allowing you to track its financial progress.

Add new transactions

Go to Projects.
Select the relevant project.
From the Add to project dropdown menu, choose the transaction type.
Enter the transaction details.
Select Save and close.

Add existing expenses

Go to Expenses, then Expenses.
Select the transaction to add to the project.
In the Customer/Project column, select the project from the dropdown menu.
Select Save and close.

Add existing timesheets

Go to Time (if available) or use the Weekly Timesheet.
Locate the timesheet you want to add.
Follow the prompts to assign the timesheet to the project.

Add existing invoices to a project

Add unpaid invoices

Once your project is set up, adding new invoices is simple. However, existing paid invoices require extra care—editing them can disconnect payments. We'll guide you through adding and reconnecting them if needed. It's best to add invoices before they’re linked to a payment.

Go to Sales and select Invoices (Take me there).
Find and select the paid invoice you want to add to a project.
Select Edit invoice.
Select the Customer ▼ dropdown. Then select the project.
Select Save.

Add paid invoices

When you move a paid invoice into a project, it’s unlinked from its payment and marked as unpaid. To avoid duplicate charges, you’ll need to reconnect the payment after editing. Before making changes, turn off ‘Automatically apply credits’ to prevent credits from being applied to other invoices.

Important: Invoices linked to multiple transactions require complex manual adjustments. To keep things simple, it’s best not to add them.

Step 1: Turn off automatically apply credits

Before editing a paid invoice, make sure the automatically apply credits setting is turned off.

Select Settings , then Account and settings.
Select the Advanced tab.
Scroll to the Automation section and select the pencil ✎ icon it to expand it.
Turn off the Automatically apply credits setting.
Select Save and Done.

After adding paid invoices to your project, you can repeat these steps to turn the setting back on.

Step 2: Add the paid invoice to the project

To add the paid invoice to your project:

Go to Sales and select Invoices (Take me there).
Find and select the paid invoice you want to add to a project.
Select Edit invoice.
Select the Customer ▼ dropdown. Then select the project.
Select Save.

Step 3: Reconnect the payment to the invoice

Now that you’ve added the invoice to the project, you need to reconnect the payment so the invoice is marked as paid again and linked to the correct invoice.

Go to Settings and select Chart of Accounts.
Find the account where the payment was deposited and select Account history.
Find and select the payment for the invoice, then select Edit.
In Outstanding Transactions, select the invoice checkbox that the payment applies to.
Select Save and close.

Convert sub-customers to projects

If you haven't already, turn on the Projects feature. By default, projects are already turned on in QuickBooks Online Plus and Advanced.

Step 1: Review your sub-customer settings

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

Go to Projects (Take me there).
Find and select the sub-customer. If the status is Not started, select In progress from the Status dropdown▼.
Select the sub-customer's profile, then select Edit.
Make sure you select the Is a sub-customer checkbox.
Review and select the parent customer. This is the account that's connected to the project.
Select Bill parent customer checkbox, then select Save.

Step 2: 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.

Go to Projects (Take me there).
Find and select the sub-customer.
Select the sub-customer's profile, then select Edit.
From the Parent customer dropdown, select the parent customer. Then select Save.

You'll need to make sure your sub-customer doesn't have any sub-customers. Here's how:

Go to Projects (Take me there).
Check for any sub-customers of the sub-customer you want to convert.
Select the sub-customer's profile, then select Edit.
Select and uncheck the Is a sub-customer checkbox. If there are more sub-customers, remove them as well.
Select Save.

Step 3: 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.

Go to Projects (Take me there).
Select the New project ▼ dropdown and then Convert from sub-customer. Or, look for the Do you organise sub-customers as projects? message and select the Convert now link.
Select the sub-customer you want to convert.
Select Convert, then select 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.

Go to Projects (Take me there).
Find the project you want to merge your sub-customer with.
Copy the name of the project.
Go to Projects (Take me there).
Find and select the sub-customer.
Select the sub-customer's profile, then select Edit.
In the edit window, change the Customer display name to match the project name exactly.
Select Save.

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

Invoice customers for project expenses

Once you set up Projects, you can invoice customers for specific project-related expenses (including timesheets). You can use these steps whether you’re charging customers for time and materials, or a fixed fee.

Step 1: Decide how you’ll charge for projects

Time and materials

If you charge based on time and materials, you typically invoice customers for specific project expenses and hours worked. To do this, make sure your project expenses and timesheets are marked as billable, so you can add them to invoices.

Fixed fee

If you charge a fixed fee, you usually invoice customers based on an estimate for the entire project. You can convert this estimate into an invoice when the work begins.

However, if a customer requests additional work outside the original project scope, you may need to invoice for specific project expenses separately.

Step 2: Turn on billable expenses

If you haven’t already enabled billable expenses, follow these steps:

Go to Settings , then select Account and settings.
Select the Expenses tab.
Go to the Bills and expenses section and select it to expand it.
Turn on the Make expenses and items billable switch.
Select Save, then select Done to close your settings.

Now, you can mark any expense or timesheet as billable in QuickBooks.

Step 3: Make project expenses billable

Project expenses

Go to Projects (Take me there), then select your project
Tip! You can customise your menu by selecting ⚙ Menu settings, then select the tabs that you want to be readily available..
Select Add to project, then select Expense.
Add expenses to the form.
Check the Billable box next to each item.
Select Save and close.

Project timesheets

Select + New.
Select Weekly timesheet.
Select an employee.
Adjust the date range if necessary.
Add the number of hours worked for that day or the week.
In the Details section, select a customer or a project to add the project.
Select Billable (/hr) to make the timesheet billable.
Add other details as necessary, then select Save and close.

Note: If you use QuickBooks Time, your employees can track their hours directly against the project. Simply approve and export their timesheets so they appear in the project.

Step 4: Invoice your customer for billable expenses

Now that you’ve marked project expenses and timesheets as billable, it’s time to create the invoice.

To invoice for all billable expenses:

Go to the project's Overview tab.
From the Add to project dropdown menu, select Invoice.
From the Customer field dropdown menu, select the name of the customer you want to add.
Complete the necessary information in the invoice.
Select Review and send.

To invoice for individual expenses or timesheets:

Go to your project.
Go to the Transactions tab.
Find the billable expense or timesheet on the list.
Select Create invoice from the Action column.
Complete the invoice and send it to your customer.

QuickBooks automatically links the invoice to your project, keeping everything organised and up to date.

Track labour costs

QuickBooks Online provides two methods for tracking labour costs:

Actual payroll expenses: View labour costs after running payroll.
Hourly cost rate: Set an hourly rate for each employee, and QBO will calculate labour costs based on hours worked.

Maintain accuracy

To ensure accurate project tracking:

Use the Income and Costs columns in the Overview tab to monitor changes when adding transactions.
Utilise the Time Activity tab to track employee work and labour costs.
Review the Transactions tab to view all project-related transactions.

Regularly check Time cost by employee or supplier reports to ensure accurate tracking of work hours.

What's next?

For more, explore:

Post requisites

Once you’ve created a project, it won’t provide any useful info until you’ve added or created transactions assigned to it.