Time Billing

Welcome aboard to the Community, @HAM9000_8.

I can provide clarification about entering time in QuickBooks Online.

The product or service that will reflect on the invoice will depend on the information entered from your time activity. Make sure to enable the Billable option if you want to bill them to your customer.

Here's how:

1. Click the + New option and select Single time activity or Weekly timesheet.
2. Select the drop-down arrow next to Service, then select the item you want to show to the invoice.
3. Put a checkmark on the box beside Billable (/hr). 
4. Enter the necessary information.
5. Press Save and close. 
6. Go to the customer's transaction list, then press Create invoice. 
7. It will bring over the product or service you selected when creating the Billable time.

I've also included some articles in case you need some ideas about adding time activity, as well as entering them by job:

• Enter a single time activity timesheet
• How to enter billable time by job

Please know that I'm just a post away if you have any other questions. Have a great day ahead. 

@AlcaeusF  When the service description is left blank on Timesheet window, on the invoice window under Product/Service field it automatically appears as "General services:Hours" . I want to understand how QBO draws this link when billing despite leaving the service field blank on Timesheet.

Hello @HAM9000_8,

A default item called Hours is automatically associated with your billable invoice once you created with from a time activity, even if the service item is blank. You'll want to check the following articles included above for reference.

Lastly, here are articles you can read for ideas to help manage your sales transactions: Manage Customers and Income for QuickBooks Online.

Keep me posted in the comments if you have any other questions. I'll be here to help.

I would also like to know how the product/service is associated with billable time entries.  For me when I add billable time to an invoice the Product is Sales.   

Hello there, @accountant41.

When entering billable time, the Product and services item that you can enter are only Services items on the Service field. Then, the posting account of the items shown on QuickBooks reports gets its data from the Product and Services page. Thus, whatever the accounts are assigned for each item will determine the amounts you see on financial reports. 

To know more how entering billable time works in QuickBooks Online, see this article: 

• Enter a single time activity timesheet
• Enter a weekly timesheet in QuickBooks Online

If additional questions arise, you can always drop a comment below. I'll be right here to answer it for you. Have a nice day.

Under Accounts and Settings -> Time -> Timesheet ... Show Service Field needs to be set to "on".  Otherwise the "Service" defaults to "Sales".  At least for me.  

Is there a way to change that default?

Thank you for joining this thread, accountant41.

You're right, turning feature on will add the service field to the Timesheet. That said, changing the default service field for timesheet is currently unavailable.

Here's an article for more information for enabling time tracking in QuickBooks Online: Turn on and set up time tracking in QuickBooks Online.

I've also included this link to help you manage customer transactions: Manage customers.

Please let me know if you still have other questions about time tracking preferences. I'll be here to help. Have a good day!