Adding per diem to projects to track employee cost

Great to see you here in the Community, Angela L.

I know a way how you can add per diem to projects in QuickBooks Online (QBO). 

Let's make sure to associate the Per Diem payroll item with the Customer or Project. This way, it will be added to the project cost.

Here's how:
 

1. Go to the New button (+).
2. Choose Weekly Timesheet.
3. Tap the name of the Employee.
4. Indicate the Pay Period.
5. Enter the Timesheet detail.
6. Make sure to select the correct Payroll Item (Per Diem).
7. Click Save and Close.
    

You can read through this article for more insights about job costing and the Project feature: NEW for QuickBooks Online: Labor Costing for Projects!

I've also added this article that can guide you more about how to pay your employee back in QuickBooks Online: Reimburse an employee.

If you have other questions about adding per diem to projects in QBO. I'm happy to answer them for you. Just post it here and I'll take a look at it. Have a good one.

Following up on this question, which I believe is similar to mine.

We paid an employee his hourly wage plus his non taxable per diem via QBO payroll. I now want to add this payroll period expense to the associated project via the Projects tab/feature.

I go into the 'In progress' project, use the 'Add to project' dropdown, click 'Time' and the Time Activity page appears. The only Pay Items are Regular and Overtime, Cost Rate and Time at either of those rates. I am not given the option to add the Per Diem for this payroll period (or for that matter, the associated Payroll Tax Expense). Both Per Diem and Payroll Tax expenses are incurred on this project and need to be assigned to it in order to accurately account for the true cost of the work.

How can I add these additional expenses to each project in the Projects tab?

My pleasure to have you in this thread, @AJMCS. I appreciate you sharing every step you've taken to add per diem to your projects. I'm here to guide you on how to track the transactions from the Projects tab.

Yes, you're right. You can only select a  Select pay item, Overtime Pay, Salary, Cost Rate, and Time on the Time Activity window. To track the employee's per diem, you can follow these steps:

1. Select the project's name.
2. Click on Expense under Add to project.
3. Select the employee's name under Payee.
4. Fill in the details.
5. Save the transaction.

I'm adding this article for more hints while working with your projects in our system: Set up and create projects in QuickBooks Online.

Please notify me in the comment section below if you have follow-up questions. I'm always here to help. Have a good one!

Hi @Angelyn_T - adding the Per Diem and Payroll Tax manually as Expenses in the Project tab results in both expenses being duplicated.

The 'actual' expense is incurred and recorded via payroll and shows on the General Ledger and subsequently, the P&L report. When I manually add both of the expenses via your instructions for the purpose of Project accounting, a second entry for each is added to the GL and the expense is duplicated.

I still very much want to add the expenses to our Project reporting, however either I'm missing a second step or there is a blind spot in the QBO Projects function.

I appreciate you for getting back here in the thread, @AJMCS.

Upon checking here on my end, the feature you're trying to access inside QuickBooks Online (QBO) is unavailable. Also, know that you don't need to create an expense separately if you already have a record of it on your payroll side. With this, you can avoid generating duplicates.

I understand how this option would create an advantage in handling projects inside the company. I'd recommend sending a feature request to our Product Development Team. They'll see your suggestion and consider it for future program updates. To get you going, these are the steps:

1. Access your QuickBooks Online company.
2. On the top right-corner, click the Gear icon.
3. Below the Profile column, select Send Feedback.
4. Enter a brief description of your feature request.
5. Once you're ready, press Send.

Also, I've got this article to help you in modifying and add more details to your business report: Customize reports in QuickBooks Online.

Thanks for dropping by here today, @AJMCS. Let me know if there's anything else that you'd like me to help you with. Stay safe!