Payroll and time and projects

Hello, mapco.

I'll share information on how payroll, time, and project feature works in QuickBooks Online.

You can use the timesheet feature to keep track of how much time each employee spends. When you run payroll, the time data is linked to your employee automatically. This is why, when running payroll for them, you have the option to adjust or delete their time.

By doing this, the paycheck will appear as a payroll expense in your project transaction list because the timesheet data is also added to the project. Since your payroll isn't based on timesheet data, I recommend entering time directly on the Projects page to keep track of how much time you've spent on your project. I'll show you how.

1. Click the Projects menu.
2. Find the project you're working on.
3. Hit the Add to project button and then choose Time.
4. Fill in all the necessary information.
5. Once done, select Save or Save and new.

When you're ready to bill their time, click the Create invoice link to track the labor cost for that project.

You can also read this article for more insights: Track hourly labor costs and profitability by a project in QuickBooks Online.

Additionally, you can add a time tracking user if you want your employee to enter their own time. Check out this resource for your future reference: Turn on and set up time tracking in QuickBooks Online.

You're always welcome to add any details if you have further questions about payroll, time, or project features. I'll be here to help you.

Thank you for the reply and I get most of it except:

This is why, when running payroll for them, you have the option to adjust or delete their time.

Since I don't need to adjust the time, should I select delete? What am I deleting? Am I deleting the time they entered for customers or projects? The whole time sheet?

This is very ambiguous and hard to figure out what option is correct.

We enter our time on a weekly time sheet, entering the customer or project, along with the service item and if it is billable or not as we often work on more then one project during a day. Entering in each individual project is too time consuming. (This should not make a difference to the question)

Also in projects in the overview it has the cost per employee listed and these numbers appear correct, but in the transaction list the entire check amount is listed. I don't quite understand this. Is it listed because that is where the numbers in the overview page come from??

I look forward to your reply and thanks for your help

Cheers

I’m here to help you understand how payroll, time, and projects are linked in QuickBooks, @mapco.

The time data will automatically be linked to your employee if you add pay items to a project timesheet first before creating the paycheck. If you don’t want to follow the timesheet hours when running payroll, you can delete them.

The Project Overview displays the total income and expenses per job as well as the total time allocated to the job and the expected profit margin. While Transaction list breakdown all your estimates, invoices, billable expenses, and bills related to this project.

You can read these resources to learn more about projects and how to keep everything running smoothly:

• Projects FAQ
• An Easy Way to Track Your Projects
• Track hourly labor costs and profitability by project

You can get back to us anytime if you have other questions or concerns about your projects and payroll. We’ll be here to help. Keep safe always!

The time data will automatically be linked to your employee if you add pay items to a project timesheet first before creating the paycheck. 

I do not use pay items on the time sheet

If you don’t want to follow the timesheet hours when running payroll, you can delete them.

So again I am asking what am I deleting? Hours? Time sheet? Link?

While Transaction list breakdown all your estimates, invoices, billable expenses, and bills related to this project.

Why does the entire paycheck show up in the transaction list when only part of it was used for the project?

I look forward to a more detailed reply and not a canned answer.

Thanks

Cheers

Thanks for getting back to us, @mapco.

Allow me to chime in and answer your follow-up questions about running payroll and managing projects in QuickBooks Online (QBO).

To answer your first question, what my colleague is referring to is deleting the hours which the time automatically linked to your employees when their running payroll.

For your second question, the Transactions tab will show the paychecks you've created regardless if you only use a part of it. Also, this is where you see your project organized by income and costs to ensure you stay profitable.

In addition, in the Overview tab, this is where you can see your labor costs separated from other project costs. These labor costs pull data from whatever the switch is set to, hourly costs or payroll expenses.

If you are tracking payroll expenses, you can run a Project profitability report from the Project reports tab to get an itemized view of your project accounts and transactions. This report only uses data from payroll expenses, so if you only track hourly time costs, this report won’t give you accurate information.

I'll also add this article that tackles how to use projects to track your labor costs and profitability in QBO for more information: Track hourly labor costs and profitability by project in QuickBooks Online.

For more tips and other resources, I recommend visiting our website for future reference: Self-help articles.

Let me know if you have additional questions about this or anything else QuickBooks. I'll be more than willing to answer them. Take care and have a good one.

Thank you for the answer but I just want to clarify I have this correct.

Your reply was "To answer your first question, what my colleague is referring to is deleting the hours which the time automatically linked to your employees when their running payroll."

I interpret this as to mean that what I am really deleting is the link between the hours on the time sheet to the hours in payroll?  No actual hours are deleted.

Time sheet stays as entered and payroll stays as manually entered and the two are no longer linked or connected.

Is this correct??

Thanks

I will help you connect with our Customer support team, @mapco. 

The hours will not be deleted if the timesheet is manually entered as well as the payroll since they are not linked or connected. To provide you with more detailed information about some of your concerns, I'd suggest contacting our Customer Support Team. Here's how to contact our support team:

1. Sign in to your QuickBooks Online company. Then click Help (?).
2. Click Talk to a human. 
3. Choose Talk to a human. 
4. Press See examples.
5. Enter your concern.
6. Tap Contact us and choose a way to connect with us by starting a chat with a support expert or getting a callback from the next available expert.

Feel free to visit these articles for more insights about projects: 

• Projects FAQ
• Track hourly labor costs and profitability by project

The Community always has your back, and I'm just a post away should you ever need anything. Just leave a comment below and I'll get back to you. Have a great day ahead.

Did you ever get a resolution for this? I am working through the exact issue. We are a law firm and we have Attys who enter billable time. Though they are salary and no part of their pay is dependent or linked to projects. But here we are with Pay Checks on a projects. We just migrated to QB Payroll in August of this year. the issue is only happening with two attorneys, the two who work billable projects, and they have paychecks scattered all over. 

Help desk after 2:40h only solution is to delete all invoices where they have time tracked and then "it should" remove the paycheck from the project...

I'm hoping  you found a better way