Job Costing - Employees Time

QB is not good at job costing in my experience. QBO is worse and QB Payroll makes even harder.  I am sure someone will pipe in here to tell you some complicated convoluted way to do this in QB so hopefully you get the help you need.  My suggestion is a different system that does job costing as it should not be from payroll, it should be from timesheet where you allocate gross labor not net pay.  Please feel free to contact me if you need to do true job costing, like for Govt contracts as I must do.

This is marked as a desktop topic.

This is so Easy, in Desktop. Yes, you start from the Timesheet. Set the Employee Default, and each existing Employee name, to be Paid from Time Data.

Now you see two columns: Payroll item and Service Item. This will tag the Service Item with the payroll cost, when you Pay from Time Data.

Your misunderstanding of Timesheets is something I just explained in detail here:

https://quickbooks.intuit.com/community/Employees-and-payroll/Employee-Time-sheets/m-p/217358#M3294

You need to set Preferences to Job Track per Earnings item, and Job Track Expenses, as well.

All of this is so easy. It starts with Timesheets.

I also have an Image attached for that setting and will make others with examples of the many reports that show this works Great.

Attached is Job Costed reporting showing Payroll Costs.

Attached, a Job report side by side with P&L for the same Job. Follow the Colors.

Are you trying to sell me another accounting program?

I can tell you are well versed in quickooks.....I'm still not clear on the following:

1. Set the Employee Default, and each existing Employee name, to be Paid from Time Data....do you mean "to create paychecks" in each employee's profile?
2. Now you see two columns: Payroll item and Service Item.....where is this??  In preferences?  I looked everywhere and cannot find it.
3. You need to set Preferences to Job Track per Earnings item...where? In P/R & Employees?
4. and Job Track Expenses, as well.....Do you mean "Job costing, Class & item tracking for paycheck expenses?
5. On the topic of timesheet entry.....how do I enter in one weekly view, my 15 man crew, who all did the same exact job, at one time? 

Thanks for your quick response.  Sorry I have more questions.  

No, I do not sell any accounting programs, but I know which ones do job cost well.

And I knew if I responded, QBTeachment would post immediately to get you an answer.

I'm sorry, Teri, but I never saw that you responded, before my input here nearly two hours ago. Oh, is that your "other" username, regarding the QB Online? Yes, QBO does not handle Job Cost tracking for Payroll. It is implied, in Timesheet entries, but not to the financial reporting.

Everything I show is even in QB Pro; any of the Desktop programs do this fine.

@teamchambie

1. In Preferences and Payroll you access Employee Default, which is then used for all New Employee Names; so, yes, you also need to Edit and Update existing Employees for that setting.

2. Using Timesheets. Everything starts with Timesheets.

3. I showed that image as an attachment in one of my previous responses here.

4. Yes, that is it. Same as 3.

5. My Favorite Function = Multiple Names. Please see this reply's Attachment.

for #5....What version do you have?  I don't see where you can do multiple employees!  I don't see in 2019 where you can do this.

New question, how can I easily go back to previous payrolls and add all the time that I entered directly into the paychecks to make sure it shows up on my job cost report?  Do I have to do this through timesheets?  A whole years worth?

Thank you for outlining it the way you did!  Ah ha moment!!

I haven't done the allocation part, but that looks do-able!  Thank you for you patience!

can i use it even if i don't have QB Payroll, or i need to make my payroll in QB and then i can see the reports?

I could use some help with jobcosting in Desktop Pro without a payroll subscription. I have time sheets up and running and entered but how do I get them to show up in a job cost report without "running a payroll"

It's nice to see you here in the Community, @burghardtmfg.

You can import your billable time to an invoice, or bill and assign it to a job. I'd love to add more details and help you further.

Timesheets are non-posting entries in QuickBooks. This said, you'll need to import them to bills to show as an expense on the job.

You may follow these steps in adding your billable time to your invoice:

1. Click on Customers from the menu bar.
2. Choose Create Invoices.
3. Enter the job name.
4. On the Billable Time/Cost pop-up, choose Select the outstanding billable time and cost to add to this invoice?
5. Click on OK.
6. Select the billable time you want to add.
7. Click on OK.
8. Click on Save & Close.

You may also refer to this article for more information: Tracking Job Costs in QuickBooks Desktop.

Don't hesitate to tag me in your comment if you have any other concerns. I'll be here to help you.

Thank you for your response @Alessandra_B 

I am not using my tracked time to invoice our jobs. I am only using the tracked time for the sake of figuring profitability on a job. 

I am able to enter my time using the weekly time sheet, but in order for the values to show in my profitability report I have to actually run a "payroll". This is conflicting with the info that I already enter as a transaction from our third party payroll company. It is basically creating double payroll entries. 

Thank you for getting back to me, @burghardtmfg.

I appreciate your effort in providing me with more details of your concern. 

You need to enter or attach a customer name to your timesheet to add them to a job. Allow me to add more details about this.

When you enter a timesheet for a job, you'll still need to enter a customer name. This way, the timesheet will be attached to the job without having to run your payroll or include them on invoices and bills.

Also, your timesheet will then appear on your job profitability report. 

To add a customer name to your timesheet, you may follow these steps:

1. Open the timesheet.
2. Under the Customer: Job drop-down, choose the customer or job name.
3. Click on Save & Close.

That's it! You're now able to show the time in your job profitability without running payroll.

Feel free to leave a comment below if you have any other concerns.

Thanks for the reply @Alessandra_B  .... 

I am applying my time to specific  jobs already. My line items are showing up on the job profitability report but they all show $0.00 values. 

I am entering "shop hourly" as a labor burden rate including all benefits and taxes, being that I don't do our payroll in-house I wanted to keep this as simple as possible simply for the purpose of getting a close estimate of labor cost on each job. 

This screenshot shows the employee screen setup

@Alessandra_B 

This screenshot shows my timesheet entry

@Alessandra_B  and this screenshot shows my report 

I feel like I am close .... but something is missing in order to pull the values to the reports

Thank you for sharing a screenshots, burghardtmfg.

The only missing is that, you have to invoice your customer for the billable hours. 

Here's how:

1. Create an Invoice.
2. Click Add Time/Costs.
3. Check the billable hours for your customer.
4. Click OK.
5. Then Save and Close the invoice.

Please see screenshot:

Leave me a comment below if you have further concerns. I'll be glad to help.

@GlinetteC 

There are still $0.00 showing as the rates ... see screenshot.

Will these amounts actually show up on my invoices? .... or only import time to the report? I do not want to use the timesheets to create the invoices, as I have specific guidelines I need to follow for our invoicing process

Good day, burghardtmfg.

You've got me here today to share some more information about job costing via QuickBooks Desktop.

I appreciate the screenshot you've provided. In order to show the rates in the Job Profitability Detail report, timesheets should have a paycheck or money out transactions, since the timesheet alone is non-posting. 

QuickBooks Desktop will not automatically correlate time on the timesheet when adding it to an invoice. You have to do this manually.

You can get more details in this article: Tracking job costs in QuickBooks Desktop.

If you need more help with job costing in QuickBooks Desktop, please let me know. I'm here to help.