Hello there, AOBRIEN91791, 

Yes, it's possible to use job costing even you're using a payroll service outside QuickBooks Desktop (QBDT). You'll first have to set up manual payroll in the program before turning on the Job Costing, Class and Item tracking for paycheck expenses feature in the preferences. This way, you can track payroll expenses by job.

I'd suggest updating your QBDT version to get the latest fixes and improvements before performing the steps below on how to set up manual payroll. 

1. Go to Edit from the top menu.
2. Select Preferences.
3. On the left panel, select Payroll & Employees.
4. Go to the Company Preferences tab.
5. Choose the Full Payroll radio button in the QuickBooks Desktop Payroll Features section. 
6. Click OK.

For detailed instructions, go through this article: Set Up Payroll Without A Subscription. 

Once done, repeat the first to fourth steps above. Then, check the Job Costing, Class and Item tracking for paycheck expenses box and select whether to track by Entire paycheck or Earnings Item before clicking OK. The screenshot below serves as your visual guide. For detailed steps on how to track your payroll expenses, see the Track expenses by job section through this article: Set Up Job Costing and Item Tracking. 

For your second concern, the payroll data you imported from the processing company to QuickBooks will convert as checks in the program. There are two options to resolve this issue: 

• Checking the mapping setup to ensure the accuracy of the information and use an IIF file to import the payroll data. 
• Manually enter the payroll data in QBDT. 

You can always run any reports from the Jobs, Time & Mileage section in the Reports menu. See the screenshot below for your visual reference. These reports help you determine which job is profitable or not and analyze how well each job is progressing financially. 

I'm here anytime you have other concerns. Have a good day, AOBRIEN91791.  

We use Classes for the different crops we grow on our farm.  Our team puts in their time by Class depending on which crop they're working on.  I'm finding that Classes do not work well for analysis.  Which forum would have guidance?

Hello there, @PeterYork.

Since classes don't work for analysis, I'd suggest using job costing instead. These will track the expenses for a job and comparing those expenses to your revenue. Also, by using this tool, you can see how much money you spend and make for each job. Let me guide you how:

1. Select Edit from the main menu. Then, Preferences.
2. Select Accounting from the left menu.
3. Click the Company Preferences tab.
4. Make sure there is a check mark in the Use class tracking box.
5. Hit the OK button.
6.  Select the Edit from the main menu.
7. Select Payroll and Employees from the list.
8. Select the Company Preference tab.
9. Tick the  Job Costing, Class, and Item tracking for paycheck expenses box.
10. Then, select between tracking the by Entire Paycheck or Earnings item.

You can check out this article for information: Set up job costing and item tracking.

To view all the Job Reports you've created, you can follow the screenshot shared by my colleague above to run the Job, Time, and Mileage report.

You may also want to customize this report to personalize its info. Then, memorize its customization for easy access.

In case you want to add or delete some items for your business. See this article for more info: Add, edit, and delete items.

Don't hesitate to write again if you have other questions or concerns. I'm always here to help.

Excellent idea!  But does this also work in Quickbooks Online?  I know there are some Desktop functions that are not in the Online version.

Thank you very much for this suggestion.

Yes, job costing also works in QuickBooks Online, @PeterYork.

QuickBooks Online (QBO) Plus and Advanced offers a feature known as Projects, which works like job costing. This allows you to organize transactions related to a job and track the progress of it. 

To start, turn on the project feature: 

1. Go to the Settings ⚙ menu, and then choose Account and Settings.
2. Select the Advanced tab.
3. Locate the Projects section and the Edit ✎ icon to expand it.
4. Choose the Organize all job-related activity in one place checkbox.
5. Once done, click Save and close your settings.

Then, you can start creating a project: 

1. From the left panel, choose the Projects menu.
2. Select the New Project button.
3. Provide the name of your project.
4. Choose the customer you’re working for from the drop-down menu.
5. Add any notes or details about the project.
6. Once done, choose Save.

You can also consider checking out this article for more details about how you can add existing expenses to projects: Project set up and use.

I've also added this article that can provide insights on how to use projects to calculate your profits and costs by project: Track income, costs, and profitability by project.

Should you have questions about the Projects feature in QuickBooks Online, please let me know. Cheering you to continued success. 

Many thanks!  Can I used Classes in Projects in QB Online?

Yes, you can use classes when tracking time in Projects, PeterYork.

Just make sure to turn on this feature so you can assign classes to your employees. Let me show you how:

1. Go to Settings ⚙ and select Account and Settings.
2. Select Advanced, then select the Categories section to edit.
3. Mark heck Track classes.
4. Check Warn me when a transaction isn’t assigned a class. This is optional, but it's good to turn it on so when you look at reports, you know everything got classified.
5. Under Assign classes, select One to entire transaction or One to each row in transaction.
6. Select Save, then Done.

Once done, you can set up your class list that represents different parts of your business.

I've added a screenshot below on how to assign a class.

You can refer again to this article to learn more about this feature: Track income, costs, and profitability by Projects.

Feel free to leave a comment below if you need additional information. I'll be around to help you.

Many thanks!

I dont understand none in the community. So take me out and help me get my accounts and my right banks linked running to everything.i have no more time to waste wondering if i got it right.

I'd be glad to assist you today, Michael6340.

Are you trying to connect to your bank account to QuickBooks Desktop? If so, there are two ways on how to connect with QuickBooks, depending on your financial institution, you can either access your account using Direct Connect (automatic) or WebConnect (manual).

If you're trying to connect using the Direct Connect feature, you might want to verify first if your bank requires a fee for this service. Once verified, you can follow the steps below:

1. Click Banking at the top menu bar and go to Bank Feeds.
2. Select Set up Bank Feeds for an account.
   
3. In the Enter your Bank’s name field, enter and select your bank.
   

If you choose to connect using the WebConnect feature, you can follow the steps in this article: Set up bank accounts for Bank Feeds in QuickBooks Desktop.

The following write-up is a good reference: Fix OL and OLSU Bank Feeds errors in QuickBooks Desktop. It includes errors like OLSU-1011, OLSU-1014, OL-202, and OL-206 to name a few.

If you're referring to something else, please let me know. I need to make sure this is resolved and you're back to running your normal business processing. Have a good one!

@Rubielyn_J 

Since the only way to see true profitability on projects is to allocate 100% of costs to projects, does QB now have way to allocate indirect cost to each project on a logical basis for allocation of indirect cost by project?

Hello there, Teri.

Yes, there's a way to allocate indirect costs to each project. There are costs and expenses that are not directly related to creating products or services but must still be paid on an ongoing basis. To know more you can click here. 

Let me know if you have other questions. Take care!

@Catherine_B 

Thank you for sharing but must disagree with most of that with regard to how to compute Overhead. 

OH is cost shared for example by all Projects. So each project should receive their share of that cost. Calculating OH as a percentage of Revenue means the Project with highest Revenue pays most OH.

That defeats the purpose of determining profitability by project and provides incorrect information.  

However, assuming you can get OH to calculate properly as a percentage of cost like Direct Labor,

which is what is required in my industry, what are the options for allocating those costs to projects?

Hello there, @Teri.

In the course of doing business, some costs and expenses are not directly related to creating products or services but must still be paid on an ongoing basis.

To allocate OH for projects, you can check this article: Labor costing for projects.

Stay in touch with us if you have other questions. I'm more than happy to help. Take care!

@Maybelle_S 

Thanks for sharing, but no this will not meet the requirements of my 102 clients who are Govt contractors.

1) We must do accounting per GAAP accrual-basis so can't wait for payroll to do customer billing invoices.

2) Labor burdened with only payroll taxes is just a small portion of indirect non-labor cost to be allocated.

3) Financial statements need to match project cost reports which must also match customer billing invoice.

We are trying to help a customer import payroll information that is allocated to specific projects and keep getting the following error: Job/Customer not found: XXXXXXX and it lists the Job that is in the IIF file we are providing.  We have done a screen share with the customer and confirmed that the project does indeed exist, checked spelling, etc.  What are we missing?

As a follow up, what is the format within the IIF file that this should be listed as?  Does it need to have customer name AND project name?  Just project name?  Which order if both?

Hi there, @KBerryman1.

I'm to help you with importing your payroll information to QuickBooks successfully.

The job and customer details must be in a separate column to avoid this error. You can manually modify the file, then add a different column for job names. Moreover, please make sure that the mapping of your data is correct before importing.

You can download and install the .IIF import kit as your guide. Here's the link: Download Kit.

For more tips about exporting/importing IIF files, you can also open these articles:

• Export, import, and edit IIF files
• IIF Overview: import kit, sample files, and headers

Please keep in touch if you need more help with this. I'm determined to get this fixed for you. Have a great day!

This is an IIF file, not excel file.  The job info is in there, but the error is in QB saying the job does not exist (project) even though it does and we can see the job.  If we take the job info out of the file, it imports just fine.

Thank you for the follow-up post, @KBerryman1.

I can see that these names (jobs/projects) were linked to your payroll transactions. At this time importing IIF files doesn't link transactions. Thus, you can exclude the names on the file. Once done importing the payroll information, manually link the jobs/projects to your payroll.

You can open this article, then review the details under the Learn about IIF import and export limitations section for more information.

Moreover, you can check out the topics from our help articles for more resources while working with QuickBooks in the future.

Feel free to leave a comment below if you have any other questions. It's my pleasure to help. Keep safe!

So are you saying there is not a way to import payroll information and have Job / Project information in the file that will then link it to the corresponding job / project?

Yes, @KBerryman1.

If the transactions are imported, they will not be linked to the project. In this case, you can follow the suggestion of my colleague, Angelyn_T to manually link the jobs/projects to your payroll once the import is done. Please check it here for more info:  Learn about IIF import and export limitations.

For your additional reference, please see this article: IIF Overview. 

You can always seek self-help articles on ourQuickBooks help page, this is to help QuickBooks users like you to get your task done in no time. 

If you have further questions in importing your IIF files in QuickBooks, please leave a reply below. I'm always around to assists you have a great day ahead. 

I have entered time in the timesheet, marked it as billable and included the customer, but it is not showing up on my job profitability report as a cost.  what am i missing

Hey there, @Adjusting Entries. 

Thanks for following along with the thread and sharing your concerns. 

It sounds like you've followed the right steps to have this set up correctly, I recommend contacting our Technical Support Team. This way, an agent can remote into your computer and investigate why this isn't showing on your job profitability report. I've included some steps to contact support below. 

1. From the Help menu, click on QuickBooks Desktop Help.
   • 
2. Select Contact Us at the bottom of the popup screen. 
   • 
3. Enter your concern, then hit Let's talk. 
   • 
4. Choose a way to connect with support (Call back, Chat, Etc.).
   • 

Please let me know if you have further questions or concerns. Take care!