Job/Time tracking without using payroll

I want to make sure you're able to track time by job for each of your employee, Local Electrician.

Tracking of your income and expenses is important on a job-by-job basis. You're already on the right track. 

Using a weekly timesheet is a way of recording the hours spent on the job (billable time) in QuickBooks Desktop. Just make sure to mark the Billable column on the form.

A weekly timesheet is a non-posting entry, therefore it should affect your reports. To count this on the financial report, you need to import the time by entering bills. Then, match them to the expenses downloaded from the bank account. That way, no duplicate entries are created.

In QuickBooks Desktop, tracking expenses for a job and comparing those expenses to the revenue in called Job Costing. This article will explain further and provides the appropriate way of handling this: Track job costs in QuickBooks Desktop.

Let me know if you need more help with this by commenting below. I'll make sure you're able to track time by job for your employees @Local Electrician.

Thank you for your reply. I am going to try to be a little more specific since this situation is kind of unique.

This year from January till mid August we processed our payroll in house using QB Payroll so I have been using the Weekly timesheet steadily all along. In Mid August we switched over to outsourcing the payroll to a 3rd party company. In order to be able to bill my jobs properly I have been still inputting the time into the weekly timesheet so the hours are then tracked for each job on the profit and loss by each individual job. I do not cut a physical check or use the Direct deposit service anymore to pay the guys, or file the payroll taxes or the weekly wage garnishment. We have the payroll company doing all of that now. So each week those expense items are being brought into QB each time I sync my bank accounts. The problem I now have is the expense is being accounted for twice on the reporting because it is pulling payroll expenses from the data that I am inputting into QuickBooks and from my bank when the The account that funds the outsourced payroll expenses is reporting the expense. I have to continue to input the data into the weekly timesheet or I can't properly bill each individual customer for the time worked. Especially on project jobs where the guys could be there for many weeks or even months at a time before we send a bill. Is there another way to track the guys hours worked and what job they were on that is not connected to the payroll but will still allow me to pull the information on to a profit and loss report by job? Thanks for your help.

Welcome back, @Local Electrician.

I'll share some insights about tracking jobs and hours worked without using payroll in QuickBooks Desktop (QBDT), so you can keep your financial data accurate and updated.

For the time being, the only option to track the hours worked and what job your employees were on is to input the time into the weekly timesheet. This way, the hours are tracked for each job on the profit and loss report. 

However, since those expenses are being brought into QBDT each time your bank accounts sync, they'll be accounted for twice in your reports. With this, you may opt to stop inputting the data into the weekly timesheet and check out for a third-party application to do it for you (tracking your timesheets and reports).

If you wish to learn more about tracking expenses for a job in QBDT, you can read this article: Track job costs in QuickBooks Desktop.

Also, you may want to check out one of our Help pages as your reference to guide you in managing your business growth and transactions using QBDT: QuickBooks Learn and Support. It includes help articles, Community discussions with other users, and video tutorials, to name a few.

Please don't hesitate to keep me posted in the comments if you have other reporting and job-tracking concerns in QBDT. I'm always here to help. Take care, and I wish you continued success, @Local Electrician.

Good morning,

Have you found a solution to this problem?  I have the exact same issue and it appears that QB is just forcing us to use their payroll.  The cost is a bit high, and we are able to use an outside source where the price is less and more features available.

Please advise.

I have the same problem.  I have a third party payroll service.  I also run a dummy payroll in QB because that is how the owners set it up and didn't want to change. I want to be able to see what I charge the customer, how much it actually cost me on the P&L.  Right now, without running a payroll I can't see that per job.  Is there a way around this?  I don't want to have to run the dummy payroll.  

Thank you for joining the thread, @kmikeal.

As my colleague, @Rea_M mentioned that the option is to input in the, Add Bill, Check, or Weekly Timesheet to track the hours worked and what job your employees were on. 

And enter billable time to your employee and link to your expenses to show in the Profit and Loss report.

Let's perform the Weekly Timesheet. Here's how:

1. Go to Employees.
2. Select the Enter time, then click the Use weekly timesheet.
3. Click the dropdown arrow inside the Name field and select an employee. Once done, choose a date or week by clicking the small calendar beside it.
4. Find your customer in the CUSTOMER: JOB column.
5. To make time billable time, tap the small box below the BILLABLE column and ensure that it's in line with the customer name.
6. Click Save and Close.

Here's how to link it to your expenses:

1. Go to Vendors.
2. Select the Enter Bills. Then, click the dropdown field of Vendor to select a vendor.
3. Enter the date in the Date field.
4. Below click the Items. Under the ITEM column, select the item of the customer you created in the Weekly Timesheet.
5. Select the same customer in the CUSTOMER: JOB column, and it'll automatically link to the Weekly Timesheet you made.
6. Click the Save & Close.

Once done, this will reflect in your Profit and Loss report and view it per job.

Feel free to read this article for more details: Track job costs in QuickBooks Desktop.

If you want to learn how to set up and assign pay schedules to pay your employees, you can read this article: Set up and manage payroll schedules.

The Community will always be here, willing to extend a hand if you have additional queries about the QBDT payroll. Take care!

it looks like the Intuit reps do not understand the details of our work!

we all need to start getting another software for two reasons, technical support and cost

I think I figured this out so someone tell me if I am correct.

In the time sheet program instead of using an employee name use a vendor name. Enter your time like you would if it were an employee.

Then go to enter a bill and use that vendor name.  It will tell you there are time sheets associated with this vendor.  The time and cost will be under the item tab.  Then you can go under the expense tab and make a negative line item to offset the account your time is being billed to and not affect the job costing.

Does this make sense and do you think it will work?

Thanks for providing a workaround on this thread, Andie68.

Yes, we can use a vendor name and enter your time on the Timesheet page. See the screenshots for your reference.

Here's how to create a timesheet for your vendor:

1. Go to Employees.
2. Choose the Enter time, then click the Use weekly timesheet.
3. Click the dropdown arrow inside the Name field and select a vendor. Then, choose a date or week by clicking the small calendar beside it.
4. Find your customer in the CUSTOMER: JOB column.
5. To make time billable time, tap the small box below the BILLABLE column and ensure that it's in line with the customer name.
6. Press Save and Close.

Once done, create a bill and use that vendor name to link the timesheets associated with this vendor. Here's how: 

1. Go to Vendors.
2. Select the Enter Bills. Then, click the dropdown field of Vendor to select a vendor.
3. Enter the date in the Date field.
4. Below click the Items. Under the ITEM column, select the item of the customer you created in the Weekly Timesheet.
5. Select the same customer in the CUSTOMER: JOB column, and it'll automatically link to the Weekly Timesheet you made.
6. Click the Save & Close.

When it comes to creating a negative line item to offset the account your time is being billed to and not affect the job costing, it would be best to consult your accountant. This way, they will provide you with details on how to best handle this one in QuickBooks. You can check out this article for more details about tracking the expenses for a job: Track job costs in QuickBooks Desktop.

I've also added these help articles that you can browse in case you have questions about QuickBooks Desktop. Just make sure to select the QuickBooks Product.

Reach out to us if you have any other concerns about time tracking. I'll always be right here to help. Have a great day ahead. 

What if you are using QuickBooks Online, and do not subscribe to the payroll option? We use a third party payroll service, so I don't want to subscribe to payroll. I need to be able to track the employee time for each job to be able to get proper Profit & Loss. 

You can track the employee time manually in QuickBooks Online, @Meagan08. Let me share the steps to show them in Profit & Loss appropriately.

If this is your first time, you'll be prompted to do the Setup Tasks to set up employees first before adding a time entry. It will open a new window where you have to scroll down and choose to use the basic time entry in your subscription.

Since you don't have a Payroll subscription, we can go to the Time menu on the left pane. Select Time entries from there and click Add time to enter hours for your team. Please know that the Date dropdown list is only for the day as it defaults to record the daily total. 

Once done, run your Profit & Loss report from the Reports menu to get a good picture of your current cash flow. Here's an article to help you personalize it: Customize reports in QuickBooks Online.

Moreover, I'll leave this guide to save the current customization of the report: Memorize reports in QuickBooks Online.

Let me know if you have other concerns about tracking employees and generating reports. I'll get back to you right away. Have a great day.