I understand the challenges you've encountered, and I appreciate you sharing your concerns with us, @FajitaShorty. I see the benefit of linking your expense to your created invoice, and I'm here to assist you with this.
There's a way to link both using the billable expense feature in QuickBooks Online (QBO). When you perform work for your customers, sometimes you incur expenses on their behalf. These expenses are known as billable expenses.
This functionality is only available in QBO Plus and Advanced. If you're using the Simple Start or Essentials, you'll want to consider upgrading your plan.
Once you're ready, follow these steps to enable the billable expense. Here's how:
- Go to Settings, then select Account and settings.
- Select Expenses.
- Turn on the Show Items table on expense and purchase forms, Track expenses and items by customer, and Make expenses and items billable options.
- Select Bill payment terms.
- Hit Save.
Record the billable expenses for existing invoices. Here's how:
- Go to + New, then select Bill.
- From the Vendor dropdown, select a Vendor.
- From the Category column, select the expense account for the transaction.
- Enter the description and amount of the expense and select the Billable checkbox.
- Select the customer you want to bill for this expense in the Customer column.
- Fill in the necessary field. Then, hit Save and close.
You can now add or link the billable expenses to an invoice. Here's how:
- Select Sales, then click Invoices.
- Find the invoice and click the Edit button.
- Click on the arrow beside the Balance Due.
- Tap Add on the billable expense/s under Add to Invoice to add them.
- Hit Save.
However, if you don't want change your subscription, you can explore third-party apps as an alternative.
For future reference, I'll add this article to help you manage your billable expenses in QBO: Remove a billable expense charge.
Feel free to reach out if you need anything related to QBO expenses. I'm here to assist you.
