Billable expense without a cost

Hi there, DMC25.

Thanks for joining us here in the Community. I'm happy to provide some info about charging your client in QuickBooks Desktop.

In this situation you may consider using either a Sales Receipt or an Invoice for the rental entry. Sales receipts are used at the time of sale, if you have received the full payment. On the other hand, invoices allow your customers a certain amount of time to pay for the rental.

I'm linking a couple of articles that offer more details on Sales Receipts and Invoices:

• Create sales receipts in QuickBooks Desktop
• Create an invoice in QuickBooks Desktop

Additionally, most customers who manage equipment rentals in QuickBooks have set these up as a service or non-inventory items that link back to the Rental Income account. This article provides details on adding, editing, and deleting items in QuickBooks Desktop.

Please feel free to reach back out if you have any other questions. The Community always has your back.

Hmm, thanks for the suggestion(s) however the Sales Receipts option doesn't seem to be a fit since that appears to be for a payment rec'd for service or items . . . I need an option to be able to enter the client's cost of the rental when it happens so when it's time to create the invoice, the rental charge is pulled in to the client's invoice but without creating an expense since the trailer is currently paid for, it's a charge for the use of our dump trailer.  Still seeking an entry solution.    

@DMC25 

Billable expenses are when you incur a cost and want to bill your customer for it.  You have no incurred costs/expenses when you rent the trailer - it's just income to you, which is why you should use a sales receipt if you get paid at the time it is rented or an invoice if you bill the customer and get paid at a later date.  Set up a service item mapped to the appropriate income account and use that on the sales receipt/invoice.    

Thanks for your response . . . yes, there is not an incurred cost or expense for the rental, nor do we invoice or get paid at the time the rental occurs.  We typically create a progress billing invoice(s) for our clients with billable charges incurred, say, over a month or a specific phase, then the client's billing invoice is created from the entered billable charges (detailed on the invoice) with our mark up, for an amount due.  I'm hoping to find out how to enter that charge so that it's available at the time of billing, but something tells me I will need to keep track of dates the rental(s) occurred separately somehow and then when it's time to bill, the charge can then be included in the invoice as a rental charge (set up as a service).  Does that make sense?  I was just hoping there was a way to enter the charge at time of use so that it could then be pulled in to a future billing invoice . . . 

Thanks so much for your input Rainflurry . . . there is a plan in the future to switch to Online, but for now it appears I'll be tracking this fee separately to be included with future client billings.  Your comments have been very helpful.