Billable Expenses and items for desktop MAC

Good afternoon, @Susan607.

How are you doing today? I hope all is well. 

It sounds like your invoices aren't linked properly to the expenses. Which can cause the billable time option to be greyed out. Let's try a few steps to clear this issue. 

1. Ensure the customer name:job has the exact same name as your customer listed on the Invoice. Be sure the Billable box is checked. 
2. If the option is still greyed out on the Invoice, try creating a new invoice to link to the expense. 
3. If you're still having issues, let's go ahead and run the Rebuild and Verify tools. 

For more information about this process check out: Track job cost and profitablity in QuickBooks Desktop for Mac. 

That should do the trick. Please let me know how it goes. I'm here if you have any additional questions or concerns. Take care! 

Verify was done and no issues. Billable was checked.

It may be that the billable expense needs to be created before an invoice.  Can you verify this?

This would make it cumbersome since a running total invoice wouldn't be able to add billable expenses as they come in.

When I created a new invoice the item was available to add for a new invoice.

(FYI check for it through the tabs on the window that opens.  All say zero until you find and select what you're looking for under its tab.)

BUT if you select the reimbursable item it plops down as a line item for said amount.  The line item requires an Item from the items list.  If you select one the amount entered from time/costs gets zeroed out.

How can this be resolved?  Thank you.

Thanks for following up on this thread with those additional details, Susan607.

You're on the right track. The billable expense will need to be created beforehand. This will ensure the option appears when you go to create an invoice. 

Please give this a try and let me know how things look afterward. The Community always has your back if you need additional assistance,

If a billable expense needs to be created before an invoice can be created then a running total can not be kept nor if one gives an estimate which is turned into an invoice, that invoice can not add the billable expenses, correct? Contractors have billable expenses and estimates all the time.

I still need the question about the billable expense being put on a new invoice from the time/costs feature.  The expense for the amount in the time/costs feature gets placed on the invoice but the invoice requires an Item to be identified for that line.  If one selects an item the amount that was brought in is overridden.  How does one get the billable expense to reflect the amount that was in the time/cost billable expense?   Thank you.

Your understanding of billable expenses, estimates, and invoices is correct, Susan607. Allow me to explain further how these features work.

Billable expenses and estimates are two distinct types of transactions. Billable expenses are used to charge a customer for time, costs, or any products or services purchased on their behalf. On the other hand, estimates are created to provide customers with a quoted amount for specific products or services. Consequently, billable expenses are managed separately and cannot be automatically added to an invoice that has been converted from an estimate.

When adding billable expenses to an invoice, you do not need to manually add an item. The service item selected during the creation of the time activity will automatically populate the invoice line when you include the billable expense. It is important to ensure that the service item selected does not have a predefined rate; otherwise, it may override the original amount.

If you have any other questions or need further assistance, please don’t hesitate to reach out. We’re always here to help.

I was able to put the billable expense on a new invoice and not identify an item and be able to save it.  If an item is identified for the line item it overrides the billable expense imported even though it doesn't have an item amount associated with it. 

The inability to add billable items or expenses after an invoice is created makes the time/cost feature very difficult to use especially if one uses estimates that are converted to invoices.  One has to create a new invoice for every additional billable expense associated with a customer that's not on original estimate.. Or one has to create each billable expense as a Reimbursable Expense and identify the customer for it.  Then they have to go to that account and look at each expense to associate it with the appropriate customer and manually enter it as a line item on an existing invoice in order to get reimbursed.  Is that correct?  Thank you.

Thank you for getting back to us and for sharing more details about your experience with billable expenses and invoices in QuickBooks, Susan607. I can tell you’ve been digging into the system to figure things out, and I appreciate the effort you’ve put in. Let’s go over what you’ve discovered, confirm some of the details, and explore a few ways to simplify your process moving forward.

Regarding adding billable expenses to an invoice that was converted from an estimate, we can add the charge to the invoice as long as the prerequisites are met: the billable expense was created before the invoice, the Billable box is checked when recording an expense, and it is assigned to the correct Customer:Job. QuickBooks should automatically detect any outstanding billable time or costs associated with it via the Time/Costs option.

If adding the billable expense charge directly to the invoice isn’t possible or convenient, even after ensuring the prerequisites are met, consider including those charges in a customer statement instead. This is an alternative way to provide the customer with a record of the outstanding costs if you choose not to issue separate invoices for every additional charge.

Here’s how to do it:

1. Go to Customers, then select Enter Statement Charges.
2. From the Customer:Job dropdown, select a customer or job.
3. You can change the date of the statement charge if need be.
4. In the Item field, enter the item you use to track this kind of charge.
5. Enter the quantity in the Qty field.
6. You can change or add a description for the item if needed.
7. If you have more than one A/R account, choose the account you want to use from the Account list.
8. Select Record.

After this, you can send your customer a statement. Refer to this article for the detailed steps: Create and send customer statements in QuickBooks Desktop.

Regarding your observation about items overriding the billable expense amount, you are correct. When you assign an item in an expense as billable, QuickBooks pulls the pricing information from your Items List. Since items in QuickBooks are preconfigured with specific amounts or rates, the software will overwrite any custom amount you may have entered for the expense.

Finally, I understand you’ve been wondering if it’s necessary to create a new invoice every time you have an additional billable expense for a customer. In this case, I'd recommend consulting your accountant for other potential workarounds for efficiency.

Please don’t hesitate to follow up if you have more questions or if there’s anything else I can help you with!