Tracking Residential Construction Schedule of Values, Budget, Line Items and Reimbursable Expenses

Thanks for bringing your question to the Community, VivaChiffon.

We'll begin by setting up the preferences that'll allow us to mark expenses as billable. This will allow items to show up on your Profit and Loss report.

Let me walk you through the steps on how to do it:

1. From the Edit menu, choose Preferences.
2. Select Time & Expenses.
3. Go to the Company Preferences tab.
4. In the Invoicing Options section, check the Mark all expenses as a billable option.
5. Enter the Default Markup Percentage.
   - You can leave this blank if there isn't a default percentage for the markup.
6. From the Default Markup Account drop-down menu, choose the correct account.
   - If you don't have one yet, you can always scroll up and select Add New to quickly create a markup account.
7. Click OK.

Here's how to run the Profit and Loss report in case you need a reference:

1. On the QuickBooks homepage, click on Reports at the top menu bar.
2. Select Company & Financial.
3. Click on Profit and Loss Detail.
4. On the report's page, click on Customize Report.
5. Go to the Filter column under Modify Report: Profit & Loss Detail.
6. Click everywhere to sync information.

For additional reference about running and customizing reports in QBDT, you may check this article: Understand reports.

To track the line items for each budget, you'll want to use the class tracking feature.

Everything you need to about how class tracking works in QBDT can be found in the following articles:

• Set up and use class tracking in QuickBooks Desktop.
• How to use class tracking in QuickBooks.

Feel free to visit our QuickBooks Help Articles page for more insight s about managing your business in your software.

Don't hesitate to let me know if there's anything else you need help with when tracking licensing fees. Have a good one.

Thank you!  I had all expenses as billable and  I am using Classes to track which partner in an LLC owes for which project, or whether an expense is charted for an upcoming Draw Request from the bank for a construction loan, etc.  If am to use Classes as you suggest to track line items, I have up to 80 line items in each budget (which are not always consistent so I must renumber each line item in the estimate to correlate with the Bank's Schedule of Values) - it that viable?  I was hoping Items could be used to track the Budget (Estimate) through Progress Invoicing.  Should I be using Expenses for those Construction Budget Line Items?  I have been using Expenses to track Overhead.  Thanks again - clearly I am not an accountant.          

Let me share additional info about creating budgets in QuickBooks Desktop, @VivaChiffon.

Only income and expense accounts will show on the Profit and Loss by Job report. You may consider creating sub-accounts to break down your expenses, income, and more into greater detail. For example, you can divide your utilities account into subaccounts. This way, you can track different types of utility payments, like gas, telephone, water, and so on.

When creating a budget, it will be easier for you to identify which accounts those construction line items fall into.

Here's how:

1. Go to the Lists menu, then select Chart of Accounts.
2. Right-click on any account.
3. Select New.
4. Choose an account type and select Continue.
5. Enter the account name.
6. Select the Subaccount of checkbox, then select the parent account.
7. Select Save & Close.

I'm also linking this article about managing accounts: Add, edit, or delete accounts.

I'm always here should you need additional assistance. Have a great day.

@VivaChiffon 

Consider having a construction management app with the subcontractor feature to integrate with your QB Desktop.