Enter billable time by job in QuickBooks Online

In QuickBooks Online Plus and Essentials, you can track billable time by job by setting up jobs as sub-customers. Then you can track and invoice your billable time, and keep all your billable expenses organized.

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Step 1: Add a sub-customer

To track your billable time by job, you can enter the job as a sub-customer of the customer you’re doing the work for.

1. Go to Sales, then Customers (Take me there).
2. Select New customer.
3. Enter all the appropriate info for the sub-customer.
4. Select the Is sub-customer check box.
5. From the Enter parent customer dropdown ▼, select the parent customer.
6. Choose Bill with parent.
7. Select Save.

Step 2: Turn on billable time

If you want to bill your customer directly from tracked time, you’ll need to turn on the billable time setting. Here’s how:

1. Select Settings ⚙, then Account and settings.
2. Select the Time tab.
3. In the Timesheet section, select Edit ✎.
4. Turn on the Allow time to be billable setting. 
5. If you want your users to see their billable rate when they enter their time, select the Show billing rate to users entering time checkbox. You may want to leave this unchecked if you bill customers at a different hourly rate than you pay your employees and subcontractors.
6. Select Save, then select Done.

Step 3: Record billable time

You can enter billable time through the Time tab:

1. Go to Time (Take me there), then Time entries.
2. Select Add Time, and choose the user that you’re adding time for. 
3. In the dropdown ▼ adjust the date range if necessary by choosing This week, Last week, or Custom. Then select the day you’re entering time for.
4. Add the duration of hours worked, or turn on the Start/end times switch to enter a start time and end time.
5. Select Add work details. Then select the Customer/Project dropdown ▼ and choose your customer or project. 
6. To make the timesheet billable, turn on the Billable (/hr) switch. 
7. Add notes or any other applicable options.
8. Select Done. 
9. If you need to add more timesheets for that worker, select Add and repeat steps 4-8 above.
10. Select Save and Close.

Step 4: Add billable time to an invoice

Once you’ve entered billable timesheets, you’ll see them available to add to new invoices. Find out more about how to invoice your customers for billable expenses and timesheets.