Burden Rate

Good day, @ReneeE.

Let me help you track your employee's cost against your project in QuickBooks Desktop (QBDT). 

You can use the Job costing tool in QuickBooks. This way, you can see how much money you spend and make for each job. Here's how:

First, set up job-costing and create a customer job so you can track payroll expenses. Simply follow these steps:

1. Go to the Customers menu and select Customer Center.
2. Click New Customer & Job.
3. Select Add Job, then enter the job name and fill out the rest of the info.
4. Close the window and save your task by clicking OK.

After this, select the job you've created in the CUSTOMER:JOB column once run a payroll. Please check the screenshot below as your reference.

Additionally, you can run job costing reports to see how your business is doing on a job-by-job basis. Just go to Go to the Reports menu and select Jobs, Time, & Mileage.

For more details on how to use the job costs feature in QBDT, you can check this article: QuickBooks Desktop's job costing tools.

You're more than welcome to visit this thread again if need any other help with managing your payroll expenses in QuickBooks. I'll be more than happy to help. Stay well.

All of the customers and job's have been setup. This company has been in business for years. We just want to be able to run the P&L Job Profitability report. This is a service based business so the only expenses that go against the job are the employee's time which is why we need to put in their burden rate. 

I appreciate what you sent to me. You said to look at the screen shot but there wasn't one attached. Also my question about how to enter a burden rate was not answered. That is the only thing that I need help with at this time. 

I'm just now seeing the screen shot. There must be a delay in the screenshot showing in a post. The screen shot shows running the job through payroll. We do not want the employee's hours to go to payroll as everyone is salaried. We only want to have their burden rate and hours to be applied directly to the project. 

I look forward to hearing back from anyone that can assist me with this. Thank you.

Allow me to chime in and share details, @ReneeE.

Currently, we're unable to associate the burden rate with a project. You can create a payroll item for the employee's burden rate then add it to the employee's paycheck.

Let me show you how:

1. Go to the Employees menu and then select Employee Center.
2. Click the Pencil icon.
3. In the Payroll Info section, add the burden rate item in the Additions, Deductions, and Company Contributions table.
4. Click Add New and finish the setup for the new payroll item.
5. Once done, hit OK.

You can also manually change its rate by double-clicking the employee's name and enter it in the Other Payroll Items table when you run payroll.

Here's how:

1. In the Enter Payroll Information window, double-click the employee's name.
2. Change the rate of the burden item or select Add New to create a new one.
   
3. Hit Save and close.

Also, we can only run the Profit and Loss by Job and the summary and detailed for Job Profitability report.

I've attached some articles to know more the descriptions of the supported pay types and deductions in QuickBooks Desktop Payroll and run specific payroll reports:

• Supported pay types and deductions explained
• Customize reports in QuickBooks Desktop

Additionally, you can check this conversation where our Community backer and member, qbteachmt, shared ideas about job cost reporting. I also encourage you reaching to a tax adviser for professional advice.

Please place a comment below if you have other concerns with adding items and QuickBooks features. I'm ready to help anytime. Stay safe!

I appreciate you reaching out and showing me what you think I should do. I still don't see how this would work as we do not want the hours to affect payroll since our employees are salaried and are paid monthly. I do payroll directly through QuickBooks. 

I read through the post that qbteachmt responded to. It is very confusing. Is he saying that by doing what he shows that there will not be multiple paychecks with dollar amounts for the employees? This not only seems confusing but like it will be a lot of work. I did not read past what he wrote. Did I need to read all of the post? I wasn't sure if the other post had anything to do with his answers to the question that was posted.

I'm trying to do what qbteachmt said to to. When I go to the weekly timesheet and choose Mulitple Names (Payroll) there are not any names and no names show up when I do a search. I hope someone can respond and help me with this. Thank you.

Welcome back to the Community, ReneeE.

I appreciate adding more information about setting up the labor burden. This gives us an overview of how you wish to enter the payroll item in QuickBooks.  

Since your employees are salary paid (month), I suggest consulting with an accountant for further assistance. They can guide you on how to handle this situation and make sure the setup will not throw off your records.

When you have the complete details, we can start adding the labor burden in the company file. Let me share the following guide to help you in the future. From there, you’ll find articles on how to accomplish any tasks in QuickBooks including the payroll processes: QuickBooks Desktop.

Feel free to drop me a comment below if you have any other concerns. I'll get back to help and make sure you’re taken care of. Have a great rest of the day.

I appreciate you getting back to me. I have created a demo file to work with as this is tax season and I doubt our CPA will have time to help me. I am trying to do what Jovychris_A said to do but a step was left out. When I go to Add New and Put Burden Rate it then comes up asking Payroll item type: Addition or Deduction. Which one of these do I choose? I think I need to do this step before I can do what qbteachmt says to do. Thanks.

Let's make sure you're able to assign the correct payroll item to your employees' paychecks, ReneeE.

QuickBooks uses payroll items to track individual amounts on a paycheck and accumulate year-to-date (YTD) wage and tax amounts for each employee. You can assign these payroll items to different accounts as needed. You'll want to use addition for burden rate.

Furthermore, you'll want to make sure that the correct tracking type is used in order to have the correct year-to-date (YTD) additions and deductions on a paycheck. 

For your reference, please visit this article for more information: Year-to-date (YTD) amounts on paychecks and pay stubs.

Reach out to us if you need further assistance about entering the burden rate. I'll be here to help.

I have been trying to figure out how to add a burden rate to an individual job profitability summary for years, and I still haven't found a solution in Quickbooks Desktop. 

I guess I could break out an employee's work comp, employer taxes, and employer-paid benefits and spread those costs against all the jobs they were on, but who has the time for that? 

The best solution for us is to report job costs in our CRMs since they are set up to show burden.