Is it possible to have my independent contractors enter their time on a timesheet? If so, how do I run a report to see their billing?

Hi Blake,

Let me help you with your contractors time stamps.

Your contractors can use the Timesheet feature in QuickBooks. However, you need to add them as users with Time Tracking access. If you have multiple contractors, I suggest finding a third-party app that you can use to enter their time. You can try finding an app in the Apps center. You may find one that offers a trial version (see screenshot).

Here are some articles about Timesheet and maximum number of users in QuickBooks:

• Fill in a weekly timesheet
• Let Someone Fill In a Timesheet
• Number of Users per QuickBooks Online Subscription

If you need anything else, feel free to comment below. Thanks!

QBO is very frustrating in this regard.  Apparently your contractor can enter time but QBO won't pull it into a bill.  

Good to hear from you today, @Jeff5.

Allow me to provide some information about timesheets in QuickBooks Online.

At this time, the timesheets in QuickBooks Online is only for customers. Creating a bill for your vendor using the billable feature in the Weekly Timesheet is great product suggestion. I can definitely see how this feature would be useful.

I would highly recommend submitting feedback and suggestions regarding this option to our product developer. As a team with a massive roadmap, we have to pick new features based on the value they’ll add to the most users possible.

You can do so by clicking on the Gear icon, then choosing Feedback. Or, you can do this by clicking this link: http://feedback.qbo.intuit.com/.

Thanks for being a part of the QuickBooks family. Feel free to post again here in the Community if have any other concerns.

Doesn't look like it's possible. *Sigh*

Can we respond to this question as it still stands in 2022? 

How do we track time for an independent contractor, assign it to an invoice, and include that as a 1099 for tax purposes? 

I understand T sheets has taken almost all time tracking away from QB natively, but there does not appear to be a way to track time for contractors (not employees) in QB. 

I can share some information about time tracking in QuickBooks Online. 

The QuickBooks Online Time Tracking feature allows your contractors to fill out their time worked. All you need to do is enabled this feature in the Company settings. Then, assign a time entry only user access rights to your contractors. 

Here's how to turn on time tracking preference:

1. Select the Gear icon, then choose Account and Settings.
2. On the left-hand menu, click Advanced. 
3. Choose the pencil to the right of Time Tracking 
4. Click the Add Service field to timesheets or Add Customer field to timesheets. 
5. (Optional) Check the Show billing rate to users entering time.
6. To select the first day of the workweek, use the drop-down and select the day to begin each workweek. Setting the first day of your workweek affects how employees and contractors view Weekly Time Sheets.
7. Select Save and click Done on the bottom right.

Once done, you can now enter the time. To proceed, please see the steps below: 

1. Click the +New button.
2. Under Employee, choose either Single time activity or Weekly timesheet.
3. From the Name dropdown, choose the name of the contractor.
4. Input some needed info. 
5. Enter the number of hours and minutes worked in the Time field.
6. Once done, click Save.

Please make sure that customer information in the time activity is accurate so you can add an invoice to your customer.

For more info, please visit this page: Turn on and set up time tracking in QuickBooks Online. 

Additionally, let me share this link to help you view, change, or approve QuickBooks Time timesheets in QuickBooks Online Plus.

If you have questions about the process, don't hesitate to leave me a comment below. I'll be here to answer them for you. 

Rubie,

This workflow has not worked since QB acquired T Sheets.

There is no longer a "Time Tracking" tab under advanced. 

This has been an issue for quite some time and QB has not been able to provide an adequate solution. 

Unfortunately, this is no creating issues at tax time as we cannot provide 1099's for time tracked bc they are shown as employees. Quite the snowball of issues.

Screenshots below to confirm: 

Here's how to turn on time tracking preference:

1. Select the Gear icon, then choose Account and Settings.
2. On the left-hand menu, click Advanced. 
3. Choose the pencil to the right of Time Tracking 

Thanks for getting back to us in Community, @C2Construction. Allow me to chime in and share some details about turning on time tracking in QuickBooks
Online.

Please know that turning on and setting up time tracking is exclusive to QuickBooks Online Essentials, Plus, and Advanced subscriptions.

Alternatively, you can also see a Time tab on your left pane with the subscriptions above. Please see this sample screenshot for reference:

In addition, I've got this helpful resource to guide you further on how to turn on and set up time tracking in QBO.

Moreover, you can track and manage QuickBooks Time in QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Online Payroll by checking out this article.

Keep me posted if you still have questions or concerns about the information above. I'll be around for you. Have a great day!

Carniel,

We currently have "time entries" set up in our quickbooks account. 

We can manually input time entries but we were told by QB that we cannot track time for contractors (1099 NEC) thus they instructed us to track them as employees. 

Is there a service or adjustment that has changed this statement or allows some kind of workaround. 

We are a construction company with multiple hourly 1099 NEC's that we need to provide tax docs for at each end of year. As of today, QB support has told us we have to "fake" in an expense to create the 1099's then delete those as we continue to prepare our taxes. 

If you can make this more direct, we would greatly appreciate it. 

Good afternoon, @C2Construction. 

Thanks for reaching back out on this thread. We appreciate the additional information you gave to us. 

To clarify, have you tried these steps in this guide below: 

Track and manage QuickBooks Time in QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Online Payroll

Note: If you have Contractors using QuickBooks Time, you can add them by going to the Contractors tab. Only individual type contractors can sync with QuickBooks Time.

I want to ensure we give you the best solution for your business. I'll be waiting for your response!

Hi there, 

I'm in the same situation.  I have one independent contractor that I use regularly and would like it if they could just use the "Time" app to track time.  Here's what I've done to make it so that I can easily pay them for the work done and have it all tracked by job/client project.  First I added them as a Contractor with their name, business name, rate that I pay them, Rate that I charge clients, and put them in the category contract Labor as a Vendor.  Hope that makes sense.  I actually did this by filling out an invoice and just came across it.  Let me explain.  In the line item for an invoice I put something like Contract labor: journeyman. Then I followed the steps below to get them in the system properly.

1. In the invoice line item type in whatever they are called (remember clients/customers will see this description)
2. Click "add new" from the pop up
3. Click "Service" fro the Product/Service Information window that pops up.
4. Fill out all information needed and fill out this information as follows. "Category" = Contract Labor
5. Under Description check the box for "I sell this product/service to my customers"
6. Put the amount that you charge your customer for this work right below in Sales Price/rate
7. To the right of that for "income account" type services
8. Now "Purchasing Information" check THAT box! (because it actually costs you to sell that service, get it?)
9. In Cost put the actual amount you pay the sub contractor hourly.
10. To the right of that in "Expense Account" put Contract labor or whatever you have as contract labor
11. Now the main part! PREFERRED VENDOR!! Select "Add New"
12. A pop up will arrive called "New Vendor" put in the actual name of the person not the company.
13. In that same window click the "+Details" in blue
14. Now just enter in all the information for that contact. Stay away from everything else
15. Ok lets start from the top.  On the left side check the check box for "Print on Check as - use display name if you write checks to the company and not the person. **SUPER IMPORTANT TO GET THIS RIGHT. Example: if I get an invoice from that contractor as the business name then keep this checked. If invoiced from their real name uncheck. (this is so it all adds up in QB)
16. Scroll down and on the bottom right put in their EIN or social
17. Check the checkbox for "track payments for 1099"
18. Under that in the "Default expense account", type in "contract labor" or whatever you have it called in quickbooks that designates you paid someone for work done for your income.
19. SAVE!!!

OK .. So what did we do so far. We created a "Vendor" who is actually a contract laborer or independent freelancer or whatever you have that you "sell" to customers and "Pay" them for. With me so far?

Now that we have that out of the way lets setup time tracking for them shall we?

1. In QB click on Time.  A new window will open.
2. On the left side find and click on "My Team"
3. From the new window at the top click on "Groups and Managers" then click on "Add group" and give it a name like Contract labor and save. 
4. Now from the "Groups and Managers" window you will see "contract labor" to the right of that click on "MANAGERS"
5. in the group managers search bar, type your QB email or your name  and then click on "Add" right below it. Cool.. you've just made yourself a manager of that group. Now click on close.
6. From the "My Team" window that should still be there.. at the top click on "Invite"
7. In the new pop up window put in the same information you used to create your "Vendor" in the previous section we just did.  
8. Now hopefully they will accept and Viola!  Your sub contractor or whatever you want to call them can track time.

Finalizing what we did. 

On the user you just created click on "edit". Under "General" you'll see a tap for Group. Go ahead and put them in the group you created in the last steps.  Now you'll have many preferences you'll want to setup. For example under general I like to fill out all that information.  In "Permissions" set them how you'd like.  If you want to get "big brother" on them under "location" set it to custom rules for this team member, then select "Required"  Just read it and see if that works for you. 

Finally back in Quickbooks.  Click on "Account and settings" On the left click on Time.  Chose the start of the week and Timesheet options you want. Now On the left click on "Advanced"  Look at the fourth selection "Categories" and turn on Track Locations (at least for me I like this option) Next is just a tip and how I like it for time tracking.. Under projects turn ON "Organize all job-related activity in one place.  Just my 2 cents and do as you please on those last two suggestions.

Well this works for me. Your mileage may vary. I hope I helped someone and I want to state now that I am no Quickbooks or Time guru and I am open to suggestions or if I'm doing anything wrong here please don't be afraid to let us ALL know!

Brooke

Kingsley Tech Consultants

This is amazing step by step instructions. I wish it applied to QB Essentials :( I do not have the same options and boxes to check on Essentials. This would definitely solve the issue if it worked for Essentials. Thank you for all of your time put in to lay out this amazing information!! :) 

Brooke - thank you for the DETAILED instructions. Worked like a charm. But, I was hoping that the time entered by my contractors would automatically show up in QB as a "bill". Best I have found is an output report for contractors showing the hours that they billed to various project codes. Any insight on this issue? Thanks!

I am having the same issue.  I have them in there but can not see how much I owe them after the time sheet is imported into quick booxs.

Hi there, @StillLearningMore. 

Allow me to provide some information about timesheets in QuickBooks Online.

Let's run a report that totals the number of hours worked by a contractor. In that way, you can enter a bill or write them a check for the amount you need to pay them.

 Here's how the report is done:
1. Go to Reports in the left menu, and scroll down to the Employees section.
2. Choose Time Activities by Employee Detail.
3. Enter the date range in the From and To fields.
4. Hit Customize.
5. Find the Filter area, in the Employee drop-down menu, and pick the contractor/vendor.
6. Click on Run Report.
 

To write a check or enter a bill:
1. Use the + New icon, then choose Check or Bill.
2. Enter the appropriate information.
3. Select Save and Close.

You can find further detail about this in our How to pay a subcontractor from time sheet entries article. There's also another helpful resource titled How to turn on and set up time tracking, which relates to all of this as well.

On the other hand, we can utilize the Expenses by Vendor Summary report port to show the total payments to each subcontractor for a specific period. 

Here's how:

1. Go to Reports on the left panel.
2. On the field box, enter Expenses by Vendor Summary.
3. Click the Customize button.
4. Select the date range that you want the report to show.
5. Go to the Filter section.
6. From the Vendor dropdown list, select the names of your subcontractors.
7. Click Run Report.

Feel free to reach out if you have any other questions. I'm just a post away.

Your cut-and-paste answer is totally useless - you should understand the question / problem at hand before blindly providing a rote answer. This is a big shortcoming in Quickbooks, and has been for years.

This doesn't seem to work with my QBO Accountant and Time.  It ONLY lets me track time for Employees and I can't get a contractor to come over from QBO nor can I invite one from Time.  It is really frustrating. 

Everything works until I get to #6 on the Time setup.

Hello there, @lswilburncpa.

I'll join this thread to add another insight concerning timesheets in QuickBooks Online.

We can utilize this feature to keep track of and charge clients for the time spent on a project or activity. However, this feature is unavailable in QuickBooks Online Payroll Core. 

Moreover, once the time tracking is turned on, adjust our time tracking choices by heading to the Gear icon.

Here's how:

1. Go to Settings ⚙ and select Account and settings.
2. Select the Time tab.
3. In the section, you want to make updates, select Edit ✏.
4. Set your time tracking preferences:

• Who tracks time: Select team members to track the time.
  • Turn the switch on for any team members who need time tracked.
  • To allow 1099 contractors to track time, select Show contractors and turn the setting on. Select Save.

If you need to access time tracking reports, see the steps below:

1. Go to Payroll select Time.
2. Select Run Report. 
3. Choose which report you want to run. 

I'm also adding this video tutorial for your guide with time tracking in QuickBooks Online.

Alternatively, set up class tracking for Online Payroll to get a deeper insight into your income, expenses, or profitability for each part of your business. If you need to assign classes to your employees, check out this article: Use Class Tracking in QuickBooks Online.

Please know that we are always here to help you in every step of the way. Have a great day.

This functionality (capturing contractor hours and converting them to a bill) is not a QuickBooks capability. I ran down this rabbit hole from several different directions and always hit a dead end. In my situation I wanted to pay contractors for work they did for my company, not my customers.

Once one discovers all the simple sounding functions that payroll doesn’t do the more you discover  that this is a brain dead over priced stone-age-primitive software component.

I had to resort to 

This thread thankfully helped me get everything taken care of, with a few hiccups. I would like to point out - in order for contractors to show up in Quickbooks Time, you have to go into Time, upper right hand corner and click on "Quickbooks Payroll," and then "Preferences."

In the "Preferences" window, there is a checkbox under "Other Options" that says "Import contractors as team members." You need to check this box, and exit "Preferences."

Go back to Time's main screen, upper right hand corner and click on "Quickbooks Payroll," and then select "Import." This pulls the newly added contractor over into Quickbooks Time. Then from there, click "My Team" on the left side of Time screen, and select "Edit" on the contractor that is now listed as an employee. On the main "Edit" screen for this contractor, select "Invite," and from there you should be good to go! 

I hope this helps. I am not a Quickbooks Expert, nor do I claim to be. This is just how I was able to get my contractor into the Time app. I am using Quickbooks Online/Advanced, Quickbooks Online Payroll Premium, and Quickbooks Time. 

In my attached screenshot, steps 1-4 are shown from left to right (see below)

1             2

3             4

@ChristineJoieR This is literally not even possible. There are no options under the Edit for the Time tab other than Show service field and Allow time to be billable...and first day of the week. That's it. you cannot make the edits you just stated. ALLLLLLLLLL of the QuickBooks employees who have posted on this thread have had Absolutely USELESS comments. Geesh