How do I unmark Billable Expenses in bulk in QB Online Plus?

I'm glad to see you in the Community, intelm.

I appreciate you taking the initial steps in trying to unmark the billable expenses. The result will help us determine how to fix the issue.

The ability to uncheck the billable box in bulk is currently unavailable. In QuickBooks Online (QBO), you'll need to open the transaction and perform the actions one at a time.

When you go through this process, you'll get messages like "The transaction you are editing is linked to others. Are you sure you want to modify it?" and "Something's not quite right. This transaction is linked to an invoice. Saving this transaction would make the invoice no longer valid. In order to make this change, edit the invoice first, remove this transaction from it and remake this change."

Here's how to remove a billable expense:

1. In your company, head to the Sales menu on the left panel ad choose All Sales to open the Sales Transactions page.
2. Look for the name of the customer the charge was marked billable to and click on it to display the Billable Expense screen.
3. From there, tap the Bill link to view the transaction details.
4. On the Bill page, head to the Billable column and uncheck the box.
5. Click Save and Yes to confirm the action.

Follow the instructions displayed to complete the process: "Something's not quite right. This transaction is linked to an invoice. Saving this transaction would make the invoice no longer valid. In order to make this change, edit the invoice first, remove this transaction from it and remake this change."

To learn more about removing a billable expense charge, go here. Feel free to browse our online resources for topics and related articles on how to properly manage your expenses, bills, money-out payments, and other vendor transactions.

Post a comment below if there is anything else I can do to help you with QuickBooks or other vendor-related tasks. I'll be back to assist you further. Have a safe and enjoyable day.

I followed the above steps.  However, I do not have a "Billable" column to "uncheck".  I do have Admin privileges.

Hi there, 

I'd like to know more about your concerns so I can help you resolve them. I'd appreciate it if you could confirm which account you're using. Is it QBO Plus? Can you also please share a screenshot so we can get on the same page.

Know that any additional information will help us provide an accurate troubleshooting for you. I'll be on the lookout for your response. Take care.

Thanks! Using the manage billable expense link resolved my issue.

Hey there, @intelm. 

You're welcome! 

I'm so glad my colleague was able to give you some information to help resolve your issue. 

Don't hesitate to come back if you have any other questions. Wishing you and your business continued success! 

When I go to the link provided, I am at the log in screen for QBO.  I select the company that I want to use and am taken to the dashboard.  What am I supposed to be seeing to enter a beginning date?

What I did was to login to QBO before clicking the link. You can also login to QBO, and then copy and paste the link into the adjacent tab. 

I logged into QBO and clicked the link.  I did receive the screen to put in a date which I entered.  Then I received this message:  This account has been deleted.

Thanks for getting back to us, Judy.

As per checking, there's an ongoing investigation (INV-78672) about the manage billable expenses tool encountering the same error. Rest assured that our engineers are working hard to address this issue and come up with a solution.

In the meantime, I'd recommend reaching out to our customer support team, so you'll be added to the list of impacted users. This way, you can receive status updates on the investigation via email. 

To do that:

1. Go to the Help icon and select the Search tab.
2. Click Contact Us.
3. Provide a short description of your concern and select Continue.
4. Choose between Chat with us or Have us call you.

In addition, QBO offers a wide range of reports that give you an overview of many aspects of your business, such as your sales and expenses.

Let me know if there's anything I can help you with about managing your billable expenses in QBO. We're available anytime to assist you further. Take care, and have a good one!

Came across this problem too, and the issue pertains to the billable expense being tied to an expense account/bank account that was made inactive. I reactivated the account, tried again, and it worked...now i'll go back and make that account inactive again  

Hope that helps you or someone else in the future. 

Has this (INV-78672) been resolved yet? I was with a client today and I was getting the same error message about the transaction being deleted. It seems like I can only do one month at a time instead of doing them all. 

Yes, the mentioned INV has already been tagged as resolved, @Go Get Geek. Rest assured, we're here to assist you with this concern.

Please know that the error message is working as designed. It indicates there's an inactive account associated with each billable expense transaction. I recommend ensuring that all your accounts in your Charts of Accounts where the transactions are recorded are active and using the Hide unbilled expenses tool again.

Also, there are things that you have to keep in mind while using this tool:

1. The tool will not fix billable expenses that are dated before the start date of the inventory item tied to that transaction.
2. Change the date period of the tool to reduce the number of transactions it is touching.
3. The Manage Billable Expense tool won't correct time charges.

However, if you still encounter the same error, I recommend running the Unbilled Charges report and editing each transaction individually. You can follow these steps:

1. Go to the Reports.
2. On the Seach Tab, type Unbilled Charges report.
3. Filter the Date.
4. Edit each transaction individually.

If the issue persists, I recommend contacting our QuickBooks Online support team for further investigation.

Moreover, you can check out this article to help you track bills and record the payments in QuickBooks: Enter and manage bills and bill payments in QuickBooks Online.

Feel free to reach out here if you have more questions or concerns related to transactions in QuickBooks Online. We're always here to help. Have a good one.

I am also getting the error message that the account has been deleted.  Please advise.

I converted from desktop and QBO marked all the job expenses as billable.  Since all my old jobs now have all these unbilled expenses, I am unable to inactivate them.  There are thousands of them.  I don't have the time, resources or patience to manually uncheck the billable expense box.  All these transactions are polluting my customer module.  There must be a solution for this.  Any help is appreciated.

Thank you!

I just reactivated ALL closed (deleted) customers and sub-customers and still get the same error - 

I am trying to use this link to hide all my unbilled expenses but I keep getting different errors. It says the transaction has already been deleted, it says me and myself are working on this at the same time, or it says another user has deleted this transaction. There are thousands of items marked billable that shouldn't be. Is there any other way to do this other than doing them one by one? 

Dealing with common errors when trying to hide unbilled expenses can be challenging. I'm here to provide straightforward solutions to help you through this, Ziggy.

Please know that the error message is working as designed. The error occurs when the transactions are linked to an inactive account in the Chart of Accounts. Let's reactivate all the accounts and hide the unbilled expenses tool again.

Here's how: 

1. Go to the Gear icon and choose Chart of Accounts.
2. Click the Gear icon next to the printer icon. Then, select Include inactive.
3. Locate the account associated with your expense transactions, then tap Make Active.

If the issue persists, I recommend running the Unbilled Charges report and editing each transaction individually. You can follow these steps:

1. Go to the Reports.
2. On the Search Tab, type Unbilled Charges report.
3. Filter the Date.
4. Edit each transaction individually.

Moreover, you can check out this article to help you track bills and record the payments in QuickBooks: Enter and manage bills and bill payments in QuickBooks Online.

We're always here in the Community to help if you have other questions about managing unbilled expenses. I'll be here to answer them for you. Keep safe.

I have reactivated all inactive accounts in chart of accounts but am still getting an error of "You and myself were working on this at the same time. Myself finished before you did, so your work was not saved." I then had a coworker try and they got the same error. I have logged out and back in and continue to get that error and no others. Is our only option to do them one by one? 3 people have now spent 3 days straight working on it and have pretty much gotten nowhere. The boss is not happy with the amount of time we are having to put into fixing this problem.

I appreciate your reply, @Ziggy516.

I understand that it would be helpful for you to unmark billable expenses in bulk in QuickBooks Online seamlessly. However, this feature is not currently available. Let me provide you with additional information on this.

It's also likely that the browser cache has been stored for a long period, which may be causing the browser to behave strangely. In the meantime, I recommend performing some basic troubleshooting steps to determine if this is a browser-related issue. To resolve this, I suggest opening your account in an incognito window. Here are some keyboard shortcuts you can use:

• For Google Chrome browser: Ctrl + Shift + N
• For Mozilla Firefox browser: Ctrl + Shift + P
• For Safari browser: Command + Shift + N

Once resolved, please return to your regular browser to clear its cache or utilize another supported one.

However, as the issue seems to have persisted, I recommend contacting our Customer Support Team. They can investigate the issue further and create a ticket for the investigation if other users are also experiencing the same problem. I will assist you with the process, and we will work together to resolve this issue as soon as possible:

1. Access your QuickBooks Online (QBO) company, go to Help (?).
2. Choose either of these tabs:

• Assistant tab and type Talk to a human.
• Search tab and click on Contact Us to connect with a support expert.

3. Select the preferred method of contact (phone or chat).

Moreover, you can check this article to learn how to track bills and record payments in QBO: Enter and manage bills and bill payments in QuickBooks Online.

You can also, learn how to run basic reports in QuickBooks which provide a comprehensive overview of your business, offering insights into various aspects of your operations.

Thank you for using QuickBooks, and we appreciate your business. If you have any more questions or need assistance with managing your billable expenses in QBO please feel free to reach out to us, @Ziggy516.

The solution above was working for me just fine yesterday, but then I started getting an error message stating:

Something's not quite right!

The account has been deleted.

Attaching a screenshot. Not sure which support team to contact to get help with this technical issue. Any suggestions? Just spent 1.75 hours on phone with Priority Circle, but to no avail!

We know how valuable your time is, MK_APWC. Please know that it's not our intention to keep you on the phone for extended periods. This falls short of the efficient and helpful service we strive to provide to all our customers.

I also appreciate the screenshot of the error message when trying to delete a billable expense. This helps us grasp the actual situation and ensure we provide you with the most appropriate solution.

Before we proceed, I'd like to confirm whether the expense account in question has been temporarily activated. If not, activating it temporarily will resolve the issue by allowing the system to delete the transaction.

Let me show you how: 

1. Open your Chart of Accounts.
2. Click the Gear icon next to the printer icon. Then, select Include inactive.
3. Look for the account associated with your expense transactions, then click Make Active.

After that, go back to the expense transaction and delete it again.

With regards to which support team to reach out to, it's under the scope of our phone or chat support teams for QuickBooks Online. They can review the notes from your previous call and provide more in-depth troubleshooting to resolve the issue.

Let me share these steps on how to reach out to them in case you're still getting the same error even if the accounts are already made active:

1. Click the Help menu in the upper-right-hand corner of QBO.
2. Proceed to the Assistant tab.
3. Type in "contact support" in the chat box and press Enter.
4. Select QuickBooks Online Support, then click Contact Us at the bottom of the screen.
5. Click Ask about something else, then enter a short description of your concern.
6. Choose between Chat or Have us call you.

Finally, I'd like to share these articles as additional resources when using the Billable Expense feature:

• Invoice customers for project expenses in QuickBooks Online
• Delete customer with unbilled charges in QuickBooks Online

These articles offer valuable insights and step-by-step guidance to enhance your expense tracking and billing processes.

We truly appreciate your patience and persistence throughout this process. Please don't hesitate to reach out to us again if you need further assistance when billing clients or managing expense-related transactions. We're here to help ensure that your QuickBooks experience is as smooth as possible.