I need the "track billable expenses by customer for invoicing" option just to track expenses by property but only have the Simple Start plan. Anyone have a work-around?

Hello there, @jawoodjr, 

Recording billable expenses helps you manage the costs associated with your sales transactions. This is currently available in the Plus and Advanced versions. 

As an alternative, you'll want to consider our higher versions so you can track billable expenses on the invoices. You can visit this website: QuickBooks Online (QBO) Plans. It lets you view the comparison and pricing chart between the online versions of QuickBooks. Once you've chosen the right plan for you, you can upgrade your subscription.

After that, you can enable the billable expense feature in the settings. Let me guide you how. 

1. Go to the Settings (Gear) icon at the upper right. 
2. Select Account and Settings under Your Company. 
3. Go to Expenses from the left menu. 
4. Choose the Bills and expenses section.
5. Check these three boxes: Show Items table on expense and purchase forms, Track expenses and items by customer, Make expenses and items billable. 
6. Click Save. 
7. Choose Done. 

The screenshot below shows you the five steps. Then, create a billable expense and add it to your invoices. For detailed steps on how to perform this action, go through this article: Enter Billable Expenses. 

You can always run the Unbilled Charges report to show your billable expense charges you haven't invoiced yet. Just go to Reports from the left menu. Then, enter Uninvoiced Charges in the Search box to pull up the report. 

I'll be right here to help if you need anything else. Have a good day, @jawoodjr. 

Thank you so much for the reply! I'm terribly sorry though as I already knew it was available in the upgraded versions (was character limited in my original question so I didn't expound on the whys). Basically, my CPA runs a report once a year, so was there a way to do this w/out upgrading? I don't send invoices, or do anything fancy, it's basically a glorified version of my spreadsheet (I don't mean any offense to real users or accountants btw).

Our company has the Essential plan and still do not have this option.  Does this mean I have to upgrade another level to get this?

Thanks for joining this thread, @MIM2. 

Yes, you'll have to upgrade from Essentials to another level to get the said option. Please take note that this process allows you to go to the next plan, which is Plus, before subscribing to Advanced. I'll guide you how. 

1. Go to the Gear (⚙) icon at the upper right and choose Account and Settings under Your Company.
2. Select Billing & Subscription.
3. In the QuickBooks Essentials section, click Upgrade your plan. 
4. The Upgrade window opens. Click Choose Plan under the Plus section.  
5. Confirm your payment information and choose Save.

The screenshot below shows you the second to third steps. For the detailed instructions, check out this article: Upgrading QuickBooks Online (QBO) Subscription. 

Once done, you can now enable the said feature in the settings to record billable expenses in QBO. 

In case you want to remove a billable expense charge, you can perform this one at a time or by batch. For more information, refer to this link: Hide Unbilled Expenses. 

Please let me know if you need anything else. Keep safe always.