Question

Billable Expenses In Simple Start

Forum|Forum|4 years ago
April 2, 2022
14 replies
71 views

Hello. If my limited accounting knowledge is correct, Billable Expenses can only be categorized as "Income and Expense" or "Invoicing or Payments" within QuickBooks. Both of those categories are fully included in Quickbooks Online Simple Start. So, how can that feature not be included in Simple Start? Someone please help me understand.

QuickBooks Online

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ReymondO

Moderator

Good day, @RyanC3PO.

Let me share with you some insights about the Chart of Accounts in QuickBooks Online.

Before we proceed, can you verify with me if you're referring to the Billable Expense Income account in QuickBooks?

If so, this account is one of the default accounts in the program. This is categorized as Income in Account Type and Sales of Product Income in Detail Type.

If you're trying to create a new account for Billable Expenses, then you can freely select its account type and detail type. To ensure everything is properly set up, reach out to your accountant for further guidance.

In case you're referring to categorizing Billable Expenses as income and expense, then this option isn't available. You can't use both of these categories as an account type.

You can use an Income account for transactions and payments you get from your normal day-to-day business, such as sales revenue or income for services rendered. On the other hand, use the Expenses account to track transactions of money you spend on expenses related to normal business operations. Examples are advertising and promotion, office supplies, and rent.

For more details, you can refer to this article: What the chart of accounts is and why it’s important to set up correctly in QuickBooks Online.

To find out how to use account types and detail types in your chart of accounts, you can check it out here: Learn about account types and detail types in QBO.

If you're referring to something else, feel free to add them on this thread. I'll be more than happy to help you out, @RyanC3PO. Have a good one.

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RyanC3POAuthor

Thanks for the reply. Not sure I follow your response but those examples don’t seem to explain what I’m referring to. I’m asking about a company cost that will be billed to customer on a invoice. For example, I purchase a thingamabob to complete a task for a customer. When entering my expense for that item, I mark that expense as billable. Then when creating an invoice for that work, I see the billable expenses I have marked for that job and include that in the new invoice. So, I’m referring to action of marking the expense billable and then being able to see that expense when doing an invoice. Hope that clarifies my question. Thanks.

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lookoutforchris

Hello, PabloT.

I understand you are trying to create billable expenses in QuickBooks Simple Start. However, I regret to inform you that this feature is unavailable in the Simple Start product. You cannot associate expenses with specific customers or projects and mark them as billable in Simple Start, as this is a product limitation. However, other QuickBooks versions, such as Essentials, Plus, and Advanced, offer this functionality. If you need to manage billable expenses, consider upgrading to one of these editions or exploring other options.

To upgrade your subscription, here's how:

Sign in to QuickBooks Online as a primary or company admin.
Select Gear icon.
Under Profile and choose the Subscriptions & billing tab.
Make sure your payment info is up to date.
In the QuickBooks Online section, select Upgrade your plan.
Review the available plans and then select Choose plan for Essentials.
Follow the on-screen steps to upgrade your plan.

You can also check for third-party apps that sync with QuickBooks Simple Start by visiting the QuickBooks App Store. This platform offers a wide range of apps that integrate with QuickBooks and help you manage various aspects of your business. You can browse the app store by category, such as billable expenses, invoicing, time tracking, inventory management, etc. Choose the app that best suits your business needs, follow the instructions to set it up, and start syncing data with QuickBooks Simple Start.

You're always welcome to reply to this thread if you have other questions or concerns about billable expenses or your subscription. Take care and have a nice day ahead.

Thanks for the info. This has convinced me to close my QuickBooks Simply Start account. Billing an expense to a customer through an invoice is so basic that it is shocking QB does not allow this. It wants me to pay more than 3x what I'm paying to get an accounting features that has been available in basic desktop computing software since the late 1970s. It is absurd to take such a critical feature and push it into a package meant for a medium sized business with 5 plus users. 5 plus Quickbooks users is a 100+ person business. You clearly do not want free lancers and consultants or small engineering or law firms as your customers so I'm leaving. Embarrassing trash lol. And before you reply I know you don't work for Quickbooks, I'm using the royal "you".

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lookoutforchris

Thanks for this helpful post. From reading it I can see there are no options except to cancel Quickbooks. I'm buying a copy of Peachtree accounting 2006 on eBay. Not being able to invoice an expense makes Quickbooks not only worthless but behind even late 1970s desktop accounting software. It's not a sinking ship anymore, it's sunk. Everyone I know is leaving, it just doesn't work in the real world.

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