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March 30, 2022
Question

Billable Expenses

  • March 30, 2022
  • 14 replies
  • 66 views

Just moved over to Quickbooks online.  I'm a Sole Proprietor who mainly uses Quickbooks to track income and expenses, invoice and track payments, banking and to run general reports for my account at tax time.  So, I signed up at the Simple Start level, which I would assume all Sole Proprietors and real small business would do.  Mostly, it seemed like the right fit until I hit Billable Expenses.

 

Why are Billable Expenses not included at the Simple Start level?  They are clearly a function of Invoicing which is clearly part of Simple Start.  

14 replies

Moderator
March 30, 2022

Welcome back to the Community, RyanC3PO.
 

I can certainly understand how an ability to work with billable expenses in a Simple Start subscription could be useful and have submitted a suggestion about it as of today.
 

You can also submit your own feature requests while signed in.
 

Here's how:

  1. Use the Gear (⚙️) icon.
  2. Click Feedback.
  3. Enter your suggestions and/or comments.
  4. Hit Next.
  5. Choose Skip and send message.
  6. The available drop-down menu can be used to pick an appropriate category.
  7. Select Send message.


Your feedback's definitely valuable to Intuit. It will be reviewed by our Product Development team and considered in future updates. You can stay up-to-date with the latest news about your product by reviewing Intuit's Product Updates webpage.
 

As a workaround, you have an option to upgrade whenever you'd like. Our Plus and Advanced subscription levels both include a feature for billable expenses.
 

Please feel welcome to send a reply if there's any additional questions. Have a lovely day!

RyanC3POAuthor
March 30, 2022

Hey Zach. Thanks so much for the response. Just curious. Do you know what the thinking is in adding billable expenses at the Plus level?  Per the website, the Plus level increase users to 5, adds inventory tracking and adds tracking project profitability. Billable expenses don’t fit in any of those categories.

 

The work around adds a lot of steps, and just upgrading for that feature is not in my budget.  Really feels like small business aren’t really be considered. 

 

I filled out a feature request but doubt it will get much attention there.

 

Honestly I was hoping to generate some discussion here but I don’t know how many small business owners have time to be on here for general discussion.


 

February 11, 2024

Did you not read my reply?  I acknowledged that it wasn’t offered at the Simple Start level and stated that it wasn’t in my budget to upgrade to the Plus level. That would be almost $700. 
I’m a sole proprietor just trying to get by. Plus is designed for bigger companies with multiple users. 

 

Is this not a community forum? Is it not OK to ask questions about that product and what others think?

 

To me it doesn’t make any sense for Billable Expenses not tied to invoicing. Billable expenses don’t have any other purpose. And, invoicing is clearly part of the Simple Start level.

 

I was hoping to to generate some discussion and possibly hear what other sole proprietor and small businesses are doing.


Ryan,

 

I'm a couple years late to this conversation, but I appreciate your inquiry because it's the same issue I've been struggling with as a small business bookkeeper. I completely agree with your stance on the issue of the necessity of being able to make expenses billable on the intro-level QB online. I have felt very frustrated in not being able to use the Billable feature and serve my customers better in this area. I consider it a must have, and a very base action at the core, when it comes to bookkeeping and tracking. Small businesses are not being represented in this specific area. Like you said, it doesn't fit the budget of a small businesses to upgrade in order to be able to use only one additional feature. A feature that would cut back on the hassle with much finagling on our end, in order to make the info that we need represented correctly fit into the program.

March 8, 2025

I created this Billable Expenses T-Sheet workflow for Simple Start users.  Hopefully it's helpful to someone.