Does anyone know how to get rid of billable charges/unbilled charges without turning them into income? We switched from desktop to online so there is years of billables.

Hello, @whitneys4211.

You can remove these unbilled charges all at once. I can guide you on how to do it. 

1. Go to https://qbo.intuit.com/app/managebillableexpense.
2. Log in to using your QuickBooks Online username and password.
3. Enter the date you converted your company file.
4. Click the Save button

Once completed, the system will hide any unbilled expenses created before the date you entered and mark them as Closed. You can read through this article for more step-by-step instructions: How to remove a billable expense charge.

Also, you can check this article to know more information about the data that doesn't convert when you migrate your company file: What to expect when you switch from QuickBooks Desktop to QuickBooks Online.

Get back to us here if you have other questions about managing your transactions. I'm always here to help.

Thank you for your response, 

I have 2 companies that I use on Quickbooks. The first company I tried to do it that way as far as mass deletion and it worked but my second company will not allow me to do it that way. Would I then have to do it one by one? Also how does that stop them from becoming income? 

Thanks for coming back for more support, @whitneys4211. 

As an additional insight, billable expenses are reimbursable from your customer by way of billing. They will show up as an expense on your books when marking bills, checks, expenses as billable. Then, show as income when invoiced.

Hence, the only way you can stop them from becoming an income is to un-apply them to the invoice. 

Additionally, you can turn off the billable setting to stop it. However, existing billable expenses will remain until applied to an invoice or unchecked as a billable expense.

Here's how to turn off the billable expense:

1. Go to the Settings menu. 
2. Select Account and Settings, then Expenses.
3. Under the Bills and expenses tab, click on the pencil icon.
4. Uncheck the box to Track billable expenses and items as income.
5. Click Save.

Yes, you may delete it one by one if it doesn't allow you to do the mass deletion. By the way, can you please tell me the version of your other account? This way, I can guide you to the right steps in removing them. 

For future reference, read through this article: Delete customer with unbilled charges. It helps you manage your customer's billable expenses. 

Let me know if there's anything else that you need. I'm always around to help. 

Hi Katherine, 

Both of our companies are in the Online version but we did switch over from Desktop in June of this year. Some of these billable invoices have been reconciled already and are from as early as 2003 would we need to do a journal entry for these ones?

Thanks for getting back here, @whitneys4211.

You can go into the transactions and unmark the Billable box to each of the billable expenses. Changing them from billable to nonbillable won't affect the reconciliation unless the amounts are changed. To do so, please refer to the steps below:

1. From the left menu, select Sales.
2. Click Unbilled Activity.
3. Choose the name of the customer the charge was marked billable to.
4. In the Transaction List, look for the billable expense charge you need to correct.
5. Pick Expense (or Check) at the top. This redirects users to the specific transaction marked as billable.
6. Find the items you marked as billable.
7. Uncheck the box in the Billable column.
   Note: For billable checks, you need to select the Check link at the top to open the transaction.
8. Hit Save and close.

Here's the article that will give you more info about the process: Remove a billable expense charge.

The other way is to create an invoice and add all the billable transactions with zero amounts. Please see Step 3 of this link for guide: Enter billable expenses. 

You might want to read this article to learn how to automatically invoice your customers for unbilled time activities: Auto-invoicing for unbilled activities. 

Should you need help with billable charges/expenses in QBO, please let me know by leaving a comment below. I'd be around to help. Have a good one.
 

I dont see the box 

Hi there, teresal1.

I'm here to give more details about removing the billable charges in QuickBooks Online(QBO).

Have you been on the Billable Expense page? If so, you'll have to click the Check or Expenses link to open the transaction.

From there, you have the option to uncheck the box in the Billable column.

If still unable to see the option, let's perform troubleshooting steps to fix it. It's probably the accummolated internet files that may have caused this unexpected behavior. You can log in to your account using an incognito window. These are the shortcut keys:

• Ctrl + Shift + N for Google Chrome
• Ctrl + Shift + P for Firefox & Microsoft Edge
• Command + Shift + N for Safari

If it looks okay, go back to your regular browser and then clear its cache to remove stored internet files. Alternatively, you can also use other supported browsers to isolate much further.

You can check this helpful resource for detailed steps: How to remove a billable expense charge.

For more insight, please review this article: Delete customer with unbilled charges. Here you can find the steps to remove customers with unbilled charges.

If you need further assistance with the billable expense. Please leave a comment below, and I'll get back as soon as possible to help you.

It is impossible for unbilled billable charges to be classified as income UNTIL they are added to a customer invoice.  And then it is only accrual income until paid. If you are cash basis outstanding invoices are not yet counted as income.

One method to.get rid of billable expenses is to.add them.to an invoice, save,, and then either change amounts to zero or delete/void the invoice. Once a billable expense is saved.on an invoice it is no longer unbilled. Conversely if you add a billable expense to an invoice and edit it other than price it will remain as.unbilled (at least in desktop version)

The desktop version also has an option to hide billable expenses during the process of adding them to an invoice. Each charge can be checked off to be hidden.

If your billable charges are automatically being added to invoices without any definite intervention then you can change that setting from the gear icon.

Go to YouTube and search "Get Rid of Unwanted Billable Expenses in Batch Trick in Quickbooks Online."  It took me about 2 minutes to "close" 5k of billable expenses.  Lifesaver.

I watched the video and did as it said, but when I hit save, it told me that my account has been deleted!

Thanks for joining us here in the thread, @Rita777.

In QuickBooks Online, you can't delete an account in the COA if it contains a transaction. The account's status is changed to inactive only. When this happens, you'll no longer see it in your COA. I'll show you how to make accounts active in QBO.

1. Open your QuickBooks Online account.
2. On the left navigational bar, navigate to the Accounting tab.
3. Select Chart of Accounts.
4. Above the View register, you'll see 3 icons. The Pencil icon, Print icon and lastly the Gear icon.
5. Click the Gear icon.
6. You'll see boxes that are marked with check. Below the Columns section, you'll see the Other section. Check the box for Include inactive.

For visual reference, you can refer on the screenshot below.

By doing this, you'll be able to view those accounts that you've accidentally changed the status to inactive.

For more information about this, you can refer to this page.

I'll be adding this article to help you manage your accounts in QuickBooks Online.

You are always welcome to post here in the Community if you need help with your QuickBooks-related concern. We'll be more than happy to assist you. Keep safe and enjoy your Weekend!

When I followed the instructions and entered the date, I got this message 'The account you are trying to use has been deleted', which is not true. 

What do I need to do? 

I have 270 unbilled activities, that showed up after we converted from Desktop to online, going back to 2011

Welcome to this conversation, @IMLL. I appreciate you following the steps to inactivate an account shared by my colleague above

There are times that your browser stores frequently accessed data, thus causing websites, like QuickBooks Online (QBO), to act weirdly. Let's try logging in to your QBO account using a private window. This helps the browser to load faster as it doesn't store any file history. 

Here are the keyboard shortcuts: 

• Safari: Command + Shift + N 
• Google Chrome: CTRL + Shift + N
• Mozilla Firefox or Microsoft Edge: CTRL + Shift + P 

Once done, go back and check the accounts again. If this works, it means that you need to clear the browser's cache so the system can start fresh. 

Otherwise, I'd also recommend using different browsers. They'll provide you with the best and most secure experience with QuickBooks. For more details, see this article: System Requirements For QuickBooks.

The following resources are good references to learn more in managing and organizing your chart of accounts:

• Manage default and special accounts in your chart of accounts
• Make an account inactive on your chart of accounts in QuickBooks Online
• Learn about the chart of accounts in QuickBooks Online

My doors are always open to help if you have any other concerns or if you meant something else. Just let me know through the reply section below. Thanks for coming and stay safe, @IMLL.

hi Rita777, were you able to resolve your situation? I am dealing with the same issue and no one can help so far. 

Do you know if all related COA#s need to be active, in order to "batch clear" unbilled activity?  We're trying to clean up almost 5,000 unbilled items.  We were concerned about how much time it might take so thought we'd try to break it into batches.  We first used a date of 12/31/12 and cleared almost half of the unbilled items, in just a few minutes!  YAY!  However, when I try to do another batch, we see this message "You must also click save again to make this change that is prior to the closing date".  It doesn't matter how many times I click save again, I can't seem to get past this message.  Any insights are greatly appreciated!  Thank you!

Managing your unbilled activities in QuickBooks Online (QBO) is my priority, @Jmitzel. That's why I'm here to work with you to resolve the error you've encountered while executing the process.

There isn't a need for an account in your chart of accounts to be active to view unbilled activity in QBO. You'll have to include all the inactive ones so you can see them on your list and then clear unbilled activity by batch. Please see the screenshot below for your reference. 

Then based on the error you have, it seems that you've entered a date in the Closing date field in your Accounting preferences. To continue cleaning up your unbilled item, you can temporarily remove this and turn off the Close the books function. Here's how:

1. Go to the Gear icon.
2. Select Account and settings.
3. Choose the Advanced menu.
4. Click the Accounting section to view its details.
5. Remove the Closing date and disable the Close the books feature.
6. Select Save. 

Also, to get familiar with the chart of accounts and how you can find transactions in your account registers so you can review or edit them, I'd recommend checking out these articles: 

• Learn about the chart of accounts in QuickBooks Online
• Find, review, and edit transactions in account registers

Please keep me posted in the comments if you have other concerns about managing unbilled activities in QBO. I'll gladly help. Take care, and I wish you continued success, @Jmitzel.

Thanks!  That helped!  We are now down to 169 items for total of $191k.  Here's our latest error message: "The account you are trying to use has been deleted".  What is our next step?  Your insights are greatly appreciated!

Thank you for your speedy response, @Jmitzel. I can show you how to reactivate an inactive account QuickBooks Online.

Follow these steps how you can recover an account in QuickBooks Online.

1. Go to the Gear icon, then choose Chart of accounts.
2. Next to the printer symbol, select the Gear icon. Then choose Include inactive from the drop-down menu.
3. Select Make active when you've found the account you wish to use again.

You can learn more about this process by reading this article: What Happens When An Account Becomes Inactive.

Furthermore, you can consult with your accountant to ensure that you are using the correct account for your books. Simply go to this link, type in your location, then click the Find a ProAdvisor button.

If you need anything, I'm always just a fast post away. I wish you an enjoyable day.

I tried managebillableexpense but the app just keeps circling, never giving me the option to enter a date.  Is a batch option still available for removing billable expenses in QB Online Plus?

Hi there, Kakeough. Thanks for joining the thread.

I appreciate you sharing the result when trying to remove unbilled charges all at once.

If you're using QuickBooks Online (QBO) Plus or Advanced, the billable expenses feature should be available. Since you're using the QBO Plus version and the page qbo.intuit.com/app/managebillableexpense is unaccessible, I recommend contacting our Customer Care Team. They can perform a screen-sharing session to look for the root cause of the issue and help you apply a permanent fix.

To reach them, click the ? Help button at the top-right corner and select Contact Us to talk with a live agent. Ensure to review their support hours to know when agents are available.

To learn more about hiding unbilled expenses in QBO, see this article: Delete customer with unbilled charges.

In case you need some related articles in managing your account, you'll want to consider visiting our Community Help Articles hub. 

Don't hesitate to let me know if there's anything else I can do to help. I want to make sure you're taken care of.

I am having the same issue with the green spinning circle. 

Thanks for joining this thread, nickaccountedco.

Since your webpage isn't loading properly, I'd recommend checking your browser. It's possible this could have something to do with temporary internet files. Browsing applications store these types of records, but sometimes they can cause issues with certain webpages. You can open a private window and check to see if your autofill feature's working.

Here's how to access incognito mode in some of the most commonly used web browsers:

• Google Chrome: Ctrl + Shift + N
• Mozilla Firefox: Ctrl + Shift + P
• Microsoft Edge: Ctrl + Shift + P
• Safari: Command + Option + P

If your page loads while browsing privately, it's safe to say this problem's being caused by your browser. It can be fixed by clearing cached data and Intuit-specific cookies.

In the event it continues occurring while using incognito, you'll initially want to try switching to another browsing application.

Here's a list of supported browsers:

• Google Chrome
• Mozilla Firefox
• Microsoft Edge
• Safari 11 or newer

You can also check a browser's compatibility with your books by utilizing our browser health checkup tool. QuickBooks supports the current and two previous versions of browsers. If you find that you're using an older version, make sure to update it to its latest release. Steps for doing so can be found on the particular company's website.

In the event you've found no problems that could be causing this with your browser, I'd recommend using a different device and/or internet connection. If it continues happening on other devices and/or internet connections, you'll want to get in touch with our Customer Care team. They'll be able to pull up your account in a secure environment, conduct further research, and create an investigation ticket if necessary.

They can be reached while you're signed in:

1. Use the Help (?) icon.
   
2. Click Contact Us.
   
3. Enter a description of your situation in the What can we help you with? field, then hit Let's talk.
   
4. Select Start messaging or Get a call.
   

Be sure to review their support hours so you'll know when agents are available.

I've also included a detailed resource about system requirements for QuickBooks that may come in handy moving forward: System requirements

If there's any questions, I'm just a post away. Have an awesome day!

Thanks! Sadly, I have tried 3 different browsers and also tried guest / icognito on those browsers with the same outcome of the green circle continuing to spin. 

Let's make sure you'll be able to fix the charges issue, nickaccountedco.

Since you've already performed the troubleshooting steps to different browsers, and yet it's still showing in the green circle, I recommend reaching out to our support team so they can investigate this further. This way, they'll be able to check on what's happening and how many users are affected by this issue. You can follow the steps provided by my colleague @ZackE on how to contact our phone support team.  They are available from Mondays to Fridays from 6 AM to 6 PM, and Saturdays from 6 AM to 3 PM  Pacific Time.

Furthermore, entering income and expenses gives you a complete picture of your business and profit. I've added this article for your reference: Enter and Manage Expenses in QuickBooks Online. 

Feel free to let me know if you need anything else about billable charges. The Community is always here for you 24/7.