How do you apply specific expenses to a certain customer so it shows on the profit and loss by customer? Right now it's in the Not Specified column.

I have all the information you need to apply the expenses to a customer in QuickBooks Online, Brent.

To apply specific expenses to a certain customer and have them show on the Profit and Loss by Customer report, you can follow these steps:

1. Go to the Expenses menu and select Expenses.
2. Locate the expense you want to assign to a customer and click on it to open the details.
3. In the Category column, select the appropriate expense account.
4. In the Customer/Project column, choose the customer you want to associate the expense with.
5. Click Save and close.

By following the steps, it will no longer appear in the Not Specified column. Instead, it will be categorized under the respective customer in the Profit and Loss by Customer report. 

In addition, here are some articles that will help you in managing your reports in QBO: 

• How to customize reports in QuickBooks. 
• How to memorize reports in QBO.

Please notify me in the comment section below if you have follow-up questions about handling reports in your account. I'm just a few clicks away to help you again. Have a good one!

Thank you.  Follow up question.  I followed your steps, but when I get to the Expense Detail screen, I do not have the Customer/Project column.  Is there a way to add this?

I can see you need to manage your projects, @brent. I'll guide you and give you more insights about this concern in QuickBooks Online.

QuickBooks Online offers a feature called Projects that allows you to track the profitability of your projects. With Projects, you can easily add project income, expenses, and labor costs all in one place. It helps you keep track of your project's financials and analyze its profitability.

Furthermore, QuickBooks Online provides a project-specific dashboard where you can view all the relevant information about your projects.

If you are using QuickBooks Online Plus, Advanced, and Accountant, here are the steps to take to create a new project:

1. Go to Business Overview and select Projects.
2. Pick a New project.
3. In the Project name field, enter the project name.
4. Choose the project customer from the Customer ▼ dropdown.
5. Add any notes or details about the project in Notes.

Additionally, you can visit this article for your handbook on how to manage your projects: 

• Create and manage projects in QuickBooks Online.
• Track hourly labor costs and profitability by project in QuickBooks Online.

I'm just a few clicks away if there's anything else I can help manage your expenses. I'll ensure you're all set. I wish you all the best in everything that you do.

For some reason during my last update to quickbooks online - this feature has been removed.  After spending about 4 hours on the phone with Tech as well as the Billing Staff there seems to be confusion and seems that you have to have a more advanced "Plan" of Quickbooks online in order to do this, even though I have done this for the past two years with the Basic Plan.  Does anyone else have this issue?  I do not want Billable expenses, but simply assign expenses to a customer so we can run a profit and loss by customer.

I can see that you were able to that on the QuickBooks Online (QBO) Simple Start plan last time, Tim. I'd like to provide additional information about the new updates and in recording your customers to expenses in QBO.

The feature you need is no longer available on your current plan, you might consider upgrading to a higher plan that supports these features. However, if you wish not to upgrade, you can consider creating a check or expense transaction for you to assign expenses to your customers.

Here's how:

1. Go to the +New button and click the Expense or Check transaction.
2. Select the customer under the Add customer dropdown.
3. Under Payment account, enter the account where you want to take the payment to.
4. Enter all the necessary information.
5. Hit Save and close.

Additionally, you can customize your reports at any time and how to get the most of your report.
 

Get back to this post if you still need help about recording billable expense. I'll be right here to help. 

Is this no longer available in the Basic Plan?  What is the use of quickbooks?  One could use a spreadsheet and do what the quickbook basic plan does.  I can do this in quicken which is much cheaper?  We are a small company and the Plus plan is to expensive.  I have been using this so I can see the profit and loss based upon customer - but can not longer do this.  Maybe time the change to another software?  I have been using this for the past two years but now I can not.

The issue, that I keep trying to get support on, is that the "Add New Customer" drop down is not showing up on my end.  I have spent hours with support.  I am just trying to assign an expense to a customer - not trying to bill it to the customer.  Here is a screen shot of what I see when I hit New - Expense.  As you can see there is NO "add new customer" drop down.

We appreciate the screenshot you've shared, Tim. I'm here to provide further details about assigning an expense to your customer in QuickBooks Online (QBO).

Are you referring to the Customer / PROJECT column when creating an expense? Please refer to the picture below. If you do, this function is only available to QBO Plus and Advanced subscriptions.

Since you're using Simple Start, consider upgrading your subscription. Here's how:

1. Go to the Gear icon and select Subscriptions and Billing. 
2. Hit Upgrade your plan in the Billed to You section.
3. Choose either the Plus or Advanced subscription.

Here's an article for more details: Upgrade or downgrade your QuickBooks Online edition.

Additionally, you can generate customer reports to get a comprehensive overview of your accounts receivable transactions.

Let us know if you have other concerns with assigning expenses to your customers in QBO. We're here to help you in any way we can.

So just a follow up question - that is NOT the payee of that expense.  Why would you chose a Customer as the Payee of that expense, since that is NOT who are paid the expense to?  This makes no sense.  I am NOT billing the customer for this expense, I am just tracking the expense under this customer.  I will try it but there is no common sense with this.  So confused but will test it out.