Projects

I appreciate you for performing some troubleshooting steps and adding a screenshot above, @NoVA123. This way, I was able to identify the right resolution in letting the Projects feature displays accurate and correct amounts.

The Projects feature in QuickBooks Online (QBO) will calculate your cost based on the hours and billing rates even before you've entered the actual expense transaction. Based on your screenshot above, it seems like you've pulled up the Project Profitability report on an Accrual basis. That's why the amounts you're seeing didn't match.

You'll have to make sure you changed the report's Accounting Method to Cash and set the correct date range to get all the same results. Here's how:

1. Go to the Projects menu.
2. Select the project you want to review.
3. Go to the Project Reports tab.
4. Click the View hyperlink in the Project profitability section.
5. Make sure to set up the correct dates in the Report period section.
6. Change the Accounting method to Cash.
7. Click the Run report button.

I've attached a screenshot below that shows the result.

Additionally, you can utilize the Projects feature to easily understand your business and gives you a clear picture of your profits from every project. You can learn more about this by checking out this article: Track income, costs, and profitability by project. It also includes details on how to calculate your hourly time costs.

Please let me know how it goes. You're always welcome to comment below if you have other concerns about utilizing the Projects feature in QBO. I'm just around to help. Take care always.

Hi @Rea_M 

Thanks for the reply. My Project Profitability Report was already set to report on a Cash Basis and this was the case when I took my screenshot. 

I think the issue is in both with the list of Projects (when you click on the Projects menu) and the individual Project dashboard. Currently when I am on the dashboard of an individual project not all of my expense categories are displaying (in the center column marked "EXPENSE" . This all seemed be working fine up until a few weeks ago. I'm not sure what has changed since then. 

Hi NoVA123!

For us to further investigate this issue about your Project, it's best to reach out to our Customer Support Team. They'll be able to take a look on your account to check what's really causing this behavior.

The new "Help" menu interface: 

1. Click the (?) Help icon and choose the Talk to a human option (then type it again when prompted).
2. When asked by the bot, enter Project.
3. Select I still need a human, then proceed with Contact us.
4. Tap Let’s talk then choose either Get a call or Start messaging. 

For the old "Help" menu:

1. Click the Help icon, then the Contact Us button.
2. Enter Project in the What can we help you with box.
3. Proceed with the Let's talk button.
4. Select either Start messaging or Get a call button.

Leave a comment again if you have more questions. We'll respond as soon as we can.

I agree with @NoVA123  - something has changed over the last few months. Thanks for posting the screenshots, @NoVA123  - you and I are not having the same issues, as my expenses per the project summary screen are consistently less than my expenses when looking at Project detail (by exactly the amount of payroll expense - but payroll is not being done through QBO, so it's all entered through AJEs not associated with any employee)! I haven't seen any projects I've set up show higher expenses on the summary page vs the individual project detail. I hope your situation gets resolved!

Hi @Karen_21 

Like you I do not do payroll through QB. I do extensively use the Projects menu though and whatever is happening now has really thrown my business for a loop. 

Something has most certainly changed, and they need to change it back ASAP!!! My existing projects no long show contractors as expenses which have taken the profitability for jobs from 17% to 87%.. Beyond misleading and now I'm having to self tabulate actual costs. If I have to run manual calculations, why am I paying for QB?

Hello, @PinnacleHomeBuilding.

I understand the impact of any discrepancy in your profitability reports. We have received reports about the contractor-related expenses not showing in project overview and reports. Rest assured, our Product Engineers are working on determining the root cause of this ongoing issue. By then, we can released updates to resolve this issue.

In the meantime, I'd recommend contacting our Customer Care team. This way, you'd be added to the affected users' list. Just provide your full name, updated email address, and this investigation number: INV-53864.

Here's how: 

1. Go to the Help menu at the top.  
2. Go to Contact Us.
3. Enter your brief concern in the box.
4. Press Let’s talk.
5. Select Get a call and enter your personal information.
6. Click Confirm my call. 
   

Once update about the investigation is available, you'd be notified through an email.

We appreciate your patience as we are resolving this concern. Get back to us here if you have other questions or concerns about using QuickBooks. I'm always happy to help.

Hi @PinnacleHomeBuilding . The same exact thing is happening in my QBI. 

FWIW I am glad that others are experiencing this because my CPA and I have been going through the settings trying to figure out if something had changed. 

Hi @IamjuViel 

The "Contractor" expenses are not populating on my specific project tabs, either. Just wanted to let you know. 

@PinnacleHomeBuilding  You're seeing what I'm seeing - except for me, it's employee costs posted to the Payroll Expenses account and subaccounts. Payroll expenses posted elsewhere are fine (retirement, taxes, etc). The detail of the project is fine, though. 

One other thought (since it doesn't sound, from your post, like the detail of your projects is okay): given that projects are sub-customers, I've been having a lot of trouble with coworkers posting to the customer instead of the project. Try running your profit and loss by customer and make sure that's not happening to you.

Has this been resolved? We're having the same problem -- expenses categorized as "Contractor" are not appearing in center "Costs" column of the project dashboard view.

Nice to have you joined this thread, @accountant30.

I see that you've posted a similar question in the Community space and my colleague already responded to it. 

If you haven't read it yet, you can check it out via this link: https://quickbooks.intuit.com/learn-support/en-us/do-more-with-quickbooks/project-expenditures-not-a...

In case you need to add an existing invoice to a project, you can refer to Step 6 in this article: Set up and create projects in QuickBooks Online.

If you have any other concerns or questions about projects or with QuickBooks, you can always tag me in your reply. I'll be here to answer them for you. Keep safe!

@JasroV  With all due respect, that is not even a response to the question asked. I really wish Intuit reps would address the underlying issue, which is that the Projects dashboard appears to randomly stop counting certain expenses in the bar graph. Why? I have given up using Projects because of this, frankly. 

And, I think I get what the articles are saying, which is that the Projects somehow know we aren't using QB Time and are punishing that ... but how? My clients don't even have payroll active so how does it know that these are accounts for which time coding could be associated? 

And I'm sorry to sound frustrated, but I was so EXCITED about Projects initially. Now, my clients don't understand when I tell them the graphs are wrong but the underlying data is right, which is exactly what's going on for me. 

@Karen_21 what I'm taking away from this is that because Payroll Expenses do not show up in the Projects Dashboard it is being recommended by QB that we change our account type from Payroll Expenses to COGS.

In my case this may work because all "Contractors" that are paid are 1099'd. 

See: https://quickbooks.intuit.com/learn-support/en-us/do-more-with-quickbooks/project-expenditures-not-a...

@NoVA123 That's such an annoyance - it's one thing for contractors, as much of their labor costs are part of their COGS, but I was also trying to use Projects with nonprofits for grant reporting and with many clients this year for PPP tracking.