We have an engineering consulting business. Sometimes we create an estimate for hourly billing to a maximum amount (say $10,000). How do I account for this?

Let me share some information about the hourly cost rate, @dawnjohnson.

Paying your employee's hourly cost rate reflects as an expense on the job. Please know that when you set an hourly cost rate, it calculates the total cost of your employee that works for your business. 

 To account for this correctly I suggest getting in touch with your accountant to get the best advice. 

 Also, you can use these articles as a reference for the hourly cost rate:

• What are Pay Rates, Cost Rates, and Billable Rates?
• Get your Project Labor Costs in Real-Time.

Just hit the Reply button if you have any other questions. I'm always happy to help. Thanks for dropping by.

@dawnjohnson 

Consider having a time tracker app to integrate with your QBO account. You may stay on budget by creating limits on hours billed for tasks.

We use TSheets for keeping time.  I don't think I asked my question clearly, though.  Hypothetically, if I have a $10k budget for a project, is there a way in QBO to keep track of how much has been charged against that budget if I am billing the client at different hourly rates depending on the employee who performs the work?   The majority of our projects use progress invoicing.  There is an estimate summary available on the bottom of the invoice.  Not the case if I'm billing hourly.

Hi there, @dawnjohnson.

It's nice to see your post in the Community today. Allow me to help share some information about using the Projects feature in QuickBooks Online.

QuickBooks Online Budgeting feature uses the expense and income. To create a Project budget, you have the option to subdivide the budget per project.

Here's how:

1. In the upper right corner, click the Gear icon.
2. Under Tools, choose Budgeting.
3. Select the Add budget button.
4. In the Name field, enter a budget name.
5. From the Fiscal Year drop-down, select the fiscal year for the budget.
6. Use the options on the Interval drop-down menu to specify whether the budget is Monthly, Quarterly, or Yearly basis.
7. From the Subdivide by drop-down, select Customer then chooses the project. 
8. Select Next.
9. Enter the amount per account, then click Save and close.

You can learn more about managing budgets here: https://quickbooks.intuit.com/community/Income-and-expenses/How-to-create-edit-and-manage-budgets/td...

If you hav

This doesn't address my issue.  Is there a way to get help with screen share so I can better explain my issue?  

I'd also want this resolved right away, @dawnjohnson.

Let me share a few ideas about the budget and projects features in QuickBooks Online (QBO).

First, you usually create budgets so you can compare them with your actual sales and expenses. In your example, you've stated about a $10K budget for a project. In QBO, we're unable to track how much has been charged against it (automatic process). 

However, you can manually adjust your budget's amounts to reflect the correct value. To learn more about it, please head to this link: Create and import budgets into QBO. 

When using Projects in QBO, you can associate transactions like the bill to your clients (or invoice). QuickBooks will only track income and expenses. You can use it as your basis when adjusting your budget amounts manually.

For more insights, please review this article: Set up and create projects in QBO.

If it doesn't quite hit the mark, yes, there's a way to contact our support team. This way, they can perform a remote session to isolate your issue better.

Before diving in, please check out our support hours so they can assist you on time.

When you're ready, here's how to proceed:

1. Click the Help (?) menu at the top, and then tap Contact Us.
   
2. In case you're routed to the QB Assistant page, type Contact Us and then select Talk to a human. 
3. Tap the Never mind option, and then choose I still need a human. 
4. Click the Contact Us button.
   
5. Enter your question or concern on the search box and then click Let's Talk.
   
6. Select either the Get a call or Start messaging.
   
7. Please follow the on-screen steps to continue.

Also, you can pull up the Project profitability report to monitor your project's income and expenses. For the detailed steps, please refer to this article: Track income, costs, and profitability by project.

Keep me posted if you need more project tips or any QuickBooks concerns. I'm here to back you up always.