Hey there, @rdaletto. 

It's great to see you back in the Community. I'd be more than happy to share insight on particular categorizes in QuickBooks Self-Employed. 

You can categorize the following types of transactions as contract labor: 

Fees paid for: 

• Create resources
• Outside research and data collection
• Additional project support
• Subcontractors and independent contractors 

Learn more about this category and more through this link. 

If you still need assistance after looking over these details, just let me know. I'm only a post away if you need me. Have a great day! 

@rdaletto 

As an additional option, you can sign up for Melio account for free to manage and pay your contractors/freelancers/professional services for free.

https://melio.grsm.io/pricing

Hi, thank you for your response but Im still confused. Both of the people I need help with are considered independent contractors however, one is working for my business under my name and insurance. The other is doing a service for me that Ive hired under their own business and insurance. Is there no difference then for categorization of these two?

Hello, rdaletto. 

Yes, you can categorize them both as contract labor.   

• Fees paid to subcontractors and independent contractors
• Fees paid for additional project support
• Fees paid for creative resources
• Fees paid for outside research and data collection

Check this article for more information: Schedule C and expense categories in QuickBooks Self-Employed.

I'm always here if you need further help. Have a wonderful day!

Thank you! I didn't think it seemed correct for them to both be classified the same.

Hi again, Rainflurry.

I appreciate you for always sharing your knowledge about QuickBooks. This will definitely help other users as well in the future. Please keep on posting here in the Community.

Keep safe and have a great rest of the day.

Good morning, 

My bookkeeper is classifying my payments to my subcontractors as cost of goods sold - subcontractor expenses vs contract labor. I think it is throwing off all of my profit and losses in my opinion. Shouldn't all payments to subs be under contract labor and not cost of goods sold? 

Thanks for becoming part of the Community, PatriotHomeWorks.

To properly identify if how your subcontractor payments should be classified, I'd recommend working with an accounting professional. If you're in need of one, there's an awesome tool on our website called Find an Accountant. All ProAdvisors listed there are QuickBooks-certified and able to provide helpful insights for driving your business's success.

Here's how it works:

1. Go to our Find a ProAdvisor page.
2. Use the City or ZIP search field to specify a location.
3. Select Find a ProAdvisor.
4. Browse through your results and find one that works best for the business. You can click on each ProAdvisor's profile to learn more information about them.
   

Once you've found an accountant, they can be contacted through their Send a message form:

1. Use the available text box to introduce yourself. Be sure to include details about which services you're looking for.
   
2. Enter your appropriate info in the Your name, Your email, and Your phone number (optional) fields.
   
3. Hit Send message.
   

You'll also be able to find many detailed resources about using QuickBooks in our help article archives.

I'll be here to help if there's any questions. Have an awesome day!

This is unhelpful.... I'm using QuickBooks Self-Employed, and there is no category for "contract labour" OR "subcontractor." Please help?

Hi there, @bbquestions. I want to ensure you'll be able to see the Contract labor category in QuickBooks Self-Employed (QBSE).

To start, could you tell me if you're trying to categorize a manually added transaction or those automatically downloaded entries? That information is a great help so I can provide a timely solution. 

In the meantime, let's check the Category and Tags column on the Transactions page to check if you can see the Contract labor among the options. Please see the screenshot below for a visual guide:

If you still can't see the category, you can perform some troubleshooting steps to verify if this is a browser-related issue. To start, access your QBSE account via incognito mode. If this works, go back to your regular browser and clear the cache to eliminate piled-up data. If the same thing happens, you can use another supported browser or device. Might be that the current one you're using has a temporary issue with the program. 

For reference, please read this article: Schedule C and expense categories in QuickBooks Self-Employed.

If the issue persists, I recommend reaching out to our Customer support team to help you look for the category you need. 

In QBSE, creating rules to quickly categorize your recent and past transactions is a breeze. For the detailed steps, check out this link: Create rules to speed up reviews in QuickBooks Self-Employed. 

I'm always here ready to lend a hand if you have any other concerns about categorizing transactions in QBO. Please don't hesitate to leave a reply below. Have a good one. 

It sounds like you are referring to US Quickbooks. I am in Canada, and those options are not available to me. It sounds like "Schedule C" relates to US taxes, not Canadian? Here's a screenshot of the options available to me:

And I was referring to the transactions imported from my linked bank account. I would like to categorize an e-transfer made to a subcontractor as a business expense under "contractors"... but no such option exists. The option isn't available for manually added transactions either.

Hi bbquestions,

Thanks for joining us here.  Having your transactions categorized accordingly, is key in keeping your books balanced.  I suggest contacting QuickBooks Self-Employed support to assist you with categorizing your transactions successfully, as soon as possible.

Feel free to reach back out with other questions.  We'd be happy to help!

how would you code contract labor- under the chart of accounts

Define Contract Labor vs Subcontractor Expense in Quickbooks please.

Hello there, @majorbuild.

I'm here to share details about Contract labor and Subcontractor expense in QuickBooks Online (QBO).

A vendor is those people or companies that you pay money to, such as a store, utility, landlord, or subcontractor who do work for you. On the other hand, Customers are people who owe you money for products purchased or services rendered. While the Subcontractor expense (not employees) are considered expenses to your company. Your accountant(s) suggestion is the appropriate way to record them in QBO. When you maintain this process, you'll be able to keep your financial data accurate.

For future reference, read through this article: How to set up contractors and track them for 1099s in QuickBooks. It helps you learn about adding and tracking contractor payments in QuickBooks Online. 

Feel free to post more questions in the Community. I look forward to answering your next posts.