Setting up QuickBooks to Track Time and Expenses

You may want to refer to the QuickBooks user guide for more information about setting up QuickBooks to track time and expenses. We provide a quick overview of what you will need to have set up before you can start using the Time and Expense service

You can only track time in the Pro version of QuickBooks or higher so check that before you start the process or upgrade your version of QuickBooks. If you have not yet set up QuickBooks for time tracking or expense then you will need to make some important decisions before you start.

Turn on the Time Tracking Preference

Once you have decided you want to track to time you need to turn on the time tracking preference within QuickBooks. You can find that in the Company > Preference menu. Make sure that you have that selected otherwise the service will not import any time or expense data into QuickBooks.

Paying employees or contractors for time submitted on timesheets

You need to decide if you want to pay employees based on the time they submit on a timesheet, or as a fixed amount. This is set per employee when you either edit or set up an employee’s record you have the option to tick the Use time data to create payments. When you process the payroll they will automatically have the employee’s time data for the payroll period. QuickBooks then is able to track of the payroll expenses, taxes and other overheads against jobs, service items, or classes.

For employees that who are set to Use time data to create payments will need to select a Payroll Item (ie Standard Hourly, Overtime, etc) when entering time.

Use Class Tracking

Classes in QuickBooks enable you to track income and expenditure for distinct entities, parts, locations or divisions within your business and better analyse that information when running reports. Classes are set within the company preferences, if class tracking is selected then in the time and expense service you will need to assign a class to each time and expense entry.

Require Accounts

The Require Accounts preference prevents you from recording a transaction unless you have assigned it to an account. It this is selected then when entering expenses you will be required to select an expense account from the drop down list. If this preference is not selected, when the expense transaction is imported these transactions are automatically allocated to Uncategorized Income or Uncategorized Expense.