I am monitoring expenses for a piece of work in projects.I want to add a cost to check expenses against budget cost.It isn't a sales item but from reserves.Can I do this?

Currently, there isn't a direct feature to create a budget for your projects, Finance220. However, I can suggest a workaround that you can consider.

If you're using QuickBooks Online (QBO) Plus or Advance, you can create a budget and subdivide it by project. This way, you can add a budgeted cost for tracking purposes without creating an actual sales invoice. 

Here’s how you can create the budget:

1. Go to the Gear icon and select Budgeting.
2. Click on Create budget.
3. Choose a Period and tick Subdivided as a Budget format.
4. From the Subdivide by drop-down, choose Customer.
5. Pick the project you want from the Subdivided for drop-down.
6. Click on Next.
7. 
8. Enter the budget for your project in the corresponding accounts.
9. Click on Save.

Please note that budgets won't show in your Projects tab.

Moreover, to monitor expenses against a budget, you can pull up a Budget Overview report. You can follow these steps to do so:

1. Click on Reports from the left panel.
2. Look for Budget Overview on the search bar.
3. Select the project name from the Budget drop-down.
4. Click on Run Report.

Additionally, you can check out the articles below to further your understanding of QBO's budget feature and efficient project management:

• Create or import budgets in QuickBooks Online
• Create and manage projects in QBO and Accountant

Finally, I will provide resources that deliver detailed guidance on how to customise your reports, enabling you to tailor them according to your specific needs and preferences:

• Common custom reports in QuickBooks
• Customise reports in QuickBooks

Get back to us on this thread and leave a comment if you have further questions about the budget feature in QBO. We'd be glad to answer to help you again.