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Billing mileage to customers as an expense using QB Oline Plus

Forum|Forum|4 years ago
May 27, 2022
2 replies
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I already track mileage using the QB app. I am a consulting engineer so my mileage is expensed back to the client with no mark up I pass it through at the IRS mileage rate. I do not take my mileage as a tax deduction or at least I don't want to.

Bills and Expense in Account and Settings are set all on so I can make expenses billable,

Track billable expenses and items as income is NOT checked. Maybe it should be???

I have Reimbursable mileage setup as a service with the income account as "Billable Expense Income" Sales Price is the current IRS mileage allowance (.585)

purchase product or service from vendor is checked with a cost of $0 Expense Account is Travel: Reimbursable Mileage (I set it up in chart of accounts)

The above does not quite feel right to me it seems to show up correct in the P&L report it works in my Project tracking. Can anyone provide insight on how they setup accounts and pass through mileage as an expense or provide input on this being right or wrong?

I am a Sole Proprietor LLC with no employees not sure if that matters

Thank in Advance

QuickBooks Online

Best answer by ReymondO

Thanks for getting back to this thread, @McGibbets.

Allow me to jump into this conversation and provide answers to your questions.

For your first concern, yes, the Item details section is mainly used when purchasing specific products and services from a vendor. On the other hand, you'll want to use the Category details section to track expense transactions.

With regards to your second question, it'd be best to reach out to your accountant. That way, they can guide you on which account should be used in tracking Mileage Asset.

Moreover, there are different ways in recording expenses in QuickBooks Online. If you've already paid for a business expense, enter it as an expense. If you plan to pay for the expense in the future, enter it as a bill.

For additional info, you can check the difference between bills, checks, and expenses.

You can always share your concerns with us if you have any other QuickBooks-related questions, @McGibbets. We'll be here to provide further assistance. Have a good one.

R

Rea_M

Hello there, welcome to the Community, @McGibbets.

You're already on the right track in setting up your accounts and billing your mileage to customers using QuickBooks Online (QBO). Let's also enable or check the Track billable expenses and items as income option so you can assign your transactions to the appropriate account every time.

Since you've already activated the Make expenses and items billable feature, you're appropriately passing your mileage back to your clients. You'll only need to check the Track billable expenses and items as income options so you can assign them to the account you want. Here's how:

Go to the Gear icon.
Select Account and settings.
Go to the Expenses menu.
Click anywhere in the Bills and expenses section to open its content.
Check the Track billable expenses and items as income option.
Select Save.

To further guide you in billing your customers for an expense and how you can link the billable expense to your customer's invoice, please refer to this article for the complete guide: Enter billable expenses.

Also, you may want to check out this article as your reference in tracking and managing your expenses using QBO: Enter and manage expenses in QuickBooks Online.

Please don't hesitate to let me know if you have other mileage concerns or questions about billable expenses in QBO. I'll gladly help. Take care, and have a great day, @McGibbets.

M

McGibbetsAuthor

Rea,

Thank you for your help. I have now checked that box up and its set for single account. I think I have it sorted except for a couple items

I was using items details in the Expense transaction because it was easier to use as it allowed me to use the qty and rate function I was putting total mileage driven as the qty and the rate as the IRS rate .585 after watching the video the item details are only for when you have purchased products/services from another vendor is that an absolute??
Second and this is my most difficult to understand when I create the expense transaction payee and payment method area I leave blank. Under payment account it did not make sense to use my bank or my Anex business card as in reality no money really comes out of those for mileage so I setup an account called Mileage Asset - Other Current Asset and use that as the payee account does that seem correct???

Thank you again for the help and quick response.

R

ReymondOAnswer

Thanks for getting back to this thread, @McGibbets.

Allow me to jump into this conversation and provide answers to your questions.

For your first concern, yes, the Item details section is mainly used when purchasing specific products and services from a vendor. On the other hand, you'll want to use the Category details section to track expense transactions.

With regards to your second question, it'd be best to reach out to your accountant. That way, they can guide you on which account should be used in tracking Mileage Asset.

Moreover, there are different ways in recording expenses in QuickBooks Online. If you've already paid for a business expense, enter it as an expense. If you plan to pay for the expense in the future, enter it as a bill.

For additional info, you can check the difference between bills, checks, and expenses.

You can always share your concerns with us if you have any other QuickBooks-related questions, @McGibbets. We'll be here to provide further assistance. Have a good one.

B

BTBS

McGibbets - Did you get this figured out? I have the exact same question for your same scenario. Mileage reimbursement is showing up as job income but I do not see the expense to offset it in P&L. Not sure if I am missing a step.

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