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slbradio
September 13, 2023
Question

Advice needed: QBO Advanced and QuickBooks Payroll…how to integrate time/expense tracking  Databases and Software quickbooks

  • September 13, 2023
  • 1 reply
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We're a nonprofit company with fewer than 20 employees.

 

We use QuickBooks Online Advanced (QBO) for accounting. We also use a stand-alone QuickBooks Payroll (QBP) account for processing payroll. We connect the two by simply exporting QBP data to QBO.

 

We also use a non-Intuit system for time tracking and expense tracking. This system is used to track time against grants, compute hours worked during a pay period for part-time employee, and to help show effort levels (full-time and part-time) across our various projects. This is tedious as it requires manual data transfer as well as maintenance of two project lists one for QBO and one for our timesheet system.

 

It seems like we should be able to use QuickBooks Time to help simplify this latter process, but I have not been able to figure out the way to go about this. As one additional bit of information, we use QBO classifications to identify our projects, for example a project might be known as Program: Project 1.

 

Given the way we define these projects within QBO, is there a way that we can use QBO (or another product) to collect employee time and expense data against this same list of projects. We do not need to generate time and materials invoices but do need to track hours and expenses in this fashion to produce internal reports. 

 

It seems like this should be a very simple thing to do but it’s unclear whether I should be pursuing it from the QBO, QBP, or QuickBooks Time perspective or some other way.

 

Thanks for any insight. My main goal is to have a single list of projects/grants that inform the system used by employees to track time, and the classifications used within QBO to track internal budgets.

 

Given all the bells and whistles within the QBO products, it seems like this should be easy but I just can’t figure it out.

 

 

 

 
 

 

1 reply

Adrian_A
Adrian_A
September 13, 2023

Thank you for the details, slbradio.

 

I'm here to assist you in understanding how to incorporate expenses and timesheets into a project so you can run a report with all the projects used.

 

With QuickBooks Online Plus and Advanced, we have the option to add existing timesheets and expenses to a project. I'll guide you through the steps.

 

Here's how to add expenses to a project:

 

  1. From the Transactions tab, select Bank transactions.
  2. Find and select the transaction you want to add to your project.
  3. In the Customer drop-down, select the designated project.
  4. Click Add.

 

Then, to add existing timesheets to a project, you can follow the steps below.

 

If you have the Time menu:

 

  1. Go to Get paid & pay, select Time (Take me there), then select Time entries.
  2. Select the employee that has timesheets you want to add to the project.
  3. Find the timesheet you want to add, then select Edit.
  4. On the Customer/Project drop-down, select the project.
  5. Click Save.

 

If the Time tab isn't available on your end, you can follow these steps instead:

 

  1. From the + New tab, select Weekly Timesheet.
  2. Select the employee whose timesheets you want to add to the project.
  3. Select the date range and choose the correct week for the timesheets you want to add to the project.
  4. Locate the timesheets.
  5. Select the Customer or Project, and select the project.
  6. Click Save.

 

Once done, you can run the Project Profitability Summary report to show the profit of each project. Here's how:

 

  1. From the Reports tab, select Report.
  2. Enter and select Project Profitability Summary.
  3. Click the Customize button to personalize the report.

 

Moreover, I've added this article as your guide in personalizing the said report: Customize reports in QuickBooks Online.

 

Keep me posted whenever you have concerns about overseeing your employee's time and project.

S
slbradioAuthor
September 13, 2023

Thanks for your reply. We do have  QuickBooks Advanced and it's built in QuickBooks Time feature. A few questions:

 

1. Am I correct in assuming that I can allow employees to enter time directly through this system while not giving them access to other parts of QuickBooks?

 

2. If they begin to enter their time this way, I'd like this time to be able to inform their paychecks. As noted in my post these paychecks are created using a standalone version of QuickBooks Online Payroll. (The two products are not integrated because our payroll previously was Intuit Online Payroll and I was told full integration was not possible). Do I have to export the timesheet hours into QuickBooks Online Payroll or would this be a manual transfer for these paychecks? I'd like to consolidate this data as simply as possible and, well it seems it must be possible, it's unclear how to do so.

 

Thx 

C
CharleneMaeF
September 13, 2023

I'm here to clear out some of your confusion, slbradio.

 

For your first question, yes. You can invite your employees to allow them to track their working hours in QuickBooks Time without giving them access to the other part of the program. 

 

Here's how to invite them:

 

  1. Go to Payroll, then Employees.
    • For a new employee, select Add an employee.
    • For an existing employee, select your employee.
  2. From Personal Info, select Edit. Add your employee’s email address, then select the Invite this employee to track and record their hours with QuickBooks Time by QuickBooks checkbox.
  3. Select Done to email the invite.

 

After that, I've listed the things that your employees need to do to track their time: 

 

 

Once done, they can start tracking and submitting their time entries for themselves.

 

Meanwhile, to ensure that your QuickBooks Time data can be automatically synced to your payroll account, I suggest reaching out to our Payroll Support Team. They will be able to assist you in determining if this feature is available for your specific payroll subscription.

 

In addition, I've added an article that'll help you to get started, customize your settings, and onboard your team: Set up and Customize QuickBooks Time.

 

Please keep us posted if you have additional questions about managing your employees and your payroll data. We're always here to help you out.

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