Basic Time Tracking in QuickBooks Online – Instructions

How to Use Basic Time Tracking in QuickBooks Online: Video Lesson

            This video lesson, titled “How to Do Basic Time Tracking in QuickBooks Online,” shows how to set up basic time tracking and manually create basic time entries for employees and vendors in QuickBooks Online. This video on how to enter time in QuickBooks Online is from our complete QuickBooks Online tutorial, titled “Mastering QuickBooks Online Made Easy.”

Basic Time Tracking in QuickBooks Online: Instructions

            You can use basic time tracking in QuickBooks Online to record time for employees and contractors (vendors) if you don’t subscribe to either the QuickBooks Payroll Premium and/or QuickBooks Time service. This lesson examines basic time tracking in QuickBooks Online.

How to Set Up Basic Time Tracking in QuickBooks Online

            To set up basic time tracking in QuickBooks Online, click the “Time” link in the Navigation Bar to open the “Overview” page to the right. Then click the “Check out pricing” button in the QuickBooks Time advertisement on this page to open yet another advertisement window. Then scroll to the very bottom of the large advertisement window and click the small “Use basic time tracking (included in your current plan)” link to continue. You then return to the “Overview” page.

How to Add Employees for Time Tracking in QuickBooks Online

After enabling basic time tracking in QuickBooks Online Plus, then add the employees and contractors (vendors) for whom to track time, if you haven’t already. You must add the people for whom to track time before creating time entries in QuickBooks Online.

How to Invite an Employee as a Time Tracking User

            To add an employee as a “Time tracking user” who can enter their own time in QuickBooks Online, click the “Add team” drop-down in the “Shortcuts” widget in the “Overview” page and select the “Add employee” command to open the “Who is your new employee?” window.

            Enter the required employee information in this window and leave the “Turn on time tracking for this employee” checkbox checked. Then select whether to send the QuickBooks Online time tracking user invitation by text or email by choosing either the “by text message” or “by email” option and make sure to enter the required “Mobile number” or “Email” for your selected option. Then click the “Add employee” button to finish and send the invitation.

How to Manually Add an Employee in QuickBooks

            Alternatively, to manually add employees for whom to manually enter time without creating them as “Time tracking users” in QuickBooks Online, hover over the “Payroll” link in the Navigation Bar and then click the “Employees” link in the side menu that appears to open the “Employees” page. Then click the “Add an employee” link or button to open a “Who’s your new team member?” window. Then enter the required employee data and any other optional data to record. Since you don’t have QuickBooks Payroll enabled, only the employee’s first and last names are required, as noted by the asterisks next to the field labels. Then click the “Add employee” button to finish.

            If needed, to edit an employee to add billing information, click the name of the employee in the “Employees” list and then click the “Edit” link in the “Employment details” section. If the employee has an hourly billable rate that is independent of the service provided to the customer, then you can enter that into the “Billing rate (per hour)” field. However, selecting an item from your “Products & services” list when creating their time entries overrides this amount. Additionally, to make their hours billable by default, check the “Billable by default” checkbox. To save the changes to the employee’s record, click the “Save” button in the lower-right corner of the window.

How to Enter a Vendor for Whom to Track Time in QuickBooks Online

            If needed, to add a contractor for whom to track time in QuickBooks Online, create a new vendor record, as usual and as shown in a previous lesson, and make sure to check the “Track payments for 1099” checkbox for their vendor record to enable time tracking. Alternatively, click the “Add team” button in the “Shortcuts” widget on the “Overview” page for “Time” and then select the “Add contractor” command. Doing this opens the “Vendor” pane and checks this checkbox for you. Then just fill-in the rest of the vendor information, as usual, and save the vendor record.

How to Manually Create a Basic Time Entry in QuickBooks Online

            To manually create a basic time entry in QuickBooks Online after entering the people for whom to track time, click the “Add time entry” button in the “Shortcuts” section of the “Overview” page for “Time” to open the “Add time” pane at the right side of the window. Alternatively, click the “Time Entries” tab at the top of the page or hover over the “Time” link in the Navigation Bar and then click the “Time Entries” choice to open the “Time Entries” page. Then click the “Add time” button in the upper-right corner of the page to open the same “Add time” pane at the right side of the window.

            In the first screen of the “Add time” pane, click to select the name of the person for whom to enter time. In the next screen, use the drop-down at the top of the pane to select for which week to enter time or select the “Custom” choice and then use the “Select date” selector to select a day within a week. For the selected week, which then appears below, click the day for which to enter the employee’s time.

            To only enter a time duration for the selected day, enter the person’s duration into the “Duration” field. Alternatively, to enter start and end times, click the “Start/end times” toggle switch to the left to toggle it to the “On” position. Then enter or select a start time and an end time by using the “Start time” and “End time” drop-down fields that then appear to the right to calculate the duration.

How to Enter Time and Work Details in QuickBooks Online

            Alternatively, to enter both time and work details for the person, instead click the “Add work details” link below this section to show an “Add work details” screen. Then enter either the total duration or the start and end times, as previously mentioned, at the top of the pane. To assign the time to a customer or project, select the name of the customer or project from the “Customer” drop-down. If assigning time to a project, you will need to select the customer and then the project from the drop-down in separate clicks as the drop-down menu changes based on your clicks, unlike other drop-downs.

            To select the service performed for that customer by the employee for that time if you enabled the service field in timesheets within your company file settings, select the service from the “Service” drop-down. If needed, to mark the time as billable per hour, click the “Billable (/hr)” toggle switch to ensure it is in the “On” position. Optionally, to enter any notes about the time worked, type them into the “Notes” field. To then finish the entry, click the “Done” button at the bottom of the pane. Alternatively, to delete the entry, click the “Delete” button and then click “Yes” in the confirmation prompt window that opens.

A picture of a user entering the time and work details for an employee when using basic time tracking in QuickBooks Online.

How to Add More Time Entries, Delete Time Entries, and Save Time Entries in QuickBooks Online

            You then return to the weekly time entry screen. To add more entries for the currently selected day and person, click the “Add” button below the current time entry and then repeat the time entry process to record additional time in the new time entry section that appears. To delete a time entry from this screen, click the triple-dot icon in the upper-right corner of the entry and then choose the “Delete” command. To add time entries for other days in the week, select another day in the week above and repeat the process.

            To save the time entries you made for the person, click the “Save” button in the lower-right corner of the pane. Alternatively, to save the entries and close the pane, click the drop-down arrow on the button in the lower-right corner of the pane and choose the “Save and close” command. Alternatively, to close without saving, click the “Close” button in the lower-left corner of the pane and then click “No” in the save confirmation prompt that appears.

How to Edit and Delete Saved Time Entries in QuickBooks Online

            To edit the time entries after making them, if needed, hover over the “Time” link in the Navigation Bar and then click the “Time Entries” command to open the “Time Entries” tab at the right side of the window. To change the category by which to display the time entries in this page, select a choice from the “Display by” drop-down at the top of the page. The default category is “Employee.” To change the date range of time entries shown in the page, click the “Date range” drop-down and select the desired date range choice.

            To view the summary of time entries for a person for a selected date range when viewing the time entries by “Employee,” “Contractor,” or “All team members,” click the name of the person in this list to view their time entries details page. To edit a time entry, click its “Edit” link under its “Action” column at the right end of its row to reopen the “Time entry details” pane, make your changes, and then click the “Save” button to save them. To delete a time entry, click the “Delete” button in the “Time entry details” pane or select the “Delete” action from the drop-down under the entry’s “Action” column. Then click the “Yes” button in the confirmation prompt that appears to confirm the time entry deletion.