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 perform basic time tracking in QuickBooks Online Plus for users who don’t have a subscription to QuickBooks Time or QuickBooks Payroll Premium. This video on how to enter time in QuickBooks Online is from our complete QuickBooks Online tutorial, titled “Mastering QuickBooks Online Made Easy.”

Overview:

            As mentioned in the previous lesson, QuickBooks Online Plus provides basic time tracking 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 Plus for users who don’t have a subscription to QuickBooks Time or Payroll Premium.

Add the Employees and Vendors for Whom to Track Time:

How to Manually Add Employees:

            First, add the employees and contractors (vendors) for whom to track time, if you haven’t already. To manually add employees for whom to manually enter time in QuickBooks Online, select the “Employees” link under the “Team” app in the “All apps” bar to open the “Employees” page. Then click the “Add an employee” 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 in the “Employees” page 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 Enable Time Tracking for Vendors:

            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.

Create the Time Entries:

            To manually create a basic time entry in QuickBooks Online after entering the people for whom to track time, click the “Time entries” link under the “Time” app in the “All apps” bar. Then click the “Add time” button in the upper-right corner of the “Time entries” page. Then choose whether to enter time for a single day or single activity by selecting the “Single Time Activity” command or enter multiple time entries by using the selecting the “Weekly Timesheet” command.

            To make multiple time entries for a person at once, use the “Weekly timesheet” window. Alternatively, to enter detailed notes for one time activity, use the “Single time activity” window, instead. Either way, the time information you record in one window displays in the other window. They are simply two different views of the same time information.

How to Use the Weekly Timesheet Window:

Select the Person and Week:

            If you select the “Weekly Timesheet” command from the “Add time” drop-down in the “Time entries” page, then in the “Weekly timesheet” window that opens, use the “Name” drop-down in the upper-left corner to select the person for whom to record time. To change the week shown in the window, select any week from the drop-down to the right of the name. The days of the selected week for the selected person then appear below in the window.

Enter the Work Details:

            To enter the work details for the selected person, use the drop-downs in the next blank row in the weekly timesheet to select the customer or project, service item, service description in the “Notes” field, pay item if using “Payroll Core,” and optional class and location. To mark the time as billable, check the “Billable (per hour) checkbox. Then enter the billing rate into the adjacent field and, if needed, check the “Taxable” checkbox to mark it as taxable.

            Then enter the duration of hours the selected person did that type of work into the adjacent fields to the right for the respective days. Repeat this, as needed, for the remaining rows to enter all the required work variations for the person to record their hours. To delete a row, if needed, click the trashcan icon at the row’s right end. If needed, to add more rows, click the “Add more lines” button below all the rows. To clear all the rows, if needed, click the “Clear all lines” button below all the rows.

            Alternatively, to instead copy any hours for the selected person from the previous week forward to the currently selected week, click the “Copy last timesheet” button at the bottom of this window. You can then edit the copied entries for the selected week, as needed. To save the time entries, click the “Save” button at the bottom of the window. Alternatively, to save the entries and open a new window or close the window, use the “Save and new / Save and close” drop-down button, instead. To cancel the entries, if needed, click the “Cancel” button.

How to Use the Single Time Activity Window:

Select the Person and Enter the Work Details:

            Alternatively, if you select the “Single time activity” command from the “Add time” drop-down back in the “Time entries” page, then the “Single day entry” window opens. Here, use the “Name” drop-down to select the person whose time you are entering. Then use the “Customers,” “Service,” and, if using a QuickBooks Payroll Core subscription, the “Pay type” drop-downs to select the customer or project for whom the selected employee or vendor performed the service, the service performed, and, if needed, their pay type.

            To mark the time as billable, check the “Billable (per hour)” checkbox and enter the billable rate into the adjacent field that then appears, if needed. If it is also taxable, check the “Taxable” checkbox. If classes and locations are enabled, use the “Class” and “Location” drop-down to select values, as needed. To enter a different service description, if needed, type it into the “Notes” field.

Enter the Work Times or Duration:

            Next, select the time activity date from the “Start date” calendar selector. To enter a duration, type it into the “Duration” field. Alternatively, to enter start and end times to calculate the duration, click the “Set start and end time” toggle switch to set it to the “On” position. Then use the “Start time” and “End time” drop-downs to select the start time and end time, respectively. To enter a break duration for the time, click the “Add break” button and then enter it into the “Break” field. The total duration then appears next to the “Summary” field under the “Notes.”

            To save the entry, click the “Save” button at the bottom of the window. Alternatively, to save the entry and open a new window or close the window, use the “Save and new / Save and close” drop-down button, instead. If needed, to cancel the time entry, click the “Cancel” button, instead.