How to Track Billable Hours in QuickBooks Online and Desktop

Tracking billable hours accurately is the difference between getting paid for your work and giving away time for free. QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop both include time-tracking features that let you record hours, assign them to specific customers, and drop them straight onto an invoice without retyping anything.

Turn on Time Tracking

Before anyone can log hours, the feature has to be switched on in your company settings.

In QuickBooks Online:

1. Go to Settings (gear icon) > Account and Settings.
2. Select the Time tab (or Expenses, depending on your version) and toggle time tracking on.
3. Check the box for Make Single-Time Activity Billable to Customer if you want the option to charge customers for tracked time.

In QuickBooks Desktop:

1. Choose Edit > Preferences > Time & Expenses.
2. On the Company Preferences tab, select Yes under Do you track time?.
3. Check Mark all time entries as billable if that fits your billing model, or leave it off so you can decide per entry.

Add Your Team Members

Anyone whose time you plan to track needs to exist as a user or vendor in QuickBooks. In QuickBooks Online, you can invite users through the Team or Manage Users screen and assign them time-tracking permissions without giving them full access to your books. In Desktop, add people through the Employee Center or Vendor Center depending on whether they are on payroll or contracted.

Log Hours Against a Customer

Once tracking is active, you can record time in a few ways:

• Single Time Activity: A one-off entry for a specific day and job. Good for quick, individual logs.
• Weekly Timesheet: A spreadsheet-style view where you enter hours across multiple days and customers at once. Useful for regular weekly logging.
• QuickBooks Time (formerly TSheets): A dedicated mobile and web app that syncs entries into QuickBooks. Best for teams that clock in and out from phones or need GPS stamps.

On each entry, select the Customer/Project the work was done for and check Billable. That single checkbox is what tells QuickBooks to hold the hours for invoicing.

Pull Billable Time Onto an Invoice

When you are ready to bill the client, the tracked hours are already waiting.

1. Create or open an invoice for the customer.
2. QuickBooks will prompt you with available billable time and costs — accept it, or click Add Time/Costs (Desktop) or Add in the right-hand panel (Online).
3. Select the time entries you want to include. Each entry appears as a line item showing the date, description, hours, and rate.
4. Save and send the invoice.

If you bill a flat fee instead of hourly, you can still log time internally for job-costing and profitability reports without passing the detail to the customer — just leave the billable checkbox unchecked on those entries.

Review What Hasn’t Been Billed Yet

It is easy to forget about time entries that never made it onto an invoice. QuickBooks has a built-in report for exactly this situation. Search for Unbilled Time in the reports list to see every hour logged to a customer that has not yet appeared on an invoice. Running this report weekly is a simple habit that catches missed charges before they age out.

If you are spending more time reconciling tracked hours than billing them, it may be worth reviewing whether your current QuickBooks setup is the right fit — our QuickBooks Online help center covers common time-tracking configuration issues and workflow fixes.