Why are Invoiced Items shown as Unbilled Expenses?

Posted by GTS on October 24, 2006, 11:41 am

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I am confused as to why parts (items) purchased for a particular job and
billed and paid through an invoice later show up as unbilled in reports.

I run a service business and frequently buy parts for a job. When I order a
part, I create an item checking the box that this is bought for a specific
customer job. I use an Expense account "Hardware for Client" (which I
attribute to COGS for taxes) and the income account Sales (which usually
includes some markup). I then enter the credit card (most often) cost as a
check and select the item and enter the customer:Job . I create an invoice
and place the item on the invoice by selecting it from the Item dropdown.
When the customer pays I enter the Customer payment via Customers / Receive
Payments.

I'm baffled as to why many, though I think not all, of these items show up
later on the Unbilled Costs by Job. Isn't the invoice the bill?
Thanks.
--

Posted by L on October 25, 2006, 8:27 am

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>I am confused as to why parts (items) purchased for a particular job and

>billed and paid through an invoice later show up as unbilled in reports.

> I run a service business and frequently buy parts for a job. When I order

> a part, I create an item checking the box that this is bought for a

> specific customer job. I use an Expense account "Hardware for Client"

> (which I attribute to COGS for taxes) and the income account Sales (which

> usually includes some markup). I then enter the credit card (most often)

> cost as a check and select the item and enter the customer:Job .

QuickBooks refers to those charges as Reimbursable Expenses - "Expenses that
your business incurs on behalf of customers. You can charge a customer for
reimbursable expenses by assigning the expense to the customer when you
incur it and then transferring the expense to an invoice."

> I create an invoice and place the item on the invoice by selecting it

> from the Item dropdown.

Which is NOT the way to bill reimbursable expenses. In order for the items
you purchased for specific customer:jobs to be marked as billed, you must
use the time/costs button on the invoice creation screen to enter the costs.
The procedure is explained in the QB helpfile. Look under the heading
reimbursable expenses.

Posted by GTS on October 25, 2006, 9:43 am

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>> I create an invoice and place the item on the invoice by selecting it

>> from the Item dropdown.

> Which is NOT the way to bill reimbursable expenses. In order for the items

> you purchased for specific customer:jobs to be marked as billed, you must

> use the time/costs button on the invoice creation screen to enter the

> costs. The procedure is explained in the QB helpfile. Look under the

> heading reimbursable expenses.

Thanks. The time/costs button is definitely the solution. It's interesting
that directly selecting an item, which puts exactly the same information on
the invoice, is handled so differently by QB.

Posted by L on October 25, 2006, 11:49 am

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>>> I create an invoice and place the item on the invoice by selecting it

>>> from the Item dropdown.

>> Which is NOT the way to bill reimbursable expenses. In order for the

>> items

>> you purchased for specific customer:jobs to be marked as billed, you must

>> use the time/costs button on the invoice creation screen to enter the

>> costs. The procedure is explained in the QB helpfile. Look under the

>> heading reimbursable expenses.

> Thanks. The time/costs button is definitely the solution. It's

> interesting that directly selecting an item, which puts exactly the same

> information on the invoice, is handled so differently by QB.

Ahh, but you can invoice items that were not ordered specifically for a
customer. QB has no idea whether you are attempting to select an item
(either parts or services) that you had 'on-hand' or that was bought and
purchased (and expensed/billed) to a specific customer:job.

Posted by GTS on October 25, 2006, 3:31 pm

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>>> items

>>> you purchased for specific customer:jobs to be marked as billed, you

>>> must

>>> use the time/costs button on the invoice creation screen to enter the

>>> costs. The procedure is explained in the QB helpfile. Look under the

>>> heading reimbursable expenses.

>>>

>> Thanks. The time/costs button is definitely the solution. It's

>> interesting that directly selecting an item, which puts exactly the same

>> information on the invoice, is handled so differently by QB.

> Ahh, but you can invoice items that were not ordered specifically for a

> customer. QB has no idea whether you are attempting to select an item

> (either parts or services) that you had 'on-hand' or that was bought and

> purchased (and expensed/billed) to a specific customer:job.

Good point!
Thanks.