QuickBooks Online Timesheet: How to Track Time and Bill Accurately

QuickBooks Online Timesheet: Tracking Time Without the Guesswork

A QuickBooks Online timesheet turns raw work hours into organized, billable records. Whether you run a solo consultancy or a growing agency, the feature lets you log time against specific clients, projects, and tasks directly inside the platform. Once configured, the timesheet feeds invoicing, payroll, and reporting so you do not need a separate spreadsheet. This guide covers setup, daily use, and common pitfalls to keep your time tracking clean and auditable.

Setting Up the Timesheet Feature

Before logging hours, confirm that time tracking is enabled. Go to Settings, select Account and Settings, then the Time & Expenses tab. Turn on Track time and choose whether employees or contractors will enter their own hours. You can also set a default billing rate per user or per service item, which saves time when you create invoices later. If your firm bills by the project rather than the hour, enable project tracking so every timesheet entry ties to a specific job.

Creating a Timesheet Entry

To add hours, navigate to the Time tab and choose New Time. Select the customer, project, service item, and date range, then enter hours worked. QuickBooks Online supports weekly and individual day views, and you can repeat entries for regular schedules. When you save, the line item appears on the timesheet grid and becomes available for invoicing or payroll export. For recurring work, you can clone a previous timesheet and adjust only the changed fields.

Reviewing and Approving Hours

Managers can review submitted timesheets before they become invoices. Use the Timesheet view to filter by employee, week, or customer status. Unapproved entries are clearly marked, and you can approve or reject them with a single click. If a timesheet contains errors, you can edit individual lines or delete the entire sheet if it has not yet been billed. Keeping an approval workflow in place reduces disputes and ensures that what gets invoiced reflects actual work.

Turning Timesheets into Invoices

Once hours are approved, create an invoice directly from the timesheet. QuickBooks Online lets you select specific entries or batch-invoice all time for a given period. The invoice pulls the description, rate, and hours from the timesheet line, so there is no manual re-entry. You can also add non-time charges, such as expenses or fixed fees, alongside the billed hours. For clients who prefer weekly or biweekly billing, you can schedule recurring invoices based on timesheet data.

Exporting and Reporting on Timesheet Data

The timesheet report shows hours by employee, client, and date range, which helps you spot trends or catch billing gaps. You can export timesheet data to Excel or CSV for external analysis or payroll processing. If you use QuickBooks Online Payroll, the timesheet hours flow into payroll calculations automatically, provided the service items are mapped correctly. For more detailed insights, run the Time by Customer or Time by Employee reports and filter by project status to see where time is being spent versus where it is being billed.

Common Timesheet Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

The most frequent issues include forgetting to assign a customer or project, mixing personal time with billable time, and skipping the approval step. To prevent these, set clear expectations for your team: every entry needs a customer, a service item, and a date. Use the weekly timesheet view to batch-log hours at the end of each day rather than waiting until Friday. If you have multiple rates, double-check that the correct rate is attached to the service item before saving. Finally, review unpaid or unbilled time weekly so hours do not sit in limbo and get lost.

Timesheet Best Practices for Small Teams

Keep timesheets simple and consistent. Start with a single weekly cutoff date so everyone submits on the same schedule. Use the same service items across projects to make reporting easier. If you work with contractors, give them access to enter their own hours but require manager approval before invoicing. For agencies that juggle multiple clients, consider using projects as the primary filter so you can see profitability per engagement. Regularly reconcile timesheet data against invoices and bank deposits to catch discrepancies early.