Guide for plumbing owners on QuickBooks Online
QuickBooks for plumbers: how to set up QuickBooks Online for a plumbing company
Most plumbing companies should run QuickBooks Online Plus: it is the first plan with classes, Projects and inventory, which a plumber needs to keep service calls, drain work, water heaters, sewer jobs and repipes apart and to see what each big job made. QuickBooks keeps the books. Dispatch and the flat-rate pricebook usually run in a field service app such as ServiceTitan, Jobber or Housecall Pro, which sends invoices and payments into QuickBooks. Set it up in the order below; each step links to Intuit’s own help page.
By the Books and Trucks team. Checked against Intuit’s help pages and the IRS on October 25, 2026.
Which QuickBooks
QuickBooks Online Plus, for most plumbing companies
Start on QuickBooks Online. Intuit stopped selling new QuickBooks Desktop Pro Plus and Premier Plus subscriptions in the US after September 30, 2024; existing Desktop users can keep renewing, but a company setting up its books now starts on Online. Within Online, Plus is the plan that fits: class tracking, Projects and inventory all start there, and Plus allows 40 classes and locations combined. Advanced lifts that limit and adds estimates against actual costs per job, which a multi-branch shop may want.
Source: Intuit, What the QuickBooks Desktop stop-sell means for your business
Source: Intuit, QuickBooks Online usage limits
Source: Intuit, Set up and track your inventory in QuickBooks Online
Intuit’s plan prices change often, so we keep them in one place: the plan table in our job costing guide lists each plan with its promotional and regular price on the day we read it.
Map your work
One class and one income account for each kind of plumbing work
The first setup decision is how to split the work you sell. Give each kind of work a class and its own income account, then build the item list under it. Tag every invoice and bill with its class and the profit and loss report splits by kind of work, which is how an owner sees whether drain calls feed the sewer jobs, or whether water heaters carry the margin. Here is the map we start plumbing clients on.
| Kind of work | Class | Income account | Items to set up | Where the costs go | How it is billed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Service and repair calls | Service | Service Plumbing Income | Trip or diagnostic fee, one service item per flat-rate task (faucet, toilet, shutoff valve, leak repair) | Technician labor, small parts and fittings | Invoice or sales receipt at the end of the call |
| Drain cleaning and hydro jetting | Drain | Drain Cleaning Income | Cable clearing, hydro jetting, camera inspection, locating | Technician labor, jetter and camera upkeep, fuel | End of the call; camera findings feed the sewer estimate |
| Water heaters, tank and tankless | Water heaters | Water Heater Install Income | Heater as an inventory item if you stock it, a non-inventory item if bought per job; install labor, haul-away, permit | Equipment, permit and inspection fees, install labor | One invoice, or a deposit and a final invoice for tankless conversions |
| Sewer line repair and replacement | Sewer | Sewer and Excavation Income | Spot repair, full replacement, trenchless lining, permit and restoration lines | Excavation subcontractor, dump and disposal fees, pipe, permits | A project with a deposit and progress invoices |
| Repipes and remodels | Repipe and remodel | Repipe and Remodel Income | Repipe by fixture count, fixture sets, drywall patch | PEX or copper, fixtures, labor, drywall subcontractor | A project with a deposit and progress invoices |
| New construction rough-in and trim | New construction | New Construction Income | Underground, rough-in and trim stages from the bid | Materials, labor, permits | Progress invoices by stage, with retainage held by the builder |
| Backflow testing and memberships | Service agreements | Backflow and Membership Income | Annual backflow test per device, membership plan | Technician labor, test kit calibration, city filing fees | Recurring invoices; prepaid plans held as deferred revenue |
Turn classes on under Settings, Account and settings, Advanced, Categories, Track classes, and choose one class per transaction or per line. Per line suits plumbers, because one sewer invoice can carry a camera inspection from the drain side. Keep classes for kinds of work and use locations for branches; a class per technician uses up the 40 quickly and is better read from the field app. The accounts in the table, with the costs placed above the gross profit line, are in our free chart of accounts for trade shops, ready to import.
Source: Intuit, Track transactions with classes (updated August 4, 2026)
Parts and truck stock
Pick the item type before the first supply house bill
QuickBooks Online has three item types that matter to a plumber. Service items carry labor and flat-rate tasks. Non-inventory items are parts bought for one job, such as a water heater ordered for Tuesday’s install. Inventory items, on Plus and Advanced, track quantity on hand with first in, first out costing and reduce the count when an invoice or sales receipt uses them. Inventory tracking is switched on under Settings, Account and settings, Sales, Products and services, Track inventory quantity on hand.
Source: Intuit, Set up and track your inventory in QuickBooks Online
The item type is where plumbing books most often go wrong. In a QuickBooks Community thread from March 2020, the bookkeeper of a plumbing and gas fitting company asked for help to “track inventory/cogs in QBO”. The accepted answer found the parts set up as service items pointing at an inventory asset account, which never moves cost to cost of goods sold, and the bookkeeper replied that tracking every fitting as its own item was not workable for a service business. Both points hold today.
Our rule for plumbing clients: make inventory items only for the stock you count, such as water heaters, disposals and toilets kept in the shop. Expense fittings, pipe, PEX and solder on the trucks to a materials account when you buy them, with a count each month or quarter if your CPA wants one. Do not do both for the same part, or it is counted twice. QuickBooks Online counts quantity per item, not per truck; Intuit offers truck-by-truck sites only in QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise’s Advanced Inventory, so a shop that needs it on Online uses its field app for truck stock.
Source: Intuit, Set up Advanced Inventory in QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise (updated August 5, 2026)
For parts bought for one job, turn on billable expenses under Settings, Account and settings, Expenses, Bills and expenses, “Make expenses and items billable”. Choose the customer on the supply house bill, tick Billable, and the part waits for the next invoice to that customer, with a markup rate if you set one.
Source: Intuit, Enter billable expenses (updated August 4, 2026)
Deposits and big jobs
Sewer replacements, repipes and new construction as projects
A job that runs over more than a day or takes a deposit should be a project, so its income, bills, labor and expenses sit together and show what it made. Turn Projects on under Settings, Account and settings, Advanced. Bill the job from its estimate with progress invoicing, switched on under Settings, Account and settings, Sales: each invoice takes a percentage, an amount or chosen lines of the estimate until it is fully billed.
Source: Intuit, Create projects in QuickBooks Online
Source: Intuit, Set up and send progress invoices
Hold the deposit in a Customer Deposits liability account until the work is done, and apply it on the final invoice; booked to income, a deposit taken in March for an April sewer job makes March look better than it was. New construction work adds retainage, the share a builder holds back until the job closes. Intuit’s US help pages show no retainage field, so we use a Retainage Receivable account and a retainage line on each progress invoice; our job costing guide sets out that workaround and the other gaps, such as cost codes and work in progress.
Backflow tests and memberships
Recurring invoices for the work that comes back every year
Annual backflow tests and membership plans are the same invoice every year or every month, so set them up once as recurring templates. Open any invoice, select the gear icon (Manage), then Scheduling and Make invoice recurring; or start a new template from All apps, Accounting, Recurring transactions, New. A scheduled template creates the invoice on its date and saves it as a draft for you to review; a reminder template reminds you on the date, and you edit and send the invoice yourself.
Source: Intuit, Create recurring invoices and other transactions (updated August 5, 2026)
When a customer pays a plan up front, the cash is not yet earned. Record it in a deferred revenue liability and move it to income as each visit is done, so a spring of membership sales does not inflate those months. Keep the city filing fees some water departments charge for each backflow report in their own cost line, so the test price covers them.
Subcontractors and 1099s
Excavators, concrete cutters and drywall patchers on one cost line
Most plumbing companies hire some work out: excavation on sewer jobs, concrete cutting under slabs, drywall after a repipe. Post every subcontractor bill to a Subcontractor cost of goods sold account and tag it with the job and class. For payments made after December 31, 2025, the IRS reporting threshold for Form 1099-NEC is $2,000 a year per payee, up from $600.
Source: IRS, Form 1099-NEC and independent contractors (reviewed October 16, 2026)
In QuickBooks Online, add a sub under Expenses and bills, Contractors, or open an existing vendor and tick Track payments for 1099. Collect a W-9 before the first payment, with the tax ID and address, so the year-end 1099 report is complete without chasing anyone. A sub who is an employee in all but name is a payroll question for your CPA; the 1099 does not settle it.
Source: Intuit, Set up contractors for 1099s
Sales tax is the other setup that depends on the job: most states tax the materials when you buy them and not the installed work, some tax repair labor, and a few treat a plumber as a retailer. Set each service item’s taxability to the rules where you work; our contractor sales tax guide has every state with its own source.
The monthly close
Eight checks a plumbing company runs every month
Setup decides where records land; the monthly close checks that they did. These are the checks we run for plumbing clients, in order, once the month’s statements are in.
- Reconcile every bank and credit card account to its statement, including the supply house card.
- Match deposits from your field app or card processor, so Undeposited Funds holds only money that has not reached the bank.
- Check that every supply house bill for a job-bought part landed on a customer invoice, using the unbilled charges list.
- Check that every permit and inspection fee paid this month was billed back on the job it belongs to.
- Move earned backflow and membership revenue out of deferred revenue for the visits done this month.
- Look at profit on each sewer, repipe and new construction project closed this month, before the next bid goes out.
- Record the truck and warehouse count, or post the month's materials, by the method your CPA chose.
- Set the closing date so nobody changes a month you have reviewed.
Source: Intuit, Close your books in QuickBooks Online
If you run a field app, its sync is where the close usually breaks. Our guides cover the errors for ServiceTitan, Jobber and Housecall Pro, and a shop that also does a lot of drain work can see how we set up a drain cleaning company.
Sources
Where this guide comes from
- Intuit, What the QuickBooks Desktop stop-sell means for your business
- Intuit, Track transactions with classes (updated August 4, 2026)
- Intuit, QuickBooks Online usage limits
- Intuit, Set up and track your inventory in QuickBooks Online
- Intuit, Set up Advanced Inventory in QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise (updated August 5, 2026)
- QuickBooks Community, Tracking Inventory and COGS (asked by the bookkeeper of a plumbing and gas fitting company, March 2020)
- Intuit, Enter billable expenses (updated August 4, 2026)
- Intuit, Create projects in QuickBooks Online
- Intuit, Set up and send progress invoices
- Intuit, Create recurring invoices and other transactions (updated August 5, 2026)
- Intuit, Set up contractors for 1099s
- IRS, Form 1099-NEC and independent contractors (reviewed October 16, 2026)
- Intuit, Close your books in QuickBooks Online
Everything above describes QuickBooks Online as Intuit documents it, and the 1099 rule as the IRS states it, on the dates shown. If a line here no longer matches those pages, email hello@booksandtrucks.com and we will correct it.
If you would rather not
We set up QuickBooks for your plumbing company and keep it right
Classes, items, accounts, projects and recurring invoices set up once, then every account reconciled and every job tagged each month, in our plumbing bookkeeping from $599 a month on QuickBooks Online, or $995 with ServiceTitan. It starts with a free look at your books.
Booked calls: weekdays, 9am to 5pm Eastern. By phone, or 30 minutes on Teams.
Questions
QuickBooks for plumbers: questions
Is QuickBooks good for plumbers?
For the accounting, yes. QuickBooks Online handles invoices, supply house bills, payroll, sales tax and the reports a lender or CPA asks for, and the Plus plan adds the classes, Projects and inventory a plumbing company needs. It does not dispatch technicians or hold a flat-rate pricebook with photos and options. Most plumbing shops run a field service app for that and send its invoices and payments into QuickBooks.
Which QuickBooks Online plan does a plumbing company need?
Plus, for most. It is the first plan with class tracking, Projects and inventory tracking, which Simple Start and Essentials do not include. Plus allows 40 classes and locations combined. Move to Advanced if you run several branches and need more than that, or need estimates against actual costs per job.
Is there a plumbing version of QuickBooks?
QuickBooks Online has no plumbing edition. You make it fit a plumbing company with the setup on this page: a class for each kind of work, an income account for each, service items for your flat-rate tasks and the right item type for parts. Intuit stopped selling new QuickBooks Desktop Pro Plus and Premier Plus subscriptions in the US after September 30, 2024, so a new plumbing company starts on QuickBooks Online.
Can QuickBooks Online track parts on each plumbing truck?
Not truck by truck. QuickBooks Online counts quantity on hand per item, on Plus and Advanced, with first in, first out costing. Tracking stock by truck needs inventory sites, which Intuit offers in QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise's Advanced Inventory, or a field service app that tracks truck stock. Most plumbing shops on QuickBooks Online keep stock items for the big counted pieces and expense fittings to a materials account.
Can QuickBooks Online handle flat-rate pricing?
As a price list, yes. Each flat-rate task becomes a service item with its price and an income account, and the invoice picks it from the list. A full pricebook with good, better and best options, photos and member prices usually lives in ServiceTitan, Jobber or Housecall Pro, and only the invoice reaches QuickBooks.
Do I need to send my excavation sub a 1099?
If the sub is not a corporation and you paid them $2,000 or more for work in a calendar year, for payments made after December 31, 2025, yes, on Form 1099-NEC. The threshold was $600 before that. Collect a W-9 before the first payment and tick Track payments for 1099 on the vendor in QuickBooks, so the year-end report is complete.
Does ServiceTitan or Jobber replace QuickBooks for a plumber?
No. They send invoices, payments and, with ServiceTitan, bills into QuickBooks Online, which stays the ledger your CPA works from. The classes, items and accounts on this page decide whether those records land in the right place.
Can Books and Trucks set QuickBooks up for our plumbing company?
Yes. On the QuickBooks plan, from $599 a month, we set up the classes, items and accounts on this page and keep the books every month. If you run ServiceTitan, the ServiceTitan plan from $995 a month adds the monthly ServiceTitan to QuickBooks reconciliation and job costing. All past books are cleaned up free when you start.
QuickBooks is a trademark of Intuit Inc. ServiceTitan, Jobber and Housecall Pro are trademarks of their owners. Books and Trucks is an independent firm and is not part of any of them.