Guide for HVAC, plumbing and electrical owners on QuickBooks Online
Job costing in QuickBooks Online for contractors: Projects, billable expenses, and what QuickBooks cannot do
QuickBooks Online does job costing through Projects on the Plus and Advanced plans: every invoice, expense, bill and timesheet is tagged to a project, labor is costed from an hourly cost rate or from payroll, and the Project profitability report shows income, costs and margin per job. It has no cost codes, no work in progress schedule and no retainage field in the US help pages, so those live outside QuickBooks or in a workaround. Here is how each piece works, from Intuit’s own pages.
By Nischal, CA, the senior accountant who reviews every client’s books. Checked against Intuit’s help pages on October 25, 2026.
The plan you need
Job costing starts at Plus; cost estimates need Advanced
Intuit lists job costing as available in QuickBooks Online Plus and Advanced. Plus brings Projects, billable expenses, progress invoicing and up to 40 classes and locations. Advanced adds cost estimates per line, the estimates vs actuals report and unlimited classes. The two cheaper plans do not list Projects at all. Prices below are Intuit’s promotional and regular monthly prices on October 25, 2026; they change.
| Plan | Price a month | Projects | Classes | Estimates vs actuals |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Simple Start | $19 a month promotional, $38 regular | Not listed | Not listed | No |
| Essentials | $42.50 promotional, $85 regular | Not listed | Not listed | No |
| Plus | $70 promotional, $140 regular | Yes: track project profitability | Yes, up to 40 classes and locations | No |
| Advanced | $170 promotional, $340 regular | Yes: advanced project financials | Yes, unlimited | Yes |
Source: Intuit, Job costing in QuickBooks Online
Source: Intuit, QuickBooks Online pricing (promotional prices, read October 25, 2026)
Intuit says job costing “works best with QuickBooks Workforce and QuickBooks Time”, its payroll and time-tracking products, because those feed labor cost and hours into projects automatically. They are not required; the hourly cost rate method below works without them.
How Projects works
One project per job, every transaction tagged to it
Projects is switched on under Settings, Account and settings, Advanced (“Organize all job-related activity in one place”). Each project belongs to one customer. A new project is empty until transactions are added to it, by hand from the Add to project menu or by choosing the project on the invoice, expense, bill or timesheet as it is entered. Intuit describes job costing as tracking “materials, labor, and vendor costs by project”.
Source: Intuit, Create projects in QuickBooks Online
Source: Intuit, Job costing in QuickBooks Online
For a trade shop the practical rule is one project per job that lasts more than a day or that you want to compare later: a changeout, a repipe, a panel upgrade, a commercial maintenance contract. Routine service calls can stay on the customer without a project, with the technician and job type carried by the item and the class. The reports that matter are the project overview (income and cost bars), the Project profitability report and the Time cost by employee or vendor report.
Source: Intuit, Track hourly labor costs and profitability by project (updated August 5, 2026)
Labor cost
Two ways to put a technician’s hours on the job
Intuit gives two methods, and you can switch between them. Payroll expenses: with QuickBooks Workforce the full cost of wages, employer taxes and workers’ comp posts to the project after payroll runs. Estimated hourly costs: you set an hourly cost rate per employee, and every timesheet hour tracked to the project is costed at that rate at once, less precisely but immediately. Without a payroll app, payroll expenses are entered by hand into a Payroll Expenses account.
Source: Intuit, Track hourly labor costs and profitability by project (updated August 5, 2026)
The hourly cost rate is set under Projects, Employee hourly rate. For hourly staff the calculator fills in wage and employer taxes; for salaried staff you divide the annual wage including employer taxes by weeks worked and then by hours a week. Intuit says to add workers’ comp and overhead, giving office electricity and jobsite snacks as examples. Three rules bite in practice: set the rate before tracking time, because it applies only to time tracked after it is set; salaried staff must track hours to a project to be costed at all; and the Time Activity tab and the Time cost report always use the hourly rate whatever the dropdown says.
Source: Intuit, Track hourly labor costs and profitability by project (updated August 5, 2026)
Billable expenses and progress invoices
Getting materials and part-payments onto the invoice
Billable expenses, on Plus and Advanced, let a bill, expense or check carry a Billable tick and a customer, with an optional markup rate, so the cost lands on the next invoice through the Add to invoice window. Progress invoicing, switched on under Settings, Account and settings, Sales, lets you convert an estimate to an invoice for a percentage, the whole amount or chosen lines, as many times as needed until 100% is invoiced.
Source: Intuit, Enter billable expenses (updated August 4, 2026)
Source: Intuit, Set up and send progress invoices (updated August 24, 2026)
To turn billable expenses on: Settings, Account and settings, Expenses, Bills and expenses, then “Make expenses and items billable” together with “Show Items table on expense and purchase forms” and “Track expenses and items by customer”. The markup rate, billable expense tracking and sales tax are optional settings on the same screen. For progress invoicing, the Estimates and Progress Invoicing Summary by Customer report lists every open estimate with the amount invoiced so far and the amount left; you cannot invoice more than 100% of an estimate, and an invoice can be unlinked from its estimate under Linked transactions.
Source: Intuit, Enter billable expenses (updated August 4, 2026)
Source: Intuit, Set up and send progress invoices (updated August 24, 2026)
What QuickBooks cannot do
Six things contractors ask for that need a workaround or another tool
Intuit’s own pages describe projects, items, classes, labor rates, billable expenses and, on Advanced, cost estimates. They do not describe cost codes, a work in progress schedule or a retainage field, and a QuickBooks Community reply from April 2026 states plainly that QuickBooks Online has no native WIP report and does not track the contract value or cost to complete that one needs. Here is each gap and what we do about it.
| What contractors need | In QuickBooks Online? | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Cost codes (a numbered list of cost types per job, as construction software uses) | No. Intuit's job costing pages offer projects, products and services, and classes; there is no cost code field. | Use the product and service list as the cost list (labor, materials, equipment, subcontractor, permits) and classes for business units. Keep the list short enough that technicians pick the right one. |
| Work in progress and percentage of completion | No native WIP report. A WIP schedule needs the contract value and the cost to complete, which QuickBooks Online does not track. | Keep the WIP schedule outside QuickBooks, one row per open job, and post the over- or under-billing adjustment as a month-end journal entry. Relevant for jobs that run across month ends; a one-day service call does not need it. |
| Retainage held by the customer | Intuit's US help pages we read show no retainage field on the invoice. The Canadian edition of the Projects article mentions a Retainage setting under Account and settings, Advanced, so check your own Settings first. | If there is no setting: a Retainage Receivable account (other current asset) and a service item posting to it, the retained amount as a line on each progress invoice, and a final invoice that releases it. Our general contractor page covers how we track it. |
| Estimated cost per line and the estimates vs actuals report | Advanced only. Plus shows income and costs by project but has no cost estimate on the estimate form. | On Plus, keep the bid's cost build-up in the estimating tool or a spreadsheet and compare it to the Project profitability report at the end of the job. |
| Labor cost that includes taxes, workers' comp and overhead, automatically | Only with QuickBooks Workforce (payroll) running, or with an hourly cost rate you set per employee. The rate applies only to time tracked after it is set. | Set the hourly cost rate for every technician before the first timesheet, including employer taxes, workers' comp and an overhead share; revisit it each quarter. |
| Job costing for a shop on ServiceTitan, Jobber or Housecall Pro | The sync sends invoices and payments, not job costs. Housecall Pro does not separate labor from materials in the sync; Jobber's own job costing lives in Jobber. | Cost jobs where the field data is: ServiceTitan's job costing with QuickBooks as the ledger (our ServiceTitan plan), or Jobber's job costing on Jobber Books Pro. QuickBooks Projects suits shops that invoice from QuickBooks itself. |
Source: Intuit, Job costing in QuickBooks Online
Source: Intuit, Compare project cost estimates vs actuals (QuickBooks Online Advanced)
Source: Intuit, Create projects in QuickBooks Online
Where the field software does the costing, use it. Our ServiceTitan job costing page explains how we cost every ServiceTitan job with QuickBooks as the ledger; the Jobber plan covers Jobber’s own job costing on Jobber Books Pro; and the Housecall Pro sync guide shows why that sync cannot cost jobs on its own. For progress billing and retainage on larger jobs, see the general contractor page. For the account list behind all of it, the chart of accounts guide has the 75 accounts we start from.
Sources
Where this guide comes from
- Intuit, Job costing in QuickBooks Online
- Intuit, QuickBooks Online pricing (promotional prices, read October 25, 2026)
- Intuit, Create projects in QuickBooks Online
- Intuit, Track hourly labor costs and profitability by project (updated August 5, 2026)
- Intuit, Enter billable expenses (updated August 4, 2026)
- Intuit, Set up and send progress invoices (updated August 24, 2026)
- Intuit, Compare project cost estimates vs actuals (QuickBooks Online Advanced)
- QuickBooks Community, Work in Progress, General Contractor, Construction (thread started July 2020, last reply April 2026)
Everything above describes QuickBooks Online as Intuit documents it on the dates shown. Intuit changes features and prices without notice; if a line here no longer matches its pages, email hello@booksandtrucks.com and we will correct it.
If you would rather not
We set up Projects and keep every job tagged
Projects, the item list, classes, labor cost rates, billable expenses and progress invoicing set up once, then every bank and card account reconciled and every job costed each month, in our QuickBooks plan from $599 a month, for HVAC, plumbing and electrical shops. 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 Online job costing questions
Does QuickBooks Online allow for job costing?
Yes, on the Plus and Advanced plans, through Projects. You tag every invoice, expense, bill and timesheet to a project, set an hourly cost rate per employee or run QuickBooks Workforce payroll, and the Project profitability report shows income, costs and margin per job. Simple Start and Essentials do not list Projects.
Which QuickBooks plan do I need for job costing?
Plus at least ($70 a month promotional, $140 regular, on October 25, 2026). Plus has Projects, billable expenses, progress invoicing and up to 40 classes. Advanced ($170 promotional, $340 regular) adds cost estimates per line and the estimates vs actuals report, plus unlimited classes.
How do I get labor cost into a job in QuickBooks Online?
Two ways, and you can switch between them. Payroll expenses: with QuickBooks Workforce, the real cost of wages, taxes and workers' comp posts to the project after you run payroll. Hourly cost rate: you enter a rate per employee that includes wage, employer taxes and overhead, and every timesheet hour on the project is costed at that rate immediately. Salaried staff must track hours to a project to be costed at all.
Can QuickBooks Online do percentage of completion or a WIP schedule?
No. There is no native work in progress report, and QuickBooks Online does not hold the contract value or the cost to complete that a WIP schedule needs. Keep the schedule outside QuickBooks and post the month-end adjustment as a journal entry. Most HVAC, plumbing and electrical service work finishes the same day and does not need one; multi-month installs and commercial jobs do.
How do I bill a job in parts in QuickBooks Online?
Turn on progress invoicing (Settings, Account and settings, Sales, Progress Invoicing), then convert an estimate to an invoice for a percentage, the whole amount, or chosen lines, as many times as needed until 100% is invoiced. The Estimates and Progress Invoicing Summary by Customer report shows what is left to bill on every open estimate.
Why do CPAs not like QuickBooks Online for contractors?
The usual complaints are about construction-style needs, not about service work: no cost codes, no work in progress or percentage of completion, no retainage field, and cost estimates only on Advanced. For an HVAC, plumbing or electrical shop that bills jobs when they finish, QuickBooks Online with Projects and a good item list does the job; the gaps matter for general contractors and long commercial projects.
Is job costing worth it for a 5-truck shop?
Yes, if it costs the technicians nothing. The owner question behind the r/Contractor thread "Is quickbooks job costing worth it for a small business like me" (40 or more comments, March 2026) is usually about the effort of tagging. If the field software or the invoice template tags the job automatically, job costing is the only way to see which job types, technicians and customers make money. If every tag is typed by hand, start with the few job types you want to compare.
Can Books and Trucks set this up for us?
Yes. On the QuickBooks plan, from $599 a month, we set up Projects, the item list, classes, billable expenses and progress invoicing, and keep every job tagged every month. On the ServiceTitan plan, from $995 a month, we run job costing from ServiceTitan's own data with QuickBooks as the ledger. All past books are cleaned up free when you start.
QuickBooks, QuickBooks Workforce and QuickBooks Time are trademarks 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.