Your employees have incurred expenses for a specific job, and now that you’ve reimbursed them, you want to pass the cost on to the client. You can use the expense information from ProOnGo to instantly create an invoice, or add to an existing one. This is yet another way ProOnGo saves you time and improves your QuickBooks experience.

Here’s how to do it:

Step 1: Create the Expense In ProOnGo

The first step is to create the expense! Just go through the regular process of creating an expense in ProOnGo. First, use our receipt reader to record the expense information, or enter it manually. Then assign the correct Client to the expense and change the Type to “Billable.”

Once the expense is approved, you can send it to QuickBooks as you normally would, either as a Vendor Bill or via Write Check. In this case, we used Write Check.

Step 2: Reimburse That Expense

Open Write Check in QuickBooks and hover over the “Recent” button. You’ll see the expense!  You’ll notice that the expense is already assigned to the Client and marked as “Billable.”

Step 3: Create the Invoice in QuickBooks

Go to Clients, then Create an Invoice. If you’ve already created an invoice and want to add to it, no problem! Just select the correct Customer:Job.

Check the box next to “Billable Expense Charges” and your expense will be added to the invoice.

That’s it! No keying in information for you; you’re far too advanced for that. Creating invoices in QuickBooks is easy with ProOnGo!

Traveling abroad for work can be a great way to see the world, but it’s also a great way to mess up your expense reports. Currency conversion rates change, plus, who wants to do the extra math? ProOnGo has you covered – you can enter your expense in the foreign currency of your choice, then let ProOnGo convert it to USD for you. You can always set your home currency as something other than USD, too, so no matter where you are in the world, ProOnGo is useful to you.

Here’s how to set it up:

First, load ProOnGo to your phone. Then go to Options.

From Options, select “Currency Exchange Rates”

Enter your home currency – that is, the currency you’re submitting your expenses in – then enter the currency that you’d like converted.

Press back, then “Save.”

Then, when you go to create an expense, you will automatically be prompted to enter the expense in the foreign currency. ProOnGo calculates exchange rates and adjusts the amount accordingly.

That’s all there is to it! ProOnGo makes a great travel companion. You can get this feature by  subscribing to ProOnGo.

What should the equipment and materials we purchase to complete jobs for our customers be listed as:   Cost of Goods Sold or Expense?

That’s a great question which often confuses QuickBooks users (including this one!) Before we start on this blog, it should be noted that if you REALLY aren’t sure, it’s always wise to contact a CPA. Also, most engagements come with contracts that outline expense information, so you should probably check with that, too.

When thinking about Expense vs Cost of Goods Sold, first it’s important to understand that both of these are “expense” accounts. It’s also notable that there are tax regulations on what counts as an expense (again: contact a CPA). The easiest way to figure out whether or not an item should be listed as COGS (Cost of Goods Sold) or an Expense is to ask yourself three questions:

1. Is this item something that we have in our inventory and are selling/charging a client for?  If you answered yes, then this is most likely a COGS item.
2. Is this item something that you will use to create something else (ex: you buy hinges for kitchen cabinets that you are installing for a customer)? If you answered yes, then this is most likely a COGS item.
3. Is this item something you personally had to purchase because you were working on a specific job (ex: travel costs)? If you answered yes, then this is most likely an Expense item.

Most business that do not have inventories or are not involved in construction probably won’t use Cost of Goods Sold for anything. Expenses such as meals, entertainment expenses, computer software, gas and travel costs, and lodging costs are usually expenses. Most COGS items are purchased by companies, whereas most expense items are purchased by individual employees of a company. If you still aren’t sure, feel free to leave a brief explanation in the comments of this blog, and we’ll do our best to point you in the right direction.

Did you know: You can use ProOnGo to track your reimbursable expenses and company credit card expenses in QuickBooks! Check out all the ways we sync to QuickBooks.

How do reimburse an employee for mileage in QuickBooks?

Say your employee made a 100 mile round trip to attend a meeting. The meeting went great, but now you have to reimburse your employee for those 100 miles. Since miles aren’t a tangible item, you’re a little confused on how to reimburse them. Plus, mileage reimbursement follows tax regulations – the current reimbursement rate per mile is $0.555, but you should check with your accountant or irs.gov before you start issuing reimbursements.

You’re ready to reimburse an employee for mileage in QuickBooks. Here’s how to do it:

1. Create an expense account for mileage, if you haven’t done so already.
2. Create a Vendor Profile for the employee.
   NOTE: If your employee is already listed in the employee center, you’ll have to slightly alter the name of the Vendor slightly. So, if Jane Doe is your employee, the you would create a vendor named “Jane Doe.”.
3. Create a Vendor Bill from that vendor.
   a) assign the expense to the expense account you made in step 1, and enter the dollar amount (# of miles x 0.555)
4. Go to Pay Bill, and pay the bill.

Note that if your employee took more than one trip, you’ll have to enter an expense for each trip taken which can take up your valuable time. If you and your employee had been using ProOnGo to track mileage expenses, you could spend way less time keying in information and way more time doing important tasks (or looking at cats on the internet, whatever your thing is).

Did you know: You can use ProOnGo to track mileage, then send it to QuickBooks, right from your smart phone! Check out our mileage tracking for QuickBooks.

Since we’ve become so focused on our QuickBooks integration lately, we received a lot of expenses regarding employees and reimbursement. Since our on-staff QuickBooks Pro Advisor, Amber, is hard at work answering these QuickBooks questions, we figure we might as well post some of the common questions we receive.

How do I reimburse employees in QuickBooks? I use QuickBooks for payroll but I don’t want the reimbursement to affect their w2’s.

So, your employees have incurred expenses, and you’ve approved them already. You’re confident in your employees and they’re confident in you getting their reimbursements into their next paycheck. The only problem is, you don’t know how! Oh no!

Reimbursement via QuickBooks payroll is a little more complicated than reimbursement through the Write Checks or Vendor Bill methods, but it’s definitely doable.

Here’s how:

1. Open QuickBooks.
2. From the Lists drop down menu at the top of the screen, click “Payroll Items.”
3. Click “New Item.”
4. You’ll have to go through the EZ Setup to create a Miscellaneous Addition.
   1. The expense will be shown in the Payroll Items list; right click it, and select “Edit” to label the item correctly – QuickBooks will guide you through a series of steps to properly address the question of tax status, and other details.
   2. From the home screen, click Pay Employees.
   3. Click the Pay Employees button, and select the employee you’d like to pay.
   4. Click Open Paycheck Detail .
   5. Under the Other Payroll Items menu, find and select the item you just made.
   6. Click Save & Close, and continue with the normal payroll process.

And there you have it! Your employee’s expense reimbursement will be on their paycheck.

Did you know: ProOnGo supports payroll items! Check out how we sync to QuickBooks.