What Is Billable Expense Income?
Billable expense income is the income a business records when a client or property owner repays a cost the business already paid for them, such as materials, a permit, or a locksmith. In QuickBooks Online, that repayment posts to the Billable Expense Income account once the cost is added to an invoice.
Expenses
How it shows up in QuickBooks Online
QuickBooks Online adds a Billable Expense Income account when you track billable expenses as income. The cost you paid stays on its expense line. The repayment shows as income when that cost is added to a customer invoice. A service fee or management fee stays in its own income account.
The amounts below illustrate the posting.
A plumbing company pays $180 for fittings on the company card. The charge is coded to job materials and marked billable to the Smith customer. With track-as-income turned on, the $180 line on the Smith invoice posts to Billable Expense Income. The profit and loss shows $180 of materials expense and $180 of billable expense income. The labor fee is a separate income line.
With track-as-income turned off, QuickBooks reduces the original expense when you invoice, so the Billable Expense Income account stays off the profit and loss. That setting is why the line shows on one client file and is absent on another.
Markup is its own income
Markup is the amount added on top of the cost. QuickBooks posts it to the Markup account, or to the income account you assigned for markup. Billable expense income remains the repaid cost.
The same $180 of fittings, billed with a 15% markup, becomes a $207 invoice line. $180 posts to Billable Expense Income. The $27 markup posts to Markup. Billable expenses and markup applies a percentage from policy when the cost is flagged billable, so the rate is already on the line before invoicing.
Contractor client billback
A remodeler pays a $640 permit and $210 for lumber on the company card. Both charges are marked billable to the homeowner. The invoice lists each cost plus the markup in the contract. The $850 repayment is billable expense income. The markup is additional income. Coded to the job, those costs reach the invoice. Left uncoded, they stay in overhead.
Field crews hit this on every supply run. See expense management for construction.
Property manager owner billback
A property manager pays a $95 locksmith call for one unit. The cost is coded to that property and marked billable to the owner, so it belongs on the owner statement as a billback. The management fee stays in its own income account. In QuickBooks, the $95 repayment is billable expense income.
The same pattern covers filters, glass, and after-hours calls. See expense management for property management.
From the card to the invoice
The gap bookkeepers chase is a card swipe that was never coded to a job or a property. In card expense management, Clyr connects to the cards the company already uses. The charge is coded to the job or property and marked billable at that step. A percentage markup from policy is applied when the flag is set, and the line syncs to QuickBooks with the receipt attached.
Firms that do this work for clients can start from expense management for bookkeepers.
FAQs
Billable expense income is the income a business records when a client or property owner repays a cost the business already paid for them, such as materials, a permit, or a locksmith. In QuickBooks Online, that repayment posts to the Billable Expense Income account once the cost is added to an invoice.
Mark the cost billable to the customer when you enter the expense, bill, or card charge, then add that cost to the customer's invoice. With track billable expenses as income turned on, the invoiced amount posts to Billable Expense Income.
The repaid cost posts to Billable Expense Income. The markup posts to the Markup income account, or to the income account you assigned for markup.
An owner billback is a cost a property manager paid for a property and then charges back to the owner, separate from the management fee. In QuickBooks that repayment is billable expense income.
