Tracking Equipment Time Many businesses, especially those in construction, would like to be able to charge for the time that their equipment is in use (usually in addition to the labor cost for the person using the equipment). Some businesses just want to track the time for job costing, without charging the time to a customer, or they just want to track the time equipment is in use so they know when to service the equipment. This article explains how to set up and use QuickBooks for these purposes. Set Up QuickBooks to Track Equipment Time Start by setting up QuickBooks to be able to track equipment usage, which means setting up the components needed to use time tracking features. Enable Time Tracking Enable time tracking as follows: Choose Edit | Preferences, and select Time & Expenses in the Category Pane. Move to the Company Tab. Select Yes under the question, "Do You Track Time?". Specify the first day of your work week. Click OK. Create the Item Create an item named EquipUse (or something similar), using the following guidelines: Use a Service item (only Service items can be used in timesheets). In the Description field, enter the text you want to use on the sales transaction, such as Use of Equipment. In the Rate field, specify an hourly rate for the use charge. In the Account field, enter the Income account to which you want to post this revenue. Note: If you have multiple pieces of equipment you want to track, create the first item as a Parent item, omitting the Rate field. Then create subitems for each piece of equipment, using the appropriate rate. Use only the subitems in transactions. Create an Equipment Vendor To track time, you need a vendor (or you can use an Other Name listing). Create a vendor/other name such as EquipUser. If you have multiple pieces of equipment to track, and specific workers use specific equipment, create a vendor/other name for each piece of equipment. Use a name related to the equipment; for example, for equipment named WidgetUse create a name such as WidgetUser. Entering Time Charges for Equipment You can use either a weekly timesheet or a single activity transaction to track equipment time. Choose Employees | Enter Time, and select the appropriate transaction form. Enter the appropriate data. If you are going to invoice the customer for the time, be sure the Billable check box has a check mark. If you're only job costing or tracking time to stay on top of servicing the equipment, deselect the Billable check mark. Reporting on Equipment Time Usage To see the amount of time you've charged to equipment use, choose Reports | Jobs, Time & Mileage. Then select Time by Item. To see equipment use by Customer/Job, select Time by Job (either Summary or Detail). To see equipment use sorted by the person using the equipment, choose Time by Name. If the report displays "Unbilled" it means the time transaction is marked "Billable", and can be added to a sales transaction for the customer. If the report displays "Not Billable", it means you deselected the Billable check mark because you're tracking equipment time for job costing or for service milestones. Tip: QuickBooks inserts a check mark in the Billable check box by default, and if you're doing job costing you may forget to deselect the check mark. Double-click the listing to open the original transaction and deselect the check mark. Charging Customers for Equipment Time If the time transaction is marked "Billable", the next time you create a sales transaction for the customer QuickBooks automatically displays a dialog reminding you that time charges exist and asking if you want to add them to the transaction. Select OK to view the charges and add them to the transaction. (You can elect to defer the charges to a future sales transaction.)