How to Remove Unbilled Expenses in QuickBooks

Unbilled expenses can clutter your QuickBooks records and slow down invoice loading. This article provides a comprehensive guide on how to effectively remove unbilled expenses, ensuring accurate and efficient bookkeeping.

Key Facts

  1. Open QuickBooks and go to the “Customers & Leads” section in the menu.
  2. Look for the tracker at the top of the page that highlights your customers’ invoice activity, including paid, unpaid, overdue, and unbilled expenses in the last 365 days.
  3. If you have a low number of unbilled activities, you can manually go into each unbilled activity and deselect the “billable” box.
  4. If you have a high number of unbilled activities, it would be more time-efficient to use a bulk clean-up method. To do this, go to the following URL: https://app.qbo.intuit.com/app/managebillableexpense.
  5. A page titled “Hide Unbilled Expenses” will appear. Enter a date, and QuickBooks will mark all unbilled expenses created prior to that date as closed.
  6. Confirm that you want to proceed with this action, as it cannot be automatically reversed without manual work.
  7. After entering the date and saving, go back to the “Customers & Leads” page. You should see an instant update to the quantity of unbilled expenses.
  8. It’s important to note that this clean-up process will not affect your reporting.

Identifying Unbilled Expenses

  1. Navigate to the “Customers & Leads” section in QuickBooks.
  2. Locate the tracker at the top of the page that displays invoice activity, including unbilled expenses within the last 365 days.

Manual Removal

For a small number of unbilled activities, you can manually deselect the “billable” box for each activity.

Bulk Cleanup Method

For a large number of unbilled activities, consider using the bulk cleanup method:

  1. Visit the following URL: https://app.qbo.intuit.com/app/managebillableexpense.
  2. On the “Hide Unbilled Expenses” page, enter a date. QuickBooks will mark all unbilled expenses prior to that date as closed.
  3. Confirm the action and click “Save.”

Post-Cleanup Verification

After the cleanup process, return to the “Customers & Leads” page to verify the updated number of unbilled expenses.

Additional Notes

  • This cleanup method does not affect reporting.
  • It does not apply to time charge activities.
  • To remove time charge expenses from unbilled activities, create an invoice with a $0 balance due and change the time charge rate to 0. Save and close the invoice to remove it from unbilled activities.

Sources

FAQs

How do I identify unbilled expenses in QuickBooks?

Navigate to the “Customers & Leads” section and check the tracker at the top of the page for unbilled expenses within the last 365 days.

Can I manually remove unbilled expenses?

Yes, for a small number of activities, you can manually deselect the “billable” box for each activity.

How do I bulk remove unbilled expenses?

Visit https://app.qbo.intuit.com/app/managebillableexpense, enter a date, and click “Save” to mark all unbilled expenses prior to that date as closed.

Does the bulk cleanup method affect reporting?

No, the cleanup method does not affect reporting.

Can I remove time charge expenses from unbilled activities?

Yes, create an invoice with a $0 balance due and change the time charge rate to 0. Save and close the invoice to remove it from unbilled activities.

What happens if I accidentally remove an unbilled expense that should have been billed?

You can manually recreate the expense and mark it as billable.

Can I reverse the bulk cleanup process?

No, the bulk cleanup process cannot be automatically reversed. You would need to manually add back any expenses that were incorrectly removed.

Is there a limit to the number of unbilled expenses I can remove at once using the bulk cleanup method?

No, there is no limit to the number of unbilled expenses you can remove using the bulk cleanup method.