Entering time worked for employees and contractors into QuickBooks can be accomplished using one of two options: “Use Weekly Timesheet,” or “Time/Enter Single Activity.”  The Single Activity selection will allow you to track up-to-the-minute activity.  I always recommend using 15-minute increments in time entry to make both entry and other calculations easier to do.  The Weekly Timesheet is laid out so you can see all time worked and exactly what was done for each day.

The Weekly Timesheet already has pre-determined start and stop days for your work week, but you can change this under Edit>Preferences>Time & Expenses.  This ability to change comes in handy when matching up client timesheets with QuickBooks timesheets, as client work weeks can vary.

On either timesheet, you can choose to enter time for employees or vendors.  If you do select a vendor, the payroll option will not be available.  When you choose an employee, you have options for allocating time worked to customers/jobs and service items.  There are also options for adding notes, and entering time in decimal or minute formats.

When you set up employees, you can choose to “Use time data to create paychecks.”  This option will allow for timesheet information to be pulled automatically when you process payroll.  Be sure to check ALL time information in the payroll function BEFORE you save the check for processing.  If you find an error AFTER processing the check, you will have to correct it BOTH in the timesheet AND in the payroll…it will no longer update from the timesheet once the payroll has been saved.

If you are pulling in time for a Vendor Bill, you are creating a bill to be paid and not a paycheck to be processed.  If you have entered time for a vendor and then select that vendor to create a Bill, QuickBooks will warn you that there is time for this vendor to be pulled in, and will ask for your desired time-period for the bill.  As with payroll, check your information carefully before saving the bill.  You will have to totally delete the bill and start fresh if you find an error after the fact.