Timesheets

If you'd like, you can share timesheet details between the two systems. You can either import (history) from QuickBooks to BigTime, or you can post information from BigTime to QuickBooks.

Importing History from QuickBooks

You can import your timesheet history from QuickBooks by using the Tools... QuickBooks Data... Import History screen.

1. Browse to the Tools... QuickBooks Data... Import History screen.
2. Check off the "Import Time" check box and
3. fill in the date range for which you'd like to import data.
4. Click the GO button at the bottom of the page to begin the import.

When you import timesheet data from QuickBooks, you have a couple of optional parameters.

• Default Job. If a time entry is not linked to a specific job, then it can't be imported. So, BigTime lets you specify a "default" job for entries that are missing a job code. That's typically your firm's house account.
• Default Category. If you'd like to link time to a default labor code (assuming no service item was entered in QuickBooks), then you can do that as well.
• Time Charges. QuickBooks doesn't store the billing rate history for your jobs. Instead, it stores only the current "price" for the service item to which a time entry is linked. You can, however, use the billing rate information on your project invoices to guess the correct historical billing rates when you import time into BigTime.
• Auto-Populate Teams. If you're just starting out, then you may want to use the time entry data that you import from QuickBooks to pre-populate your project teams in BigTime. If you select this option, then anyone who's ever logged time against a job will be added to that job's project team in BigTime.

Posting Timesheets from BigTime

While there are a number of things to consider as you're preparing to exchange time entry details, actually transferring data is extremely simple. Once your system is setup the way you'd like it, exporting time details is as simple as checking off the timesheets you'd like to export and clicking the "post" button.

Note that if you aren't planning on posting timesheet data to QuickBooks, then you can turn that feature off in the Tools... System Settings... Workflow screen. This will hide the Post Timesheets menu item on screen.

Before we post timesheet data to QuickBooks, we'll talk about a few of the items you need to setup in order to make sure time transfers properly.

Mapping Projects/Service Items

You can only export time detail records that are linked to a valid QuickBooks job and a valid QuickBooks service item. So, if you are using a house account to track things like vacation, sick time, travel, etc. you'll need to make sure that house account has been linked to a job in your QuickBooks job list.

You'll also need to make sure that a service item is specified for each time entry. BigTime can pull service items from either the labor code the user selects or the budget item they select.

• To link labor codes to QuickBooks service items, use the Tools... System Settings... Labor Codes screen.
• To link specific budget items to a QuickBooks service item, refer to the estimating chapter.

If a user enters time against both a budget item and a labor code, then BigTime assumes that the budget item's "QuickBooks link" takes precedence.

Payroll Items

If you have no hourly employees (or—you don't use the QuickBooks payroll service), then you don't need to setup any payroll filters. If you have one or more hourly employees, however, then each of their time records will need to be attached to a specific payroll item (so your QuickBooks payroll system knows what rate to pay).

In QuickBooks, you enter a payroll item when you create your timesheet. In BigTime, the user doesn't get to determine what payroll item their time is attached to. Instead, you create a set of "rules" that apply those payroll items automatically.

If, for example, you decide that any time billed to the project "Internal:Vacation" should be linked to the payroll item "Vacation," then you setup that rule in the Monitor. You can also setup a "default" payroll item, so your payroll logic can (for example) look like this:

1. Time linked to Internal:Vacation should be linked to the "Vacation" payroll item.
2. Time linked to Internal:Sick should be linked to the "Sick" payroll item.
3. Time entered by "Hourly" employees should be linked to the "Hourly" payroll item.
4. All remaining time should be linked to the "Salary" payroll item (the default).

Setting up Payroll Filters

You create payroll filters in the BigTime Monitor. Just open up the Monitor's Import... QuickBooks... Settings page, and click on the Payroll Filters tab.

The "default" payroll item can be edited here, along with a list of filters you've defined for your system. In this sample screen, the default item is "salary." We're also editing a payroll filter that we've created.

• Template Name. This field is the name of the payroll filter we've created. Since BigTime applies those filters in alpha order, we've called this filter "01-Vacation" because we want to apply that filter first.
• Payroll Item. The payroll item in QuickBooks to which time should be linked.
• Filter Type/Selection. You can create filters based on the user's payroll "group" (from their staff/hr section), the project/category against which time is tracked, or the day of the week on which an entry is recorded.

QuickBooks and Overtime Pay

In QuickBooks, Overtime pay is difficult to track automatically. That's because each individual time entry is linked to a single payroll item. If an employee works 45 hours and is eligible for 5 hours of overtime, you would need a separate "time record" of 5 hours for overtime data (e.g. – you can't enter five separate 9 hour days and link "part" of that time to the overtime payroll item).

For this reason, most firms adjust employee payroll for overtime manually (after they've generated payroll but before the checks are cut).

If you'd like your employees to be able to indicate what hours are overtime, you could setup an "overtime" labor code. Then, setup a new payroll filter (of type "Labor Code") and include that overtime category in it. Then, each hour logged to the "overtime" code will be linked (when exported to QuickBooks) to your overtime payroll item.