What a project holds
A project is attached to a customer and collects transactions you tag to it. Income includes invoices and payments, costs include bills, expenses and checks, and labor comes from time entries. The project page shows a profitability summary, so you can see revenue, costs and margin without running multiple reports. Availability depends on the subscription level.
Create and set up a project
From the Projects page, choose New project, name it, pick the customer and add a due date and notes. Then start tagging. When you create an invoice for that customer, a project field appears. The same applies to bills and expense entries. Bank rules can also assign a project, which is helpful for a recurring job-specific cost.
Time and labor cost
If employees or contractors enter time, assign it to the project and mark it billable or not. To see labor cost, enter hourly cost rates for each person. Without cost rates, your project margin overstates profit because labor appears free. Time can be pulled into an invoice, which lowers the chance of forgetting to bill hours.
Compare estimate to actual
Create an estimate and link it to the project. The project view then compares estimated amounts to actual ones, so you can see when you are drifting. Review it midway through a job rather than at the end. A materials overrun found early can be addressed with a change order, while one found afterward is a loss.
Limits and good habits
Projects do not replace a full job costing system with retainage and progress billing for complex construction. Some details, like overhead allocation, need classes or manual journal entries. Make tagging a habit: untagged bills and expenses will not appear on the project, and your profit will look better than reality. At the end, mark the project complete, review the final margin, and record lessons for your next estimate. If a project is large, ask your bookkeeper to review a profit report before you issue the last invoice, so any missing cost is caught while you can still bill for it.
Naming and organizing projects
Use a naming style that sorts well, such as customer, job type and year. Add a short description of scope in the notes field. If you run recurring work for the same customer, consider one project per season or per contract rather than a single endless project, since a closed project gives you a clean margin figure for that piece of work.
Archive finished projects after you have reviewed them, so the active list stays short.
After several projects of the same kind, compare their margins. If margins vary widely, look for the cause: scope creep, unbilled time, or supplier cost changes. Set a target margin and use it when you quote new work. Without this data, pricing tends to rely on guesswork.
Worked example with numbers
A kitchen remodel project is estimated at $10,000 of income and $6,000 of cost. So far you have invoiced $7,000 and tracked $4,800 of costs: $3,100 materials, $1,200 subcontractor, $500 labor. Profit to date is $7,000 - $4,800 = $2,200, a 31% margin on billed work. Against the estimate, costs are $4,800 of $6,000, or 80%, while invoicing is 70% of the estimate.
Costs running ahead of billing is the warning sign: either bill the next stage or check whether costs will exceed the estimate.
Mistakes that cost money
Forgetting to tag costs to the project so profit looks better than it is. Using projects for tiny jobs where the overhead is not worth it. Leaving finished projects open. Using inconsistent names so reports do not sort.
Check your work
Run the project profitability report and confirm that the sum of all projects plus unassigned amounts equals the company total.
Common questions
Do projects work with classes?
They can be used together, but start with one method so reports stay clear.
Can I move transactions between projects?
Yes. Edit the transaction and change the project field, unless the period is closed.
This guide is general information, not tax, legal or accounting advice. Rules, fees and due dates change; check with the IRS, the NJ Division of Taxation or a licensed professional for your situation.