Project Insight supports the QuickBooks Online Project object type for organizations that use QuickBooks Online Projects to track project-related financial activity.
QuickBooks Online Projects are used to group job-related activity under a customer, including estimates, invoices, expenses, time, and project profitability. This allows project-based businesses to see financial activity by project instead of only by customer.
If your organization uses QuickBooks Online Projects, Project Insight can support that structure as part of your QuickBooks Online integration.
What is the QuickBooks Online Project object type?
In QuickBooks Online, a Project is a project-level record connected to a customer. It is commonly used for job costing, project profitability, and project-based billing.
A QuickBooks Online Project is different from:
- A customer
- A sub-customer
- A product or service item
- An older QuickBooks Desktop job
This distinction matters because project-based financial tracking depends on assigning transactions to the correct project record in QuickBooks Online.
How Project Insight supports QuickBooks Online Projects
Project Insight supports QuickBooks Online Projects so project-related financial activity can be connected to the correct project structure in QuickBooks.
This helps teams that manage work in Project Insight and financials in QuickBooks Online keep project information aligned across both systems.
Depending on your integration configuration, Project Insight can help support workflows involving:
- Project records
- Customer relationships
- Project-based billing
- Project-related time and expense tracking
- Project financial visibility
- QuickBooks Online project profitability workflows
This is especially useful for organizations that manage projects in Project Insight but need accounting, invoicing, or profitability reporting to remain connected to QuickBooks Online.
Why this matters
Some QuickBooks users previously tracked work using Jobs or sub-customers. In QuickBooks Online, many job costing workflows now use Projects instead.
Project Insight supports this newer QuickBooks Online project structure, so teams do not have to rely only on older customer or sub-customer mapping when their accounting process uses QBO Projects.
This helps reduce confusion when project managers, accounting teams, and leadership all need to see project-related financial information in the right place.
QuickBooks Jobs, sub-customers, and Projects are not the same thing
QuickBooks terminology can be confusing because “job,” “sub-customer,” and “project” are sometimes used interchangeably in everyday conversation.
However, in QuickBooks Online, these are separate concepts.
A customer is the company or person being billed.
A sub-customer is a child record under a customer. Some companies have historically used sub-customers to represent jobs.
A project is a QuickBooks Online project record used to organize job-related activity and track project profitability.
A product or service item is the line item being sold or billed.
Project Insight’s support for the QuickBooks Online Project object type means the integration can work with the project-level structure used by QuickBooks Online Projects.
When should you use QuickBooks Online Projects?
QuickBooks Online Projects are typically used when your organization wants to track income, costs, time, expenses, and profitability by project.
You may want to use QuickBooks Online Projects if:
- Your company bills customers by project
- You need project-level profitability reporting in QuickBooks Online
- You track labor, expenses, or invoices by project
- Your team previously used Jobs in QuickBooks Desktop
- Your team currently uses sub-customers as a workaround for project tracking
- Your accounting team wants project financial activity organized under a customer
What to review before connecting Project Insight and QuickBooks Online
Before setting up or updating your QuickBooks Online integration, review how your QuickBooks account is currently structured.
Check whether your organization uses:
- QuickBooks Online Projects
- Customers only
- Customers and sub-customers
- Older migrated QuickBooks Desktop Jobs
- Product or service items for billing
- A combination of the above
This review helps ensure that Project Insight and QuickBooks Online are aligned around the same project structure.
Common mistakes to avoid
Confusing a project with an item
A QuickBooks Online Project is not the same thing as a product or service item.
The project identifies the body of work or job. The item identifies what is being sold or billed on a transaction line.
Assuming Jobs and Projects are always the same
QuickBooks Desktop Jobs and QuickBooks Online Projects are related concepts, but they are not always a one-to-one match.
If your company migrated from QuickBooks Desktop, review how your jobs were brought into QuickBooks Online.
Using sub-customers when Projects are needed
Some teams use sub-customers to represent jobs. This may work for some billing structures, but QuickBooks Online Projects are designed specifically for project-based financial tracking and profitability.
Mapping only to the customer
If your accounting team tracks profitability by project, mapping financial activity only to the customer may not provide enough detail. The project-level structure should be reviewed during setup.
Project Insight does this by supporting project-based QuickBooks workflows
Project Insight helps project teams manage the work while QuickBooks Online manages the accounting. Supporting the QuickBooks Online Project object type helps connect those two sides of the business.
This gives teams a better way to manage project delivery, billing, time, expenses, and project financial visibility across systems.
Related articles
- QuickBooks Online integration overview
- How to connect Project Insight to QuickBooks Online
- Tracking project financials from budget to payment
- Time tracking and QuickBooks Online
- Project budgeting and billing in Project Insight
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