QuickBooks holds the books and, for many owners, the payroll. Time has to arrive in a form it can use.
If QuickBooks runs your payroll, approved hours can feed it directly and the paycheck follows. If payroll is somewhere else and QuickBooks only receives the wages, the connection is about journals and categories. Name your case before the first call. The two have different checks and different people involved.
To record clock-ins, breaks and overtime automatically, see EZTime time and attendance software.
The data points, direction and timing for your account are confirmed with the EZTime team during setup, so use this page to prepare your questions rather than as a technical specification.
QuickBooks Online lets you tag transactions with classes and locations. A contractor might use classes for jobs and locations for crews. If you want labor cost by job, make the class list first and use the same names in EZTime as job codes. Spelling differences will otherwise appear as two jobs.
A remodeling crew has these made-up hours and costs for a week:
| Job | Hours | Cost at $34 loaded | Quoted labor |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kitchen on Elm St | 92 | $3,128 | $3,000 |
| Bath on Oak Ave | 60 | $2,040 | $2,400 |
| Deck on Pine Rd | 28 | $952 | $900 |
The kitchen ran $128 over the labor quote and the bath came in $360 under. Without hours by job, QuickBooks sees only the total payroll and the job gains and losses blur together.
If you bill clients for time, hours from EZTime can support the invoice lines. Match each task to a service item in QuickBooks, so a plumber’s hour and an apprentice’s hour appear at the right rates. Check a few invoices against the time records before you send them in bulk.
At month end, compare total approved hours with payroll hours and wages. A small difference is rounding or a late edit. A large one means a mapping or a cut-off is wrong, and it is easier to fix in the month it happened.
The worked example above uses a loaded rate, not the wage on the paycheck. A loaded rate adds the costs an employer pays on top of each hour of wages, so job costing in QuickBooks reflects what an hour really costs you. A fictional apprentice paid $25.00 an hour shows how it is built:
| Cost item | Per hour | How it is worked out |
|---|---|---|
| Base wage | $25.00 | From the pay rate |
| Employer Social Security and Medicare | $1.91 | 7.65% of wages |
| Federal and state unemployment, workers comp | $2.10 | Rates vary by state, class code and history; this figure is made up |
| Health and other benefits | $3.40 | Monthly premium share divided by hours worked |
| Paid time off | $1.59 | Paid hours not worked, spread across worked hours |
| Loaded rate | $34.00 | Sum of the lines above |
Recalculate the rate when wages, insurance renewals or tax rates change, usually once or twice a year. Keep one rate per role rather than one per person, so a job estimate does not change just because a different crew member showed up.
Moving hours into QuickBooks does not change what you have to keep. Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, the U.S. Department of Labor requires employers to keep payroll records for at least three years and the time cards and work schedules behind them for at least two years. The IRS asks employers to keep employment tax records for at least four years after the tax is due or paid. Many states set longer periods.
In practice, that means the approved time records, the edits made to them and the payroll totals should all be retrievable together. EZTime keeps time history for up to seven years and records timecard corrections with an audit trail, so a reconciliation question from two years ago can still be traced back to the original punch.
| What happens | Why | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| The same job appears twice in reports | Job codes in EZTime and classes in QuickBooks are spelled differently | Copy the class list into EZTime exactly, then lock the names |
| Invoiced hours do not match paid hours | Invoices were built before the timecards were approved | Bill only from approved hours, after the cut-off |
| Overtime cost lands on the wrong job | Overtime is calculated weekly but spread evenly across jobs | Agree a rule, for example overtime is charged to the job worked after hour 40 |
| Labor by location looks too low | Travel and shop time were never tagged | Add codes for shop, travel and training so every paid hour has a home |
None of these need a technical fix. They are naming and timing problems, and they are cheaper to solve before the first payroll than after the third.
It can, through the EZTime API (Premium plan) or a custom integration built by EZTime’s development team. Ask the EZTime team how it works with your version and setup.
Not always. Tell the EZTime team which one you use.
Yes, with job codes in EZTime that match your classes or projects in QuickBooks.
Either can work. What matters is a written rule that managers apply the same way every week, because a changing rule makes job profitability impossible to compare.
The U.S. Department of Labor requires two years for time cards and three for payroll records under the FLSA, and the IRS asks for four years for employment tax records. Check your state, which may require longer.
Not for payroll itself. You need it if you want job costing or quotes to reflect the true cost of an hour.
Wages as a share of revenue
Weekly overtime math
Add up shifts and breaks
Book a demo and bring one pay period or one week of sales. We will go through what you want to see and which data is needed.
QuickBooks is a trademark of its owner. EZTime is not affiliated with or endorsed by QuickBooks. This page is general information, not legal, payroll or tax advice. Rules differ by state, city and contract, and they change. Check with a qualified professional before you act. Numbers in examples are made up.