Labor tracking in Adaptive syncs time activities from QuickBooks, calculates internal labor costs using employee cost rates, and lets you bill clients for labor on draws using job billable rates.
1. Viewing Time Sheets
To review labor activity:
Go to Time sheets.
Review imported time sheets and time activities from QuickBooks.
Use filters to narrow the list by date, job, account, cost code, class, employee, contractor, or missing information.
Adaptive shows details such as:
Ref #
Date
Hours
Cost
Price
Employee or vendor
Cost code
Jobs
Billable status
Important: Time sheets are imported from QuickBooks. Hours, employee/vendor, and date are not edited directly in Adaptive. Depending on your permissions and sync settings, you can update fields such as job, billable status, cost code/account, description, class, and custom categories.
2. Setting Up Employee Cost Rates
Cost rates tell Adaptive how much labor costs your company internally.
To set cost rates:
Go to Settings → People.
Click +Invite People and Import from QuickBooks if the employee has not been synced yet.
Open the employee profile.
In QuickBooks sync, link the Adaptive user to the matching QuickBooks employee.
In Time tracking, enter the employee’s Current cost rate.
Choose the Starting date for that rate.
Click Save.
The cost rate should be the employee’s fully burdened hourly rate.
Important: Adaptive applies the cost rate only to time activities dated on or after the starting date. Time activities without a matching cost rate are flagged as missing information and may show no calculated cost.
3. Reviewing Missing Cost Rates
If time activities are missing rate information, Adaptive shows a warning that says Some of your time activities are missing information.
To fix missing cost rates:
Open Time sheets.
Use the missing information filter for Cost rate.
Select the affected time sheets.
Click Set cost rate.
Enter the hourly rate and save.
Adaptive multiplies the rate by the number of hours on the selected time sheets.
4. Setting Job Billable Rates
Billable rates tell Adaptive what to charge the client for labor on a job.
To set billable rates:
Open the job.
Go to the job settings.
Find Time activity billable rate.
Choose one of the billing structures:
Single rate
Rates by employee
Rates by cost code
Enter the rates and save.
To reuse rates from another job, click Copy from previous job.
Note: Cost and price are different. Cost is your internal labor cost. Price is the amount billed to the client.
5. Adding Labor to Draws
After time activities have jobs and billable rates, you can add them to a draw.
To add labor to a draw:
Open the job.
Go to Draws.
Create or open a draw.
Click Add line from costs.
Filter by Time activity if needed.
Select the time activities to include.
Add them to the draw.
Adaptive calculates:
Cost: hours multiplied by the employee cost rate
Price: hours multiplied by the job’s time activity billable rate
If a time activity is linked to a draw, the time sheet detail shows the linked draw.
6. What Clients See
Draws use the billable labor amount, not the employee’s internal cost rate.
When you share draw exports or backup with clients, they see the billable labor information needed for the draw. Internal employee cost rates remain private.
7. QuickBooks Sync
Adaptive syncs time activities with QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop when labor tracking is enabled.
QuickBooks time activity details can include:
Employee or vendor
Date
Hours
Job
Cost code or account
Class
Description
QuickBooks Time or Classic QuickBooks Time activities appear in Adaptive after they are approved in QuickBooks. Time activities entered directly in QuickBooks appear after they are saved and synced.
8. Quick Setup Summary
To start tracking and billing labor:
Sync employees from QuickBooks in Settings → People.
Link each Adaptive user to the correct QuickBooks employee.
Add each employee’s Current cost rate and Starting date.
Set Time activity billable rate on each job.
Add eligible time activities to draws using Add line from costs.
Additional Resources:
If you prefer not to set up QuickBooks time activities, we have another helpful article that walks you through an alternative way to create a labor entry in Adaptive.
If you have any questions or want to share feedback, feel free to reach out at [email protected].