Does QuickBooks Online do job costing?

Yes, at a basic level. QuickBooks Online Plus and Advanced include Projects, which tracks income and costs per job and reports project profitability. Detailed job costing by phase and cost code, and work-in-progress reporting, usually need a contractor-focused tool that syncs with QuickBooks.

How do I see profit by customer in QuickBooks Online?

Revenue by customer is available in standard sales reports. Profit by customer needs costs assigned to customers, either by recording costs against projects or customers as they occur, or by allocating shared costs with a consistent rule. Without cost assignment you see revenue concentration, not profitability.

What is the difference between class and location tracking?

In QuickBooks Online, a class is assigned per line on a transaction, and a location per transaction. Classes usually represent departments, product lines or service types; locations represent offices, stores or regions. Both are available on Plus (40 combined) and Advanced (unlimited), and not on Simple Start or Essentials.

Why can a profitable company have unprofitable customers?

Because a blended margin averages strong and weak work together. A few customers with heavy discounting, high support costs or slow payment can lose money on every sale while the total still looks healthy. Analysis by customer or product is how those are found.

Buyer's guide

Profitability analysis tools for QuickBooks Online, compared

Profitability analysis for QuickBooks Online means measuring margin below the company level: by job or project, by customer, by product, or by department or location. QuickBooks Online does some of this natively. On Plus and Advanced plans, Projects tracks profitability per job, and class and location tracking produces a profit and loss for each segment.

Which tool you need depends on the question. Contractors and project businesses need job costing, which means assigning labor and materials to each job as they are incurred. Owners asking which customers or product lines actually make money need margin analysis across segments with consistent cost allocation. This guide covers both.

6 tools compared, listed alphabetically, not ranked. MarginLens is our own app; we have tried to describe it as plainly as the others. Pricing and features checked October 2026; confirm with the vendor.

How to choose

Unit of analysis: job, customer, product, or department and location. Few tools do all four well.
Cost assignment: job costing needs costs coded to jobs as they happen; segment analysis needs a consistent way to allocate shared costs.
QuickBooks plan: class, location and Projects features require QuickBooks Online Plus or Advanced, and Plus caps classes and locations at 40 combined.
Work in progress: contractors billing in stages need over- and under-billing (WIP) reporting.
Output you will use: a ranked list of loss-making jobs or customers is more useful than another pivot table.

Comparison at a glance

Tool	Best for	QuickBooks Online	Starting price	Notable limit
Fathom	Profitability by department, location or business unit	Yes (imports classes and locations)	Tiered by number of companies; see Fathom's pricing page	Up to 80 classes and locations per company
Knowify	Trade contractors on fixed-price and staged-billing jobs	Yes, two-way on all plans (projects need QuickBooks Plus or Advanced)	$99/mo billed yearly (Core); job costing from $329/mo billed yearly	Job costing and WIP are not on the Core plan
MarginLensOur app	Owners asking which products and customers make money	Yes, read-only connection	$49/mo per app; 14-day free trial	Not a job-costing or WIP tool
QuickBooks Online Projects	Service firms and contractors already on QuickBooks Plus	Built in (Plus and Advanced plans)	Included with QuickBooks Online Plus ($140/mo list)	Not on Simple Start or Essentials; Plus caps classes and locations at 40
Qvinci	Comparing profitability across locations or franchise units	Yes (QuickBooks Online and Desktop)	Pricing on request	Billed per entity or location
Reach Reporting	Profitability by class, department or location in management reports	Yes (all QuickBooks Online plans)	$149/mo billed monthly for 1 connection	Cannot filter by customer, job or project

Pricing and features checked October 2026; confirm with the vendor.

The options in more detail

Fathom

Fathom imports QuickBooks Online classes and locations as divisions and reports profitability for each, with breakeven and margin-of-safety analysis. It works well when your segments are already set up as classes or locations. It is not a job-costing tool.

Knowify

Knowify is job management software for contractors. Its job costing assigns expenses to project, phase and cost code, and it provides work-in-progress reporting for over- and under-billing. It syncs with QuickBooks Online both ways. Job costing requires the Advanced plan.

MarginLensOur app

MarginLens is our app. It ranks margin by product, customer and segment from QuickBooks Online data and applies cost allocation the same way every period, so the loss-making work inside a blended margin becomes visible. It does not do job costing or WIP. QuickBooks class tracking with Fathom or Reach Reporting is the alternative for segment margin, and our free gross margin analyzer needs no signup.

Start a 14-day free trial →How MarginLens works →Free Gross Margin Analyzer →

QuickBooks Online Projects

QuickBooks Online Plus includes Projects, which tracks income, costs and profitability per job, and class and location tracking for segment reporting. Advanced adds more project financials and automatic cost allocation, and removes the class limit. If you are on Plus already, start here before buying anything.

Qvinci

Qvinci consolidates multi-location businesses and ranks locations by gross profit, net income and other KPIs. It answers which locations are most and least profitable, not which jobs or customers.

Reach Reporting

Reach Reporting uses QuickBooks Online classes, departments and locations as filters throughout its reports, which covers segment profitability well. It documents that it cannot filter by customer, job or project, so it does not cover job costing.

Which one fits

Contractors who need job costing and WIP should look at Knowify, or at QuickBooks Online Projects if their jobs are simple and they are already on Plus. For profitability by department or location, set up QuickBooks classes and locations and report on them in Fathom or Reach Reporting. Franchise and multi-location operators comparing units should consider Qvinci.

For a first look, QuickBooks Online's sales-by-product and sales-by-customer reports with class tracking go a long way; MarginLens adds consistent cost allocation and ranking so the loss-making customers and products stand out each period.

Common questions

Does QuickBooks Online do job costing?: Yes, at a basic level. QuickBooks Online Plus and Advanced include Projects, which tracks income and costs per job and reports project profitability. Detailed job costing by phase and cost code, and work-in-progress reporting, usually need a contractor-focused tool that syncs with QuickBooks.
How do I see profit by customer in QuickBooks Online?: Revenue by customer is available in standard sales reports. Profit by customer needs costs assigned to customers, either by recording costs against projects or customers as they occur, or by allocating shared costs with a consistent rule. Without cost assignment you see revenue concentration, not profitability.
What is the difference between class and location tracking?: In QuickBooks Online, a class is assigned per line on a transaction, and a location per transaction. Classes usually represent departments, product lines or service types; locations represent offices, stores or regions. Both are available on Plus (40 combined) and Advanced (unlimited), and not on Simple Start or Essentials.
Why can a profitable company have unprofitable customers?: Because a blended margin averages strong and weak work together. A few customers with heavy discounting, high support costs or slow payment can lose money on every sale while the total still looks healthy. Analysis by customer or product is how those are found.