Features Below Available To: ✅ Grow Plan ✅ Track Plan ❌ Free Plan
01 What Is the Cost Import Feature?
After connecting Monograph to QuickBooks Online, you can import cost data from QBO into Monograph to power the Project Profit Report. This gives you visibility into actual project profitability, not just invoiced revenue, but real costs attributed to each project.
The key thing to understand is that this feature imports cost totals by account category, not individual transactions line by line. Monograph pulls the numbers from the accounts you select in QBO and uses them to calculate how profitable each project is.
💡 The effectiveness of the cost import depends entirely on your QBO chart of accounts and cost categorization being well-structured and accurate. If the underlying bookkeeping in QBO is inaccurate, the Profit Report will reflect that. Clean QBO first, then import.
💡 Only Admins or users with Manage Settings permissions can set up the cost import. Users with Send invoices, bills, and expenses to QBO and import costs from QBO permissions can preview and categorize costs after import.
02 Before You Start: Get QBO Ready
Do not start the cost import until your QBO is clean and organized. This is the most important step and the one most firms skip.
⚠️ Complete all items below in QuickBooks before continuing to Section 03.
Review and clean up your Chart of Accounts. Remove or merge duplicates and make sure account names clearly describe what they hold.
Make sure all transactions are coded to the correct expense accounts in QBO. Fix anything sitting in uncategorized expenses.
Confirm your QBO is connected to Monograph. Go to Settings then Organization then Integrations to verify.
Check your permissions. Confirm you have Admin or Manage Settings access in Monograph.
Discuss the account mapping with your bookkeeper before selecting anything. They know which accounts hold which costs.
03 Understanding the Five Cost Categories
When you set up the cost import you will assign each QBO account to one of five cost categories in Monograph. Here is what each one means and what typically goes in it. Share this with your bookkeeper so they can guide the mapping.
Project Costs
Any account that contains costs tied directly to delivering a specific project. These are the costs that show up at the project level in your Profit Report.
Consultant fees
Travel related to a project
Printing and reproduction
Materials
Meals and Entertainment if most are project-related
💡 If a Project Cost account is used specifically and only for consultants, mark it as a Consultant Cost Account by selecting Yes in that column. This helps Monograph categorize it correctly in reporting.
Wage Costs
Any account that contains wages and salaries for your firm's team members, not including consultants.
Any team member's pay: Admins, Designers, Project Managers, Principals, etc.
Labor-Related Costs
Any account that contains costs directly tied to employing your team. A helpful test: would these costs immediately increase if you hired another person?
Payroll taxes
Benefits such as 401k (benefits can go here or in Operating Costs, your firm decides)
Health insurance contributions
Operating Costs
Any account that contains costs related to running the business day to day, not tied to a specific project.
Rent and office expenses
Corporate liability insurance
Professional services: accountant, lawyer, etc.
Advertising and marketing
Licenses and memberships
Utilities
IT services and support
Bank charges
Recruiting
Benefits like 401k if not placed in Labor-Related Costs
Non-Operating Costs
Costs not related to operations, typically financial and accounting items.
Interest expense
Depreciation and amortization
Investment losses
Gains or losses on sale of assets
Legal settlements and penalties
Income taxes
04 Setting Up the Cost Import: Step by Step
Now you are ready to set up the import in Monograph. Go through each step in order.
Step 1: Navigate to cost import settings
Go to Settings in Monograph.
Click QuickBooks.
Scroll to the bottom of the page to find Import costs from QuickBooks.
Click Select Accounts to begin.
Step 2: Set your import start date
Choose the date from which Monograph should start importing costs from QBO. This determines how far back your Profit Report data goes.
Choose a start date. Monograph defaults to the beginning of the current calendar year.
Note: you can go back as far as three full calendar years (January 1, 2021 at the earliest).
💡 We recommend importing at least one year prior to your current date so your Profit Report has meaningful historical data to work with.
Step 3: Select accounts for Project Costs
Review the list of Expense and COGS accounts from your QBO chart of accounts.
Check the box next to each account that contains project-specific costs.
For any consultant-only accounts, select Yes in the Consultant Cost Account column.
Click Next when done. If no accounts are selected a warning will appear, you can go back or proceed.
Step 4: Select accounts for Wage Costs
Check the box next to each account that holds wages and salaries for your team.
Click Next.
Step 5: Select accounts for Labor-Related Costs
Check the box next to each account that holds payroll taxes, benefits, and other employment costs.
Click Next.
Step 6: Select accounts for Operating Costs
Check the box next to each account that holds day-to-day business operating expenses.
Click Next.
Step 7: Select accounts for Non-Operating Costs
Check the box next to each account that holds non-operational financial items.
Click Start Import.
Step 8: Confirm import is running
After clicking Start Import you will be taken back to the App Defaults page in Settings.
The start date used will show, confirming the import is in progress.
Wait for the import to complete before proceeding.
⚠️ Do not close Monograph or navigate away while the import is running.
05 Reviewing and Assigning Costs to Projects
Once the import is complete you need to review the costs and assign them to specific projects. This is how costs actually show up in your Project Profit Report.
How to access the review page
Go to Settings then QuickBooks then Import costs from QuickBooks.
Click View imported costs.
Alternatively, you can access this from the Project Profit Report directly.
What you will see
Each imported cost will show the following information pulled from QBO:
Vendor name: the vendor associated with the cost in QBO
Note or Description: any note included with the cost in QBO
Account: the expense or COGS account the cost came from
Date: the date of the cost
Amount: the total dollar amount
At the end of each row you will see two dropdowns: Cost Category (pre-populated from your import setup) and Project (where you assign the cost to a specific project).
Assigning costs to projects
Use the filters to narrow down costs. Filter by date range, cost type, account, or vendor.
For each cost in the table, use the Project dropdown to assign it to the correct project.
To assign multiple costs to the same project at once, check the boxes on the left and use the Bulk Actions dropdown, then select Assign to same project.
For any costs that should not be included in Monograph reporting, click the X button to remove them.
⚠️ Removing a cost is permanent and cannot be reversed. Once removed it will also be removed from any reports in Monograph.
⚠️ If you need to split a cost between projects, split it in QuickBooks Online first before importing into Monograph. You cannot split an imported cost inside Monograph.
06 Reading the Project Profit Report
Once costs are assigned to projects they appear in the Project Profit Report. Here is how to find it and what you are looking at.
How to access the report
Open the project you want to review in Monograph.
Click Profit in the left sidebar sub-menu.
The Project Profit Report is only available to Monograph users who have QBO connected.
How costs are calculated in the report
The report combines two sources of cost data:
Compensation Costs: calculated from the team member's salary or hourly rate multiplied by hours logged in Monograph.
Imported costs from QBO: the costs you assigned to this project through the cost import.
Together these give you a more complete picture of what a project actually cost your firm versus what you earned from it.
💡 The Profit Report shows profitability at the architectural project level. It is not the same as your QBO Profit and Loss report. They are measuring different things. Monograph shows project performance, QBO shows overall business accounting. Expect the numbers to differ.
If imported costs have not been assigned yet
Go to Settings then QuickBooks then Import costs from QuickBooks.
Click View imported costs and assign any unassigned costs to their projects.
Return to the Profit Report. It will now reflect the assigned costs.
Quick Setup Checklist
Use this to confirm everything is done before moving into editing or troubleshooting.
QBO chart of accounts is clean and organized
All transactions in QBO are categorized correctly
QBO is connected to Monograph
Import start date is set (recommend at least one year back)
Project Cost accounts are selected and consultant-only accounts are marked Yes
Wage Cost accounts are selected
Labor-Related Cost accounts are selected
Operating Cost accounts are selected
Non-Operating Cost accounts are selected
Import has been run and completed
Costs have been reviewed and assigned to projects
Project Profit Report is showing data and numbers look reasonable
Bookkeeper has reviewed and confirmed the account mapping
07 Editing the Import After Setup
If you need to change the start date or add and remove accounts after the initial import, you can do that at any time.
Go to Settings then QuickBooks then Import costs from QuickBooks.
Click Edit.
Make your changes to the start date or account selections.
Click Save on the final cost type page. If you do not click Save the changes will not be applied.
⚠️ Editing the start date will add or delete any costs affected by the date change. Adding or removing accounts will add or delete costs associated with those accounts. This will affect your Profit Report. Discuss with your bookkeeper before making changes.
