---
title: "About Cost tracking"
slug: "about-cost-tracking"
tags: ["qbo"]
updated: 2026-07-07T18:19:08Z
published: 2026-07-07T18:19:08Z
canonical: "help.wrapbook.com/about-cost-tracking"
stale: true
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://help.wrapbook.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# About Cost tracking

> [!NOTE]
> This help article is related to Cost tracking
> 
> In Wrapbook, production accountants and administrators can manage accounting tasks using either Cost tracking or the [Production Accounting Suite](/v1/docs/about-production-accounting).

## Overview

Cost tracking enables production companies to manage purchase orders (POs) and petty cash seamlessly while actualizing them against their budget in real-time alongside payroll.

*While cost tracking allows you to monitor and manage expenses within Wrapbook, no monetary transactions occur within the platform itself.* The feature is designed for tracking purposes and can be integrated with external accounting software like QuickBooks, or exported to various formats for use in other systems.

## Access Cost tracking

> [!NOTE]
> Cost tracking is permission based
> 
> To access cost tracking features in Wrapbook, your account must have one of the following [roles](/v1/docs/roles-permissions) enabled:
> 
> - Role: *Company Admin, Company Manager, Project Coordinator, Project Assistant*
> - Custom role with: *Accounting & Cost Tracking* / *Purchase orders -* either *Full access, Manage, View only,* and *Budgets (Cost Tracking) -* either *Full access, View & Import, View only, and Petty cash - either Full access, Manage*

Cost tracking is an optional feature that needs to be manually enabled for each project.

- To learn more, see [Enable Cost tracking](/v1/docs/enable-cost-tracking-and-the-budget-tracker)

If an employee needs to purchase cash items on behalf of the project, they are issued a cash advance, or petty cash, to use for this purpose. They are responsible for providing receipts for any purchases and for returning any unspent cash up to the full amount of the advance upon completion.Purchasing cards have nearly eliminated the need for petty cash.

The document containing the anticipated expenditures for the various components of a production, usually separated by above the line (ATL) and below the line (BTL) costs.