In our last post we examined the management reports found in QuickBooks Online (QBO). These reports are actually report packages. They are a group of reports along with a cover page and a table of contents.
The complete package has a professional appearance and is especially good for communicating with business partners and other stakeholders. Or, anytime you want a professional touch to the information you want to share.
The reports are also customizable. That’s what we want to look at today.
The above graphic is what you will see when you access the management reports group from the reports menu. We will select Company Overview and click Edit on the right.
Look at the above screenshot. The column along the left side shows a thumbnail of each of the individual documents in the package. Each can be selected and then customized.
The first document is the cover sheet. There are many customization opportunities for this page.
The arrows highlight options to show the company logo. Or to use an alternate style for the cover sheet.
The fields below those options allow customizing most of the text on this page.
Let’s customize the cover sheet by using a logo, an alternate design, and creating different text for some of the fields.
The above screenshot shows the customization page so you can see the settings used in the left side of the screen. The right side shows a preview of what the page will look like.
The table of contents page has only a couple of settings. You can elect to include or exclude the table of contents from your customized report package.
The title of the page is customizable. So, instead of naming it table of contents, one could use index or some other headline.
The Preliminary Pages section is an interesting opportunity. This page is optional, but allows you to include custom text explaining the purpose of the report, your take on the financial reports to follow, or anything you decide is pertinent.
There are a couple of custom fields available that pull from the QBO information. Company Name and report end date are available. These would be useful if you wanted to use the report templates for more than one company, or you wanted to save the custom text and use it repeatedly over multiple reporting periods.
A reports section lists the reports that will be included in the package. A very nice feature is the ability to select other reports and add them to the group, causing all the reports to be part of the package whenever it is created.
The final part is the End Notes page. This page is very much like the preliminary notes. It allows your commentary on the preceding reports. It can be included or excluded. The text you include here will save with the templates and repeat each time this report package is run until you change it.
There is a lot to like about the Management Reports feature. From all the many options available, most users will find the one they need in order to create high-quality reports that will communicate the results of their business in a professional way.
Hector Garcia, CPA
Certified Advanced QuickBooks ProAdvisor
7791 NW 46th St. Suite 109
Doral, FL 33166
954-414-1524
hector@garciacpa.com
