There are many customization possibilities when working with reports in QuickBooks. When added to the number of reports already on the menu, often a little customization can get you just what you need.
The customization possibilities change depending on what type of report you are working with. Let’s start with a Profit and Loss Report.
Above is a graphic of the Profit and Loss report. The arrow points at the small gray arrowhead symbols beside some of the lines.
These symbols allow you to open or close sections in the report. The sections are made up of the subaccounts that fall under the main account above them.
For instance, in this report, the main account is Construction. It is an income type of account. The indented lines are subaccounts. Labor, Materials, Miscellaneous, and Subcontractors.
The report could be streamlined by clicking on the down-pointing gray arrow next to the main account, Construction.
You can see the result above. Now the Construction income amount is shown as just one line. All the subaccounts have been collapsed into the main account. No more indented lines in this section.
It is possible to collapse the entire report by clicking on the Collapse button along the top edge of the report window. But if you are looking for more customization capability, collapsing or expanding the individual sections allows much more control over what detail is left on the report.
Dates seem self-explanatory. But let’s look at one thing.
There are two places to set the date. The right arrow points to the all-too-familiar calendars to set the beginning and end dates for the report.
The left arrow though points to a single-field date setting. The options on the drop down list that accompanies this field includes this month, last month, this year, last year, quarter, week, day, and many more.
The advantage of this date setting becomes apparent when working with a report that shows account balances only, like a trial balance or a balance sheet.
If you create a balance sheet for December 31 and double click on an account balance to see the detail, you will see one day’s detail. December 31st.
If you use the date, Last Fiscal Year, and you click on an account balance, you will see the detail of that account for the year.
In some reports, the fields allowing customizing the Total by or Sort by attributes can be very useful. The above screenshot shows the detail in the account balance for Customer Deposits. It contains several transactions for several customers. By default, it sorts by date and totals by the account.
Maybe it would be more useful to see how much each customer had in outstanding deposits.
Make the simple change, Total by Customer rather than the default which is account. Now the report shows the activity by customer, totaled to show which customers still have a balance and how much.
Hector Garcia, CPA
Certified Advanced QuickBooks ProAdvisor
12401 Orange Drive #136
Davie, FL 33330
954-414-1524
hector@garciacpa.com
