Many of you may already have the new report designs being rolled out in QuickBooks Online (QBO). In case you don’t, but would like to implement these options now, navigate to Settings (gear Icon) -> QuickBooks Labs.
Scroll until you find the section for Re-designed Reports. Switch the setting to “On.”
You will need to re-load your QBO page once you make this change. Either way, whether you already have the new report designs, or if you get them by following the instructions above, you will see the new appearance as below.
The Customize button is still there, but now there are many common report settings available along the ribbon at the top of the report. These are much easier and quicker to access now.
The top arrow in the screenshot points to the date fields. You are able to use a preset date range by clicking on the down-arrow in the field directly under “Report period.” Alternately, set specific beginning and ending dates in the date fields to the right of the mentioned date range field.
The advantage of the date range settings becomes apparent when creating custom reports you want to use again in the future. For instance, perhaps you create a certain format for a sales report you want to view periodically for the previous week. Use the date range “Last Week.” That way, your saved custom report will always open with last week’s data. No matter what week is on the calendar.
A number of other settings are in the circled area. The Display columns are set to total only. That makes sense for a balance sheet. If the screenshot were a profit and loss, perhaps we would want to look for certain trends by viewing the report for a year, but with columns by month.
The next field allows you to set the rows and columns you want to view based on activity. The default setting is Active. That is display all rows (accounts) that have some transaction activity during the time period, even if that activity results in a zero amount. The alternatives are to show all, regardless of activity. Or, show the non-zero columns and/or rows only.
Comparison period columns are nice to add. Frequently a year-to-date column will be added to a profit and loss report covering one month’s activity.
It is possible to toggle the report between cash and accrual basis by making the appropriate selection to the options shown.
As stated earlier, this new design allows reports to be customized from their default settings easier and faster. There are more settings we will visit in the future.
Hector Garcia, CPA
Certified Advanced QuickBooks ProAdvisor
7791 NW 46th St. Suite 109
Doral, FL 33166
954-414-1524
hector@garciacpa.com
