An important part of knowing how to customize reports in QuickBooks Online (QBO), is being able to save the format. Any report that is used periodically with updated data should be saved. And, it should be saved in such a manner that it can be reused again and again with little, if any, re-formatting when accessing it.
This is a simple process in QBO. Let’s take a quick look at it.
We will create a report in a QBO sample file. Let’s say we want a report each week to show us the bills we need to pay this week. This would require using the Accounts Payable feature in QBO. If you do that, you can plan ahead by viewing those items that are coming due.
We will start with an A/P Aging Report. This report already exists in the Reports section. Navigate to Reports->All Reports->Manage Accounts Payable.
Once the report is open, we will click the Customize button.
The screenshot above shows the customization we will add for due dates. This Week.
Using a dynamic date range like this allows us to use the report over and over without re-setting the dates. Whatever week ‘this week’ is, that is the week’s data that will appear in the report.
Since we will use this report repeatedly, and may even print and share with others, so let’s give it a more descriptive title.
Editing the header as shown above allows us to change the report title. Let’s change that to “Bills to Pay This Week.”
Once we have done that, select the Save Customization button.
QBO suggests the custom title of the report as the name of the customization. That makes good sense in this case. We will use it.
Note that we can add this report to a group of saved customizations. If we have many custom reports, this would help organize them.
We can also choose which QBO users will have access to the report.
Once we are happy with our selections, we choose Save.
Now our report is customized and saved. We won’t need to change the settings in the future. We will merely go to the Saved Reports section of our report lists and find it there.
This procedure works for many kinds of reports. You could create a report of customer invoices coming due for instance. Or, which customers paid last week. What vendors were paid last week?
You get the idea.
Customize reports to gain the information you need. Save the customizations to get the data in the future quickly.
Hector Garcia, CPA
Certified Advanced QuickBooks ProAdvisor
7791 NW 46th St. Suite 109
Doral, FL 33166
954-414-1524
hector@garciacpa.com
