QBO 4 - Basic reporting options

What other summary reports are available?

* Sales by Customer Summary: Displays total sales recorded for the period for each customer * Accounts Receivable (A/R) Aging Summary: Summarizes the status of unpaid invoices, unapplied payments received, and unapplied credit memos * Accounts Payable (A/P) Aging Summary: Summarizes the status of unpaid bills and unapplied vendor credits * Trial Balance: Displays the balance as of the report date for all balance sheet accounts and a summary of activity during the reporting period for income and expense accounts * Customer Balance Summary: Displays each customer with an open balance in Accounts Receivable and the open balance amount * Vendor Balance Summary: Displays each vendor with an open balance in Accounts Payable and the open balance amount * Inventory Valuation Summary: Lists each inventory item along with the SKU (stock keeping unit), quantity on hand, asset value, and calculated average cost per unit

Running QuickReports

A QuickReport displays all posting activity for an account, along with a running balance for the selected period. You and your clients can run a QuickReport from the relevant account in the chart of accounts, or the products and services list. There are also some specific reports that you can run from the relevant center (for example, sales tax reports from the Sales tax center).

When should your clients use aging reports?

A client can use A/R and A/P aging reports to see which of their customers are slow to pay (and who may need a nudge) or which vendors expect payment soon. This will help the client with cash flow projections.

Which report type would be the best to use if a client needed to see which customers are slow to pay and which vendors expect payment soon?

Aging reports analyze Accounts Receivable (A/R) and Accounts Payable (A/P) to help with cash flow projections.

Aging Reports

Aging reports are special reports that show how many days a transaction is beyond the specified due date. As you saw earlier, you can view aging reports in summary or detail format.

What information can you get from a detail report?

As the name implies, detail reports provide detailed information about individual transactions, which provides a second layer of detailed information about customers, vendors, expenses, and more. Detail reports list each transaction. They allow you or your clients to drill down into any individual transactions, open them, and review and possibly edit or delete them. Most summary reports have corresponding detail reports. For example, you can run a Profit and Loss Detail report and a Balance Sheet Detail report. Other examples of detail reports include: - Transaction Detail by Account lists all transactions for a period summarized by account. This report is the detailed version of the Trial Balance report - Accounts Payable (A/P) Aging Detail - Accounts Receivable (A/R) Aging Detail - Sales by Customer Detail - Vendor Balance Detail

Cash flow and Planner

Both the Cash flow and Planner tabs allow clients to access QuickBooks Online's powerful cash flow planning tools. These tools can help your clients with forecasting and budgeting, without the need for third-party apps. * The Cash flow tab allows clients to keep track of money moving in and out of all their connected bank/credit card accounts—and the associated account balances. It also lists future predicted transactions into/from these accounts * The Planner tab enables clients to add or adjust future transactions to explore how different scenarios could affect future cash flow without affecting the books. It's a safe place for clients to play with the numbers and see how different decisions or actions could affect cash flow

Where else can you find links to run QuickReports?

Clients can also run specific reports from certain centers in QuickBooks Online. For example, from the Cash flow tab in Dashboards, there are options to run QuickReports Another example is the Sales tax center, where clients can run the QuickReports

When should your clients use list reports?

Clients can use list reports if they want a report related to one of their centers (such as the Sales center), but they don't need to see transactions. One advantage of using a list report is that clients can customize and filter to see what they want. They can then save the customization to re-run the same report type.

When should you use a summary report vs a detail report?

Here are a couple of common use cases for whether a summary or a detailed report would be the most appropriate report type to run. Other examples of summary reports in QuickBooks Online include: * Requirement: To get an overall view of financial information for a reporting period without looking at all the details. Report type - Summary Example: If a client wanted to quickly see how each of their product and service items is performing, they would run a Sales by Product/Service Summary report. * Requirement: To analyze the makeup of a balance in a summary report. Report type - Detail Example: If a client wanted to see which of their customers had purchased a specific product/service item, they would run a Sales by Product/Service Detail report.

Exploring the company dashboards

In addition to the Reports center, clients can gain immediate insight from the Dashboards in QuickBooks Online. There are four dashboard tabs, which all offer an easy-to-digest financial summary for the business: - Get things done - Business overview - Cash flow - Planner

List Reports

List reports, such as the Account List or the Product/Service List, show detailed information about the list items. Some list reports can be grouped by various criteria. For instance, you can group items in the Product/Service List by selecting Group and then selecting a category from the list.

Other report types in QuickBooks Online

Other report types that you and your clients can run from the Reports center include list and aging reports. You and your clients can also run special reports elsewhere in QuickBooks Online.

What information can you get from a summary report?

Summary reports show the aggregate total of all transactions for a list name. They give your client an overall view of financial information for a reporting period—without them having to look at all the details. Two examples of summary reports that clients should be familiar with are the Profit and Loss report and the Balance Sheet report. The Profit and Loss report summarizes the financial activity associated with each income or expense account for a specific period of time. This will indicate whether your client is operating at a profit or a loss. The Balance Sheet summarizes the financial position of a business at a single moment in time. It reflects whether the assets the business owns are enough to offset its liabilities and leave a net equity balance after the liabilities have been paid off.

Business Overview tab

The Business overview tab offers clients a useful view of their business's point-in-time financial position. Sections are laid out to make it easy for clients to spot issues as they emerge.

Get things done

The Get things done tab provides quick links to key areas of the client's QuickBooks Online company. Links are presented in a task-based format to help clients follow workflows and carry out activities as required.

How do you run a QuickReport from the products and service list?

You can run a QuickReport for an item in the Products and services list by selecting Run report from the down arrow in the Action column. A QuickReport on a product/service item shows the transaction history for that item in the selected period.

How do you run a detail report from a summary report?

You can run a detail report from the Reports center the same way you'd run any report available there. However, in many cases, you can also run a corresponding detail report from a summary report by selecting the final figure at the bottom of the report. For instance, choosing any of the amounts in the Total row of the A/P Aging Summary report ...will open the A/P Aging Detail report for this period.

How do you run a QuickReport from the chart of accounts?

To run a QuickReport from the chart of accounts, go to the Action column for the account in question. * If it says Run report in the Action column, select this link * If it says View register, open the dropdown and select Run report The QuickReport gives a breakdown of transactions in/out of the account in the period specified. Clients can customize the report as they can for most reports in QuickBooks Online.

Special Reports

QuickBooks Online also includes special report types, such as the Business Snapshot and the Audit Log. ** The Business Snapshot is a graphical representation of the business's money-in and money-out transactions. You run this report from the Reports center. The Business Snapshot is helpful for clients who absorb information better from graphics than lists and tables. However, it's more of a dashboard than a report, so clients can't customize it that much and can't save any customization into a Custom report. This report is of limited use in printed form because it's meant to be interactive. Clients can only drill down and find anomalous transactions contributing to totals while viewing it on a screen. ** The Audit Log contains a list of all changes to company data in QuickBooks Online. This includes transactions entered, reconciliations completed, recurring transactions created, sign-in and sign-out by users, and more. You can run the Audit Log from the Reports center, or by selecting the Gear icon and opening it from there.

Summary and detail reports

QuickBooks Online offers clients a range of report types, all of which can be filtered and customized. Two of the most frequently used types are summary and detail reports.