Basic reporting options

Creating insight

With QuickBooks Online, clients have a variety of reporting options to give them precise and timely
information on their business performance. Clients can run reports to get overview data, such as a simple
statement of gross profit. They can also get detailed reports that show a breakdown of individual transactions in
a particular period.
What’s more challenging for clients is determining which report is the best option for their particular needs.
This is where you come in.

How can you and QuickBooks Online help?

The Reports center in QuickBooks Online is designed to help clients find the reports they need by browsing
reports by category or using the search function. Clients can also run QuickReports to get rapid insight into
specific areas of their business.
In this lesson, we’ll look at the main types of reports available in QuickBooks Online and how clients can run
them. To get the most out of this lesson, we recommend you first work through the one on the Reports center.
The QuickBooks Online ecosystem is constantly evolving to meet your needs.

Your current experience may differ from what you see here.
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Learning outcomes
In this lesson, we’ll cover:

 Running basic report types in QuickBooks Online

Topics

 Summary and detail reports

 Other report types
 Running QuickReports
 Exploring the company dashboard

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.
Select each question to explore these report types in more detail.
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.
What other summary reports are available?

Other examples of summary reports in QuickBooks Online include:

Displays total sales recorded for the period for each
Sales by Customer Summary
customer.
Accounts Receivable (A/R) Aging
Summarizes the status of unpaid invoices.
Summary
Accounts Payable (A/P) Aging Summarizes the status of unpaid bills and unapplied vendor
Summary credits.

Displays the balance as of the report date for all balance

Trial Balance sheet accounts and a summary of activity during the
reporting period for income and expense accounts.

Shows each customer a total of their open balance in

Customer Balance Summary
accounts receivable.

Displays each vendor with an open balance in accounts

Vendor Balance Summary
payable and the open balance amount.

Lists each inventory item along with the SKU (stock

Inventory Valuation Summary keeping unit), quantity on hand, asset value, and calculated
average cost per unit.

What information can you get from a detail report?

As the name implies, detail reports provide detailed information about transactions. As well as summary
transactions, detail reports contain 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. Here is an example of a Profit and Loss 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

You can customize a detail report by most fields used in the transaction.
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 shown below...
...will open the A/P Aging Detail report for this period.
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.

Requirement Report type For example...

If a client wanted to quickly see
To get an overall view of financial how each of their product and
information for a reporting period Summary service items is performing, they
without looking at all the details. would run a Sales by
Product/Service Summary report.
If a client wanted to see which of
their customers had purchased a
To analyze the makeup of a balance in a
Detail specific product/service item, they
summary report.
would run a Sales by
Product/Service Detail report.

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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.
Select the headings to explore List, Aging, and special reports.
 List reports
 Aging reports
 Special reports
List reports, such as the Account List or the Product/Service List, show detailed information about the list items.
These reports allow you to display additional fields associated with that list.
Note: To add these additional fields to the report, use the Customize button or the Grid Gear icon.

Some list reports, such as the Customer Contact List, can be grouped by various criteria, such as billing zip
code. They have customization options appropriate for lists but no column totals or customization options for
general, aging, or grouping/subtotals.
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.

 Aging reports
 Special 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.

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.

 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 Account and Settings, as shown here:
ProAdvisor tip

Follow this link for a full list of reports included in each QuickBooks Online subscription level.

Running QuickReports
A QuickReport displays all activity for an account, along with a running balance for the 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).
Use the questions below to discover how to run and use QuickReports.
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.
How do you run a QuickReport from the products and services 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.
Where else can you find links to run QuickReports?

Clients can also run specific reports from certain centers in QuickBooks Online.
For example, in the Cash flow center, there is an option to run QuickReports for:

 Open invoices
 Invoice list
 Sales by customer detail

Another example is the Sales tax center, where clients can run the QuickReports shown here:
Continue training

Exploring the company dashboard

Besides the Reports center, clients can gain immediate insight from the dashboard in QuickBooks Online.

The dashboard has two tabs, which offer an easy-to-digest financial summary for the business.
Select each tab title to find out more.
 Get things done
 Business overview
The Get things done tab provides quick links to areas of the client’s QuickBooks company to key workspaces.
Links are presented in a task-based format to help clients follow workflows and carry out activities as required.
  Business overview
The Business overview tab offers clients a useful overview of their business’s point-in-time financial position.
Sections are laid out to allow clients to spot issues as they emerge easily.
ProAdvisor tip

Follow this link to discover how the QuickBooks Online dashboard can help clients visualize data, KPIs, and
key metrics at a glance.

The Profit and Loss and Balance Sheet reports

Creating insight

As your clients work in QuickBooks Online, they develop a complex financial dataset about their business, and
this resource becomes a valuable source of insight. But to benefit from it, clients need to know which reports to
run and how to interpret them.
How can QuickBooks Online help?

The two most important reports you and your client need to be able to use are the Profit and Loss and Balance
Sheet reports. In this lesson, we’ll look at how to run and analyze them.
The QuickBooks Online ecosystem is constantly evolving to meet your needs.

Your current experience may differ from what you see here.
Continue training
Learning outcomes
In this lesson, we’ll cover:

 Using the Profit and Loss and Balance Sheet reports in QuickBooks Online
Topics

 The Profit and Loss report

 Analyzing the Profit and Loss report
 The Balance Sheet report
 Analyzing the Balance Sheet report

The Profit and Loss report

The Profit and Loss report is the one that most clients are familiar with. It summarizes the financial activity
associated with each income or expense account for a specific period, with the last line showing the net income
(or loss) for the defined period. This indicates whether your client is operating at a profit or a loss.
Running a comparative Profit and Loss report also allows clients to compare their business’s current or past
performance with that of a different period. This can reveal cash flow trends in spending and earnings from the
business.
To create a comparative Profit and Loss report, run either a Profit and Loss or a Profit and Loss Comparison
report and use the Compare another period dropdown to customize the way the data is presented.
From here, clients can define the periods to show and add columns to show the $ and % changes between them.

The example below shows how clients can use a Profit and Loss Comparison report to dive into how their
expenses compare with those at the same time last year.
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Analyzing the Profit and Loss report

As a ProAdvisor, you can help clients understand the Profit and Loss report and how it can help them with
financial planning. When analyzing it, look for discrepancies or things that look out of place, and make sure to
review the following:

 Total income
 Total expenses
 Gross profit
 Net income (also known as the “bottom line”)
 Net profit
 Uncategorized income and expenses (and any transactions in the Ask My Accountant section)
 Changing trends from the previous periods

Review the video to see how the conversation between you and a client might go.
The Balance Sheet report
Another key report in the end-to-end accounting life cycle is the Balance Sheet report, which summarizes the
financial position of a business at a single moment in time. That’s why it’s commonly referred to as a snapshot
of the business. This report reflects whether the assets the business owns are enough to offset its liabilities and
leave a net equity balance after all liabilities have been paid off.
As with the Profit and Loss report, clients can create a comparative Balance Sheet report by panel
either a Balance Sheet or a Balance Sheet Comparison report and using the Compare another
period dropdown to customize the way the data is presented. This can show the financial position of the
business over different periods, indicating a trend or direction of change.

The example below shows how clients can use a Balance Sheet Comparison report to dive into how their equity
at a specific date compares to that date the previous year.
ProAdvisor tip

To validate or prove the numbers on each row of the Balance Sheet report, the value needs to be verified with
another report. To see which reports can be used to prove the Balance Sheet report, check out the Proving the
Balance Sheet document.

Analyzing the Balance Sheet report

When analyzing the Balance Sheet report, make sure to review the following:

 Each bank and credit card account. They should agree with the register balance on the reconciliation
reports
 Accounts receivable
  Any new asset purchases
 Any prepaids, confirming they were accurately categorized
 Loan accounts, making sure they’ve been reconciled against current ending balances
 Owner transactions in the Equity section
 Net income, which should match the net income on the Profit and Loss report for the same period and
the same accounting method

Review the video to see how the conversation between you and a client might go.
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Reports to answer common business questions

Too many options

QuickBooks Online offers many reports to give insight into the business’s financial status. However, with so
many reports to choose from, clients may find it hard to select which can help them drill into the data they
need.

How can you and QuickBooks Online help?

As a ProAdvisor, you can help clients run the report they need to get the exact data to evaluate how their
business is performing and implement any changes. In this lesson, we’ll look at some common business
questions and the best reports to answer them.
The QuickBooks Online ecosystem is constantly evolving to meet your needs.

Your current experience may differ from what you see here.
Continue training
Learning outcomes
In this lesson, we’ll cover:

 Selecting the best report in QuickBooks Online to answer clients’ common business questions
Topics

 Answering common client questions: Part 1

 Answering common client questions: Part 2

Answering common client questions: Part 1

Let’s look at some of the most common questions that clients might have about their business and which reports
can help answer them.
Select each question to find out more.
Who owes me money?
Report to use:
A/R Aging Summary (or Detail)
Why:
This report lists all customers who currently owe the client balances and how old the balances are. This helps
clients prioritize which customer to contact to get outstanding payments from.
Who are my top customers?
Report to use:
Sales by Customer Summary (or Detail)
Why:
This report lists the client’s customers and how much income they generated in the defined period. They can
help identify other customers with the same buying trends.
What are my top-selling and/or worst-selling products and services?
How much do I owe my vendors?
How much money did I make?
Can I afford to spend money?

What are my top-selling and/or worst-selling products and services?

Report to use:
Sales by Product/Service Summary (or Detail)
Why:
This report shows how many of each item on the products and services list were sold and gives details of the
income they generated. They can help clients decide which products they should buy more of or which products
to put on sale. It also helps to prevent clients from ordering too much stock.
How much do I owe my vendors?
How much money did I make?
Can I afford to spend money?

Report to use:
A/P Aging Summary (or Detail)
Why:
This report lists all vendors with open balances and shows how old the balances are, which can help clients
prioritize which vendor to pay first.
How much money did I make?

Report to use:
Profit and Loss
Why:
This report shows profitability and how much money was earned and spent on each category. Clients can use it
to evaluate how their business strategies are working.
Can I afford to spend money?

Report to use:
Balance Sheet
Why:
The Balance Sheet report shows how much the business has in cash and assets, and how much money it owes.
Clients can use it to evaluate their cash balances in relation to the company’s debt and make decisions about
potential expenditures.
Continue training

Answering common client questions: Part 2

Select each question to find out more.
How much is my inventory worth?
Report to use:
Inventory Valuation Summary (or Detail)
Why:
These reports show the book (purchase or cost) value of inventory items with quantity on hand. They can help
clients understand the total cost of their inventory and potential profits from their sales.
How much revenue is available to cover operating costs?

eport to use:
Profit and Loss
Why:
It shows profitability and how much money was earned and spent on each category. This can help clients work
out whether they need to raise prices or reduce spending, or both.

How much have I spent on a certain thing?

Report to use:
Profit and Loss
Why:
It shows profitability and how much money was earned and spent on each category. This can help a business
evaluate its most expensive costs and whether it should adjust the amount they spend on different things.
How much have I paid a particular vendor?
Report to use:
Expenses by Vendor Summary (or Detail)
Why:
These list the client’s vendors and show how much the client’s paid each in the defined period. This can help a
business negotiate better pricing from the vendors they purchase from frequently.

Which vendors may also be classed as 1099 contractors?

Report to use:
Vendor Contact List
Why:
It shows vendors and if they have been classified as 1099 contractors. It is critical to verify and validate which
Vendors will or should be issued 1099s at the end of each calendar year.

Report to use:
Statement of Cash Flows
Why:
It shows the cash flowing in and out of a business for a specific period of time and breaks down the source of
cash received and spent. This can help a business identify whether it’s generating more cash than it’s using.

Customizing reports
Give your clients exactly what they need

To make the right decisions about their business, clients need the right access to their financial data. However,
standard reports might not present the information they’re after in the most meaningful way.

How can you and QuickBooks Online help?

QuickBooks Online allows your clients to customize reports in different ways, depending on the type of report
they’re running. That way, clients can zoom into the exact details they need to make sound business decisions.
The QuickBooks Online ecosystem is constantly evolving to meet your needs.

Your current experience may differ from what you see here.
Continue training
Learning outcomes
In this lesson, we’ll cover:

 Customizing reports in QuickBooks Online to meet the needs of clients

Topics

 Further customization options

 ProAdvisor challenge

Customizing reports from the header section

Several customization options are available within the report’s header section. In this example, we use a
summary report, such as a Profit and Loss report. However, note that the options differ depending on the report,
so some options presented here don’t appear in all reports.

Select each of the highlighted areas to find out more.

The Report period section allows clients to select or customize the time range for the report to cover.
In summary reports like this Profit and Loss, the Display columns by option allows clients to display data grouped in columns
by period, customer, vendor, classes, product and service items, etc.

If the Show non-zero or active only option appears on the report, it allows clients to refine further which accounts to
show in the report

 The Active option hides empty rows or columns

 The Non-zero option hides rows or columns where the total is zero

 The All option shows everything

In certain reports, the Compare another period can be used to compare financial data from multiple time periods, including a
custom period, and even display the changes in percentages or dollar amounts. The Reorder columns link also makes it easy to
change the order of these columns.

The Accounting method radio buttons allow clients to choose whether only to display money paid or received in the defined
period or include invoices and bills dated during the reporting period, regardless of whether or not they’ve been paid.

The Collapse/Expand option allows clients to expand or collapse all categories in the report at once. Clients can collapse or
expand individual categories by selecting the small arrows next to the relevant lines in the repor

The Sort option can sort the report by total in ascending or descending order.

The Add notes option allows clients to add a note to display, print, or export with the report. Notes added here appear in the
bottom left corner of the report.

The See a chart option takes clients to the Performance center to view visual charts related to the report. To learn more about
the Performance center, check out the Using the Performance center lesson.

The Edit titles option allows clients to customize the section heading used in the report.

As with many of the options, what clients can customize from the Grid Gear icon depends on the report. For example, in this
Profit and Loss report, it can only be used to compact the report, but in other reports, it can allow the displayed columns to be
defined.

After adjusting the customization in the report, make sure to select Run report to refresh it.

Selecting the heading area allows clients to include the logo (if there’s a default one connected with the company) and edit the
company name or the report title.

Selecting the Customize button opens up a drawer on the right with many more options divided into sections. We’ll look at
these next.

Further customization options

Selecting the Customize button from the top right of the report opens up the Customize report drawer on the
right. This drawer offers further customization options organized into collapsible categories.
Note that, as with the options from the header section, the customization options in the Customize report drawer
depend on the report being used.
Select the dropdowns to find out more about the different categories.
General
The General section offers some of the options also available from the report screen header. However, it also
allows additional editing options to modify the number format or define how negative numbers are displayed.
Rows/Columns
Aging

Rows/Columns
The options in the Rows/Columns section depend on the report, but, in many cases, it offers similar options of
that in the header section. In other cases, as illustrated in the image below, this section allows clients to check or
uncheck the boxes they want to display or hide from the report. The small Grip icon to the left of each box
makes it easy to reorder columns.
Aging
For aging reports, there’s an additional Aging section where clients can choose the aging method and set the
number of days in the aging period and the number of aging periods to show on the report.

The two ways to categorize any outstanding receivables or payables are the following:

 Current: Due status will be based on the current date. Take the example of a client who has two open
invoices: one that was open at the end of last month but has since been paid and another that was open at
the end of last month and is still open. The Current option won’t include the paid invoice on the report
because it isn’t currently due, but it will include the invoice that is still open
 Report Date: Due status will be based on the report date (that is, the status of any outstanding
receivables on a specific date). This option would display both invoices from the previous example if
they were due on the date of the report

Filter
The Filter option allows clients to select what they want to display in the report.
Selected filters appear at the top of the list, and clients can choose the specific details they want to appear.

Note that the Specified option only shows transactions that are labeled, while the Not Specified option only
shows transactions where the field is blank. This could be useful, for example, if clients wanted to see
transactions with no class assigned or filter for customers who haven’t been assigned terms.
The filtering options vary depending on the
Detail reports offer more filtering options, such
report, but some of the most common filters
as:
are:
 Account
 Distribution Account
 Due Date
 Customer
 Created Date
 Vendor
 Transaction Type (including posting
 Employee
and non-posting)
 Location
 Cleared Status
 Class
 A/R Paid
 Product/Service
 A/P Paid
 Payment Method
 Last Modified Date
 Check Printed
 Sales Printed
 Billable
 Customer Taxable
 Memo
 Num (Number)
 Ship Via
 Product/Service Taxable

Clients that have set up custom fields can also filter reports by the custom fields. For more information on how
to use custom fields, check out the Customizing sales forms lesson.
Note that some filtering options don’t have a dropdown field from which to select. In these text-only fields, the
text entered in the filter must be contained in the field entry. For example, if the crew number is 1234, entering
123 brings up any transactions with crew numbers that contain 123, including 1234 or 5123.
Header/Footer

The Header/Footer section allows clients to customize the header and the footer.
For the header, they can decide whether they want to include the company logo or the reporting period, and they
can also change the company name and the report title. Note that these customization options are also accessible
from the header section of the report.
Clients can also select whether to show the date and time the report was prepared and the accounting method in
the footer, as well as the alignment for this information.
If clients want to add further details to the header or the footer, they can export the report to Excel or create a
management report. For more information about creating management reports, check out the Management
reports lesson.
Continue training

Saving the customization

Once clients have customized the report, they can save it or export it.
Saved reports appear in the Custom reports tab of the Reports center.
Select the highlighted areas to find out more about the saving and exporting options.
Selecting Save customization opens the options below.

Use the Custom report name field to enter a unique name for the report to be easily identifiable. Note that this can differ from
the heading on the report.

From the Add this report to a group dropdown, clients can put the report into groups for better organization. The Add new
group option also allows them to create groups.

The Share with dropdown allows clients to share the report with other users. The Firm only option shares it with accountant
users with access to this client, while the All users option gives access to firm and client users with reporting access.

When the Share reports with community option is checked, QuickBooks Online saves and offers the structure of the
customized report to other QuickBooks Online subscribers. Note that this shares only the customizations of the base report, not
the data.

Make sure to select Save to complete saving the customization.

Selecting the Envelope icon allows you to email the report to any recipient. Emails can be customized and will be sent from
quickbooks@notification.intuit.com

Selecting the Printer icon offers the option to print the report, choose the orientation, and decide which pages to include in the
printed document.

The Export icon allows clients to export the report to Excel, or PDF. For clients with QuickBooks Online Advanced
subscriptions, there’s also the option to export to Google Sheets.

Management reports
More reports for stakeholders

QuickBooks Online has many report options that allow clients to review the business’s financial performance.
However, clients may need a way to compile multiple reports to present to stakeholders.
How can you and QuickBooks Online help?

The Management reports tab in the Reports center of QuickBooks Online allows clients to create customizable,
professional-looking report packages to share with important stakeholders.
The QuickBooks Online ecosystem is constantly evolving to meet your needs.

Your current experience may differ from what you see here.
Continue training
Learning outcomes
In this lesson, we’ll cover:

 Creating management reports in QuickBooks Online

Topics

 Creating management reports

 Customization options
 Exporting management reports

Creating management reports

To start creating a management report, select the Management reports tab in the Reports center.

The first step in creating a new management report is choosing a template to use. Because clients can’t create a
management report from scratch, it’s best practice to copy an existing template rather than edit it. To do that,
select the down arrow next to the required template and select Copy.
Note that the default template options differ according to who’s accessing the Management reports tab and from
where.
Templates accessible to clients in their Templates accessible when accessing a
company account: client’s books via QuickBooks Online
Accountant:
 Company overview  Basic company financials
 Sales performance  Expanded company financials
 Expenses performance

Once the template has been duplicated, select Edit from the options to start customizing it.
As the image above shows, QuickBooks Online logs who created the report and when it was last modified.
Clients can also define the report period.
Continue training

Customization options
Once clients start editing a management report, a panel appears on the left with the sections to customize.
Select the dropdowns to find out more about the steps.
Customizing the cover page
The first section allows clients to customize the cover page and edit the details, including the title, layout, and
logo. However, it’s recommended to start with editing the template name at the top of the screen to make it
unique.
Note that QuickBooks Online automatically fills in some fields using data from Account and Settings or where
they’ve been defined in the report setup, but clients can overwrite these.
Customizing the table of contents

In the Table of contents section, clients can select whether to include a contents page or not and what to call it.

Customizing the preliminary pages

The next section allows clients to add preliminary pages with notes.
Note that the Page content box allows various formatting options, including the option to insert company
content that QuickBooks Online populates based on predefined settings. To do that, select the
special bracket option, for example: {Company name}. The actual text QuickBooks Online adds here
automatically updates if the predefined text is changed.

Customizing the reports included in the management report

In the Reports section, clients can define which reports to include in the management report template.
To add a report in addition to the ones QuickBooks Online included in the template, select the Add new
report option.

Note that there’s no way to customize a report from the Management Report screen, so clients need to make any
changes and save them in the Reports center before adding them to a management report package. However,
each report contains options to select the period and compare to other periods.
To edit or remove a report included in the template, select the Pencil or Trash icons from the right. Clients can
also rearrange the order the reports are presented by dragging the reports to the right position from
the Grip icon on the left.
Customizing the end notes

Finally, clients can select whether to include an end notes section at the end of the management report. Here,
they can also select whether to include a breakdown of subaccounts.

Additional customization options

More customization options are available from the Advanced option at the bottom of the screen.
Here, clients can customize the placeholder fields that automatically populate in the report. They can also enter
the header and footer text that will appear on every page of the management report (except the cover page and
the table of contents).
Exporting management reports
Before saving or printing the management report, clients can preview it by selecting the Print or
Preview option at the bottom of the page.

Once the clients are happy with the editing of the report, they need to select Save.
Back in the Management reports tab of the Reports center, they can export it as a .pdf or .docx file.
Setting up and using tags
The easy way to track money

Clients can always use classes, locations, and projects to track how money enters and leaves a business, but this
is cumbersome and has limits.

How can QuickBooks Online help?

QuickBooks Online supports the use of tags: customizable labels that let clients categorize and group
transactions the way it suits their business needs. These customizable labels make it easy to track money
without getting bogged down with classes, locations, and jobs.

This lesson looks at the basics of tags and tagging.

The QuickBooks Online ecosystem is constantly evolving to meet your needs.

Your current experience may differ from what you see here.
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Learning outcomes
In this lesson, we’ll cover:

 Setting up and using tags in QuickBooks Online

Topics

 Overview of tags
 The benefits of tags and tag groups
 Tagging transactions and creating tags
 Changing the tag settings
 Deleting tags

Overview of tags
Tags are customizable labels that clients can assign to transactions of their choice. Clients can then group tags
and run reports to see how specific areas of the business are performing.
For example, a charity might want to see donations received and expenses surrounding each of its fundraising
events. In this case, tags and tag groups would look like those shown below.
Tags can be added to:
 Estimates  Delayed charges  Purchase orders
 Invoices  Delayed credits  Vendor credits
 Sales receipts  Expenses  Credit card credits
 Credit memos  Checks  Bank deposits
 Refund receipts  Bills

At the moment, tags can’t be added to:

 General journal  Customers  Services
entries  Vendors  Employees
 Transfers  Products  Payroll items
 Time entries
  Pay down credit
card transactions

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The benefits of tags and tag groups

Tags provide a quick and easy way to compare data—perfect for when other categorization methods may be
more complex.

For example, a professional services firm may tag sales and expenses for various clients based on the referral
source. Using tags in this way can help clients see which advertising channels yield the most business.

Another example could be a sales manager who uses tags to track sales made by individual team members to
see who sells the most. The manager could also use tags to see who bills the most expenses. This combined data
can show who contributes the most to the company’s bottom line.

Unlike other methods that must be used consistently on every transaction to generate accurate reports, clients
can assign tags as needed. They work best for items selected from a list, such as invoices, sales receipts, and
credit memos. By contrast, custom fields are best for unique data, such as purchase order numbers.

Tags can provide another dimension of data labeling even if you or your clients already use classes, locations,
jobs, and custom fields.

Tags are available in all subscription levels of QuickBooks Online, offering a cost-effective solution for many
businesses.

Tagging transactions and creating tags

Let’s tag a new transaction and create some new tags at the same time.
Watch the video to see how it’s done. The individual steps are below for you to follow.

1. Select + New and the Expense

2. Fill in the transaction details as usual
3. Notice that selecting the Tags field displays a list of existing tags. Select any of these, or add a new
tag or tag group by entering the name of the tag and selecting + Add
4. To add more tags at once, select Manage tags

The Manage your tags drawer displays all the tags and tag groups. The Edit option next to each of
them makes it easy to make changes to them.
5. Select one of the Create options from the top. In this case, we want to create a new tag group with a
few tags and assign one of them to the transaction, so we select Create group
6. Enter the Group name and assign a color for the new group, then select Save
7. Now that the tag group is set up, enter the tag name and select Add
8. Repeat this if necessary to add all the tags to the group
9. Once the tag group and the tags are ready, select Done, and close the drawer

This returns you to the transaction edit screen.

10. To use one of the tags, select it from the Tags field or start entering the name of the tag and select it
when it appears
 Note that clients can add as many tags to a transaction as needed, but only one tag can be added from
each group.
11. When done, select Save and close

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The Tag tab in the Banking center

The Tag tab, accessible from the Banking center, shows a summary of money in and out by tag group, and gives
clients an overview of all the tags and the transactions that have tags assigned to them.
Select the hotspots to find out more.

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Use this dropdown to define which period to display transactions from.

The bars in each tile show the aggregate amount of money-in or money-out transactions assigned to each tag.

Use the See all untagged transactions button to view a filtered list of untagged transactions.

Use the New button to create tags or tag groups from the Tags tab rather than from the transaction screen

Select the transactions link to view a list of transactions filtered for that tag or tag group

This shows the number of tags and tag groups created to date.
Note that there’s no limit on the number of ungrouped tags clients can create in any of the QuickBooks Online
subscription levels. However, clients can only create 300 grouped tags distributed among up to 40 tag groups in
QuickBooks Online Simple Start, Essentials, and Plus. There’s no limit on grouped tags in QuickBooks Online
Advanced.

Changing the tag settings

By default, all QuickBooks Online company files have tags turned on, but they can be turned off if required.
To turn the Tags feature off, follow these steps:

1. Select the Gear icon, then Account and Settings

2. Select the Sales tab
3. Use the Tags slider to turn this feature off

If clients want to keep the Tags feature enabled but don’t want the Tags field to show on expense and purchase
forms:

1. Select the Expenses tab from the Account and Settings screen
2. Turn off the Show Tags field on expense and purchase forms slider
 3. Select Save

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Deleting tags
Tags don’t affect accounts, so your client can easily delete any tags or tag groups they don’t need.
To delete tags or tag groups, check the box next to them from the Tags tab in the Banking center and then select
Delete tags.

Deleting a tag group doesn’t delete the tags in the group—it just makes them ungrouped. When clients decide to
do this, they receive a warning message explaining the impact.
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