Monthly QuickBooks reports

Creating Memorized Report Groups
Reviewing the general ledger monthly
A monthly summary of the checkbook transactions
Formatting reports
Printing - Report Options

It is important to review reports periodically (at least monthly)  to see if income, expenses and loans are consistently applied to the correct accounts. QuickBooks memorized reports and memorized reports groups will help you to remember what reports are important to review. The more frequently you review these reports, the more comprehensive your understanding of how QuickBooks works and the greater meaning your financial reports will hold for those who manage the business. 

From Reports Menu > Memorized Reports > Select the top option, Memorized reports list.
The default groups are Accountant, Banking, Company, Customers, Employees, Vendors.

You can add groups that are meaningful to you

From the Memorized Reports List >
Click the memorized report button in the lower left of the window  >
Click on New group. 

A group titled  'Monthly to do's' might help you to remember what to look at and when. 

Reviewing the general ledger monthly
A report that you will need to review monthly is the general ledger. The general ledger report is found: Reports Menu >  Accountant & Taxes reports > General Ledger Report
Modify the report as follows:
Click the modify report button > 
Click on the display tab and check the columns debit & credit and remove amount column, if you are 
             job costing, also place a check next to 'source name'  >
Click OK >
Click on the 'dates' menu option (top of report window) & choose a Date Range  this month(or last month) Memorize this report in the new report group "Monthly to do's". 

For those companies who use the QuickBooks payroll features we suggest that you continue to modify the general ledger to  filter out all payroll transactions to make it  a more manageable report to read. Click the modify button > 
Click the filter tab >
Click on 'transaction type'  under filter list>
Click 'selected transaction types' under transaction type drop-down list >
Place a checkmark next to all transaction types except 'paycheck' and 'payroll liability check' >
Click on the header tab and change the report title to 'General ledger without PR'

At the end of every month, run this newly created memorized general ledger report and review it for accuracy  (for individuals without a finance background,  it is  much easier to spot errors if you start to read this report by starting at the bottom and scrolling upward. Most errors will occur in the income & expense accounts).  Examples of problems include transaction types of invoice or sales receipt pointed to an expense account that should be considered income, look for loan payments that are included under expense accounts, look for vendor names in the income accounts and so on.

We specialize in helping small business owners correct and understand their reports. And we help them customize QuickBooks to reduce future errors. If you need assistance, give us a call
800-216-0763 and allow us to demonstrate how our support works

A monthly summary of the checkbook transactions

Run a balance sheet report > Quickzoom (double click) on any bank account to open the transaction detail report > Click on modify report button. The first window that opens is the 'display tab'  > On the tab
1. Change the date to 'Last Month'
2. Find the columns box (on the bottom left of this window) and scroll down to the bottom of the list.
   Add a checkmark next to  'debit' &  'credit' by clicking once.  Click on the 'amount' column by clicking  
   once on 'amount'
3. At the top of this window, click on the header tab and change the title to "Bank account register"
4  Click OK  

Use this same procedure if you need other columns to appear in your report, for example if you assign expenses to customer/job names, you will want to see the column for 'source name' (displays vendor or employee name) added to your report.   

Formatting Reports

- Increase the width of the columns by hovering the mouse over the diamond to the right of the column header until it changes to a crossbar. Click and drag the mouse to the right until you have reached the desired increased width then let go of the mouse. Dragging to the left has the opposite effect, in fact, dragging the right diamond left instead of right will shrink the column width and you can remove the entire column  from the report by dragging the diamond beyond the left diamond. It is a breeze to add back the column if you have removed it unintentionally as follows:
Click on Modify, and the first tab open is the display tab and the 'columns' option appears in the lower right of this window.  Place a checkmark by clicking next to the desired column. Give this a try by removing the 'Clr' column from the report then adding the 'Clr' column back in.
. 
- Change the order of the columns  - hover the mouse over the column header, for example, try hovering over the column header 'type'  until the mouse pointer changes to a hand, click and drag the 'type' column to the desired location. Try dragging to the right until the column hovers in-between the split and debit column headers and then let go of the mouse. It is just as simple to move it back.

- Change the font size of the report header, footer , column headings, data, or all of the above.
Click on the Modify button > Click on the tab 'Fonts and Numbers' > Click to Highlight the part of the report you would like to change then click on the 'Change Font' button > click OK to accept your changes. In this 'Fonts and Numbers' tab you can also choose to remove cents from the report by clicking on the box 'Without Cents'. Click OK to save changes   You can change the default font and size for every report from the Preferences window. From the Edit Menu > Select Preferences > Scroll halfway down the icon bar on the left until you see the icon for 'Reports' and  click on 'Reports' > Click on the tab 'company preferences' and click on 'Format' > Click on the tab 'Fonts and Numbers' and make changes accordingly > Click on okay to save your changes.

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Printing - Report Options

- Sort the QuickBooks report. Take a moment to see how the same data, displayed in different orders might help you manage your business.  From the report window > click on the down arrow next to the option 'sort by' and click on Type.  The form used to create the transaction will shed light on how and why it appears or does not appear in a report,  Sort this same report by every option in this list to determine if and how it may help you make business decisions.  Return the 'sort' to the default order then take a moment to see how 'total by' can offer a different perspective on the data. Using the down arrow next to the option 'total by'  > click on payee. 

- Print the report.  Print to paper or to a file (choose tab delimited) making it possible to create a report that can be e-mailed and opened using Microsoft Excel (but consider upgrading to QuickBooks 2004 to take advantage of the new one step feature that will create a PDF report and e-mail with the click of one button.).  

Options which are used frequently include:
Printing landscape mode (short and wide) or
Printing portrait mode (tall and thin);
Fitting report to one page wide will make automatically resize your fonts to fit all the columns on one page;
Previewing the report before printing will provide the number of pages in the report If its a partial report you seek, the preview button will help identify the specific page (s)  to print  
Smart page breaks  will improve presentation. QuickBooks avoids splitting related data across two pages. Within larger groupings, QuickBooks chooses the most logical place to insert a page break.
Print back to front:
For printers that print each page face up this option will save you the trouble of manually collating pages. From the print report window > click options  > click 'back to front'

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