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QuickBooks Online

Custom Financial Reports Made Easy: Get the Insights That Matter

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Keeping up with your business finances is important, but standard reports in QuickBooks Online don’t always show exactly what you need. That’s why customizing reports can be a game-changer.

Instead of wading through numbers that don’t matter to you, you can create a report that focuses on the details you care about—whether that’s tracking sales, keeping an eye on expenses, or ensuring you have enough cash flow to cover bills.

Why Customize Your Reports?

QuickBooks Online gives you plenty of reports, but they may not always answer your specific questions. When you tailor a report to your business, you can:

See the numbers that matter most – No extra clutter, just the insights you need.

Save time – Get straight to the information that helps you make decisions.

Stay on top of your finances – Know exactly where your money goes.

Choose a Report to Customize

Think of reports like recipes—you can start with a basic one and adjust it to your taste.

How to Find the Right Report

  • Go to Reports in the menu.
  • Use the search bar or browse the list to find a report close to what you need.
  • Click to open the report.

Tip: Some popular reports to customize:

  • Profit & Loss – Shows how much your business is making (or losing).
  • Balance Sheet – A snapshot of what you own and owe.
  • Cash Flow Report – Helps you keep track of money coming in and out.
  • Sales by Product/Service – Tells you which items or services generate the most revenue.

Customize the Report to Fit Your Needs

Once you open a report, you will see a Customize button at the top. Click it, and you’ll be able to adjust:

  • Date Range – View a month, last quarter, or any timeframe you need.
  • Columns & Categories – You can include additional details like customers, vendors, or locations.
  • Filters – Narrow the report to show only specific sales, expenses, or accounts.
  • Layout & Format – Change how the report looks so it’s easier to read.

Tip: If you use this report regularly, click “Save Customization” to save time setting it up again

Customize Transaction Reports for Detailed Activity

Sometimes, you need more than a summary—you need detailed transaction data to examine specific expenses, income, or payments.

QuickBooks Online lets you customize transaction reports to show activity at the individual transaction level. Here’s how:

Drill Down to a Transaction Report

  • Click on any number in a report (like total revenue or expenses).
  • This will open a Transaction Report showing every transaction that makes up that total.

Customize the Details

  • Click Customize to refine the data.
  • Adjust the Date Range to focus on a specific time period.
  • Use Filters to show only certain customers, vendors, accounts, or transaction types.

Add or Remove Columns

  • Click Rows/Columns and choose what details you want to see (like transaction type, customer name, or payment method).
  • In addition to adding/removing columns, you can change the order to show on the report.

Sort and Group Data

  • Click the headers to sort transactions by amount, date, or type.
  • Use Group By to organize the data by category, customer, or another useful field.

Save or Export

  • Click Save Customization if you’ll need this report later.
  • Export to Excel or PDF for further analysis

Tip: This is a great way to check for errors, analyze spending patterns, or track missing payments.

Save, Share, or Export Your Report

Once you’ve made your changes, here’s what you can do next:

  • Save It – Click Save Customization so you can find it later.
  • Export It – Download your report as an Excel or PDF file.
  • Schedule It – Set QuickBooks to automatically email the report to you or your team.

Custom Report Ideas That Can Help Your Business

Not sure where to start? Here are some helpful custom reports that business owners love:

  • Profit by Customer – Find out which customers generate the most revenue.
  • Expenses by Vendor – See where your money is going and find ways to cut costs.
  • Cash Flow Summary – Make sure you always have enough cash to cover your bills.
  • Unpaid Invoices Report – Keep track of customers who still owe you money.

Final Thoughts

Customizing reports in QuickBooks Online isn’t about complicating things—it’s about making your life easier. Creating reports focusing on what’s important to you can save time, reduce stress, and make smarter business decisions.

Give it a try! Start with a simple customization and see how it works for your business. Before you know it, you’ll have reports that work for you—not the other way around.

How to Create Recurring Transactions in QuickBooks Online

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QuickBooks Online already reduces repetitive data entry by saving your lists of customers, vendors, products, etc., and making them accessible when you are creating transactions. But it does more to save time and minimize errors by allowing you to create recurring transactions. Enter a transaction like an invoice or bill once, and QuickBooks Online memorizes it for future use!

Here’s how it works. Let’s say you have a customer who wants to contract lawn services from you for one year. You create an invoice for one month’s services. At the bottom of the screen, click Make recurring. A partial view of the screen that opens is pictured below.

Much of this screen will have already been filled in. You’ll need to enter a name for the template you are creating at the top of the screen, one that will remind you of its content. In the second field, the drop-down list displays three options for how the recurring transaction will be handled by QuickBooks Online They are:

  • Scheduled. Your invoice will go out automatically at the scheduled interval, with only a change to the date. As with any automated process, you should be very careful when selecting this option.
  • Reminder. You will get a reminder ahead of each occurrence so you can make any necessary changes before sending.
  • Unscheduled. No automation is involved here. The invoice is memorized, but you’ll have to remember when it needs to go out.

If you chose Reminder, the next field will read Create (x) days in advance. Enter the number of days here. On the next line, you will only have to check or uncheck the Options.

Under Interval, you will tell QuickBooks Online when the invoice is scheduled to go out. You can choose from Daily, Weekly, Monthly, and Yearly. The invoice in this example should be processed and sent on the first day of every month. The start date is January 1, 2021, and it will end on December 31, 2021. If your recurring transaction should continue to go on indefinitely, you’ll have the option to select None from the drop-down list under End. You can also choose After.

Check the fields below this line to make sure they’re correct. You can change the message if you’d like and add an attachment. If everything looks correct, click Save Template in the lower right corner.

Using Recurring Transactions

If you’ve set this transaction up to recur automatically, you don’t have to do anything more with it unless you need to edit it at some point. If you need to do so, or if you’re responding to a reminder (or chose not to be reminded), you can access the list of transactions you’ve memorized by clicking the gear icon in the upper right and selecting Recurring Transactions under Lists. A screen containing this section will open:

The table that appears will contain other columns describing the recurring transactions, like Type and Interval. The image above shows the end of each row that reads Edit until you open the drop-down menu. You can see what your options are. They include Use, which you would select when you want to edit and/or send a transaction. You can also create a Duplicate, Pause the recurrences temporarily, Skip next date, or Delete the template. Click the arrow next to Reminder List in the upper right and select Run Report to see the Recurring Template List Report.

As you can see, recurring transactions not only saves time, but they can also help reduce errors and minimize unnecessary work. They are not overly difficult to create, but you should use caution if you choose to automate them. We are available to answer your questions about this useful tool and about any other element of QuickBooks Online.

QuickBooks Online Best Practices

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As you are going about your day, it is easy to be pulled in multiple directions. Having a regular bookkeeping routine can help you stay on track.

Here are some best practices when using QuickBooks Online.

Go through your new transactions regularly

One of the best things about QuickBooks Online is its ability to connect to your bank and credit card accounts and import transactions regularly. However, this feature is only useful if you review your recently downloaded transactions regularly. We recommend a minimum of once a week as it might become overwhelming if you wait much longer than that.

We recommend you review your account transactions at least once a week and complete any of the fields necessary

To view an account register, click Banking in the left vertical pane, and then click on the desired account at the top of the screen. Select a transaction and a small window like the (partial) one pictured above, displays your options.

Always assign categories to expenses

Entering detail information in QuickBooks Online will produce helpful your reports. It is especially important that you assign categories to expenses and mark them as billable or not. Those categorized expenses will be very important as you are preparing your company’s income taxes and ensures customers are invoiced for expenses you incur on their behalf.

Run aging reports on a weekly basis

QuickBooks Online can help you keep up with money owed to you as well as what you owe to others.

We recommend you run at least two reports weekly: Accounts Receivable Aging Summary and Accounts Payable Aging Summary. You can modify these reports by clicking the Customize button if needed, but they should be good as is. You do not want to see any numbers in any columns except the first one (Current). If you see any beyond that, it means that either incoming or outgoing payments are overdue. Click on any number to see the transaction(s) detail.

Set reorder points on inventory items

Keep an eye on your product inventory levels. When you create an item record (Sales | Products and Services | New), be sure to enter a Reorder point. The Products and Services page tells you how many items have Low Stock or are Out of Stock. You can also see the Qty on Hand and Reorder Point in the table below those numbers.

Inventory quantity on hand and reorder point

More to Implement

We also recommend other best practices and we will expand upon those in a later article but for now, believe these are a good starting point.

Resolutions QuickBooks Online Users Should Make For the New Year

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New year, new challenges, and the potential for new successes. Here are five ways you can improve your financial management in the new year.

If you are already using QuickBooks Online, you know how it has solved the paperwork confusion of the past. However, are you taking advantage of all of its capabilities? As you turn your digital calendar to January, consider expanding your use of the software to set yourself up for success in the upcoming year. Here are five features to explore if you have not already.

Practice Proactive Reconciliation:

QuickBooks Online Banking screen display registers for the bank and credit card transactions that have been posted by your banks. Do you review these regularly? It will save time when you do your monthly reconciliations with your bank statements. Hover over Transactions in the toolbar and select Banking. You can see some of your transaction management options in the image below.

Once QuickBooks Online has downloaded a transaction from your bank, you have multiple options for dealing with it and finalizing the posting of the transaction.

When your statement comes and you are ready to reconcile, you can use QuickBooks Online tools that take you step by step through the process. Hover over Accounting in the toolbar and select Reconcile. Let us know if you need help with reconciliation or with managing downloaded transactions.

Start Accepting Online Payments:

This is probably the #1 way to encourage customers to pay you faster. When you set up a merchant account through QuickBooks Payments, you are be able to accept credit cards, debit cards, and ACH bank transfers. Your invoices will include a Pay Now button and will contain the information your customers need to pay electronically. Their funds will go into your bank account.

There are other ways they can pay you directly. You can take their card numbers over the phone. You can also get a free card reader from Intuit and swipe their cards on your mobile device. And you can set up recurring payments that will occur automatically.

Tip: We work directly with Intuit to offer QuickBooks Payments. Intuit has very affordable monthly rates and completive swipe and key rates. Adding QuickBooks Payments to your offerings can save steps in recording payments in QuickBooks. You send an invoice via email and offer ACH or credit card as payment options. Your customer will click on a button in your email to make a payment and QuickBooks will know which invoice it is for and QuickBooks and will link the payment to the appropriate invoice.

Set Weekly and Monthly Report Schedules:

You may run reports in QuickBooks Online on a monthly basis. Some reports, though, should be created more frequently, like Accounts receivable aging (detail or summary), Accounts Payable Aging, Open invoices, and Unpaid Bills. These reports help you keep a close watch on what you owe and who owes you.

It is important to run some other reports on a monthly basis, including Balance Sheet, Profit and Loss, and Statement of Cash Flows. Rather than just providing snapshots of where you stand with money coming in and going out, they give you a more comprehensive view of your finances that can help you make better business decisions. They are complex and often difficult to analyze, though, which is why QuickBooks Online categorizes them as For my accountant. While they are categorize under the Accountant group we recommend you view them at least monthly and if you need help interpreting them let us know.

Expand QuickBooks Online Features by Using Apps:

QuickBooks Online is generic enough that it can be used by a wide variety of small businesses. But that flexibility may mean that, it is not quite robust enough in one area or another, like inventory management or time tracking. Check out the hundreds of apps that can integrate with QuickBooks Online to fill in the gaps by clicking on APPs in the toolbar. Again, we are available to help if you need assistance in choosing the right app for your business.

Evaluate the Cost-effectiveness of Your Vendors:

It is easy to stick with the same old suppliers because it is a hassle to change. However, it is good to review the pricing of your current vendors and compare to other vendors to make sure you are getting the best pricing as well as customer service. To review your vendor list, hover over Expenses in the toolbar and click on Vendors. As you are reviewing the list, this might be a good time to clean up dated information. Click the down arrow at the end of each row and select Make inactive if you haven’t ordered from specific suppliers over the last year.

As we said earlier, we are available to meet with you and explain any of the concepts discussed here in more depth. Best wishes to you in the new year!

Five Ways to Track Accounts Receivables in QuickBooks Online

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Keeping a watch on your accounts receivable can help improve cash flow. Knowing how many of your invoices are unpaid and if you billed all of the time and expenses for your customers projects impacts your cash flow.

To get a quick glance of your customer balances, on the home screen hover over the Sales tab on the left vertical panel and click Overview. The dashboard shows the amount overdue as well as invoices open but not yet due. Click on the colored bar labeled OVERDUE, and you will see a list of invoices with the overdue ones at the top followed by open invoices not yet due.

You can tell at a glance how much of your unpaid invoices are past due.

While this quick glance is helpful, it is only a summary of what is owed to you. To get a full picture you can access accounts receivable reports by clicking Reports in the left vertical pane and scroll down to the heading labeled Who owes you

These reports are listed in two columns. Each has the outline of a star next to it. Click on the star, and the report will be added to the Favorites list at the top of the page. Click on the three vertical dots next to it, and you will be able to Customize the report. Hover over the title and you will see a small, circled question mark. Click on this to get a brief description of the report.

There are several reports in this list that can provide insight into where your outstanding revenue is. We recommend you run five of them at least once a week – more frequently if your business sells large quantities of products and/or services. The suggested reports are:

Accounts receivable aging detail

This report provides a list of invoices that are overdue, along with aging information. There are several columns in the report, but you will want to pay special attention to the last one: OPEN BALANCE.

Customizing the Reports

Before you run the report, you can explore the customization tools provided for it. They will not be the same for every report, but you can start to get an idea of what can be done. Hover over the report title and click Customize. A panel like the one pictured below will slide out of the right side of the screen.

QuickBooks Online provides customization tools for reports.

You can see some of your customization options in the image above. Beyond these, you can also work with filters and headers/footers. When you are satisfied with your changes, click Run report.

If you want to run a report with its default settings, just click on the report title in the list to display it.

Four other reports you should be generating regularly are:

  • Customer Balance Summary: Shows you how much each customer owes your business
  • Open Invoices: Lists invoices for which there has been no payment
  • Unbilled Charges: Just what it sounds like: tells you who hasn’t been invoiced yet for billable charges
  • Unbilled Time: Lists all billable time not yet invoiced

Utilizing the customer reports will help keep track of what is coming due and track expenses and time to bill your customers. All items that affect your cash flow and company’s financial health.

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