QuickBooks provides lots of customizable report templates, but which are musts?
Reports can tell you how many forest green sweatshirts you sold in April, what you paid for health insurance premiums in the first quarter of this year, and how much you bought from your favorite vendor last month. They’re very good at drilling down to get the precise set of numbers you need.
So… The below listed reports, are the ones you’ll want to run often:
Who Owes Money? This is a big one!
As with any report, you can modify it to include the columns, data set and date range
Figure 1: By running the A/R Aging Detail report, you can see whether you need to follow up with customers who have past due invoices.
As with any report, you can modify it to include the columns, data set and date range you want by clicking the Customize button. When you create a report in a format that you think you might want to run again, click the Memorize button. Enter a name that you’ll remember, and assign it to a Memorized Report Group.
Getting There… Help:
There are two ways to find the reports you want to see. You can open the Reports menu and move your cursor down to the category you want, like Customers & Receivables, which will open a slide-out menu of options there.
Or you can open the Report Center, which lets you explore reports in more depth. Each is represented by a small graphic with four icons under it. There, you can:
Run the report with your own data in it
Open a small informational window
Designate it as a Favorite, and View QuickBooks help.
Other accounts receivable reports that you should consult periodically include Open Invoices and Average Days to Pay.
Tracking What You Owe
Reports can also keep you up-to-date on money that you owe to other people and companies. An important one is Unpaid Bills Detail, accessible through the Vendors & Payables menu item.
Though you can modify its columns, this report basically tells you who is expecting money from you, the date the bill was issued, its due date, any number assigned to it, the balance due, and relevant aging information.
Vendor Balance Detail is critical, as well. This report displays every transaction (invoices, payments, etc.) that contributes to the balance you have with each vendor.
QuickBooks report categories include one labeled Company & Financial.
These are reports that you can run yourself, but they’re critical for understanding your company’s financial status. We can customize and analyze these for you on a regular basis so you’ll know where you stand, to make it easier for you. They include:
- Balance Sheet. What is the value of your company? The balance sheet breaks out this information by account (under the umbrella of assets, liabilities and equity).
- Income Statement. Often referred to as Profit & Loss, this shows you how much money your business made or lost over a specific time period.
- Statement of Cash Flows. How much money came in and went out during a specified time range?
Reports can only generate information about what you’ve entered in QuickBooks and exactly where it’s been entered. So it’s crucial that you follow standard accounting practices as you proceed through your daily workflow. We’re always available to answer questions you have about QuickBooks’ structure and your activity there. Your reports – and your critical business decisions – depend on it… So we can teach you how to operate these effectively, OR we can simply take care of it all for you!
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