Export reports as Excel workbooks in QuickBooks Desktop

Learn how to easily export reports to Excel from QuickBooks Desktop.

Want to take your reports out of QuickBooks and analyze them in Microsoft Excel? You can save reports as Excel workbooks (.xlsx), CSV spreadsheets, or PDFs.

Here’s how to save QuickBooks reports so you can use them in Microsoft Excel.

Export a report in QuickBooks Desktop for Windows

1. In QuickBooks, go to the Reports menu and select Reports Center.
2. Find and open any report.
3. Select the Excel on the toolbar. You can also select Print or Email to save the report as a PDF.
   
4. To create a new Excel workbook, select Create New Worksheet. If you want to update an existing workbook with the data in the open report, select Update Existing Worksheet. Select Browse and then find the workbook on your computer. Keep in mind, this overwrites the existing workbook.
5. If you want to format the data a specific way, select Advanced. This is optional.
   

   Note: The report must have less than 256 columns. If you see a message that says your report has too many columns, select Advanced. Select and uncheck the Space between columns checkbox, then select OK. You can also save your report as a CSV instead of an Excel workbook and have more columns.

6. When you’re ready to export, select OK. To open the report in Excel, you can also select Export.

Export a report in QuickBooks Desktop for Mac

Note: You can open the Excel workbooks with Apple Numbers v3.5 or Microsoft Excel 2016 or later, including Mac Office 365.

1. Go to the Reports menu and find the report you want to export.
2. Select Export.
3. When the file opens, select File, then select Save As to save the file where you want it.

QuickBooks opens Excel workbooks with the default application you set. Here’s how to change it.

1. Right-click on the file and select Get Info.
2. From the Open With menu, select Microsoft Excel or Apple Numbers.
3. Select Change All.

You can set your report preferences to change the file type that QuickBooks exports (.sylk or .xlsx).

Get updated reports while working in Excel

After you export, you can get the latest version of the report from QuickBooks while you're in Excel.

1. In Microsoft Excel, go to the QuickBooks tab. Excel adds this automatically the first time you export the report.
2. Select Update Report to get the latest version of the report from QuickBooks.