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Run a report

by Intuit11 Updated 1 week ago

Learn how to run a report in QuickBooks Online.

Financial reports give a quick overview of your business. In QuickBooks Online, you can run reports which can help you track your business performance and make decisions for it.



Set up general report preferences

Before you get started, set up general report preferences:

  1. Go to Settings Settings gear icon. and select Account and settings.
  2. Select Advanced.
  3. In the Accounting section, select the pencil ✎ icon.
  4. Select the Accounting method Dropdown arrow icon. dropdown, then select either Accrual or Cash.
    Note: Reports default to the accounting method you set here.
  5. Select Save, then select Done.

Run a basic financial report

To run a basic financial report, follow these steps:

Follow this link to complete the steps in product. Open this link in a new window

  1. Select the Type report name here Dropdown arrow icon. dropdown to search for a report by name. You can also browse the list.
  2. Select the report to open it.
    Note: You can customize your reports in QuickBooks Online.

For specific reports in QuickBooks Online which are run based on a current or final date (for instance, Trial Balance and Balance Sheets) instead of a specific date range, the reports will be presented as a reflection of the end date, and QuickBooks Online will not take into account the starting date.

For the Trial Balance report, the report will be presented based on the current fiscal year, and dropdown individual row items will be reflected as such as well. Balance Sheet reports, however, present an entirety of the QuickBooks Online file's financial record.

Additionally, any reports that are being run with a date range that falls inside different fiscal years, when dropping down into individual row items, only the transactions from the latest fiscal year show.

Watch the below video for an overview on the reports feature in QuickBooks. Use the reports centre to gain additional insights about your business.



Run a report for a specific account

You can also focus on a specific account instead of running reports for everything.

  1. Go to Settings Settings gear icon. and select Chart of accounts (Take me there).
  2. Find the account.
  3. Select Run report in the ACTION column or from the Account history Dropdown arrow icon. dropdown.


Manage your reports

When you have a report open:

  1. Select More actions Vertical ellipses icon. then select Email report.
  2. Enter or update the recipient's email address, subject, email body, and file name.
    Note: To send a report to multiple email recipients, separate the email addresses with commas.
  3. Select either Excel, CSV, or PDF for the file format.
  4. Select Send email.


When you have a report open:

  1. Select Export Image of the Export to excel icon..
  2. Select either Export to Excel, Export to PDF or Export as CSV.
  3. Save the file.

Note: Export your report to Excel to change the font, colour, or further customize the visual appearance of your report.



When you have a report open:

  1. Select Print Image of the print icon..
  2. Select Print or Save as PDF.
  3. Adjust your report print settings as needed.
  4. Select Print.

Format a report

You can adjust the layout of your report before you print it.

  1. Select Print Image of the print icon..
  2. Select the Orientation Dropdown arrow icon. dropdown.
  3. Select Portrait or Landscape.
  4. Select Print or Save as PDF.

If the columns still don't fit:

  • Resize columns in a report.
  • Remove unnecessary columns.
  • Make the margins smaller.
  • Change the orientation to landscape.
  • Print on legal-size paper.
  • Scale the page by a percentage.
  • Check your printer setup properties to see if your printer driver supports scaling.

Use the smart page break option

Select Smart page break from Scaling dropdown. This automatically breaks the page at logical areas for easier reading when you print a report.

Note: The option to print using smart page breaks varies based on the report you’re in.

Use the repeat header option

Select Show report headers on all pages checkbox so the header appears on every page of the report you’re printing.

Update the header and footer of a report

Go to your browser settings to remove the QuickBooks Online URL and other information at the top and bottom of a report. You can view articles provided by Chrome, Firefox, and Safari for instructions.



Do more with reports in QuickBooks

Learn more about report features and specific reports to get the info you need:

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