Create, view, or edit a Management report in QuickBooks Online

Management reports allow you to create branded, presentation-ready reporting packages that combine financials and charts. These tools enable you to build narrative-driven documents for clients or stakeholders using live data, custom branding, and AI-powered insights.

Feature availability by subscription

Your access to Management report features depends on your subscription tier.

View management reports

QuickBooks Online provides automatic report compilations such as Company Overview, Sales Performance, and Expenses Performance.

1. Go to Reports and select Management reports (Take me there).
2. Select which of the following report compilations you’d like to view:
   • Company Overview: Contains Profit and Loss and Balance Sheet reports.
   • Sales Performance: Contains Profit and Loss, A/R Ageing Detail, and Sales by Customer Summary reports.
   • Expenses Performance: Contains Profit and Loss, A/P Ageing Detail, and Expenses by Supplier Summary reports.
3. In the Report Period, select a time range or a custom date range.
4. Select Preview ▼ dropdown in the Action column to preview the PDF document. From the Print or save as PDF window:
   • Select Print and follow the steps if you want to print a physical copy of the report.
   • Or, select Save as PDF and follow the steps to save the report.
   • Or, select the close icon X to close the report.
5. Select the ▼ dropdown next to Preview in the Action column to Edit, Send, Export as PDF, Export as DOCX, Duplicate, Delete (Not available for default compilations provided by QuickBooks.)

Tip: Reports print most accurately in Google Chrome. Using other browsers may cause layout or formatting differences.

Create and edit a management report

Build a multi-page document from scratch or use templates to combine cover pages, executive summaries, and dashboards.

1. Go to Reports and select Management reports (Take me there).
2. Select + Management Report.
3. Within the report editor, you can edit any of the management reports and save a copy to share. You can also find the report you want to edit, select the ▼ dropdown in the Action column, then select Edit, and use the side panel to customise the below sections.
4. Drag and drop elements (reports, charts, text) to reorder them within your document.
5. Select Save or Save and Close to save your report.

Management report name

• You can change the report name or the report period from the ▼ dropdown on the page that appears.
• Other options are in different sections you can select from the side panel.

Cover page

• Template: Select a prebuilt cover style for your cover page.
• Logo: Select if you want to display your company logo.
• Cover title: Edit the title of the report up to 100 characters.
• Subtitle: Shows your company name.
• Report period: Shows the report end date.
• Prepared on: Shows the date on which the report was created.
• Prepared by: Enter the name of the person who prepared this report.
• Disclaimer: Shows "For management use only". Can be edited up to 90 characters.

Table of contents

• Hide or show the Table of Contents: Select or de-select the icon from the side panel if you want to hide or show a table of contents in this report.
• Title: Edit the title of this page.

Preliminary pages

• Hide or show this page: Select or de-select the icon from the side panel if you want to hide or show this preliminary page in this report.
• Page title: Edit the title of this page.
• Page content: Enter and format paragraph text in this field.
• Add new page: Select the + Add New Page option to add another preliminary page to this report.

Reports and charts

• Hide or show this page: Select or de-select the icon from the side panel if you want to hide or show this page in this report.
• Select the edit icon on a report to change the report type from the Report ▼ dropdown, or change the Report title or Report period ▼ dropdown.
• Select the delete icon to delete a report.
• To reorder a report in this document, select the reorder icon and drag it to your desired order.
• Add : Select this option to add a new type of report to your document. If you’re a QuickBooks Online Advanced user, you can select Chart to add visualised data to your management report. The charts you see here come from your custom reports.

End notes

• Hide or show this page: Select or de-select the icon from the side panel if you want to hide or show this page in this report.
• Include breakdown of sub-accounts: Creates a schedule that breaks down any sub-accounts for line items. You can view these when you preview the report.
• Page title: Enter a title for the end notes page.
• Page content: Enter and format paragraph text in this field.

More options

• Fields: Shows the {Company name} and {Report end date} variables. The company name variable can be changed here.
• Header: Enter page header text, or select one of the Fields variables.
• Footer: Enter page footer text, or select one of the Fields variables.
• Show only non-zero rows and columns: Select if you want to hide line items and columns containing no data.

Tip: Reports print most accurately in Google Chrome. Using other browsers may cause layout or formatting differences.

Add components and visuals to a report

Enhance your packages by adding standard reports, custom reports.

Add a Standard report

1. ​Go to Reports and select Standard reports (Take me there).
2. Find the report you want to add, select the more options icon, then select Add to Management reports.
3. Select either Create a new management report or Add to an existing management report.
4. Enter the name of the new management report, or select an existing management report.
5. Select Add.

Add a Custom report

Note: Custom reports are available for QuickBooks Online Advanced.

1. Go to Reports and select Custom reports (Take me there).
2. Find the report you want to add, select the dropdown in the Action column, then select Add to Management reports.
3. Select either Create a new management report or Add to an existing management report.
4. Enter the name of the new management report, or select an existing management report.
5. Select Add.

Advanced formatting and data management

QuickBooks applies smart formatting to your management reports to ensure they are professional and accurate.

Detailed Analysis: When working with A/P & A/R Summary reports, select specific ageing totals to see exactly which overdue items and invoices are included in that balance. You can also select the balance on accounts with $ 0 totals to see the underlying transactions and activity that make up that amount. 

• GAAP-Aligned Ordering: Reports like the General Ledger display accounts in proper order (Assets, Liabilities, Equity) instead of alphabetically.
• Flexible Display: Accounts with no activity or balances are hidden by default to provide a cleaner view. To change this, select More options on the report editor and uncheck Show only non-zero rows and columns.