Reports - Is there any report that will show a separate column for MEMO and one for DESCRIPTION instead of QBO only having MEMO/DESCRIPTION & picking with field it wants?

Hi cconnelly,

The option to separate the Memo and Description columns are unavailable. You'll want to export the report to Excel and separate them manually.

To do it:

1. In the report, click the Export icon beside the Print icon.
2. Choose Export to Excel.
3. In the Excel spreadsheet manually separate the memo and description.

The details are found in this article: How to export reports to Excel.

If you need further assistance, please don't hesitate to reach out to us anytime.

This question has been asked by hundreds of people, and there is no answer, because it can't be done.  QBO has two completely separate lines for "Description" and "Memo," but will only show the "Description" in reports.  They have actually combined the two (2) words as a column option, making you think you can have both entries.

What makes things even worse is when adding a description/memo to your credit card transactions, you are given the option is to enter a "Memo" quickly, BUT it will not show on the report.  You have to open (i.e. edit) the entire transaction to type in the "Description" line in order for the note to show up in your reports!

Classes are extremely important in my company, and transaction reports do not allow them as a customization or display option.

Hi Kimi5564, 

You might want to look into the Purchases or Sales by Class Detail. These reports will show transactions that are categorized per Class. 

Just type in the Search field, Purchases (vendor transactions) by Class Detail or Sales (customer transactions) by Class Detail. 

With regards to your feedback, I'll personally send this to your Product Development Team that you like to add a Class column in customizing reports. 

I'll be here if you need anything else. 

I run the P and L for our company at month end.  I then am reviewing each account to make sure that expenses have been posted to the correct account.  Hundreds of these transactions are synched over from a credit card each month.  The credit card posts the detail of what the transaction is to the "memo" field not the "description" field.   When I drill down to a particular account, I see a list of all the expenses for the month that are in that account but there is nothing more than the name of the merchant shown, I cannot see the description because that is in the memo field.   THIS is a huge problem.  In order for me to see what is in a given expense account, I have to open each transaction??   Really inefficient.

Thanks for the details, mtestoni2.

It's possible that the transactions were not yet added since these has to be manually added on your QuickBooks. You can do it by clicking the Banking tab. Next, select the transactions to be added, and then select Accept Selected under Batch actions. Once done, these will be moved to the Reviewed tab.

After adding, you'll have to match the downloaded transactions with the one already entered.

Here's an article for the detailed steps: Download, match, and categorize your bank transactions.

Afterward, run the Profit and Loss report again and check to see if these transactions has appeared.

If you still need my help, please let me know. I'm here to help you out.

Run the "Transaction List with Splits" .  The memo and the Description are displayed on a separate line.

Run the "Transaction list with splits".  The memo and description fields are shown on separate lines.

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@ShiellaGraceA wrote:

Hi cconnelly,

 

The option to separate the Memo and Description columns are unavailable. You'll want to export the report to Excel and separate them manually.

 

To do it:

1. In the report, click the Export icon beside the Print icon.
2. Choose Export to Excel.
3. In the Excel spreadsheet manually separate the memo and description.

The details are found in this article: How to export reports to Excel.

 

If you need further assistance, please don't hesitate to reach out to us anytime.

 

 

 

 

 

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This is one of the most unhelpful answers that QuickBooks can give - we can do all of our accounting and report-building manually in Excel, but we're using QuickBooks to avoid that inefficiency. I don't understand why the program has two different fields with two different labels that it then considers to be interchangeable when pulling reports, and which it also mislabels in its report customization tool.

I know this isn't an issue that QB programmers are simply unable to sort out, because it's not how QB reports worked in earlier versions. One of my monthly processes was built around pulling reports based on information added to the Memo (NOT the Description), and I had to rework that process when this "upgrade" was added several years ago.

Please add my vote to those asking for this feature to be re-implemented.

Thanks for providing us with this helpful feedback, @Eva-B.

Let me share some information about the Memo and Description column when generating reports.

The memo field is a convenient feature in QuickBooks transactions, but it is only beneficial when you can make the field visible on your reports. Meanwhile, showing descriptions in reports requires you to edit the item descriptions for sales transactions. When pulling a report, the Memo line on the QuickBooks sales report pulls information from the Item List and not the invoice's Memo line. While somewhat counter-intuitive, using the Item List instead of individual invoice Memo lines provides a more efficient way to work with multiple invoice item descriptions because all descriptions are available within a single list.

The suggestions on this page are often looked at by our developers to see what features users like yourself would like to see added. To stay up to date on what's in the works, please keep an eye on our blog: The QuickBooks Online Blog

Swing by here if you have other questions about generating reports in QuickBooks. I'm always here to help.

Add me to the list of users that needs description and memo in the P & L reports. Otherwise just make one spot to add details and report those.

Please add me to list of people who find the way Memo and Description work confusing and difficult to work with! I would like a consistent way to see either or both in any report. Some of the confusing ways it works - if you ADD a transaction from a bank feed it will automatically copy the Bank Detail into the Description, unless you add a Memo as you are adding it - in this case it will take your Memo note and copy it to the Description and overwrite the bank detail that would have normally been added - so now the Memo note you just added is in both the Memo and the Description. To make it more confusing there is a setting option on the Bank Feed (cog wheal) to automatically copy the Bank Detail into the Memo. I have no idea what happens if you add a Memo note and you have this option selected (i have not tested it). This is just the beginning of the confusion... it continues on with the reporting as described by previous posts. For such a simple but core function to be so badly conceived is a bit of a mystery to me.  After talking to my bookkeeper about it was clear if she want to see something she adds it to both and assumes that she will often have to open the transaction to see if there is note. What a waste of time! I would love to see someone on the development team take this up as their personal mission to rectify this function which every QB user relies on in some way! Thank you

We don't want you to feel that way, @green mountian renegade.

I'd like to share some details about the Memo/Description field's function in QuickBooks.

In QuickBooks Online, many reports have a combined Memo/Description column. Some reports show memos in this column and others show descriptions, depending on the purpose of the report. 
 

Let's say you want to run a report that shows the memos, and what you've pulled out showed the descriptions. In this case, you'll have to run a different report. I recommend using the Transaction List by Date report. This shows the memos and you can customize to display the transaction types you desired.
 

In the Banking menu, If you haven't selected the Copy bank detail to memo option in the Gear icon, the details are still the same. If you've imported bank transactions and selected the Copy bank detail to memo option the information will still remain the same. But, there's an indicator that it has been copied from the bank description as, "Checking shows this as..." in the Categorized tab.

I've added a screenshot for your reference. (The first window shows the information in the For review column. The second window shows the details in the Categorized tab. The Copy bank detail to memo option is activated before it's being categorized.)

I'd also suggest checking out our blog site to be updated on the new features rolled out by our product developers.

Please don't hesitate to tag my name in the comment section below if you have other concerns or questions. I'll be here to back you up. Take care.

i did the transaction list and still no memo shows up

Hey there @joecool64,

Thanks for reaching out to the QuickBooks Community. I’d be happy to help you with getting your transaction report to include the memo/description column. Let’s make sure that you have the report customized to include that column. Here’s how:

1. Reports.
2. Transaction Detail Report.
3. Select the gear icon in the upper right.
4. In the Change Columns section, check the memo/description box.
5. Run report.

Now the memo/description column will show on the report. You can also customize reports to remove or change columns from the settings(gear icon) window.

You’re all set! Let me know if you have any additional questions about customizing reports or anything else. I’d be happy to help!

had already tried that it did not do anything and talked to support and was told it only works in invoice i was trying to get a report on transactions in my checking

Thanks for following up with the Community, joecool64.
 

If you're using an Essentials, Plus, or Advanced plan, you can run a Transaction Detail by Account report to get the information you're looking for. 
 

Here's how:

1. In your left navigation bar, go to Reports.
2. Enter "Transaction Detail by Account" in the Find report by name search field.
3. Choose Transaction Detail by Account.
4. Input a Report period.
5. Select Run report.
   

Now you'll have a report showing details for transactions in your checking account. A MEMO/DESCRIPTION field will automatically be included on it without having to customize anything. You can still use the Customize button to make any necessary customizations to your document.
 

In the event you're not using one of our above-mentioned plans and would like to upgrade, you can do so anytime:

1. Use your Gear (⚙️) icon and go to Account and settings.
2. Open the Billing & Subscription tab.
3. Click Upgrade your plan.
4. Pick a plan, hit Choose plan, then press Get started.
   

I've included a few resources about working with reports that may come in handy moving forward:

• Reports included in your subscription
• Customize reports
• Export reports, lists, & other data
   

I'll be here to help if there's any questions. Have a good day!

I need the QB Online P & L report to show the data entered in the "memo" field as your technical trainer told me months ago to use the memo field for that info - not the "description" field.  I have tried managing the report fields through the gear and do not see anyway to add the memo field to the P & L report

Hi there, kserengeti.

Allow me to share additional information about running the Profit and Loss report.

The Profit and Loss(P&L) report summarizes your income and expenses. This shows how much profit you're making every month, quarter, or year. Currently, the option to add fields for Memo/Description column is unavailable. You can run the transaction report instead and customize it.

Here's how:

1. Click the Reports menu.

2. Seach for Transaction Detail by Account report in the search box.

3. Select the Customize button.

4. Click on the Filter dropdown and checkmark Memo.

5. Hit Run report.

Here are some handy materials for your reference:

• Customize reports in QuickBooks Online.

• Export your reports to Excel from QuickBooks Online.

Let us know if you have further questions managing your reports. We're always here to help.

when will this be fixed so we get 2 columns - one for memo and one for description?

the bigger question is why does qbo have 2 fields if you can't use them in reports.

how do you separate 2 items if they are not available on the reports?

Thanks for joining this conversation, @TheAccountant.

The option to separate the Memo and Description column in the report is unavailable. As a workaround, you can export your report to excel and modify the column from there. Let me guide you on how:

1. Go to the Reports menu.
2. Select the report you want to open.
3. Click the Customize button to filter and add the data you need.
4. Once finished, select Run report.
5. Then, click the Export icon.
6. Choose Export to Excel.
7. From there, manually separate the column for Memo/Description.

For more product enhancements and updates, check out our QuickBooks Blog page 

Also, to seek sources to guide you in performing any QuickBooks tasks, please visit our Help articles site. Simply type a keyword of your concern on the search field and let the system show related articles to help you. 

Feel free to post here again if you have concerns customizing your reports. I'll be always around to help. Keep safe.

This feed is great!  The official answer is:

"You can't! But here is some useless info to give the average passer by the appearance that QuickBooks cares!"

I get siding on the side of simplicity and you can't please everyone but QuickBooks online is really lacking when it comes to customizing reports. (Something just about every accountant, every where, and throughout history wants or wanted.)