Track your cash flow in QuickBooks Desktop

Learn how to set up and use different reports in QuickBooks Desktop to get a better understanding of your cash flow.

Your cash flow is the amount of money moving in and out of your business and bank account. In QuickBooks Desktop, you can use different reports and projections to get a clear look at your current and future businesses finances. Here’s what to do.

Know where you stand financially

Step 1: Make sure your data is accurate

When it comes to cash flow reporting, the first thing to do is make sure your books are accurate. All reports will use your data in QuickBooks, so you want to make sure you have a clean starting point.

1. Make sure you’ve entered all your transactions into QuickBooks.
   • If you’ve set up bank feeds, download your transactions and match them to your transactions in QuickBooks.
2. Reconcile your accounts in QuickBooks and make sure they match your real-life bank and credit card statements. If you need help reconciling your account, it’s a good idea to reach out to your accountant.

If your reconcile report matches your bank statement, you’re ready to start running reports. If they don’t match, here’s how to fix beginning balance issues in QuickBooks Desktop.

Step 2: Use financial reports to see how much you’ve made

Your profit and loss report and balance sheet report will show you how your business is doing based on your data in QuickBooks.

Run a profit and loss report

Run a profit and loss report for the past 3 months to get an understanding of your average income and expenses for each month.

1. Go to the Reports menu, then Company & Financial.
2. Select Profit & Loss Detail.
3. Set the date range for the past 3 months.  
   1. Note: If you want to change what appears on the report, select Customize Report and customize it based on the data you need.
4. When you’re done, you can print, email, or export the report to excel.

When you look at the income, focus on the top sources of revenue. For expenses, pay attention to things like payroll, rent, insurance, and marketing expenses to see where you may be able to reduce spending.

Run a balance sheet detail report

A balance sheet report gives a financial snapshot of your company as of a specific date. It calculates how much your business is worth (your business's equity) by subtracting all the money your company owes (liabilities) from everything it owns (assets).

1. Go to the Reports menu, then Company & Financial.
2. Select Balance Sheet Detail.
3. Select Customize Report and customize it based on the data you need.
4. When you’re done, you can print, email, or export the report to excel.

Optimize your cash flow

Step 1: Set up a cash flow projection

Using your upcoming bills and cash on hand, see how your cash flow looks for the next six weeks by creating a cash flow projection.

Here’s how to create and modify a cash flow projection.

Step 2: Identify your top selling items

Using your company snapshot, see what your customers are buying the most. This helps to focus on your top selling products or services.

To run a best-selling item report:

1. Go to the Company menu, then select Company Snapshots.
2. Select Add Content, then select the right arrow.
3. Find Best-Selling Items, select + Add.
4. Double-click each product or service to see a detailed report.
   1. Note: If you want to change what appears on the report, select Customize Report and customize it based on the data you need. For example, you could set the date range to the last 30 days to see what’s selling most right now.
5. When you’re done, you can print, email, or export the report to excel.

Step 3: See which customers have upcoming or overdue invoices

Using automated invoice payment reminders, QuickBooks will identify your customers with upcoming or overdue invoices. Once it’s set up, you’ll get a notification that you have payment reminders ready to send. Then, you can review and approve them before they go out.

Here’s how to customize and manage invoice payment reminders.

Step 4: See which bills you need to pay

Using the bill tracker in QuickBooks, you can identify your pending and unpaid bills. Then, you can pay them directly in QuickBooks.

Here’s how to manage and pay your bills using the bill tracker.

Step 5: See where you can cut business spending

Using your company snapshot, see what your top expenses are and see what you can do to reduce the spending.

To run a expense breakdown report:

1. Go to the Company menu, then select Company Snapshots.
2. Select Add Content, then select the right arrow.
3. Find Expense Breakdown, select + Add.
4. Double-click any wedge on your expense breakdown to see a detailed report.
   1. Note: If you want to change what appears on the report, select Customize Report and customize it based on the data you need.
5. When you’re done, you can print, email, or export the report to excel.

Step 6: See your top vendors by expense

If cash flow is causing a delay in paying your vendors, you may be able to negotiate the payment terms or delay paying bills until you have the cash. In QuickBooks, you can run a report to see the vendors you spend the most with.

Here’s how to run the report:

1. Go to the Company menu, then select Company Snapshots.
2. Select Add Content, then select the right arrow twice.
3. From Top Vendors by Expense, select + Add.
4. Double-click any vendor on your expense report to see a detailed report.
   1. Note: If you want to change what appears on the report, select Customize Report and customize it based on the data you need.
5. When you’re done, you can print, email, or export the report to excel.

Here’s some tips on communicating with vendors.