Customize reports in QuickBooks Desktop for Mac

Collapse rows - You can collapse rows for jobs or sub accounts and show total only for the parent account.

Collapse columns - You can collapse columns for jobs or sub accounts and show total only for the parent account.

1. Open a Report and select Customize.
2. Select Filters.
3. Search for the filter(s) you want or select Sow All. Then select the filter(s) you want to use.

You can uncheck filters to turn them off.

• Account: Limit the report to certain accounts. For example, choose All Bank Accounts from the list to limit the report to the accounts from which you write checks. Choose Selected Accounts to limit the report to specific accounts.
• Address: In QuickBooks 2024 there are 12 new report filters you can use to limit reports by name or ship to address. The new filters are:
  • Name Contact
  • Name Address
  • Name Street1
  • Name Street2
  • Name City
  • Name State
  • Name Zip
  • Ship to Address 1
  • Ship to Address 2
  • Ship to City
  • Ship to State
  • Ship to Zip
• Aging: Include only invoices and bills that are past-due by a specific number of days. Select < to choose invoices and bills that are past-due beyond a specific number of days. Select > to choose invoices and bills that are past-due up to a specific number of days.
• Amount: Use this to see transactions based on a certain amount. Select the =, <, or > button and type an amount in the field. For example, to see a report that shows customers who have purchased more than $500.00 worth of items from you, select the > button and type 500 in the field.

• Class: See transactions for different classes. Choose the classes you want to include from the list. You can also choose Selected classes to select multiple classes.
• Billing Status: Use billing status to limit the report to unbilled activities. To do this, select Unbilled.
• Cleared: Choose transactions for the report based on whether you’ve marked them as cleared or not.
• Customer Type: Limit the report to transactions related to one of your customer types.
• Customer:Job: Choose the name you want from the Customer:Job list.
• Days per aging period? and Age through how many days?. Restrict transactions included in the report according to their aging status. In the Days per aging period field, type the In the Age through how many days field.
• Detail Level: Limit the report to selected detail lines in a transaction. For example, the line items on an invoice or the expense account detail on a check. When you create a transaction report, you can use this filter to show or suppress the detail lines for each transaction.
• Due Date: Include only those invoices and bills due within a specified date range.
• Duration: Restrict length of time, typically for labor. Select Any or = from the pop-up menu, or <, or > and type an amount in the field. For example, to see a report that includes only tasks that are longer than four hours, select > and type 4 in the field.
• Entered/Modified: Limit the report to transactions entered or edited within a specified date range. This option works with the audit trail report.
• FOB, Item, Payment Method, Rep, Ship Via, Terms: Limit transactions to fields that appear in sales or purchase transactions. For example, choose All sales items from the Items list and FedEx from the Ship Via list, to include only those sales transactions that show items you shipped by FedEx. Choose Selected ... from one of the lists to choose list items individually.
• Item: Limit the report to certain items in your inventory.
• Job Type: Limit the report to transactions related to one of the job types on your Job Type list. For example, a general contractor who has Bathrooms, Family Rooms, and Kitchens as job types could choose Kitchens to limit the report to costs and revenues for kitchen remodels. Using job type as a filter helps you determine how profitable a specific kind of job is to your business.
• Memo: See transactions based on their Memo fields. QuickBooks finds a match if the transaction's Memo field includes the specified sequence of characters. For example, if you enter pay in the Memo field, QuickBooks matches Memo fields with Pay by June 21 or Please pay immediately.
• Name: Limit the report to transactions related to certain names from your Customer:Job, Vendor, Employee, or Other Names lists. For example, choose All Vendors from the list to limit the report to transactions related to vendors. Choose Selected Names to limit the report to specific names.
• Number: Choose transactions based on invoice or check number. To include all transactions within a range of numbers, enter both a beginning number and ending number. To exclude all transactions except for one, enter the number of that one transaction in the first field, and leave the second field blank.
• Paid Status:  Include only invoices and bills that have a specific paid status of Closed, Open, or Either.
• Payroll Item: Limit the report to specific payroll items like Vacation Salary, Health Insurance, and Federal Withholding.
• Posting Status: Posting status of transactions to a register. Most transactions post to a register; for example, when you create an invoice, QuickBooks records the amount in your accounts receivable register. A few types of transactions like estimates, pending sales, and purchase order are non-posting in that they never appear in a register.
• Received: Include open purchase orders, closed purchase orders, or both.
• Ship Date: Include only those invoices and cash sales receipts that have a specific shipping date.
• Source Account: Limit the report to transactions that are from a specific balance sheet account or a group of balance sheet accounts. For example, a profit and loss report normally includes all your company's balance sheet accounts. To show only the checking transactions that contributed to your company's profit, use the Source Account field to select the checking accounts.
  Important: the Source list also shows all of your income and expense accounts. Ignore these accounts when you select the balance sheet accounts. If you also want to restrict the report to specific income and expense accounts, use the Account list to select those accounts.
• To Be Printed: Restrict transactions based on whether they have been printed or not.
• Transaction Type: Choose the type of transactions you want included in this report.
• Vendor Type: Limit your report to transactions related to one of your vendor types.

Choose column headings for subtotals

Some reports let you subtotal amounts in columns for time periods or other factors. For example, you can show weekly subtotals on the Profit and Loss Detail report.

1. Create a report.
2. Select Customize.
3. Select the column to subtotal in Total by.

The column immediately appears on the P&L Detail report.

Choose row headings for groups.

If none of the preset reports have the row headings you want, create a custom report.

1. Select Reports, then select Custom Summary Report.
2. Select Customize.
3. Choose an item from the Row Axis list.

The Custom Summary Report changes to show your choice by row.

Change the subtotaling of transactions 

You can group and subtotal the data on a transaction detail report.

1. Create the transaction detail report.
2. Select Customize.
3. Select an item from Total by.

Change the sort order of transactions

Transactions usually appear in date order within a group on a report. You can sort the transactions by amount or document number.

1. Create the transaction detail report.
2. Hover over the colum header you want to sort by.
3. Select the drop down for that column and select Sort Ascending or Sort Descending.

When you adjust the width of any column in a report, QuickBooks saves that change automatically. You can lock the width of columns to prevent anyone from changing them. Here's how:

1. Go Reports and open a report.
2. Howver over the column header you want to lock.
3. Select the drop down caret then Lock Column Width.

1. From the Format tab, select the Font & Color for dropdown, and choose the area of the report you’d like to customize.
2. Choose a font and color, then select Save.

In your reports, you can customize how the numbers are formatted and how negative numbers appear.

• Number Formats: Choose to divide the number by 1,000 and if you want to include cents or zero amounts on the report.
• Negative Numbers: If you have negative numbers in your report, you can choose how they’re formatted and if you want them to show in red.

The header is the text that appears at the top of your report. QuickBooks automatically includes your company name, title, subtitle, and the date.

• Company: This is the company name that will appear on the report. For example, “Rock Castle Construction”.
• Title: This is the report title, for example, “1099 Detail Report”.
• Subtitle: This is the report subtitle, for example “January through December 2020”.
• Date: This is the date you create the report.
• Show Time Prepared: This will show the time the report was created.
• Show Report Basis: Choose if the report is either accrual or cash basis.
• Print Header on: Choose if you want the header on only the first page or on all pages of the report.

The footer is the text that appears at the bottom of the report.

• Page Footer #: This is what the page number looks like, for example, “pg 1”.
• Extra Footer Line: This is used if you need another line on the footer. For example, “***CONFIDENTIAL***” .
• Print Footer on: Choose if you want the footer on only the first page, or on all pages of the report.

The alignment of your report can be customized so the report info is either in its standard format or aligned to the left, right, or center. To change it, select the Alignment dropdown, and choose how you’d like the report aligned. 

If you’d rather use a template as a starting point to format your report, here’s how

1. Select the Format Setup dropdown, then choose a report theme.
2. Customize the report theme, then select select Save.