How to create custom reports

[0:00] QuickBooks Online Advanced includes hundreds of ready-made reports that you can run at any time, but you can also create your own. We'll go over how to create a new report, including how to choose, sort, group filter, and create pivot tables with your data. Then you'll learn how to save the report so you can run it again later. Feel free to use the chapters below to skip to a section of the video.

[0:25] Select Reports. Let's build a report that shows every unpaid invoice over one thousand dollars. Select Create new report. Select what you want to include in the report. Select Create. QuickBooks uses the transactions within this date range to build your report. Select the drop-down and choose a different date range to widen or narrow the data for your report.

[0:48] The report organizes your data into rows and columns. Select Customize and then Columns to change what's on the report. In the Reorder tab, you'll see all the columns currently on the report with a check. To remove a column, uncheck it. You can select and drag columns to reorder them. To add something else, select More Columns.

[1:11] Use the search to look for more columns to include in the report, or select a category and look for the column you want to add. Let's add Payment status. This shows whether the invoice is paid or unpaid. Then select Columns again to close it. Right now, the report displays a list of invoices over the selected date range and does not group or organize them except sorting by date.

[1:35] But you want to see the invoices totaled by customer, so select Groups. Then select the Group by drop-down and select Customer. The report totals sales by customer, but because it lists each sale as a row, you have to scroll to see more customers. So let's collapse the report. Select this button and then Collapse All. Select an arrow next to a customer's name to see the details.

[2:01] Now the report shows the number of invoices each customer had in the date range and the total dollar value invoiced. You can also create sub-groups. Select Add subgroup and choose Payment status as the Subgroup. When you select the customer, you see their invoices divided between paid and unpaid. Select a subgroup, and you see the transactions that make up the total.

[2:25] You can also select a transaction to take a closer look at it in a new tab. QuickBooks sorts the report by date. You can sort the report in other ways, though. Select any column header with up and down arrows to sort the report. Let's sort this report so that the customers with the highest balance appear first. Select the Open balance column header, and then select it again.

[2:49] Now the customers with the highest balance appear first. By default, groups total by amount and a total dollar value, but you can change those settings in the Edit group calculations menu. For instance, you could total a report like this by Average or Percentage to see what percentage of the whole each customer represents. Select an X next to a group to remove it.

[3:13] The report shows all invoices issued for this year to date, but you can limit what's shown on the report with filters. For this report, you only want to see unpaid invoices, so select Payment status, unpaid. Now the report only shows unpaid invoices. Let's narrow this report a little more. Let's set this report to only show invoices with an amount greater than one thousand dollars.

[3:38] Note that we're using an And filter, so QuickBooks will only show results that apply to both filters. But you can also make Or filters. Let's use pivot tables to look at this info in a different way. Turn off the filters, then select Pivot. For Rows, select Customer. For columns, select Payment status, and for Values, select Amount.

[4:00] Now you see each customer's name and totals for paid and unpaid invoices in their own column. Use these actions to schedule an email that contains the report or add the report to a management report. Note that a report can have multiple schedules. Select the icons for email or print or export to see your options for emailing immediately, exporting and printing the report.

[4:25] Enter a name for your report. If you want to run this report again later without going through these steps again, select Save As. Now you can select Reports, Custom Reports, and select the report to run it again with the latest transaction data. You can also perform other actions with your custom reports, like organizing them into groups, running them in Excel with Spreadsheet Sync, and more.

[4:50] Now you're ready to create your own reports from scratch with the Custom Report Builder.