Learn how to create and customize graphs in QuickBooks Desktop for Mac.
Graphs help you track your business performance in a more visual way. In QuickBooks for Mac, there are several types of graphs that you can create and customize according to your reporting needs.
How to create a graph
You can run graphs for your sales, company and financials, payables, or budgets. Here’s how.
- From the Reports menu, select the type of graph you want to create.
- You can choose from pre-set dates, or enter your own.
How to change how your graph groups data
To change the data grouping on a graph, select the Bar Graph ▼ dropdown menu. If you don’t see this dropdown, select Customize to open the customize panel.
Depending on the graph, there are different ways you can group your data.
| Button | Where it appears | What it does |
| By Account | Income and expense graphs, budget vs. actual graphs | Shows a breakdown of your data by income or expense account. |
| By Customer | Income and expense graphs, sales graphs, budget vs. actual graphs | Shows a breakdown of your data by customer. |
| By Class | Income and expense graphs, budget vs. actual graphs | Shows a breakdown of your data by class. |
| Next Group | Income and expense graphs, sales graphs, budget vs. actual graphs | In pie charts, shows a breakdown of the items that make up a slice labeled “Other.” (Only available if you have more than ten data groups to graph.) |
| By Item | Sales graphs | Shows a breakdown of your data by item sold. |
| By Rep | Sales graphs | Shows a breakdown of your data by sales representative. |
How to hide data in your graph
At times, you may want to hide the largest pie slice or bar so that you can see the other portions of a graph more clearly.
To hide a graph bar or slice, hold down the Shift key, and then click the mouse button.
If you want to re-display what you’ve hidden, you can recreate the graph.
| Note: Hiding is not the same as filtering. When you filter data in reports, QuickBooks excludes specific amounts from the report. When you hide data in graphs, QuickBooks still includes the hidden value when it calculates the values in the graph. |