Act. Cost & Act. Sales... ?????

We're experiencing the same issue as of yesterday 02/19/25. Not sure if connected but we had a QBs update we ran yesterday that wasn't as smooth as we've experienced in the past.

Now we have these "Act. Cost" and "Act. Sales Price" columns that are showing up on our memorized reports.

We typically have the two columns "Amount" and "Balance".

These are not checked any longer in the Modify Report options. 

And I can't seem to understand where those two "Act..." column options are listed as an option to check. 

Anyone have a solution? Or experiencing the same thing?

Well, we also did an update just recently, so I'm tempted to think the crack wizardry at QB / Intuit added at least one or two "undocumented features" into the update. I'm seeing these new columns showing up in a few reports, and they seem to have replaced a column for "Amount" that now is no longer appearing. I have also noticed that this Act. Cost column is showing up in both standard (provided) reports AND in memorized reports, so it appears that these crack wizards have developed near super-powers in wreaking havoc in report-land.

I believe it was user Fishing For Answers who told me that I could delete these unwanted columns by clicking on the three dots at the top-right of the unwanted column and while holding down the click while dragging the dots past the left side of that column you are telling the system to not display the column. That may help clean the report of the junk the wizards have given you, but you will have to re-add the data column you do want to show up there. 

It would have been just peachy if the wizards had tested things before they sent it out to the world ... and I'm sure they would say "we did test it", to which my response would be "If you had experience out in the real world to know how actual real-world users actually use the system, your testing would be immensely better because you obviously don't know what to look for in your testing!"

I had the same issue starting yesterday after update.

I have several memorized reports that this started happening to. I had to re-add Debit, Credit, Balance, and Amount columns where applicable.

The "resize" trick from above helped to get rid of the Act. columns I didn't want.

Definitely a glitch in that update.

I recognize that you are encountering challenges in generating and modifying your reports. To address this, let's uncheck the specific fields in the Customize Report section to remove them from your report. Let me walk you through this process.

To remove the Act. Cost and Act. Sales Price column, we can untick this to exclude them from your report by following the steps below:

1. Within your report, click the Customize Report.
2. From the Display tab, untick the Act. Cost and Act. Sales Price checkbox.
3. Click OK once you're done.

If removing them is unavailable, let's run a verify and rebuild. This will allow us to thoroughly examine the current reports, identify any errors, and rebuild them more clearly and accurately.  

Here's how:

Step 1: Verify your data

1. Go to the Window and then click Close all.
2. Press the File menu, and then choose the Utilities option.
3. Hit Verify Data. These are the possible messages that you may see:
   
   • QuickBooks detected no problems with your data - you don't have to do anything since the data is clean.
   • An error message - search for it on our QuickBooks Desktop support site to fix it.
   • Your data has lost integrity - Data damage was found in the file. Rebuild your data to fix it.

Step 2: Rebuild your file

1. From the upper left corner, click the File menu.
2. Select Utilities, and then choose Rebuild Data.
3. You'll be prompted with a message that says you need to create a backup, then click OK.
4. Enter the name of the file and click Save.
5. Click OK when you see the message indicating that the rebuild has been completed.
6. Go to File and select Utilities.
7. Click Verify Data again to check for additional damage.
8. If there's no error, you can restore your recent backup. However, if there's damage, it needs to be fixed manually.

For more detailed steps, please visit this website since this includes the additional info that can help in your future transaction: Verify and Rebuild Data in QuickBooks Desktop.

You can also utilize this material if you get the same error: Fix common problems and errors with the QuickBooks Desktop Tool Hub.

We always have your back whenever you need our help. Just comment in the comment section, and we'll be there to help you.

to IrizA .....

It would be helpful if you actually paid attention to what you read in the original post ... you said

To remove the Act. Cost and Act. Sales Price column, we can untick this to exclude them from your report by following the steps below:

1. Within your report, click the Customize Report.
2. From the Display tab, untick the Act. Cost and Act. Sales Price checkbox.
3. Click OK once you're done.

As I said in my original post, I was unable to find those items in the list of options, so "unticking" the checkbox isn't possible. 

You know, it doesn't take non-QB users very long to figure out that many (most?) times the "Team Members" are most likely filling out a part of their training at QB and don't really have the depth of knowledge on the system. Many times I have been given instructions on how to do something in QBO when my original post clearly said I was using Enterprise:  Several times I have had other high level users respond quickly after a team member posts something with erroneous info. Sometimes I have just tried a team members instructions only to discover it doesn't work or doesn't have the options to even start to try it. 

The idea of QB employees providing a helpful service to users is a good idea, but ONLY if the people doing it are really experienced in the areas questioned and if they take the time be sure they understand the question and the circumstances surrounding the issue. Among other things, this requires an excellent command of the US English language and focus to be sure the answer is for the same version of QB that the poor user has installed. My comment should not be construed to think I'm implying that only native American citizens should be responding: I think the best people should staff the positions regardless of where they are from as long as they can communicate with users clearly and accurately. Also, my personal opinion is that QB support AND design staff should have experience in the real world working with QB and other systems so they truly understand what real-world users face and the problems that poorly designed or partially designed systems can create.

Great post @Deadwood Al.

Regarding: "Also, my personal opinion is that QB support AND design staff should have experience in the real world working with QB and other systems so they truly understand what real-world users face and the problems that poorly designed or partially designed systems can create."

Of course, if Intuit required its support staff to have real-world experience, it would have to pay them a reasonable wage. Shockingly, no one at Intuit has browsed this forum and been distressed by the "support" provided by QB staff.      

Thanks!  This is very helpful. 

Did you even read what people were saying?  You gave an impossibility as a solution. THESE COLUMNS AREN'T IN THE LIST TO UNCHECK. 

And no one needs to rebuild their reports. That's just silly.  Our reports were 100% fine and doing what we wanted until QB messed them up with their update. 

I also find it offensive that QuickBooks' response to their own screw up is to suggest their clientele stand on their heads going through the time-consuming labor of rebuilding all of their reports that were functioning perfectly before QB messed them up, even if there was a guarantee that it would work, which there isn't.  That is not what I consider customer service.  

It showed up on my memorized reports after I updated the required updates today.  The amount of checks were no longer there and this extra column that I can't get rid of.  This is crazy.  Why did they mess up all my memorized reports?  It is not in the options when I "Customize Reports" to remove this unnecessary column.  Now I have to re-do all my memorized reports in order to get rid of this ridiculous, column that has nothing in it.  If you are going to add something to our reports, at least let us be able to get rid of it.  This is extremely frustrating.  This is wasting my time to fix something we didn't ask for.

to JoyMas ....

There is a way to get rid of the columns (Act. Cost & Act. Sales Price) .... on the report display, at the top of the column where the column heading is, there are 3 vertical dots. Click & Hold on those 3 dots, and then drag them to the left just past the left edge of the column and the column will vanish from your report. 

----- Don't thank me. FishingForAnswers is the one who gave that method to me, so he gets the credit.

However, you need to check reports very closely, because it appears that QB's crack design team has fubar'd  many reports: standard reports and memorized reports. What I've seen so far is that many times when either or both of the "surprise columns from QuickBooks" (Act. Cost and/or Act. Sales Price") appear on a report, there is some column that used to be on the report that is no longer  present, so just removing the one or two "surprise" columns won't fix the report. You need to examine the report to see if it still displays the data you expected to see. And I have yet to discern any consistency in what reports are infected with this "surprise" problem ... sometimes I have been missing a column that used to be in the report, sometimes it is just removing the "surprise" columns. Sometimes it is a memorized report, sometimes a standard report.

Not only are there "surprise" columns, sometimes it is a "surprise" as to which reports are infected.

Everyone who has responded to this in the past AND all that respond in the future should ALSO go to HELP, and under the "Submit Feedback Online", please submit a Bug Report to describe this problem. QB will not respond when only one or two people complain or submit ideas. But if enough of us do bombard them with Bug Reports and complaints, they just might be tempted to try to figure out how to undo their FUBAR.

This is not solved. And making the columns smaller so you can't really see them is not a solution.

@Jend2  The solution provided is not about making the columns smaller.

If you resize the column and drag the right border of the column beyond the left border of the column, it will remove the column from the report in its entirety.

Hey Deadwood, I don't want to create any new problems by following this advice.  Do you think the rebuild will fix this?

INTUIT......YOU NEED TO FIX THIS ASAP!

If you go into Customize reports the first checked item should be "(left margin)" - if you uncheck it the empty column will go away.  Hope this helps. 

I did the rebuild, but it did not fix the Act. Cost & Act. Sales Price replacing my Amount & Balance columns. 

These instructions do not fix the issue.

Your engagement and efforts in applying the suggested solution are valued, dawnaclark. I'll route you to our specialists to quickly resolve the issue of Act. Cost and Act. Sales Price columns replacing the Amount and Balance columns.

They have access to specialized tools to handle situations like this and can gather relevant information to facilitate a fix to the column issue as soon as possible. Here's how you can reach out to them:

1. Open your QBDT and go to the Help menu.
2. Select QuickBooks Desktop Help.
3. Click on Contact Us at the bottom.
4. Enter a brief description of your issue and click Continue to see contact options.
5. Choose the best method to connect.

You can also check out their support hours to determine their availability.

Finally, check out this article and learn more about exporting reports in QBDT and customizing them in Excel. This feature enables in-depth analysis and customized presentation of your financial information: Export reports as Excel workbooks in QBDT.

Reports are essential for decision-making and maintaining accurate records, dawnaclark. Notify us in the comments if you need further assistance managing QBDT reports. The Community space is always here to help you and provide the required information.

This started happening to my company file Tuesday (2/25/25). All of a sudden there are new ghost columns in my memorized reports and the ones I need were removed (so far I've seen columns added for "Debit" - not the standard one built into QB - "Cost", "Act. Cost", "Sales Price" & "Act. Sales Price". All of these are invisible to me as far as the column options go, and each column has no information in it. I'd like to note that a QB update was installed 5 days ago, but I didn't start using it until yesterday. We use QB Premier Plus desktop and are currently on version R13_46.

I am NOT HAPPY over this, it's playing havoc with my accounts and my productivity. Yesterday I had to file tax reports with the state and it was a nightmare. I have a set of reports I run each month and they make the reporting fast and fairly painless. But when I started to run them, all except one had been changed. As far as I can tell, QB removed the last 3 columns on my reports and replaced them with three of the above. It added a "Sales Price" and a "Debit" column in reports they have no relevance to. But it got even worse from there. I tried to add MY columns back in and I could add one, maybe two, but never the three QB had removed. That makes my data unusable because I'm not getting the figures I need. Worse, even if I did manage to get one of my columns added back in, on each report QB would always keep one of its own useless columns and allow me one of my own. Because of this issue, I spent a several hours gathering data so I could file a state tax report, which normally takes me half an hour, tops.

The suggestion for how to make the phantom columns "disappear" helped if I removed one column, but where QB had added more than one it didn't work. at all In fact, that seemed to make it worse. Not only did they NOT disappear, they multiplied. Submitting a "suggestion" form to QB is a joke of an answer.

Whatever that update did, it broke the program. This is happening to too many of us to be a fluke - it's a programming error at QuickBooks. Wouldn't it be better if Intuit actually fixed whatever they broke? I'm sure I'm not the only user who considers this an emergency situation that QuickBooks needs to address RIGHT NOW. This isn't acceptable, by any means.

Re: your comment: We typically have the two columns "Amount" and "Balance". These are not checked any longer in the Modify Report options.

Those are the same columns QB removed and replaced in all of my memorized reports. I'm thinking they ran some script or something that infected all of our QB information/ report forms, and "if [this column] exists, remove and replace with [that column] which, of course, is a new invisible column so we have no data in it.

You also said the columns you use were no longer checked in the available column list. Did you try to check them again and see what  it did? When I went in and looked at the available columns, my missing ones WERE checked, and they still didn't show. I tried unchecking and rechecking - I can't seem to customize my reports at all.

Are we all having all of these issues or just some of them?

Amen to everything you said, your experiences have been mine as well. I'd like to add that calling customer support works much the same way, with the added bonus of waiting on hold for interminable amounts of time, just to get a support rep who obviously is reading from a list of "suggestions" that they themselves don't appear to understand. I don't think customer support has ever provided me with a solution in the 15 years I've used QuickBooks. My answers have always been found in the forums where I’ve also noted,“Several times I have had other high level users respond quickly after a team member posts something with erroneous info”.

I just stumbled onto something, test it out and see if it works for any of you. It definitely does NOT fix the issue here but ...

I went into my Memorized Report List and right-clicked on a few of the changed ones - and MY reports came up! 

A big hassle for sure, but until they manage to fix what they broke, this could work. 

I am having the exact same problem and under the filter option there is nothing to uncheck this option.  Is this the problem from an update?  The act cost and act sales price appears on all my memorized reports but never did before.  (I also am assuming act means actual)

Hello there, Cindy. It would be best to contact our support team to check your experience with the memorized report further. I'm here to provide the steps to reach them.

Before proceeding, if you haven't done so already, please follow the steps provided by my colleague IrizA about verifying and rebuilding your company file. This process helps identify and resolve common issues within your file. For detailed instructions, refer to this article: Verify and Rebuild Data in QuickBooks Desktop.

Here's how to connect with a live representative:

1. Go to Help and select QuickBooks Desktop Help/Contact Us.
2. Click the Contact Us button.
3. Type in a brief subscription in the field and click Continue.
4. Follow the on-screen steps.

In the meantime, you can either ignore the columns in question or create a new memorized report that does not include those additional columns.

Additionally, you can refer to this article about exporting your reports: Export reports as Excel workbooks in QuickBooks Desktop.

Please return to this thread if you have other concerns with your reports in QBDT, Cindy. We're here to help you in any way we can.