How do I get a yearly total for a specific category? For example: How can I get a total of "material purchases" for the year 2020

Glad to have you here, dcdesign111.

I can help you create an annual report for your categories in QuickBooks Online. 

If you're referring to the "material purchases" as an expense category in the register, we can customize a Transaction Detail by Account report to show your expense transactions. Let me guide you how to do that:

1. Go to the Reports menu.
2. On the report finder, look for Transaction Detail by Account.
3. On the report, click the Customize button.
4. Click on Filter to expand the options.
5. On the Transaction Type drop-down, select the purchase transactions you want to see.
6. In the Account drop-down, mark the accounts you'd like to view in the report. In this case, find the category you want to see.
7. Press Run report.
8. Once done, click the Report period drop-down and select the date range you want.
9. Press Run report once more.
10. Next, you can click the Save customization button to retain the changes applied to the report. This way, you no longer need to repeat the customizations the next time you get the report.

To access the customized report, follow the steps below:

1. Go to the Reports menu.
2. Click the Custom Reports tab.
3. Select the modified report.

You may want to check this article to learn more about customizing reports in QuickBooks Online: How to Customize Reports

Otherwise if you're looking for a report to show purchases for a certain item, you can use a Purchases by Product/Service Detail report.

If you need further assistance with anything about QuickBooks besides this report concern, visit us again anytime. I'll be glad to work with you again. Have a good one!

Hi @dcdesign111,

Rishika here from Better Reports!

We recently launched our app Better Reports in QuickBooks, which can help create a report that shows yearly total by account. You can also filter for a specific account (like material purchase). We can also break this down my month to see trends and even see the details for a particular date range. 

Also, we have a built-in report, “Profit and Loss -Detail by account” that shows total by class and account.

Better Reports also has several other built-in reports, along with the ability to create your own. You can also schedule these to run at a regular cadence and sent to your email or Google Sheets directly so your workflow is automated.

We offer a 14 day free trial, so you can see it all in action.

Also, as part of our offering, we'll be happy to create these custom reports for you as well.

Once you install Better Reports, please contact us and we'll be happy to set this up for you!

Hey RishBR,

Thanks for being a part of the Community and offering assistance to dcdesign111! The service you are offering seems to be very beneficial! However, our platforms do not encourage self-promo but should be used to discuss any questions or concerns related to QuickBooks.

For your edification,  I recommend that you review this article to get a better idea about our guidelines in the Community! 

If you have any questions at all, feel free to let me know by commenting below. I hope you have a wonderful day.