Memo field in checkbook or credit card transactions

I'm here to share details on how reporting works in QuickBooks Desktop (QBDT), @DavidH51.

QBDT displays reports based on a set of instructions known as a Report set. It determines which lines of transactions (Source or Targets or both) are included in the report. To learn more about the Source and Target concepts, you can refer to this article: Understand reports.

If the report you pulled up shows the lists of transactions, it'll give you the memo details at the upper part of the check. While if the report shows the list of items within the check, it'll show the memo (below) in the item lines. You can pull up the Transaction List and Check Detail reports to verify the details. 

Also, you can customize any report you generate in QBDT. This way, you can focus on the details that matter to you the most. Then, you can opt to memorize them if you want the same settings of the customized report to be available for future use. To know more about this, you can check out this article: Create, access, and modify memorized reports.

Let me know if you have other reporting concerns or inquiries about managing transactions in QBDT. Please don't hesitate to leave a comment below, and I'll gladly help. Take care, and wishing you continues success.

@DavidH51 

RE: why do transactions have two memo fields? How can I combine them?

Actually every row of most all transaction types have a memo field. So, a check can have as many memo fields as you have detail lines for it, plus the checking account row's memo, seen on the face of the check.

They can't be combined on reports.

RE: How do I get the 2nd memo field to be displayed in my reports?

Generally if the report shows the detail row(s) of a check then it'll show the memos from those detail rows.