QuickBooks Online Advanced Reports

Hi there, @tfalik.

Yes, you can create a report that has a comparison column for the budget over the actual year-to-date data. I'd be glad to guide you through the steps.

1. Go to the Reports menu.
2. Enter "Budget vs. Actuals," hit the Enter key in your keyboard.
3. Enter the Report period.
4. Select the Run report button.

I've added a screenshot on how it looks like:

You may also customize the report. To know more details on how to do this, you can check out this article: Customize reports in QuickBooks Online.

I've added a reference page you may use for your future tasks: Help articles.

You are always welcome to tag my name in the comment section if you have other questions or concerns. I'd be happy to help. Take care.

Hi Mars:

Thanks for getting back to me.  I am familiar with the use of the Budget-to-Actual report as you describe it.  The problem I have is if you want to run Budget-to-Actual for the 1st quarter of the year, you get 3 months of actual and 12 months of budget.  I am not able to find a way to create a report that generates 3 months of actual and 3 months of budget.  Any insights on that issue?

Hey there, @tfalik. 

Thanks for following up with us. I'm happy to help you get your Budget vs. Actual report to show 3 months Budget and 3 months of Actual. 

Upon doing some research and building the report in my test company, I was able to adjust the dates to show 3 months for Budget and 3 months for Actual. Since you're having some issues with yours not showing the data correctly, I recommend clearing the cache from your browser. Web browsers collect cache to save time when loading repetitive data and images. These files can often become outdated and corrupted, causing issues like the one with your report showing the wrong date ranges. I've included the links for all supported browsers that contain the steps to clear the cache below. 

• Firefox
• Chrome
• Microsoft Edge
• Safari for Mac
• Safari for iPhone/iPad

Once you've cleared the cache from your browser, close it, then reopen it to run the report again. If you're continuing to have issues with the report, I recommend contacting our technical support team. They have the tools available to review your account in a secure environment and investigate the issue of its strange behavior.  

Please let me know if you have additional questions or concerns. Please know you can reach out to the Community at any time. Take care and have a wonderful day ahead!

I cleared the cache and cookies as you suggested, and re-ran the report.  When I select a 3 month time period, I get 3 months of results and 12 months of budget.  Earlier today, I spoke for a long time to someone from Priority Circle, and he said that everything he saw, and the people he talked to, indicated that QBO Advanced was not capable of doing a Budget-to-Actual report where the budget and actual are both less that an year.  If you have done this before, can you tell me how I can do this?

Thank you for getting back, @tfalik.

I appreciate the steps you've made trying to get the information needed. I can share with you additional information about the Budget vs. Actual report in QuickBooks Online.

You may be able to set an interval (monthly, quarterly, yearly) when adding a new budget. But both the budget and actual will input information depending on the period you've selected on your report. Make sure to review the details and filter it correctly.

You can review these screenshots for your visual references.

To learn more about budgets and tracking your actual sales and expenses, feel free to read the details from this article: Create and import budgets into QuickBooks Online.

Also, you can check out this link for an additional guide while opening and customizing report: Run reports in QuickBooks Online.

I'm looking forward to hearing from you again. If you have any other QuickBooks questions, please feel free to add a comment below. Thanks for coming, wishing you a good one!

Angelyn: I have reviewed your response and the articles you cite.  Your statement that "But both the budget and actual will input information depending on the period you've selected on your report" is just not true.  I have monthly budgets entered.  When I select a 3 month report, I get 3 months of actual and 12 months of budget.  I would note on the first screenshot that your provided, the comment says "The yearly budget of this account".  Have you actually been able to generate a Budget-to-Actual report that has a budget that is less than annual.  Please get back to me if you can figure this out (or not).

UPDATE:  I have been unable to run a correct Budget-to-Actual report for the "Prior Fiscal Quarter".  I would get a quarter of actual figures and a full year budget.  I just ran the same report, but instead of selecting the period as "Prior Fiscal Quarter", I selected the period as "Custom" and put in the dates of the prior fiscal quarter.  To my surprise and relief, I got the correct budget for the quarter, not a full year.  What I thought was a total breakdown turned out to be a more minor glitch (but one that needs to be fixed).