Truly Custom Reports

Rembrandt68 · ‎August 07, 2020

Does QuickBooks Online have any plans to offer truly customizable reports or is there a way to do it in which I am not aware?

By "truly customize" I mean not just filtering what is going into a canned report or tinkering with minor formatting issues like numbers or footers, but allowing you to move account lines around within the report to whatever order makes sense to you or makes it easier to look at data the way that you would like. I have been waiting for 25 years for personal Quicken to add that functionality and, being new to the professional product, had expected it even more than I did when I first bought Quicken long ago, only to be disappointed again.

I just started working for a company using Xero, which I do not like, and therefore I was looking into QBO to possibly switch. The ONLY thing keeping us in Xero is that they offer truly customizable reports. You can move accounts lines around, create columns that you want, and it is a redeeming quality in their otherwise poor reporting system. To be clear, canned reporting in QBO appears to be vastly superior to Xero, but the truly custom reporting in Xero is compelling. And it seems like such a basic thing to offer.

For a simple example of what is desired, we would like a P&L with Gross Profit & Margin broken out by Line of Business. We have two primary lines of business, with very different margins, and we would like to easily monitor how each is doing monthly by pulling up CoGS lines from the next section to create two separate Line of Business Revenue, CoGS, Gross Profit, Gross Margin sections by month for the year (or trailing 12-months, YTD, etc), and then a Total Revenue, CoGS, Gross Profit, Gross Margin, followed by Operating Expense below, in any desired groupings or order, ending with Net Income. Adding a little more custom complexity, we'd like to be able to insert Quarterly Summary columns into the Month columns. And even a Trailing 12-months Total, and Year-To-Date Total.

While Xero reporting has much to be desired, this customization is possible. While a little cumbersome to build and functionality is by no means excellent, at least it is possible. Being new to these professional products, before allowing my company to become too entrenched in Xero, I was wondering if QBO was aware of this competitive functionality and had any plans to match or exceed it.

And just curious if anyone else desires this functionality. Thank you for any input you may have.

RaymondJayO · ‎August 07, 2020

I appreciate you for showing interest in possibly switching from another software to QuickBooks Online (QBO), @Rembrandt68.

I've read the details of your concern above. However, the "truly customize" feature you're looking for, such as moving account lines or columns within a report, isn't currently available in the program. I can see its importance as this helps you efficiently look at the data the way you'd like. We also don't have specific plans and a timeline as to when it'll be available in the program. But I hear you and recognize your sentiments regarding this. That way, we can improve QuickBooks for better user experience when customizing reports.

As a workaround, I'd suggest exporting the Profit and Loss report to Excel. Then, manually move the data for each section monthly, such as your Line of Business Revenue, COGS, Gross Profit, and Gross Margin. You can also insert the Quarterly Summary into the Month columns, trailing 12-months, and YTD Total information from there. I'll guide you how.

Go to Reports from the left menu.
Enter Profit and Loss in the Search box and select it.
Set the Report period.
Choose the Accounting method.
Select Run report.
Click the Export icon and choose Export to Excel.
Save the file on your desktop and click Enable Editing to view the full report.
Manually change the order of accounts or columns and edit other info as desired.
Save and print the report.

The screenshot below shows you the third to sixth steps. For the detailed instructions, check out this article: Exporting Reports To Excel.

For the time being, I'd recommend visiting our QBO Blog site to learn more about our latest news and product enhancements.

Aside from the P&L, you can run other reports to help you focus on specific details about your business. One of them is customizing a Transaction List by Date report to view all your customer or vendor transactions within a particular period. For more details, visit this article: Specific Ways To Customize Reports in QBO.

You can count on me if there's anything else you need. Keep safe always, @Rembrandt68.

Rembrandt68 · ‎August 28, 2020

@RaymondJayO Thank you very much for your thorough reply. I very much appreciate your confirmation of that lack of functionality and the time you took to offer an alternative. It's a little humorous in that I am also downloading Xero reports into Excel to get some functionality that QBO offers.

However, while maybe time consuming, those type of Excel workarounds are OK for me for any presentations or reports I may send out periodically, they do not offer the up-to-date P&L view in the system for my non-Finance colleagues to access at any time.

Nonetheless, I will continue to compare systems and weigh the costs of disruption/distraction in changing accounting systems and look for further justification to do so. An easy, clear conversion process from Xero to QBO, bringing over past data would help sell a switch internally. I believe Xero pitches conversions from QBO, but it didn't seem so simple to go the other way. It's been a little while since I looked, but I believe I had to pick a random 3rd party and hope they were the right pick.

Thanks again for your response!

Fiat Lux - ASIA · ‎August 28, 2020

@Rembrandt68 wrote:
An easy, clear conversion process from Xero to QBO, bringing over past data would help sell a switch internally. I believe Xero pitches conversions from QBO, but it didn't seem so simple to go the other way. It's been a little while since I looked, but I believe I had to pick a random 3rd party and hope they were the right pick.

@Rembrandt68

Company offers different policies to each country version. Should you need to convert from Xero US to QBO US, contact us for your consideration. Check our profile name and send your email address in a private message.

bobvanssvdp · ‎February 20, 2021

Absolutely agree 10o%. QBO is inadequate as a reporting tool. I use the payroll in my role and even as administrator can’t do anything custom. When I talk to QB there answer always is “we went to market knowing it didn’t have the functionality of the desk top but were working on it”. Not true as nothing has happened in 2 years. Excel workarounds are time consuming if you can even get the data you need. Very disappointing and if I was the decision maker I’d move to a different platform.

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