Customize Reports - Desktop Part II

One of my clients has been so successful in growing one of their business lines that they are looking at new management software to keep everything organized.  There was immediate panic by employees, dreading the thought of having to hand enter all the customer and vendor information in the new system.

I was able to put them at ease by assuring them that all the information could be pulled from their QuickBooks files.  The first step was to add Custom Fields to both the customer and vendor files, providing a unique identity to the needed files.  Adding this field ID to specific customers and vendors did take a little time, but not near as much as hand entering the data.

Next, I opened the Vendor Contact List Report.   By clicking on the Customize Report button, then the Filters tab you can select the Vendor Type and from the drop down box, you can select the custom field name you chose.  A review of the new software program gave me the data fields required for specific tasks.  I went to the Display tab on Customize Reports to eliminate the fields I didn’t need and add the ones I would need.  The next step was to run the report to see what information was missing from my QuickBooks data.  I memorized the report, entered the missing data, then reran the report and created an Excel worksheet.  I choose to export through Excel as that was an option provided by the new program.

Not only was this a much simpler method of transferring data from one software program to another, it highlighted the information which was missing from the QuickBooks records.

Customize Reports - Desktop Part I

QuickBooks provides its users with a vast array of reports.  This has been expanded in recent versions with reports contributed by users.  Trying to find a contributed report that meets your needs can almost seem like looking for the needle in the haystack.  Customizing a stock report and then saving it in an area you specify with a name that will be easy for you to remember is not difficult.  In this first article, I will explain how to change the columns appearing on your report.

Open the report that meets most of your needs then click on the Customize button (I am working from the report Income by Customer Detail).  The report has more detail to it than my manager wants to see, so I am going to remove some of the columns.  In the Customize box on the Display tab, in the lower left hand corner you will see a list under the header Columns.  The items with a checkmark next to them are the current column headers.  To remove a column from the report, simply click on the item to remove the checkmark.  In the Income by Customer Detail report, I am going to remove the “Account”, “Clr” (this indicates if the transaction has been reconciled), “Split”, “Debit,” “Credit” and “Balance” columns.  Next, I am going to click on “Amount” to add it as a column to my report. I now have a report which highlights the information my manager really needs – how much income the company has received from each customer over the selected period of time.

Next, click on the Header/Footer tab so you can rename the report.  In the Report Title section, highlight the current title and type in your new one.  You can also eliminate information such as time and date the report was prepared by unchecking the box.

When you are finished with your changes, be sure to click on the OK box to save the changes you have made.  If the new report meets your needs, click on the Memorize button to save this report in your company file.  Enter the new name of the report and determine which report group you want to save it to.