Essential Reports &

QuickBooks “Housekeeping”

Items (Module #6)

Lara L. Worden

Area Agriculture Agent

QuickBooks Reports

Two Main Reports:

Profit & Loss Report

Balance Sheet Report

Two basic report styles:

Standard

Provide totals for accounts, classes, customers, vendors, etc.

Most commonly used

Detail

Provide totals too, but also lists individual transactions that contribute to them

Makes it easy to find and correct accounting errors

The Profit & Loss Report

To open a window for the Profit & Loss report choose Reports/Company & Finance/Profit & Loss Standard (or Detail)

The buttons at the top of the window let you filter the types of transactions included, customize report settings, change report appearance and titles, print the report, etc.

The selection boxes just below the buttons give you quick access to report settings such as the date range

Sample P&L Report

Filtering Reports: Choosing What Gets Included Click on the Customize Report button at the

top of the Report window and then click the Filters tab

Set one or more report filters

Filters dialog consists of three parts:

1. The Filters box on the left

2. The area in the middle where you specify the details for a filter

3. The Current Filter Choices on the right

Then click OK

Filtering Reports: Choosing What Gets Included

Customizing Reports: Controlling Info That is Displayed

You may change the amount of info a report displays and the arrangement of it:

Click the Customize Report button and then click on the Display tab

Select the customization options you want

Dates

Lets you select a transaction date range for the report

Report Basis

Cash vs. Accrual

Columns

Lets you select a variety of different arrangements for columns of data in the report

Customizing Reports: Controlling Info That is Displayed

Memorizing a Report

After spending a lot of effort changing the report’s settings it’s a good idea to memorize the report, which saves the report’s settings

Click on the Memorize button at the top of the Report window

Enter a name for the memorized report in the Memorize Report dialog.

Click OK

“QuickZoom” to Individual Transactions One of the handiest Report features for

getting detailed information

In the Report window, move the mouse cursor over a desired line or amount, until the cursor changes to a magnifying glass with a z in the center

Double-click the left mouse button

The Balance Sheet Report

To open a window for the Balance Sheet report choose Reports/Company & Finance/Balance Sheet Standard (or Detail)

The buttons at the top of the window let you filter the types of transactions included, customize report settings, change report appearance and titles, print the report, etc.

The selection boxes just below the buttons give you quick access to report settings such as the date range

Sample Balance Sheet

Exporting A Report

When QuickBooks reports do not contain all the information or is not formatted as you want, your option is to send it to a spreadsheet program such as Microsoft Excel so you can modify it

Open a Report window (Reports/Company & Finance/Balance Sheet Standard)

Customize & filter the report to contain the info you want

Click on the Excel button at the top

Choose Create a New Worksheet and click Export

Preparing Income Tax Reports At least two reports are usually necessary

for tax preparation:

Income Tax report

List of fixed asset purchases, sales, etc.

Note: Examples in this section focus on tax reports needed for a sole proprietorship. Additional reports may be needed if the farm operates as a partnership or corporation.

Turning on the Tax Reporting Features (Picking a Tax Form)

Normally done when you set up a QuickBooks company, but you can specify the tax form at any time, as follows:

Choose Company/Company Information

Select a tax form in the Income Tax Form Used list box at the bottom:

Click OK

Assigning Schedule F Tax Lines to Income/Expense Accounts After selecting a tax form, QuickBooks will allow

assigning a Schedule F Tax Line to new and existing accounts in your Chart of Accounts

Open the Chart of Accounts (Lists/Chart of Accounts)

Highlight the account you want to work with, by clicking on it

Open the Edit Account window for the highlighted account

Either “Ctrl-E” or choose Account/Edit Account

In the Tax-Line Mapping field, select the appropriate tax line for the account.

Click Save & Close

Verifying Tax Line Assignments QuickBooks has an Income Tax Preparation

report that you can use for verifying Tax-Line Mapping assignments.

Open the Chart of Account window (Lists/Chart of Accounts)

Click on the Reports button at the bottom of the window

In the pop-up menu, choose Income Tax Preparation

Verifying Tax Line Assignments

Preparing an Income Tax Report Open the desired income tax report

Summary or Detail

Reports/Accountant & Taxes/Income Tax Detail (or Summary)

Customize and filter the report to include the desired transactions

Be sure the date range matches your tax year

Again check for income or expense which is not assigned to any tax line and assign tax lines to them

Print the Income Tax report to have a copy for your tax preparer

Getting a Report of Fixed Asset Purchases/Sales/Etc.

Open the QuickBooks report you want to use for printing the list of fixed asset transactions

Custom Transaction Detail Report is a good choice

Reports/Custom Reports/Transaction Detail Report

Filter the report to include only transactions which involve Fixed Asset type accounts and are dated during the appropriate tax year

In the Filter box click on Account, then select “All Fixed Assets” or “Sales” etc.

In the Display tab click on Dates, then select “Last Fiscal Year”

Click OK to close the Report Filters dialog

Check the report for errors

Print the report

Backing Up Your Records

Make backups on something that can be physically moved to some location other than where your computer is!

Making backup copies on your hard drive is also possible…but does not go very far towards protecting your data

Backing Up Your Records

Choose File/Create Backup…

Select what type of file you want to save

Backup copy

Portable company file

Select a location and file name for the backup

Click Save

Verifying a QuickBooks Data File When QuickBooks verifies a data file it

checks the file for problems

To verify a data file:

1. Open the QuickBooks data (company) file you wish to verify

2. Close any windows open in QuickBooks by choosing Window/Close All

3. Choose File/Utilities/Verify Data

QuickBooks will check the file for errors – the process could take a while if the file is large. Afterwards, QuickBooks will display a message telling you whether problems were found.

Rebuilding A QuickBooks Data File If verifying the data file found problems, try

rebuilding the file:

1. Open the QuickBooks data (company) file you wish to rebuild

2. Close any windows open in QuickBooks by choosing Window/Close All

3. Choose File/Utilities/Rebuild Data

4. Make a backup of the data file when prompted by QuickBooks.

Restoring QuickBooks Data from a Backup Copy Choose File/Open or Restore Company…

QuickBooks will display a file dialog titled “What type of file do you want to restore?”

Select the location and name of the .QBB backup file to restore

Click the Open button

Type a different file name in the File name box, but keep the .QBW file name extension

Click the Save button

Archiving & Condensing the Company File QuickBooks has tremendous capacity for

keeping old transaction data “live” for years

Depending on the number of transactions you enter, it might be possible to keep three to five years of transaction details

Capacity is not a problem…but speed is!

Thus, recommended every two years to Archive & Condense data to remove old transaction details

First Make an Archival Copy of Company Files To make an archival copy, simply make a

copy of the file using a new file name – keeping the .QBW file name extension, so the archival copy can also be opened by QuickBooks

Example – if the company file is named FARM.QBW, you might copy it using a name like FARMXXXX.QBW (where “XXXX” represents a tax year, such as “2010”)

Then Condense QuickBooks Data Open the company file you wish to condense

Close all windows open in QuickBooks by choosing Window/Close All

Choose File/Utilities/Condense Data…

Select a cut-off date and the types of unused items you will allow QuickBooks to remove for the company file

Click Begin Cleanup

Any Questions???