Product Tips

Master Tip: Five Essential Reports By: Joe Woodard, Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor® Product: QuickBooks Financial Software Tip Category: Shortcut/Best Practice

QuickBooks continues to add reports based on the suggestions of bookkeepers, QuickBooks ProAdvisors, and other accounting professionals. These reports help us to track information in QuickBooks using the formats and types of information to which we are accustomed. Five of the key reports that will help you the most in your role as bookkeepers or accountant are

• Transaction Journal Report
• Transaction History Report
• Adjusting Journal Entries Report
• Working Trial Balance Tool and Report
• Using Detail Reports with Debit and Credit Columns

Transaction Journal Report

With any recorded transaction displayed (e.g., Check, Bill Payment, Journal Entry, Invoice, etc.) you can select the Reports drop-down menu and then select Transaction Journal. The Transaction Journal report shows the accounting behind the scenes—how the transaction affects the General Ledger. The Transaction Journal below (see Figure 1) shows the debits and credits posted to the General Ledger for a very detailed Invoice. Notice that each line that includes an inventory item also includes an adjustment to the Inventory Asset account and Cost of Goods Sold. QuickBooks calculates this adjustment based on the value (average cost) of the inventory item at the time of sale.

Figure 1: Transactions Journal Report

Note: The report above shows Debit and Credit columns. If you create this report using an edition of QuickBooks other than the Accountant Edition, the default columns are Amount and Balance, rather than Debit and Credit. You can remove the Amount and Balance columns and replace them with Debit and Credit columns if you prefer.

Transaction History Report

QuickBooks links many transactions together. For example, an Invoice is linked to the Payments and Credit Memos applied to the invoice. A Bill is linked to the Bill Payments or Bill Credits applied to the bill. You can use the Transaction History Report to quickly follow these links between transactions.

1. Display the transaction — e.g., an invoice.
2. Select the Reports drop-down menu and then select Transaction History.
3. QuickBooks will display the window shown below. Notice that Invoice #60 has two payments applied to it. If Credit Memos were applied these would show in the window as well.


Figure 2: Transactions History — Invoice


4. To open either of the payment transactions highlight the transaction in the list and click the Go To button.
5. To create a Transaction History Report, click the Print button. Figure 3 shows the result. This report is useful when you need to show the client all of the payment/Credit Memo activity on a particular invoice.

Figure 3: Print Copy of Transactions History Report — Invoice

Adjusting Journal Entries Report

QuickBooks Premier:Accountant Edition 2004–2006 and all editions of QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions 4.0–6.0 allow you to designate a journal entry as an Adjusting Entry, as opposed to a real-time, management-level bookkeeping entry. See Figure 4.

Figure 4: Adjusting Journal Entry

QuickBooks uses the Adjusting Entry designation for:

• The Adjusted Trial Balance Report. (Select the Reports drop-down menu, select Accountant & Taxes, and then select Adjusted Trial Balance.)
• The Working Trial Balance Window and Report (see Figure 5 below).
• Custom Reports. (You can add Adjusting Entry Columns and Filters to Custom Reports.)

To create a report of your Adjusting Journal Entries select the Reports drop-down menu, select Accounting & Taxes and select Adjusting Journal Entries. QuickBooks will display the report shown below in Figure 5.

Figure 5: Adjusting Journal Entry Report

Tip: Follow these steps to create a report of all the journal entries for a date range (i.e., a General Journal):

1. Select the Reports drop-down menu, select Accountant & Taxes and then select Journal. By default the report shows the debits and credits for every type of transaction (e.g., invoice, bill, check, etc.), for the current month to date.
2. Click the Modify Report button and then click the Filters tab.
3. Filter the report by Transaction Type for Journal as shown in Figure 6.


Figure 6: Adjusting Journal Entry Report


4. QuickBooks will display a report of just journal entries—with and without the Adjusting Entry designation. You can filter the report for a different date range and you can sort the columns on the report to show the Journal Entries by Journal Entry number, by date, etc.

Working Trial Balance Tool and Report

QuickBooks Premier: Accountant Edition 2005 and 2006 and all editions of QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions 5.0 and 6.0 include a Working Trial Balance Tool. In the Accountant Edition you access the Working Trial Balance from the Accountant drop-down menu.

Figure 7: Working Trial Balance Tool

Working Trial Balance Tool

The Working Trial Balance as displayed in the Working Trial Balance Tool has six columns:

• The Account column shows the Chart of Accounts ordered by account type, with Balance Sheet accounts on the top, then Liability accounts, Equity accounts and then Profit & Loss accounts. There is an option in the bottom left corner to Only show accounts with transaction history. This setting is turned on by default.
• The Beginning Balance column shows the Trial Balance in QuickBooks on the day before the date you enter in the From field. In Figure 7 above, the Beginning Balance column shows balances on 09/30/2006. You can QuickZoom on amounts in this column to see the General Ledger detail.
• The Transactions Column shows the net increase or decrease in account balances caused by transactions posted during the current period. Adjusting entries dated during the current period do not show in this column. You can QuickZoom on amounts in this column to see the General Ledger detail.
• The Adjustments Column shows the net increase or decrease in account balances caused by adjusting entries posted during the current period. Unlike the Adjusted Trial Balance Report, the Adjusting Entries do not have to be dated on the last day of the reporting period. As long as you date the Adjusting Entry during the reporting period (e.g., 10/01/2005–09/30/2006 as in Figure 7 above) the entries will show in this column. You can QuickZoom from amounts in this column to see the General Ledger detail.
• The Ending Balance Column shows the total of each row. However, it is not a calculating column. As with the other columns you can QuickZoom (i.e., double-click) on balances in this column to see the General Ledger detail for the balance.
• The Workpaper Reference column is a text column that allows you to enter source information for the adjusting entries you made and to reference supporting documents (e.g., spreadsheets) you created while adjusting the client's QuickBooks information.

This section applies to an entire report type — Detail Reports — not to a single report.

QuickBooks Detail Reports show individual transactions. When you filter the Detail Level for Summary Only, QuickBooks shows one post to the General Ledger per transaction. If you filter the report by Detail Level for All, QuickBooks shows each posting line for each transaction separately. In either case, the Transaction Detail Report shows the debits and credits posted to the General Ledger for each transaction.

If you use QuickBooks Premier Accountant Edition (version 2004 or later), QuickBooks displays Detail Reports with Debit and Credit columns. By default QuickBooks uses Amount and Balance columns for all other editions of QuickBooks.

If you use QuickBooks Pro—or if you are working at the client's office using the client's edition of QuickBooks (e.g., Premier Contractor Edition), you will need to add the Debit and Credit columns each time you run detail reports.

Note: The General Ledger and Journal reports (except Transaction Journal Reports) always display Debit and Credit columns.

Perform the following steps to add Debit and Credit columns to a detail report:

1. Display the Transaction Detail Report. For our example we will display a QuickReport for the Checking account. See Figure 8.


Figure 8. QuickReport with Amount and Balance Columns


2. Click the Modify Report button. QuickBooks will display the window shown below. In the columns section remove the checkmark next to Amount and Balance. Then, add a checkmark for Debit and Credit.


Figure 9. Modify Report

3. QuickBooks will now display the report with Debits and Credits as shown below in Figure 10.

Figure 10. QuickReport with Debit and Credit Columns

Editor's Note: Intuit has edited or cropped some of the above screenshots for this presentation, typically to fit set aspect ratios.

Last Updated: 01/24/2006

Search Other Product Tips