QuickBooks - Why Export Reports into Excel?

Sometimes people want to export QuickBooks reports into Excel. There are at least four reasons for this:

1. Consolidation Reporting. For example, there may be a parent entity that owns sub entities. The parent entity may want to see a single financial statement for itself along with all it's entities. Exporting into Excel makes this much easier than doing it manually.

2. Creating Graphs and Charts in Excel. Sometimes a visual presentation of numbers is easier to understand. Exporting QuickBooks reports into Excel makes it a breeze to create colorful charts and graphs.

3. Computing Totals on a QuickReport. While in the Chart of Accounts, or any of the lists, we can easily run a QuickReport. Just select the appropriate name (Auto Expenses, for example), right click, and select QuickReport. Adjust the date range, as needed. QB shows all entries for this name, both the debit entries and the credit entries.

However, QB does not give a total for the entries, and sometimes it's useful to know the total. You may need to modify the report to show only the entries you want (click the Modify Report button to do this). Then, once it contains the information you need, export the report to Excel, and use the =sum feature to add the column.

4. Improving the Reports' Appearance. There are probably many reasons for this. Here are two:

a. The QB reports may need some cosmetic improvements in order to show them to people who have some financial power - if you are approaching a bank for a loan, for example, you may want the balance sheet and P&L to look different. (Not the numbers, of course! Just the layout and appearance.)

b. Sometimes accountants, bookkeepers, managers, or CPAs don't like the appearance of the QB reports, and they export the reports into Excel to improve their look.

Final Thoughts

I see a trend here:

• Exporting because it's useful for financial or other business reasons, vs
• Exporting for strictly cosmetic reasons

My suggestion is this: If the time spent modifying reports in Excel is a good use of company resources, then do it. If it's only cosmetic, then don't. All companies have limited resources, and these must be used wisely.

About the Author: Jennifer A. Thieme is a Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor who loves to help people with QuickBooks. She brings unique insight, clear instructions, and over ten years of experience to all of her QuickBooks articles. Owner of Solid Rock Accounting Services, Jennifer's clients enjoy these same benefits on a personal and regular basis. You can too - visit http://www.jenniferthieme.com and contact Jennifer today.

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