Why Export QB Reports to Excel?

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

1. Consolidation Reporting. For example, there may be a parent entity that owns sub entities. The parent entity will want to see a single financial statement for itself along with all it's entities. Use Excel to accomplish this.

2. 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 total 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.

3. Improving the Reports' Appearance. There may be a couple reasons for this:

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 want to export them to Excel to improve their look.

Final Thoughts

I see a trend here: exporting because it's useful vs. exporting for strictly cosmetic reasons. My suggestion is that if it's useful, then do it. If it's only cosmetic, then don't - it wastes time, and time is money in the business world.