It is almost an art to create great financial reports. Traditional church accounting programs (Church Windows, Church Management Solutions, Power Church, etc.) usually come with pretty good standard reports that need little adjusting. QuickBooks is different. QuickBooks Online comes with over 100 standard reports, but I don’t think I would send any of them to a church board without customizing them.
In the video, I walk you through how to customize reports, save them, and even put them in a batch. That’s all the technical stuff and not the art. The art of any reporting (including reporting in QuickBooks) includes:
- Asking the Recipient: Keep the recipient in mind when you’re creating the report. That does mean that sometimes you’re going to have to ask them, “Is there anything else that you need to see to make decisions?” I remember one pastor telling me to just make it simple enough so he could tell how the church was doing and how much money he could spend. His reports were customized with this in mind.
- Consistency: Reports are going to evolve and change over time so I’m not talking about that kind of consistency. I’m talking about when you give them a customized report one month and then forget to save the changes so you give them a standard report the next time. Take advantage of those features that allow you to save and batch these customizations.
- Attention to Details: The biggest one is when you add a new account in the Chart of Accounts. If you are customizing reports, double check that this addition is showing up in the right reports.