Series

We have several posts here at Begin Coding Now that are on QuickBooks Online that are grouped into Series. Click the previous link to see the list.

There are lots of useful reports in QuickBooks Online (QBO) but one of the most useful ones is the Journal Report. Why? It shows all of the transactions ever entered into QBO. All of them. The Journal Report can be helpful in finding mistakes or errors because it can show the order of the transactions by their date created in the books. The date created being the date the transaction was entered in the books. You can sort it to show the most recent transactions first so you can see where you left off entering transactions into QuickBooks, which can be very helpful. You can show when a transaction was last modified. You can even show who entered or modified the transaction. It’s like an audit trail.

Suppose you entered a transaction with the wrong date. You could use this report to see the transactions you entered recently and look for dates in transactions that don’t make sense.

Customize the Journal

From the left column, click Reports. Click Standard. Scroll all the way down to the Accountant’s Reports. It’s called For my accountant. Click Journal. Switch to Classic View if you are in Modern View. First, check the dates. Choose All Dates from the top left pull down menu. Reports will have a Cog Wheel in the upper right corner, if you are in Classic View. This is where you find customizations. Alternatively, depending on your view of QBO, there may be a button called Columns.

Add the Created Column

We’ll now add the Created column. Click the Cog Wheel in the upper left of the report. Click Show More and click the Created check box. All you have to do is click on a white space to complete the customization. You will likely want to immediately sort by the column you just added. At the top left, click Sort. Choose Created. Choose descending (most recent first). What does created mean? It is the “real=life” date that the journal entry was made. If you sort the created column by the most recent first, you can see exactly where you left off when you entering several transactions.

This data shown in the screenshot is from the Udemy course called Mastering QuickBooks Online.

If you are ready, click the Save customization button in the upper left portion. Type in a name. It could be MY Journal or Journal All Dates Created or whatever you like.

The Journal report will be you go-to report to find mistakes where you may have entered the wrong date.