Run financial reports

Books' reports are built from your posted entries. Each one compares the period you choose with the period before and the same period last year, and can be downloaded for your accountant.

Before you start

• You need View Books and reports and access to every branch.

Profit and loss, balance sheet and profit by branch

1. Open Books → Profit and loss, Balance sheet or Profit by branch.
2. Choose From and Through (1 to 36 months). On profit and loss you can also choose a Branch and a Cost centre.
3. Select Show.
4. Select an account to open its ledger for the last month of the period.
5. Under Download this page, select CSV or Excel.

Trial balance and general ledger

Open Books → Trial balance or General ledger, choose the Month (and the Account for the ledger) and select Show.

Business activity

1. Open Books → Business activity.
2. Choose a report: Sales by customer, Sales by item, Sales by posting user, Sales by salesperson, Sales by tax code, Purchases by supplier, Purchases by item, Purchases by account, Purchases by tax code or Expenses by account.
3. Choose From, Through and a Branch, and select Show.
4. The first time, select Prepare report summaries, then Continue preparation until the figures appear.
5. Open Source documents on a row to see the invoices or bills behind it.

Good to know

• There is no PDF of a report. Download CSV or Excel, or print the page from your browser.
• The trial balance shows each month's debit and credit movements, not balances on a date.
• Until you close the year, the balance sheet shows profit not yet moved to retained earnings on its own line.
• Financial reports include everything posted to the ledger, from Books and other apps. Business activity covers only issued Books invoices, credit notes and bills and posted Books expenses, so its totals can differ. Credit notes reduce them; payments do not change them.
• There is no profit report by product category.
• Reports can be slow for organisations with a lot of history. If a report takes long, choose a shorter period.
• While a year-end close or currency revaluation is running, reports show a message until it finishes.
• Check account classifications with your accountant before you rely on the figures.
• More: Money in and out and the cash forecast, Track profit by cost centre, Send a quote and track the outcome. VAT returns: Egypt, UAE.