Building Better Business Finances: The QuickBooks Income and Expense Graph

Did you know that QuickBooks offers some helpful financial graphs in addition to the various financial reports?

One of my favorites is the Income and Expense Graph.

Easily located by clicking Reports > Company and Financial > Income and Expense Graph, you get an easy-to-read overview of your income and expenses as shown in the example below (click the image for a larger view):

You can quickly change the dates to be displayed as well as show the graph by customer or class (if you are using the QuickBooks class feature).

Hover over any area of the graph and you'll see the magnifying glass appear. From there, you can quickly double-click down into the next level of details relating to your finances. You can drill all the way down into the original source documents (i.e. invoices, checks, bills, etc.) from the graph too.

Toward the bottom of the graph, you can choose to show either income or expenses within the pie chart.

You can print the graph, but QuickBooks does not provide the ability to export it to Excel like you can with other reports, nor can it be saved as a PDF.

So, which way do you prefer to review your income and expenses - the report view with the data or the graphical way?

RELATED POSTS:

• The QuickBooks Profit and Loss Report
• The QuickBooks Profit and Loss Detail Report
• The QuickBooks Balance Sheet Report
• The QuickBooks Income by Customer Summary Report
• 5 Really Bad Business Finance Mistakes to Avoid

______________________________________________________________________________