This is Part II of a three-part how-to series for creating your Balance Sheet (BS) and Profit & Loss (P&L) reports from QuickBooks.

In Part I of this Quickbooks reports how-to series, we discussed some important steps for using Quickbooks before you create reports. Now we will discuss the logistics of creating the Balance Sheet reports. 

QuickBooks (QB) offers several choices to complete the same tasks.  It is a personal preference which of those choices you employ to produce the results you want. 

Understanding Balance Sheets 

What are Balance Sheets? Balance Sheets are snapshots at a particular point in time of what you own (assets) and what you owe (liabilities). The difference between those two totals is what you have left (equity). You want to create a Balance Sheet as of a month end date that covers the period of transactions that have been entered and reconciled. This applies to the Profit & Loss also.

Creating the Balance Sheet Report

To create reports you may start with the Reports Menu by selecting Reports from the top Menu Line or access the Report Center by selecting Reports from the Icon Bar (which can be the 2^nd row under the Menu Line or you could have your Icon Bar on the left). I will use the Report Menu in my example. All Examples are based on using QB 2015 Desktop.

Click on Reports on the Menu Line

Click on Company & Financial from the list

Click on Balance Sheet Standard

In the Dates field, choose the period you want to cover

Or in the As of field type in the date of the period end you want to cover

Click on the Customize Report button

Under Report Basis, choose Accrual or Cash

Click OK

Congratulations! You’ve created your Balance Sheet! 

You can now choose to click on:

• Print
  • Report
    • I suggest 
      • Orientation: Portrait
      • Page Breaks: Smart Page Breaks
      • Fit Report to 1 page wide
  • Save as PDF
• E-mail
  • Send report as Excel
  • Send report as PDF
• Excel
  • Create New Worksheet
  • Update Existing Worksheet
• Memorize
  • This is a useful timesaving feature that allows you to pull up the same formatted report over and over. Each time, simply be sure the Dates field is the period you want to view.

This is the most basic BS report. There are many more options to create BS reports that can be useful to managing your business. Don’t be afraid to try out any combination of report options, you can’t hurt a thing!

Other Articles in the How-To Guide for Quickbooks Series

• Part One: The How-To Guide for Balance Sheets and Profit & Loss Reports in Quickbooks
• Part Three: The How-To Guide for QuickBooks Reports: Profit & Loss

If you're managing a business and need to know how to maintain your financial records, use our quick-guide accounting checklist.