QuickBooks Tip: Scheduling Automated Emails for Memorized Reports

Chances are you’re already familiar with memorized reports in QuickBooks.  If you’ve ever loaded one of the standard reports and made a change to the columns or applied a filter, then you’ve encountered the all too familiar pop-up message when you try to close the window:  “Would you like to memorize this report?”

This is a convenient feature for saving your ideal report settings.  But did you know QuickBooks Online (QBO) also allows you to set a schedule for automatically emailing those finely tuned reports to the recipient of your choosing? Emailing reports can help you to automate your important financial tasks and make your life easier.

The following are five examples of how emailing memorized reports can help you to automate business processes and stay organized:

1. Working to implement cost cutting measures and want to keep an eye on office supply expenses? Have a listing of all purchases over $300 sent to you monthly.

2. Email your CPA once a month with all those confusing transactions you’ve posted to the “Ask My Accountant” expense category.  The questions will be fresh in your mind, and you’ll avoid the arduous task of trying to unravel a year’s worth of questions at once during tax season.

3. Receive a monthly update of your shareholder loan, distribution, and compensation accounts to keep an eye on how much cash you’ve used or provided to your company.

4. Having trouble with the discipline needed to pursue collections?  Send your Accounts Receivable aged over 30 days report directly to your inbox every Monday morning so you can tackle this tough task first-thing.

5. Going on vacation and nervous about being out of touch?  Receive a daily report in your inbox so you can monitor sales sub-totaled by customer while you drink coffee on the veranda of your Savannah bed & breakfast.

Ready to get started? Here’s how to set it up:

1. Create a saved report by loading one of the QBO preset options and making your tweaks as desired before clicking the “Save Customizations” button at the top of the screen.
2. Next, access your listing of Custom Reports via the main report menu on the left hand column.  You’ll find a list of all reports you’ve previously saved.
3. Select the report, or group of reports, you’d like to schedule and click “Edit.”
4. Select “Set the email schedule for this report” checkbox.
5. From here you’ll have the ability to edit the schedule to send reports daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly – whatever you need – and you’ll be able to specify the recipient’s email address and customize the email.

If you need help automating reports for your business or if you have questions about QuickBooks functionality, contact me or another one of Kaufman Rossin’s Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisors.