Overview
Business reports bring your transactions together so you can see how your business is performing. Instead of reviewing one transaction at a time, you can see your income, expenses, and overall results for a selected period.
Quicken Business & Personal also includes reports covering personal spending, income, net worth, taxes, and savings. You can explore those reports when you are ready to review your broader financial life.
You do not need to understand every report yet. The goal is to run one useful report, confirm that the information looks right, and see how the activity you entered in earlier steps comes together.
For now, focus on one business report: Profit & Loss. You do not need to understand every report yet. The goal is to run one useful report, confirm that the information looks right, and see how the activity you entered in the earlier steps affects your results.
Running a report helps you move beyond individual transactions and understand the bigger picture. You can use reports to:
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See how much your business earned and spent
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Identify the categories contributing most to your expenses
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Spot missing or incorrectly categorized transactions
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Understand whether your business made a profit
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Prepare for tax planning or conversations with a financial professional
For more information, see: Running Reports
What to Know
Start with these two business reports:
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Profit & Loss: Shows your business income, expenses, and resulting profit or loss for a selected period. This is the best report to begin with because it helps you see whether your business earned more than it spent.
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Balance Sheet: Shows what your business owns, what it owes, and the resulting equity. This report becomes more useful as you add business accounts, assets, and liabilities.
Your reports are only as accurate as the information included in them. Connected accounts, correct business assignments, and consistent categories all help produce more meaningful results.
Try It in Quicken Business & Personal
Run a Profit & Loss Report
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Select Reports from the left navigation.
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Select Profit & Loss.
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Choose the business you want to review.
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Select a date range, such as This month, Last month, or Year to date.
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Review your total income, expenses, and profit or loss.
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Open at least one category to review the transactions included in its total.
Ask yourself:
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Does the income total look reasonable?
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Are the largest expenses what you expected?
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Do any transactions appear to be missing or included incorrectly?
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Does the resulting profit or loss make sense based on the period you selected?
If something looks incorrect, return to your transactions and check the business assignment and category. Then run the report again to confirm the correction.
Optional: Compare Your Results Over Time
Once you have enough transaction history, compare two periods to see how your business results are changing.
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Open the Profit & Loss report.
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Select the current date range.
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Select Compare.
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Choose Prior period, Prior year, or Custom.
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Choose whether to display the difference in dollars, percentages, or both.
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Review whether your income, expenses, and profit increased or decreased.
Compare similar periods whenever possible. For example, compare one complete month with another complete month instead of comparing a complete month with a partial month.
Tip: Save a report after choosing the business, date range, and other settings you want to reuse. This makes it easier to review your results as part of your regular financial routine.
Optional: View Your Balance Sheet
When you have added your business accounts, assets, and liabilities, run a Balance Sheet report to see:
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Assets: What the business owns, such as cash, account balances, and equipment
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Liabilities: What the business owes, such as credit card balances and loans
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Equity: The remaining value after liabilities are subtracted from assets
The Balance Sheet becomes more meaningful as you add and correctly classify more of your business’s financial information.
You’re Done When
You have:
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Run a Profit & Loss report for your business
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Reviewed your income, expenses, and profit or loss
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Opened at least one category to see the transactions behind its total
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Corrected any obvious business assignments or categories affecting the report
Up Next: Step 5 - Build Your Business Routine
Now you’ve got the basics. Your business is set up, your accounts are connected, you know how to get paid, you can track your income and run reports. The final step is Step 5: Build Your Business Routine where we will cover the basic routine you need to stay on top of your business finances.