QuickBooks® Software Toolbox: QData Viewer and QODBC
Reports to Make Your Life Easier

Bonnie Nagayma, CPA, Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor SM

As a Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor who strives to find unique solutions for clients, it is always frustrating to need a specific report that can’t be found or created within the QuickBooks® software. The expanded flexibility of QData Viewer and the affordable custom report solutions from FLEXquarter Solutions shortcut many of those conversations. Below are three examples for the purpose of illustration.

What is QData Viewer? QData Viewer is a tool that integrates with versions of QuickBooks from the Pro version on up, starting with the 2002 editions and any more recent. The software product extracts information, and then uses a Crystal Reports template to create a report. There are several reports that are included in the product and new ones being added all the time. The report is based on QODBC and will therefore extract the needed information from an open QuickBooks file. If the data is in QuickBooks, and the relative code has been released by Intuit, it is quite possible this tool can provide an automated report solution. The tool is very easy to use. Install the tool, open the QuickBooks data file, import the report, create the report, print or export the report. That is all there is to it. No longer do you need to create reports in QuickBooks, and then export the data and manipulate the report in Excel. Just click and go. However, if an Excel workbook is required, or even a PDF file, they can be created from within the tool.

Accountant Need – Cash Detail Report By far our favorite report is one that we requested that FLEXquarter Solutions build. It is a report that we have numerous requests for from Accountants who provide business management services for their clients. The summary sheet has each bank account listed with columns for Previous Balance, deposits, disbursements, transfers, other, and ending balance. It also provides the supplemental detail pages with the specific transactions included in each subtotal.

See a sample of such a report in PDF Format [36 KB].

Client Need – Sales by City, State or Zip The sales reports available include: sales by state; sales by customer type; sales by postal code; sales by city; sales based on the ship to city; and sales based on the ship to state. We were excited about these reports for a variety of reasons, but most significant was the need for an easy way to calculate sales volume for city license renewals and sales volume – to show when a new sales person should be added to handle the area. These reports use the address fields on the invoice and sales reports, so there is no need to capture custom fields or create custom reports. Imagine: No more creating a list of customers in QuickBooks for a specific city, then filtering a sales report to include only those customers and double-checking to make sure none of the shipments went to a city other than the default customer address. This tool provides the same result with just a couple of clicks of the mouse. The detail can be viewed by double clicking on a subtotal.

See a sample of such a report in PDF Format 125 KB].

Custom Client Need – Inventory Management To provide an example of a custom solution, assume a light manufacturing client has several warehouses. Therefore the item list is set up in QuickBooks with the warehouse as the item, and the product-lot number as the sub-item. For day to day management purposes this works well. However, for inventory management purposes, the client needs a sales report that includes the same item from all warehouses with a total of the quantity. QuickBooks alone cannot provide an appropriate report – at least not easily. To create the new report, the accountant needs to filter out the item from each existing warehouse report and consolidate the results into a separate report. Then the accountant needs to export the new report to Excel to total the quantity column. (And this memorized report would need to be updated each time a new sub-item is created.) Now with the report that FLEXquarter Solutions developed, if the inventory items have been set up consistently, the reporting software will look at the beginning of the item number (i.e. the product portion) for all the warehouses, total the quantity and sales, and then place those two totals on a report that has the item by row – and the totals by month in each column. The totals can be double-clicked to drill down to the detail if needed. This report will then provide the historical data needed to manage future purchases of each item.

Summary If you think you may have a report that could be created more efficiently than your current process, you owe it to yourself and your client to see if an alternative exists.

More about the QODBC Driver User reviews of QODBC Driver, from FLEXquarters, give it anywhere from four to five stars. (QDataViewer, recently introduced, is not yet reviewed on the site.)

Learn more about the QDataViewer on the QODBC website.

Last Updated: 06/15/2004