# QBO Skills: Reports & analysis

Original scenario questions with answers and explanations, from Questiva Consultants' open
skills assessments. Version 2, authored 2026-08-23.
Take it interactively: https://www.questivaconsultants.com/quickbooks-skills-test
## Reports & analysis (chapter 8 of QuickBooks Online Step-by-Step)

### Q1. A client asks, "Which customers are behind on paying me, and by how many days?" Which report answers that question directly?

- **✓ a) Accounts Receivable Aging Summary, which splits each customer's balance by days past due**
- b) Sales by Customer Summary, which totals what each customer bought during the report period
- c) Invoices and Received Payments, which lists each payment and the invoices it paid
- d) Balance Sheet, which shows the total Accounts Receivable balance on a given date

> The A/R Aging Summary lists every customer with a balance and ages it from each invoice's due date: Current is not yet due, 1–30 is one to thirty days past due, and so on. Sales by Customer shows what was sold, not what is owed; the Balance Sheet shows one A/R total with no breakdown. (Chapter 8 · Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable Reports; taught in Chapter 4)

### Q2. A Profit and Loss for the year shows these lines:
Total Income $48,000
Total Cost of Goods Sold $18,000
Total Expenses $22,000
Total Other Income $1,500
What are the Gross Profit and the Net Income?

- a) Gross Profit $30,000; Net Income $8,000
- **✓ b) Gross Profit $30,000; Net Income $9,500**
- c) Gross Profit $26,000; Net Income $9,500
- d) Gross Profit $48,000; Net Income $8,000

> Gross Profit is Total Income minus Cost of Goods Sold: $48,000 − $18,000 = $30,000. Net Income is Gross Profit minus operating Expenses, then offset by Other Income and Other Expenses: $30,000 − $22,000 + $1,500 = $9,500. Option a stops before adding the Other Income that sits below the expenses. (Chapter 8 · Analyzing the Profit and Loss Report)

### Q3. On April 2 the owner asks two questions: "How much cash and how much debt did we have at the end of March?" and "Did we make money in March?" Which reports, with which dates, answer them?

- a) A Profit and Loss for March 1–31 for both questions, since it includes every account
- b) A Balance Sheet for March 1–31 for both questions, read from the top down
- c) A Profit and Loss as of March 31 for the first, and a Balance Sheet for March 1–31 for the second one
- **✓ d) A Balance Sheet as of March 31 for the first, and a Profit and Loss for March 1–31 for the second**

> A Balance Sheet shows financial position — assets, liabilities and equity — on a given date, so cash and debt at the end of March come from a Balance Sheet as of March 31. A Profit and Loss covers a period, so March's result is a P&L for March 1–31. Option c has the two reports the wrong way round. (Chapter 8 · Accounting Reports)

### Q4. You run a client's Profit and Loss for the quarter twice. On the Accrual basis Net Income is $6,200; switched to Cash it is −$1,100. Nothing was changed between the two runs. What is the most likely explanation?

- a) Transactions were deleted between the two runs, so the Cash-basis report is missing income
- b) Cash-basis reports leave out sales receipts, which is where most of this client's income was recorded
- **✓ c) The client invoiced far more than customers have paid, and Cash reports exclude open invoices**
- d) The Accrual report counts each invoice and its payment as two separate income lines

> Accrual reports recognise income on the invoice date; Cash reports only when the payment arrives. A large swing between the two means a large balance of unpaid invoices (and, pulling the other way, unpaid bills) — look at Accounts Receivable. A sales receipt is paid at the time of sale, so it appears on both bases. (Chapter 8 · Cash vs. Accrual Reporting)

### Q5. A client's Profit and Loss shows Net Income of $9,000 for the year, yet the checking balance rose by $30,000. The client asks where the extra money came from. Which report explains it?

- a) The Trial Balance, because its Debit column adds up every source of cash received during the year
- b) The General Ledger, because it lists every transaction posted to every account during the year
- **✓ c) The Statement of Cash Flows, which shows operating, investing and financing activity**
- d) The Profit and Loss on the Cash basis, because it counts only the money that actually came in

> The Statement of Cash Flows explains the gap between profit and cash: it shows operating receipts and payments plus investing and financing activity. A new loan adds cash without adding income; collecting old receivables does the same. The General Ledger holds the data but explains nothing; the Trial Balance is a list of balances. (Chapter 8 · Statement of Cash Flows)

### Q6. A company that moved to QuickBooks Online two years ago still shows Opening Balance Equity of $12,400 on its Balance Sheet. What is that account, and what should be done with it?

- a) The owner's original investment in the business, which should stay there permanently
- b) The leftover difference from past reconciliations, which should be written off to Bank Charges
- c) Last year's net income, which QuickBooks failed to close and which should be re-entered
- **✓ d) A temporary setup account whose balance should be moved to Retained Earnings to read zero**

> Opening Balance Equity is where QuickBooks parks the offsets when accounts are set up with opening balances. Once setup is complete its balance is transferred to Retained Earnings, leaving zero. Left standing it misstates equity; it is not an owner investment and has nothing to do with reconciliation differences. (Chapter 8 · Analyzing the Balance Sheet)

### Q7. An Accounts Receivable Aging Summary run today shows this row:
Greenfield Dental — Current $1,200 · 1–30 $0 · 31–60 $850 · 61–90 $0 · over 90 $2,000 · Total $4,050
Which reading is correct?

- **✓ a) $2,000 is more than 90 days past its due date, and $1,200 is not yet due**
- b) $1,200 is due today, and $850 is 31 to 60 days from its invoice date
- c) Greenfield owes $4,050, all of it past due, and $2,000 of it is over 90 days old
- d) $850 was invoiced 31 to 60 days ago, so it is the oldest item still open

> Aging columns count days after each invoice's due date, not days since the invoice. Current means not yet due, so the $1,200 is not late at all, and the $2,000 has been past due for more than 90 days. Option c gets the total right but "all past due" wrong. (Chapter 8 · Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable Reports; taught in Chapter 4)

### Q8. A Profit and Loss by Class report shows a Not Specified column with $3,900 of income in it. The owner wants every dollar under a class. What should you do?

- a) Hide the column in the Customize panel's Columns section, since the amounts are already in the class totals
- b) Merge the Not Specified class into the Overhead class from the class list, then rerun the report
- **✓ c) Drill into the column and add the class to each transaction, then turn on the class prompt in settings**
- d) Post a journal entry moving the $3,900 from Not Specified to Overhead, since classes are fixed by adjusting entries

> Not Specified is not a class; it is the column for transactions saved without one. Open those transactions and assign the class, then switch on the Advanced setting that prompts for a class before saving. Hiding the column hides the problem; there is no class to merge; journal entries are only for items that cannot carry a class, like discounts. (Chapter 8 · Profit and Loss by Class Report)

### Q9. On June 3 you customised a Sales by Customer Detail report, set the Report Period to Last Month, and saved it to Custom Reports. On July 3 the client opens it. What does the report show?

- a) May's sales, because saving a report memorises the data that was on it at the time it was saved
- **✓ b) June's sales, because a relative date range rolls forward and the data is rebuilt each run**
- c) Nothing until the dates are entered again, because saved reports keep only columns and filters
- d) May's sales, because relative date ranges are converted to fixed dates when a report is saved

> Saving memorises the format, filters and date setting — never the data. A relative range such as Last Month is re-evaluated each time the report runs, so on July 3 it shows June. Had you typed a custom range (May 1–31), that fixed range would be kept instead. (Chapter 8 · Saving and Viewing Reports)

### Q10. A client wants the Balance Sheet, the Profit and Loss with a prior-year comparison, and the A/R Aging Summary emailed to them as one professionally formatted PDF at the end of every month. What is the efficient way to do this in QuickBooks Online?

- **✓ a) Build a Management Report holding those three reports, then use Send to email the PDF**
- b) Save each report to Custom Reports with Share With Others on, and email the three separately each month
- c) Export each report to Excel, combine the sheets, and convert the workbook to a PDF
- d) Download the Insights detailed report from the Profit and Loss, which bundles the statements

> Management Reports compile several reports into one document with a cover page, table of contents and notes, and can be emailed as a PDF from the Send action. Separate custom reports or an Excel workbook get the numbers out, but cost time every month and arrive as three things instead of one packet. (Chapter 8 · Creating Management Reports)

### Q11. The tax preparer asks for "the balance of every account as of December 31, shown as debits and credits." Which report is being asked for?

- a) Balance Sheet
- b) General Ledger
- c) Statement of Cash Flows
- **✓ d) Trial Balance**

> The Trial Balance lists each account's balance on a date in Debit and Credit columns, and the two columns always agree because every transaction debits one account and credits another. The General Ledger shows all the activity, not just balances; the Balance Sheet leaves out income and expense accounts. (Chapter 8 · Trial Balance)

### Q12. From a Transaction Detail by Account report you need three things: only transactions for the Design services items, subtotaled by customer, with the Balance column removed. Which parts of the Customize panel do those three jobs?

- **✓ a) Filters for the items, Groups for the customer subtotals, Columns to drop Balance**
- b) Columns for the items, Filters for the customer subtotals, Groups to drop Balance
- c) Groups for the items, Columns for the customer subtotals, Filters to drop Balance
- d) Filters for the items, Columns for the customer subtotals, Groups to drop Balance

> Filters decide which transactions appear (Product/Service equals the Design items); Groups decide how rows are subtotaled (Group By Customer); Columns decide which fields show, so untick Balance there. A field can still be filtered or grouped on even when its column is hidden. (Chapter 8 · Grouping and Filtering)

### Q13. The Bank transactions feed shows a single $3,480 deposit on May 9. The owner asks which customer payments were batched into it. Which report shows that directly?

- a) Invoices and Received Payments, which lists every payment with the invoices it was applied to
- **✓ b) Deposit Detail, which lists the payments grouped into each deposit and whether it cleared**
- c) Sales by Customer Detail, which lists every sale in the period, customer by customer
- d) Collections Report, which lists each customer's open invoices with a phone number

> Deposit Detail shows the sales transactions grouped into each Bank Deposit made from Undeposited Funds (Payments to deposit), and whether that deposit has cleared. Invoices and Received Payments ties payments to invoices, not to the bank deposit they were batched into. (Chapter 8 · Deposit Detail Report)

### Q14. A Transaction Detail report filtered to the products a client sells also shows rows that move amounts from Inventory Asset to Cost of Goods Sold. The client only wants lines that affected income. What should you do?

- a) Switch the report to the Cash basis so the behind-the-scenes inventory rows drop out
- b) Delete the inventory rows, since they are duplicates QuickBooks created automatically
- **✓ c) Add a Distribution Account filter set to Not Equals Inventory Asset and Cost of Goods Sold**
- d) Untick the Amount column in Columns so the inventory rows no longer carry a value on the report

> When an inventory item sells, QuickBooks posts a second pair of lines moving cost from Inventory Asset to Cost of Goods Sold. Those rows are real and must not be deleted; exclude them with a Distribution Account filter, as the Design Services exercise does. The basis toggle governs open invoices and bills, not these postings, and hiding a column hides nothing. (Chapter 8 · Grouping and Filtering)

### Q15. Craig wants a list of every check he has written that his vendors have not yet cashed. You open the Checking account from the Chart of Accounts, click View Register, and click the Funnel. Which filter settings produce that list?

- a) Transaction Type Check and Reconcile Status Cleared, since a cleared check is one that has been issued
- **✓ b) Transaction Type Check and Reconcile Status No Status, since those checks have never matched the bank**
- c) Transaction Type Check with the status left alone, then cross off the ones on the paper bank statement
- d) Reconcile Status Reconciled with the date range set to This Month, then read the checks listed at the bottom

> The register funnel filters on reconcile status as well as transaction type. A check with No Status has never been matched in the Bank Transactions feed or reconciled, so it is still outstanding. Cleared and Reconciled mean the opposite — that money already left the bank. Clear Filter / View All restores the whole register. (Chapter 8 · Filtering the Register)

### Q16. You search Advanced Transactions Search for Amount 100 and click Apply. One result is a $108 invoice to Amy's Bird Sanctuary. Why?

- a) The Amount field rounds to the nearest ten dollars, so 108 matched 100.
- b) A $100 invoice picked up $8 in late finance charges.
- **✓ c) Amount searches Line or Total, and it has a $100 line plus $8 tax.**
- d) Once one transaction matches, the search adds the contact's others.

> The Amount condition defaults to Line or Total, so the search finds transactions totalling $100 and those with a $100 line. This invoice has $100 of Gardening Services plus $8 sales tax. (Chapter 8 · Using the Advanced Transaction Search)

### Q17. A bookkeeper is explaining to a new client that QuickBooks Online reports fall into two families, accounting reports and business management reports. Which pairing puts the examples in the right family?

- **✓ a) Accounting: Trial Balance, Statement of Cash Flows. Business management: Unpaid Bills, Customer Contact List**
- b) Accounting: Open Invoices, Physical Inventory Worksheet. Business management: Balance Sheet, General Ledger
- c) Accounting: Profit and Loss, Product/Service List. Business management: Trial Balance, Check Detail
- d) Accounting: every Summary report in the list. Business management: every Detail report in the list

> Accounting reports describe accounts and transactions for tax and advisory work: Profit and Loss, Balance Sheet, Trial Balance, Statement of Cash Flows, General Ledger. Business management reports run the business day to day: Open Invoices, Unpaid Bills, contact lists, the Physical Inventory Worksheet. Summary versus Detail is a separate distinction that cuts across both families. (Chapter 8 · Types of Reports)

### Q18. A Profit and Loss shows $18,400 for Landscaping Services. What is the quickest way to see what makes up that figure?

- a) Run a General Ledger and scroll to Landscaping Services.
- b) Export the report to Excel and expand the summary rows.
- c) Switch the Accounting Method to Cash to list the payments.
- **✓ d) Click the $18,400 to open a Transaction Report.**

> Summary figures in QuickBooks Online drill down. Clicking the total opens a Transaction Report of what is behind it, and Back to Summary Report returns you to the P&L. (Chapter 8 · Profit and Loss Statement)

### Q19. Sales have grown every year, so an owner cannot tell from dollar totals alone whether what she spends on subcontractors has crept out of line. You open her Profit and Loss for Since 365 Days Ago and click Compare To. Which choice answers her question?

- a) Previous Year, which sets last year's dollar totals in a column beside this year's for each account
- **✓ b) % of Income, which restates every line as a share of total income so the ratio can be tracked over time**
- c) Previous Period, which sets the prior period's dollar totals beside the current ones for each account
- d) Collapse All under the Compact button, which hides sub-accounts so the subcontractor total stands alone

> Adding a % of Income column restates each income and expense line as a percentage of total income, so a cost growing faster than sales stands out even while every dollar figure rises. Comparing to a previous year or period returns more dollars, which is exactly what the growth is hiding, and collapsing only hides sub-accounts. (Chapter 8 · Analyzing the Profit and Loss Report)

### Q20. A client is on the Chart of Accounts and wants to see every transaction that has touched the Inventory Asset account, including the starting entries and any adjustments. What is the fastest route from where she is?

- a) Open the Reports App and run a General Ledger, then filter it down to that one account and date range
- b) Type Inventory Asset into the Search Bar, whose results list every transaction posted to that account
- **✓ c) Use the Action column drop-down beside Inventory Asset and choose Run Report for a QuickReport**
- d) Open the Product/Service List report, which reports the quantity on hand behind that account's balance

> Run Report in the Action column builds a QuickReport of every transaction posted to that category — bills, checks and expenses adding inventory, invoices and sales receipts removing it, plus starting entries and adjustments — without opening the Reports App. The Search Bar reopens individual transactions, and the Product/Service List shows quantities, not transactions. (Chapter 8 · QuickReports)

### Q21. A tax preparer asks for the General Ledger for last month. The client runs it, then calls you alarmed: it is dozens of pages long, the same transactions seem to appear more than once, and accounts with no activity are listed anyway. What do you tell her?

- **✓ a) That is how the report reads: each transaction shows under both the account debited and the account credited, and every active category prints a beginning balance**
- b) The date range is overlapping two fiscal periods, which duplicates the rows; narrowing it to a single month removes the repeated transactions
- c) Inactive accounts are being pulled in by mistake; making them active again in the Chart of Accounts is what shortens the report
- d) The report has defaulted to All Dates; setting the Report Period to Last Month clears out both the repeated rows and the empty accounts

> The General Ledger shows all the activity in all the accounts, and double-entry means each transaction appears at least twice — once for the account debited, once for the account credited. Active categories with no activity in the period still print a beginning balance. Neither behaviour is caused by the date range, which was already set to Last Month. (Chapter 8 · General Ledger)

### Q22. It is early January and Marisol needs one list of her vendors showing each one's mailing address and whether it is flagged for a 1099, before she starts filing. Which report, with which change, gets her there?

- a) Run the Vendor Balance Detail report and add a Track 1099 column to it from the Customize panel
- b) Export the vendor list from the Expenses App to Excel and key in a 1099 column beside the addresses
- c) Run the Customer Contact List and switch it over to vendors using the Filters section of Customize
- **✓ d) Run the Vendor Contact List and check Track 1099 in the Columns section of the Customize panel**

> The Vendor Contact List already carries each vendor's address and phone; opening Customize, then Columns, and checking Track 1099 adds the flag that says who is eligible for January's 1099 reports. Vendor Balance Detail reports open bills rather than contact details, and there is no vendor switch on the Customer Contact List. (Chapter 8 · Vendor Contact List)

### Q23. Before Thursday's payment run, Dev wants to see every unpaid bill one by one, grouped under the vendor it belongs to, with the balance still owed on each. Which report gives him that?

- a) Accounts Payable Aging Summary, which gives one figure per vendor in each past-due age band
- **✓ b) Vendor Balance Detail, which lists each vendor's Accounts Payable transactions with their balances**
- c) Vendor Contact List, which lists each vendor with the address and account number on file
- d) Check Detail, which lists the checks written to each vendor over the period with their amounts

> Vendor Balance Detail is the Accounts Payable counterpart to the Collections and Customer Balance Detail reports — it opens each vendor's balance out into the individual open bills behind it, which is what a payment run needs. The A/P Aging Summary collapses that to one number per age band, and Check Detail reports money already paid out. (Chapter 8 · Vendor Balance Detail Report)

### Q24. Two customers are invoiced roughly the same amount each year, but one of them runs up far more subcontractor and materials cost. The owner asks which of the two is actually worth more to the business. Which report answers that, and why?

- **✓ a) Income by Customer Summary, because it subtracts each customer's costs from their income to show the profit**
- b) Sales by Customer Summary, because the customer who has been invoiced the most is contributing the most
- c) Transaction List by Customer, because it lists every invoice, payment and billable expense for each one
- d) Accounts Receivable Aging Detail, because the customer who pays soonest is the one worth keeping

> Income by Customer Summary nets each customer's expenses against their income and shows the profit earned, which is what exposes a high-revenue, low-margin customer and flags a job that needs repricing. Sales by Customer Summary stops at total income, so the two look alike. Add % of Column to rank them. Aging reports answer a collections question. (Chapter 8 · Income by Customer Summary Report)

### Q25. A Sales by Product/Service Summary for All Dates shows these two lines:
Rock Fountain — Quantity 12 · Amount $3,150 · COGS $1,800 · Gross Margin $1,350
Design — Quantity 45 · Amount $2,700 · COGS $0 · Gross Margin $2,700
The owner wants to know which of the two earns the business more. What does the report support?

- a) Design, because it was sold 45 times and Rock Fountain only 12, so it is carrying the business
- b) Rock Fountain, because its Amount is the larger of the two, so it brings in the most money
- **✓ c) Design, because its Gross Margin is larger even though Rock Fountain sold for a bigger amount**
- d) Neither, because a service carries no COGS and so cannot be compared with an inventory product

> Amount is revenue; Gross Margin is Amount minus COGS, and that is what the line actually contributes. Rock Fountain sells for more, but $1,800 of it went to buying the product, so Design's $2,700 earns more. Quantity counts units, not dollars, and a service simply carries zero COGS, which is a fair comparison rather than a blocked one. (Chapter 8 · Sales by Product/Service Summary Report)

### Q26. A customer disputes what she was charged this year and asks for everything on her account in one place — invoices, payments, credit memos, sales receipts and billable expenses. Which report do you run?

- a) Sales by Customer Summary for This Year, then drill into that customer's total to open the detail
- b) Collections Report, which lists each customer's outstanding invoices along with their telephone number
- c) Invoices and Received Payments, which is organised by payment and the invoices each one settled
- **✓ d) Transaction List by Customer for This Year, with that one customer's section expanded**

> Transaction List by Customer shows every transaction type for each customer over a date range, and Collapse All followed by expanding one name isolates hers. Invoices and Received Payments covers only what has been paid, the Collections Report only what is still open, and a Sales by Customer drill-down reaches sales but not her payments or credits. (Chapter 8 · Transaction List by Customer Report)

### Q27. Running her Profit and Loss, a client notices sparkle icons beside some of the numbers and an Insights button at the top of the report. Before she sends the report to her banker, she asks what they are. What do you tell her?

- a) They mark figures QuickBooks Online could not reconcile, and have to be cleared before the report is used
- b) They are the drill-down links, and clicking one opens the Transaction Report behind that total
- c) They flag transactions that another user has entered or edited since the report was last run
- **✓ d) They open the Accounting Agent's reading of the data — anomalies, charts and the root-cause transactions**

> The sparkles are the Accounting Agent, the AI inside QuickBooks Online. Clicking one opens an insight — the significant change it noticed, a chart, and the root-cause transactions behind it, with Download Detailed Report saving the set as a PDF. An anomaly may be a real trend or bad data to fix. Drilling down is done by clicking the number itself. (Chapter 8 · Accounting Agents AI)

### Q28. A Profit and Loss by Customer for All Dates is wide enough to run over several sheets, and the client says the printout is unusable: the right-hand columns are cut off, and after the first page there is no way to tell which row is which. Which print settings fix both complaints?

- **✓ a) Landscape orientation, with Show Report Headers on All Pages and Smart Page Break Scaling selected**
- b) Portrait orientation, with Smart Page Break Scaling switched off so that nothing on the page is resized
- c) Landscape orientation, having saved the report as a PDF first so the browser's scaling is bypassed
- d) Portrait orientation, with the browser's own Fit to Page setting shrinking the width onto one sheet

> The Print or Save as PDF window answers both — Landscape prints across the 11-inch dimension so a wide report fits, and Show Report Headers on All Pages repeats the row and column headers on every sheet. Smart Page Break Scaling keeps a group together rather than splitting it. Portrait is the narrow dimension, which is what cut the columns off. (Chapter 8 · Printing Reports)

### Q29. A client wants a Sales by Customer Detail report covering 1/1/26 through today, with two of the column headings reworded and several rows taken out, before it goes in front of her board. What do you tell her?

- a) Reword the headings in the Customize panel, then use a filter to drop the rows she does not want
- b) Save the report as a PDF and edit that, since the export is the only thing that keeps QBO formatting
- **✓ c) Set the Report Period to Custom Dates, then Export to Excel and make both changes in the spreadsheet**
- d) Add the report to a Management Report, where the cover page and End Notes can carry the wording

> QuickBooks Online will not rename a column or delete a row, which is exactly why reports export to a spreadsheet — Excel for everyone, Google Sheets in Advanced. Enter the custom start and end dates first so the export carries them. Filters decide which transactions appear, never which rows she keeps, and Management Reports add commentary rather than edits. (Chapter 8 · Exporting Reports to Spreadsheets)

### Q30. A Profit and Loss run for All Dates on the Cash basis shows a category the Accrual version does not have: Unapplied Cash Payment Income. Drilling in, you find a customer payment dated the day before the invoice it was applied to. What is happening, and what fixes it?

- a) The payment landed on the wrong invoice; unapplying it and reapplying it moves the income to the right account
- **✓ b) Cash reporting recognises the money on the day it arrived, before its invoice existed — matching the invoice date to the payment date clears it**
- c) The customer paid more than she was billed, and the overpayment sits there until it is refunded or applied
- d) The category appears on every Cash-basis report as the offset to Accounts Receivable and can be left alone

> On the Cash basis income is recognised when the money arrives. A payment dated ahead of the invoice it pays leaves QuickBooks Online with nothing to attach the cash to, so it parks the amount in Unapplied Cash Payment Income. Dating the invoice to the day the money moved resolves it. An overpayment is a different thing, and the category is not automatic. (Chapter 8 · Do It Yourself: Reports)