Monthly Sales Report by Customer, Class & Item in QuickBooks Advanced Reporting

The monthly sales report is probably the most common and vital sales report for any business. It gives an opportunity to monitor the progress of sales goals on a consistent basis.

There are numerous templates for the monthly sales report. Each model serves a different purpose. The QuickBooks, regular sales report, provides a certain kind of template which allows to group the sales across 2 entities (One on the row and other on the column) and time periods as sub-columns.

There are indeed limitations to the customizations for the standard reports. One weakness is not to allow to add more than two entities to group the sales.

This article shows the step-by-step process to build a monthly sales report with the flexibility of adding more than 2 entities to group the sales.

So, let’s begin:

Follow these first few steps as stated here.

Select the pivot table after choosing the “Chart” from the right-click menu.

 

Choose Pivot Table
Choose Pivot Table

Click “Next>.”

On the dimension tab:

  1. Choose “[Transactions.Customer Full Name]” from the “Available Fields/Groups” list (indicated by blue arrow). Once you select it, then it shows up in the “Used Dimensions” (indicated by red arrow).
  2. Check the “Suppress When Value IS Null” (indicated by green arrow).
  3. Give a label to the dimension (indicated by orange arrow).

 

Dimension tab in QuickBooks Advanced Reporting
Dimension tab

Click “Next>.”

On the Expression tab:

  1. Type the expression as shown in the image or copy it from here:
    sum({<$(vExprSales), $(vExprPreviousNMonths(0))>} [Transactions.Amount With Sign])
    First Expression in QuickBooks Advanced Reporting
  2. The expression tab looks like this.

    Expression Tab in QuickBooks Advanced Reporting
  3. Type the below statement in the Label.
    =$(vTxtMonthYear(0))

    Expression Tab WIth Label in QuickBooks Advanced Reporting
  4. Copy and paste the same expressions as many as a number of months needed on the report.

    1. To copy; right-click on the expressions and click “Copy.”Copy Expression in QuickBooks Advanced Reporting
    2. To paste; right click on the white area and click “Paste.”Paste Expression in QuickBooks Advanced Reporting
  5. Here is the expression tab with four same expressions and their labels.Four Expressions in QuickBooks Advanced Reporting
  6.       Let’s change these expressions to represent different months.
    1. The month of the  max transaction date of the company file:
      1. Expression:
        sum({<$(vExprSales),$(vExprPreviousNMonths(0))>}[Transactions.Amount With Sign])
      2. Label:
        =$(vTxtMonthYear(0)
    2. Last month:
      1. Expression:
        sum({<$(vExprSales), $(vExprPreviousNMonths(1))>} [Transactions.Amount With Sign])
      2. Label:
        =$(vTxtMonthYear(1))
    3. Second last  month:
      1. Expression:
        sum({<$(vExprSales), $(vExprPreviousNMonths(2))>} [Transactions.Amount With Sign])
      2. Label: =$(vTxtMonthYear(2))
    4. Third last month:
      1. Expression:
        sum({<$(vExprSales), $(vExprPreviousNMonths(3))>} [Transactions.Amount With Sign])
      2. Label:
        =$(vTxtMonthYear(3))
  7. This is how the expression tab looks like:
    All Expressions in QuickBooks Adavnced Reporting

Click “Next>” two times.

On the Presentation tab:

  1. Select the Customer in the “Dimensions and Expressions” list.
  2. Check “Show Partial Sums.” This will show the subtotals.
    Presentation Tab in QuickBooks Advanced Reporting

Click “Next>” three times.

On the Numbers tab:

Select “Money” for all four expressions.

Numbers Tab in QuickBooks Advanced Reporting

Now click on “Finish.”

 The first cut of the report is ready. It shows the data for the last 4 months from the max transactions date of the company file. Since it is a sample file, so the max transactions date is Dec 2022.

First Cut of Monthly sales report in QuickBooks Advanced Reporting

This report is built on the sample file, so the months will differ than your report.

Some color settings will also differ depending on your settings.

On scrolling to the end, there should be subtotals.

Show Subtotals in QuickBooks Advanced Reporting

Now when the first cut is ready, let’s add Item as one more dimension to this report.

Add Item as a dimension:

  1. Right click on the chart and choose properties.
  2. Go to the Dimensions tab.
  3. Choose [Transactions.Item Full Name] from the right-hand lists and click on the “Add” button to add to the “Used Dimensions” list.
  4. Make other settings look like same as shown in the image below.
    Add Item dimension in QuickBooks Advanced Reporting
  5. Go to the Presentation tab and make all settings look like as shown in the image below.
    Presentation Tab in QuickBooks Advanced Reporting
  6. Click Ok.

Now the report is grouping the sales amount by customer and item both.

Second Cut on Monthly Sales Report in QuickBooks Advanced Reporting

Let’s add one more dimension [Transactions.Class Name] to the report.

Just follow the previous steps:

  1. Right click on the chart and click properties and go to the Dimensions tab to choose [Transactions.Class Name].
    Add Class Dimension in Monthly sales Report in QuickBooks Advanced Reporting
  2. This dimension is moved to the second place by clicking on the “Promote” button.
    The “Suppress When Value is Null” is not checked because a class can be null in the sample report on some transaction line items.
  3. Go to the Presentation tab and check the “Show Partial Sum” For this new dimension too.
    Class Presentation tab in QuickBooks Advanced Reporting
  4. Click Ok.

Now the report is grouped into three dimensions.

Third Cut with Class Dimension Monthly sales Report in QuickBooks Advanced Reporting

The same process can be followed to add as many dimensions as needed by your business.

You can even watch the video to learn these steps.

 

Let us know if you got any questions and comments.