QuickBooks 2005: The Missing Manual

Date Ranges

Different reports call for different date ranges. Financial statements typically use fiscal periods, such as the last fiscal quarter or the current fiscal year. But most companies manage month by month, so sales reports often cover the current month or month-to-date. Payroll reports span whatever period you use for payroll, whether that's one week, two weeks, or a calendar month. And tax reports depend on the tax periods doled out by the tax agencies you answer to.

WORKAROUND WORKSHOP : Fitting More Report onto Each Page

When a report is rife with columns, it's hard to fit everything onto a single page of paper. QuickBooks automatically prints the columns that don't fit on additional pages, but reports that span multiple pages cause paper rustling and lots of grumbling.

Try these approaches for keeping your report to one page across:

• Before you click Print, reduce the width of the report columns. In the report window, drag the diamond to the right of a column heading to make the column narrower (or wider), as demonstrated later in Figure 19-14.

• In the Print Reports dialog box (in a report window, click Print), turn on the "Fit report to __ page(s) wide" checkbox and, in the number box, type 1.

• In the Print Reports dialog box, choose the Landscape option for page orientation. When a report almost fits on an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper, switching to landscape orientation should do the trick.

QuickBooks contains two dozen pre-set date ranges that work based on today's date. For ...