Following on from my recent blog post letting you know that Xero will be switching off all their old-style reports next year, I thought it would be a good time to tell you about my favourite Xero report for keeping an eye on what I am entering in Xero ...
Why not take a look at your Account Transactions report and play with the different settings?
Often I find in Xero that I lack the visibility and control I was used to in Sage software as I miss the transactions report in Sage where I can track and see exactly what I have entered, which is great if you think you have made a mistake or just want to double check a previous entry.
"There is a similar report in Xero though!"
This has become my go-to for lots of investigations into the Xero data. Say for example you want to check out a loan account and see how much is still due to be paid, or you want to make sure that the wages control account has had all the net wages posted to it correctly.
This report in Xero is the Transactions Report which you can access from Account -> Report -> Transactions - and if you click on the little star next to the report and make it blue it will appear directly in your Accounting menu for easy access.
When you first open the report you will need to tell Xero which accounts you want to view. Where it says Accounts and Search for accounts at the top left you can choose just the one or two accounts you want to investigate, or you can choose all accounts if you want something similar to the transactions list in Sage.
You then need to choose your date range, and you can easily choose this month, quarter or year, or last month, quarter or year by clicking the little down arrow next to the dates and choosing from the list.
"To activate your selections you then click the blue update button on the right!"
I also like to get rid of the columns which don't interest me, like currency as most of my clients just deal in GBP, so I can more easily see the data I need on the report. You can also re-order the columns if you need to see particular columns next to each other with the re-order columns, button.
If you are looking at something that you want to check regularly then it can be a good idea to save the report as a custom report so you can get to the same report again in the future without having to choose all the details each time you open it. You can also export the report to Excel if you needed to pretty it up to send to someone or do more data manipulation with the data.
Why not take a look at your Account Transactions report and play with the different settings to see if you find this report as useful as I do?
If you are struggling to make sense of your Xero accounts and bookkeeping, or you have got into a bit of a mess and need help tidying it all up and want to understand how Xero works in more detail, then do get in touch.
If anything I've written in this blog post resonates with you and you'd like to discover more about the Account Transactions report, it may be a great idea to give me a call on 01604 217365 and let's see how I can help you.
Alison loves bookkeeping and supporting bookkeepers. She has been helping clients to be better bookkeepers in Sage 50 for over 24 years and has been Xero Accredited in accounts and payroll for a number of years too.
She specialises in a very unique hand-holding method of training, helping bookkeepers and business owners to use their accounts software as and when they need support in setting up and producing their invoices, reports and financial information.
Alison combines her role at Silicon Bullet with her Forever Living network marketing businesses and is often to be seen at business networking meetings as she likes to keep busy.
You know what they say: if you want something done well ask a busy person!
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