Jaclyn Anku, ProAdvisor Training & Certification Leader: Oh, hey, it's pretty hot on campus, so I thought I might just cool down outside. Today we're exploring the Modern View of reports, and we'll be joined by ProAdvisor correspondents Kenji Kuramoto and Roman Villard.

Hey, ProAdvisors, I hope you're enjoying your summer. I'm Jaclyn and you're watching In the Know. It's the show designed to keep you In the Know on the most exciting updates to QuickBooks Online. 

Modern Review of reports is an important update for accountants and advisors, so let's get to it. We heard that you want better tools to customize standard reports and flexible ways to share those insights with clients. So we built a Modern View for reports that scales with you and your clients. With Modern View, you have access to powerful customization tools, including pivots, filters, groupings, conditions, and more. You can even convert reports into charts and dashboards, and then embed them into management reports and even spreadsheet sync.

And now for the Fast Facts:

• Modern Review of reports is available to all users across the entire family of QuickBooks products. Heads up that modern view features may vary by SKU.
• You can access the Modern View by simply visiting reports in QuickBooks Online.
• This is now available on select standard reports across all regions.

If you find this update interesting or helpful, like, comment. and subscribe. Let me introduce you to Harshil, the product manager behind this update.

Harshil, welcome and thanks for being on the show. Can you give us a spin through Modern Reports?

Harshil Singhal: Hey, Jaclyn. Thank you so much for having me on this episode. My name is Harshil and I'm a principal product manager with Intuit. In this demo, I'll quickly walk you through some of the salient features of Modern View of reports and what to expect when you're working with these.

Let's create a brand new report from scratch, showcasing a bunch of features that are available on Modern View. Please note that what you see on this demo right now is not just available when you create a new report from scratch, but for all reports that are on Modern View. The way to identify whether a report is on modern view is through identifiers that say that a particular report is available in the new enhanced experience. For the purpose of this demo, let's go back and create a new report from scratch. QuickBooks Online will offer several templates out-of-the-box. If these templates do not fit the bill, you can choose to create a new report from scratch.

Let's create an invoice report and see what QuickBooks Online has to offer. You'll notice QuickBooks Online has spun up a new template with a couple of columns that describe invoices that are recorded in this company file. What you'll also notice is a bunch of customization options available right there on the interface without having to drill down or dig deep into the interface.

One of the key value propositions for Modern View is the ability for customers to pick up a bunch of columns that describe business entities in QuickBooks Online. The way to do that is to head over to columns and click on more columns; this is where you'll see business entities offered on Modern View. Because this report is ready to invoice, let's drill down into the invoice section and see what Modern View has to offer. You can see column selections available that are split into a bunch of different sections. You can choose columns that describe line items on an invoice, or the invoice headers or other entities that are linked to an invoice, such as the Chart of Accounts, customer, the terms, or payment methods. For now, let's not add any other columns, but let's see what other customizations there are to explore.

One of several value propositions for money reports is that all customizations available are applicable to all the columns. What that means is that on Modern View reports, you can sort data by any individual column. Right now, the report is sorted by date, but you could very well choose to sort the report by customer or amount. Let's sort this report by customer and change the data range so we get some more data into this report to play with.

Adding on filters, Modern View reports have much more powerful filters than what customers are  used to seeing. Again, all columns available on the report are available as filter selections, so let's go ahead and filter this report for individual customers. Modern View reports also allow customers to choose logical operations that let them select more than one condition. For now, let's include any invoices that were there from these three customers or where the invoice amount was greater than, let's say, $10. You'll notice the report now reflects all invoices that meet these two conditions.

Customers can choose to add more conditions or add new filter lines altogether. Another key customization Modern View reports offer is the ability to group data by one of any individual fields that are there on the report. For this report, right now, let's go ahead and group it by customers so that each individual customer is now its own section in an expanded-only state. You can choose to collapse all rows on the report or go back to the expanded state where you see individual lines on the report.

Another key capability that Modern View reports offers is the ability to convert this report into a pivot table or a chart directly within QuickBooks Online. I'll go through each of these in just a minute, but let’s first create a pivot that converts the same report into a different format. Select customers on the rows, and on columns, let's have individual months, selecting amounts as the values we want to aggregate. You'll notice that QuickBooks Online has now converted that same report into a different structure. We can choose to save this report for later consumption.

For now, let's switch over to the chart view. That's going to show us the different options our customers now have when working with Modern View reports. Depending on the chart type, you get to choose what fields you want on individual access. You can choose to configure the chart by having different fields on the X and Y axis. You can also choose to split individual paths on the report by several attributes that you previously chose on the report. Again, saving this report will allow you to come back to this and share it with multiple stakeholders.

While you are on the chart view, you can choose to send this report over to the Performance Center or to Management Reports on a tabular view. You can choose to send this report into Spreadsheet Sync, management reports, or save it for later consumption. You can choose to save it as a into your management report or you can choose to export it into Spreadsheets sync or one of several other formats.

Once the report is saved, this report is now available to you in your Custom Reports tab. You can choose to save, choose to email it to other stakeholders directly from within the product,or choose to schedule this report so it is sent to other stakeholders on a pre-set frequency.

But for now, let's head on over to the Custom Reports tab and see where you can access the report you just created and saved. You can choose to add it to a schedule from here as well. You can choose to add it to a new custom report group or send it to other parts of QuickBooks Online, but for now, let's go ahead and add it to a group. We already have a group created here, so let's add it to our previous group, and click add on save. You notice that our report is now under the previous group we created. One of the key benefits you have is to choose to export it into a PDF directly. QuickBooks Online is going to take care of the work of merging both reports and giving you one consolidated PDF.

So that is what Modern View has to offer for customers. Thank you so much for having me on this episode.

Jaclyn Anku: Thank you so much, Harshil. We'll turn now to ProAdvisor correspondents Kenji Kuramoto and Roman Villard. Kenji and Roman, thanks so much for hanging out with us on the show. It's awesome to see you both as always. Roman, let me kick it off with you. Tell us why Modern View of reports is such a big deal.

Roman Villard: Thanks. Jaclyn. Modern View of reporting for me, as a tech-forward CAS practice, is about data and the customization of data. We pride ourselves on knowing our clients really, really well, so to the extent that we can sort, filter, and manipulate data in a consistent manner really hits on the things our clients need to see on a month-to-month basis. That provides a ton of value, so for us, we love the ability to see the customization and the logic applied to Modern Reporting. I believe that continuing to march down the path of utilizing data in a more efficient manner is going to relate to a better experience for the clients we serve.

Jaclyn Anku: Kenji, at Acuity, I know of course you offer CFO services. How does Modern View help your team deliver those financial insights and advisory services?

Kenji Kuramoto: Change is hard for people, sometimes, right? Historic reports out of QuickBooks have been really solid, so we actually have some team members who like the old reports over the new ones. I think this is more just a change management issue firms are going to have to go through. The good news is you can still use the classic reports and flip over to those.

But the new enhanced reports are really solid, and to Roman's point, especially if you're doing advisory, the CFO or controller level and customization is super important and you have to be able to customize data for specific needs. But sometimes customization takes a while; you have to pull data out of different reports and stick it somewhere else, such as Excel or Google Sheets. It's really nice to do customization, but really quickly, like with the enhanced reporting, you can build that report and see the changes almost instantaneously.

Modern View is important for an advisory firm. It's also nice that it’s saving you time by having a lot of those tools right inside QuickBooks Online. 

Roman Villard: The other thing to your point, Kenji, is yes, it is a difficult transition, but the ability to layer in these new visuals and the way in which you can display the data in a management report is efficient in the tool and more easily understood by clients. I feel that the digestibility of what we're delivering improves drastically when we're able to utilize this type of reporting.

Kenji Kuramoto: Yeah, absolutely. And when the customization is quicker, it allows your team to spend more time doing the creative kind of work of thinking, instead of wondering how this affects the client. Will this make a bigger impact? We used to say just moving numbers around can be time-consuming, so it's been nice to speed the process up a bit. 

Jaclyn Anku: Okay, so Roman, if we can get really deep in the weeds of Modern Reports, are there any specific filters, groupings of data, or any pro tips your team has loved that you can pass on to the audience?

Roman Villard: When I think about what's most impactful for our clients, we go back time and time again to cash, so we want to understand what our clients' customers' behavior looks like within specific groups—maybe it's regional, by state, or sliced and diced in different ways. If we can help our clients understand how and when cash is coming into the bank, it helps them understand what their next 13 weeks or next few months looks like from a cash deployment standpoint. So from a hot tip perspective, I would probably start looking at groupings on AR and understanding how I can deliver this to a client in a way to help them focus on how to address that collectability and more intentionally.

Jaclyn Anku: What's neat, too, of Modern View is that after you set up a report in the way you like, you can save it. So hopefully it's easier for your team to then go in and pull those different cache reports for clients. Kenji, what about you? As you think about the universe of reports available in QuickBooks, and now with Modern View, are there any go-tos for your team or do they vary by client?

Kenji Kuramoto: It may vary by quite a bit. I think some of the tools tend to be universal.This is going to shock people who know me because like, wait, “Kenji knows how to do accounting?” Yes, I was super impressed by seeing pivot tables that are native inside of enhanced reports. Back in my day when I was doing more accounting myself—yes, Kenji did some accounting—I used pivot tables like crazy if I really wanted to manipulate data. And now the fact that they are native really gives a powerful tool for a lot of us accountants who slice and dice data in a way we want to see it. I think our team's going to use that heavily across a lot of our advisory clients. 

Jaclyn Anku: So, Kenji, something you and I have had many a conversation about is as powerful as these reports are, it takes more to deliver advisory than just showing the report to a client. You also have to deliver the insights. Do you have any advice for folk as they create these new awesome reports? How do they deliver it to clients in a way that really lands?

Kenji Kuramoto: I always like to tell our team to look for just a one or two insights. We don't have to go line by line through a P&L because the balance sheet looks for a couple of insights each time. We’ll also be looking for a story arc. I think it's really important that business owners think about their financials are a story in how that business functions. And so sometimes I tell our team we're not necessarily the author of that story, but we're helping them kind of understand what that might be. And again, small business owners sometimes struggle with that. They're just overwhelmed by numbers.

But there actually is a story about what's happening in their business, and if you can find a couple of good salient points to help them understand that, it's super impactful. Don't overcomplicate it; keep it simple. Just ask what storyline the financials are telling.

Roman Villard: YeahWhat I was thinking is somewhat similar to what Kenji mentioned as it relates to a storyline. One thing we like to do is always architect and orient around what the end state, end goal, and the next milestone looks like for a client. We want that to be front and center for anybody on the team who's doing any level of work for that company, and for an accountant or a controller to understand the goal. 

Sometimes, that may be line by line or a more holistic trend view of data, but ultimately it’s with the data point of where they're trying to go layered on top of what we're doing on a month to month basis. I think it's really important to have those walking hand-in-hand as we walk through the month-end close and advisory process. 

Kenji Kuramoto: You know owners usually have a goal in mind, and so we're helping them show where we are going; are we closing the gap toward that goal or veering off it? I think that's a good thing to keep in mind from an advisory perspective. We're helping people reach their goals and what they want to accomplish in the business, which can be really fun and powerful. It's different than just kind of going line by line by line through a report or delivering a report in their inbox. That's a very different skill set, but I think it's much more rewarding, too.

Jaclyn Anku: I love this idea of how you help the client either find their story or navigate their way to their happy ending. And ultimately, all of the new functionality in Modern View of reports is about enabling our ProAdvisors to be advisors to their clients and help them succeed. So Kenji, Roman, thanks so much for hanging out with us on the show. It's always awesome to spend time with you both. We will definitely catch you next time. 

Jaclyn Anku: And thank you for watching this episode. I'm Jaclyn, the host of In The Know and leader of ProAdvisor Training and Certification. Be sure to like, subscribe, and hit the notification bell so that you don't miss a single episode. We'll catch you next time.

Meet the ProAdvisors

ProAdvisor Roman Villard: Founder, Full Send Finance

ProAdvisor Kenji Kuramoto: CEO, Acuity