Create your own query
Accounting
Choose what data to analyse, how to group it, the period and the filters, and compare your figures with the previous period
In this tutorial, we show you how to create your own query in Reports to answer whatever you need to know about your business. You choose the period and how to break it down, what data to analyse and which figures to see, how to group them and which filters to apply. As an example, we look at how much each customer buys from you quarter by quarter, with a chart and a table with the period total, and compare it with the previous quarter to see each customer’s difference and change.
Video transcript
Let's see how to create your own query in Reports, to answer any question about your sales, your purchases or your accounting. Click Create query. The options follow the order in which you think through the question. For example, how much does each customer buy from you, quarter by quarter? First, the period.
We keep the whole year and break it down by quarters. Next, what you want to analyse. In Data, sales invoices. And in Figures, the taxable base. We don't need the number of documents. We group by contact and, in Show, keep the top five. The rest is added up in one row, so the total still adds up. If you're only interested in some customers, a province or a series, add a filter and choose the field.
Here we want all customers, so we remove it. Click View report. The chart draws one line per customer across the year, and the table shows each quarter in a column, with the period total. And how are they doing compared with the quarter before? Choose the previous quarter and, in More options, compare it with the previous period.
Click View report. Now each customer has two bars, one per quarter, and the table adds the difference and the change. Comparison and breakdown don't combine, so when you choose one, the other is removed automatically. Once it's just how you want it, save it to open it in one click, add it to your Home page or get it by email every month.
