How to Use Advanced Reporting in QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise

What QuickBooks Advanced Reporting is

QuickBooks Advanced Reporting, or QBAR, is an Enterprise feature for building your own interactive reports from your company data. Intuit built it with a business intelligence partner. You build reports from Library objects such as tables, charts and list boxes, and change them through each object's properties.

Before you start

• Check your version. Intuit says Advanced Reporting works in QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise 2018 and later. Press F2 to open the Product Information window and see your version.
• Check your subscription. Intuit's FAQ says Advanced Reporting is for users with an active QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise subscription, and to contact Intuit to sign up.
• Check the user mode. Intuit's table of single-user and multi-user mode features lists Advanced reporting (US only) as No in single-user mode and Yes in multi-user mode. You switch modes from the File menu.
• Sign in to QuickBooks as the admin, or have the admin give your role access. Step 4 shows how.
• If QuickBooks is installed on your own computers, sign in to Windows as an admin before you update, as Intuit asks.
• If a third party hosts your QuickBooks Enterprise, Intuit says to ask the hosting service to do these steps for you.
• We suggest starting at a quiet time. Intuit says the data update can take from a few seconds to a few hours.

On Pro or Premier? Intuit's report articles say those users get advanced reporting by upgrading to Enterprise. Until then, Reports > Custom Reports > Summary or Transaction Detail lets you build custom reports. To weigh the move, see Pro vs Premier vs Enterprise and how to upgrade Pro or Premier to Enterprise.

Step 1: Update QuickBooks Enterprise to the latest release

1. 1Go to Intuit's Downloads & Updates page.
2. 2From the Select Product dropdown, choose QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise.
3. 3From the Select Version dropdown, choose the Enterprise version or year you use.
4. 4Select Search, then Get the latest updates, and save the file.
5. 5When the download finishes, double-click the file to install the update. Windows may need a restart afterward.

For updating from inside QuickBooks, and on every workstation, see how to update QuickBooks Desktop to the latest release.

Step 2: Sync your license data

1. 1In QuickBooks, go to the Help menu and select Manage My License.
2. 2Select Sync License Data Online. That's the label in Intuit's license article. The Advanced Reporting article prints it as Sync Data License Online.

Step 3: Install Advanced Reporting and extract your data

1. 1Go to Reports > Advanced Reporting. This starts the install.
2. 2Let Advanced Reporting finish installing and extracting your company data for its reports.

Step 4: Give other users access

If Advanced Reporting won't open for a user, Intuit says to sign in as the admin or give that user's role access. To add it to a role:

1. 1Sign in to QuickBooks as the admin.
2. 2Go to Company > Users > Set Up Users and Roles.
3. 3Select an existing role and choose Edit, or choose New to create one.
4. 4In the Area and Activities list, select File, then QuickBooks Advanced Reporting.
5. 5Select OK.

For roles in general, see how to set up users, roles and permissions in QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise.

Step 5: Refresh the data each time you open it

Each time you open Advanced Reporting, it asks to refresh its data so your reports reflect the current company file. Intuit says a refresh can be quick or run for hours, depending on file size and computer speed.

We suggest letting the update finish before you read any numbers. On a large file, opening Advanced Reporting early in the day leaves room for a long update.

Step 6: Start from a starter report or template

Intuit's articles name two starting points. Starter reports look like reports you already know from QuickBooks. Intuit also mentions report templates you can download as a starting point. Its FAQ links to training videos, a user guide and a data dictionary for more help.

Intuit's help articles don't list which templates exist or walk through loading one. We suggest opening a starter report close to what you need and changing it, rather than starting from a blank page.

Step 7: Build or change a report

1. 1Open a starter report, or start your own.
2. 2From the Library, add the objects you need. Intuit names tables, charts, and text & utility objects among them.
3. 3Add list boxes from the Library to filter the data the report uses.
4. 4Right-click any object and select Properties to change it.
5. 5To group and subtotal the data, open the Dimensions tab and add a dimension.
6. 6To add a column, open the Expressions tab and add an expression.
7. 7When you add a dimension or expression, you'll see Tables and Fields options. For transactions, choose the Transactions table.

Choosing a table shortens the list of fields you see, which helps once you know the kind of field you're after. Intuit's advice is to pick the table that matches what the report should show.

Sharing or exporting a report

Intuit's two Advanced Reporting help articles don't explain how to print, export or share a finished report. For more than the basics, the FAQ points to Intuit's training videos and user guide. For standard QuickBooks reports, Intuit says any report can be exported to Excel from the report's Excel dropdown.

To save and send standard reports on a schedule, see how to customize, memorize and schedule reports. To analyze an exported report with an AI assistant, see how to export QuickBooks Desktop reports and analyze them in ChatGPT or Claude.

If Advanced Reporting won't open or update

• It won't open: sign in as the QuickBooks admin, or ask the admin to add Advanced Reporting to your role, as in Step 4.
• You see "Sorry! Advanced Reporting couldn't update your report. Please try again.": Intuit's first fix is to update QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise to the latest version.
• Still failing: remove parentheses, brackets and apostrophes from the company file name and its folder names. Reopen the file and run Advanced Reporting again.
• Intuit also says to change the date to the standard MM/DD/YYYY format.
• Check that your antivirus program isn't blocking QVConnect32.exe, the connector file Advanced Reporting uses. If it is, add an exception in the program's real-time scan.
• On Windows 10 and newer, Intuit says that file sits in a QVConnect folder under AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\INetCache in your Windows user folder.
• If the error continues after all of this, Intuit says to contact QuickBooks Support.

When a standard report is enough

Before you build something new, we suggest checking whether a standard report already answers the question. For stock on hand and inventory value, see which inventory reports to run in QuickBooks Desktop. For profit by item, see the Item Profitability report in QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise.

Where QuickBooks Desktop leaves the work to you

• Building the report is up to you. Intuit's FAQ says Support makes sure the data you need is available.
• For paid help, Intuit's FAQ points to members of its QuickBooks Solution Provider program. Look under Specialized Services for Customized Reporting.
• Finding the right table and field takes work. Intuit says the amount of data can make this hard, and points to its training guide and data dictionary.
• Each time you open Advanced Reporting, it asks to update the data first, which Intuit says can take hours.
• Intuit's help articles don't cover exporting, sharing or scheduling Advanced Reporting reports. Getting results to the right people is your process.
• Hosted setups depend on the hosting service for the install and updates. Antivirus exceptions fall to whoever runs your IT.