Customizing financial reports in QuickBooks Online (QBO) can make them clearer and more professional documents tailored to your client or audience.
One simple yet impactful way to personalize your reports is by editing the section titles.
Section titles are things like Income, Expenses, Cost of Goods Sold, etc. on the Profit and Loss report.
Updating these titles can make it easier to understand for anyone who doesn’t know accounting lingo.
In this guide, I’ll walk you through the steps to edit section titles in QuickBooks Online.
NOTE: This is not an option for all reports and not in any Modern View reports, even when it’s available in the classic view version.
Quick Instructions:
- Open a report
- Click the Edit titles link at the top of the report
- Edit section titles
- Click Save
- Click Got it
- Wait a minute, refresh the page
Keep reading for a complete walkthrough with screenshots:
Why Edit Section Titles?
Customizing section titles in your financial reports can:
- Enhance Clarity: Rename general terms like Income to something more specific, such as Revenue from Sales, to give readers a clearer understanding of the report’s content.
- Reflect An Industry: Tailor titles to match the terminology used in a field, like renaming Cost of Goods Sold to Cost of Services Rendered for service-based businesses.
- Provide a Professional Touch: Present reports that are polished and resonate with your clients.
For example, a nonprofit organization might prefer to rename Income to Contributions and Grants and Expenses to Program Costs for better alignment with their financial structure.
How to Edit Section Titles
At the top of a report, like the Profit and Loss, click the blue Edit titles link.
The Edit section titles pop-up appears. It shows you the original section title and gives you a field where you can enter a new one.
Once you’re happy with your new titles click the Save button.
A message appears letting you know that changes are being saved and advising you to refresh the page.
Click Got it to continue then refresh the page to see your changes (it does take a few moments to save/update).
Example Profit and Loss report with updated section titles:
These changes will will stick. If you leave the report and come back the section titles will be what you changed them to.
If you’re a bookkeeper/accountant these changes are per client, it will not update any other client’s QuickBooks reports.
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