A few days ago I wrote a blog concerning an announcement I had received regarding the discontinuation of Xpanded Reports. Xpanded Reports was very easy to use cloud-based software that allowed you to customize QuickBooks reports and worked with Pro, Premier or Enterprise. In essence you started with a report template within Xpanded Reports that mirrored the same report in QuickBooks and then expanded upon that report by formatting changes, addition of data from related fields within the same data table, or supplementation of data from related data tables. All of this required little more than a couple of hours of time to learn, and some trial and error practice before you were producing most of the reports you wanted in exactly the format you needed.
Well with the loss of Xpanded Reports, there really isn't anything quite as simple, or economical, in the market that I am aware of that will give you the same scope of information you could garner via Xpanded Reports; however, there are some viable alternatives three of which I will briefly review here. I will also mention two others.
First the two 'mentions' - QODBC by Flexquarters is a tool that permits you to access the QuickBooks database (Pro/Premier/Enterprise) and pull data from the vast majority of tables for the purposes of using that data for other purposes. I mention it here because many ProAdvisors and other professional advisors use this tool to acquire the data they ship into other software for reporting purposes, but since QODBC does not offer an actual 'reporting capability' I only mention it here. The second mention is the QuickBooks Enterprise Custom Reporting (ODBC) feature which is another method of accessing QuickBooks Enterprise (only) data which can then be used with various reporting tools to develop reports; I have not formally included it in the list of 'alternatives to Xpanded Reports' since it is only available to QuickBooks Enterprise users. For additional information on these alternative you should consult our series on QuickBooks Custom Reporting.
So with those two mentions out of the way, my three alternatives are QQube, Radial Viewer and CleverQ:
QQube™ is the Drag and Drop way to create complex reports and advanced analysis from QuickBooks in just minutes. With this software you can easily pull information from QuickBooks without having to know anything about the underlying data complexities. Works with and installs out of the box, all you need to work almost any reporting tool of your choice including Microsoft Excel, Access, SAP Crystal Reports, SAP Crystal Dashboarding Tools, Power Pivot, SQLServer, SharePoint, Microsoft Reporting services and Open Office. The founder of QQube™ Chuck Vigeant is considered the foremost authority on custom QuickBooks reports and the QODBC driver, he is also known as the grandfather of SAP Crystal Reports for QuickBooks.
Radial Viewer Special Edition for QuickBooks® is a data analyzer and reporting tool that provides powerful query and reporting capabilities. Radial Viewer Special Edition for QuickBooks® has an easy-to-use graphical interface that enables users to rapidly become more efficient, provide better decision support and deliver the benefits of their findings throughout their organization, without the need to become experts in multidimensional data analysis. This software automatically interfaces with QuickBooks and then provides an intuitive drag-n-drop graphical interface for queries and reporting. While Radial Viewer Special Edition for QuickBooks® Users provides predefined format styles for professional looking reports, it also offers manual report formatting.
CleverQ® business management software includes powerful business analytical tools, seasonal trend analysis, seasonality forecasting and much more. Collaborate strategic goals & business intelligence through interactive dashboards, enterprise information portals, and the business strategy Training Facilitator™. CleverQ's highly customizable Business Management Control System collaborates data including Excel spreadsheets, multiple QuickBooks company files, & QuickBooks Reports for strategic management and control. The software performs business, predictive analysis, and financial analysis all with the ability to drill down to graphs, details, reports, spreadsheets, and more. The included built-in report designer and report manager within CleverQ® delivers highly formatable results via e-mail, the web, or embedding into other programs.
Hopefully one of the alternatives discussed here in the form of products or tools may meet your reporting needs which had been accomplished via Xpanded Reports. If not, then I guess it is back to the old fashioned 'pad and pencil' for you. Best of luck,