# Introduction - Reports

Reports read your posted transactions and present them in the shapes an accountant, a bank or a tax authority expects.

Every figure in every report is read from transactions you have already posted. Nothing in this module writes anything back, which is what makes a report safe to run at any moment, on any period, including one you have locked.

## Highlights of Reports

- **Sixty-nine reports in thirteen categories**, grouped as cards you can search, filter and star.
- **Fifty-five of them are built today.** The other fourteen are catalogued and greyed out, and that includes the headline financial statements.
- **The toolbar changes with the report.** Some carry Entities, some carry Group, a few carry neither.
- **Comparison periods**, so a second period sits beside the first in one table.
- **Fifty-six selectable columns** on a report like Sales by Customer, ticked on and off in a checklist.
- **Three export formats** plus print, each honouring exactly the filters and columns on screen.

## Finding a report

The Reports List shows every report as a card, grouped by category, with a search box and a row of category pills carrying their counts.

![The Reports List headed 69 reports across 13 categories, with a search box and a row of category pills reading All, Favourites, Business Overview 6, Sales 8, Accountant 6, Budgets 1, Receivables 7, Payments Received 4, Payables 10, Purchases 8 and Inventory 10. Cards are grouped under headings: the whole Business Overview group, including Balance Sheet and Profit and Loss, is greyed out, while Sales cards such as Profit by Item, Sales by Customer and Sales by Item are in full colour with a star in the corner.](https://www.sorviai.com/help/reports/reports-list.png)

*Full-colour cards open. Greyed cards are catalogued but not built, and the whole Business Overview group is currently grey.*

> **Warning:**
>
> **The headline financial statements are not built yet**
>
> Profit and Loss, Balance Sheet, Cash Flow Statement, Trial Balance, Aged Receivables and Aged Payables are all in the catalogue and none of them opens. If you have come here for a P and L, it is not available in this module today, and no permission change will make it appear.

## What you can run today

Fifty-five reports work. These are the ones that answer the questions people usually arrive with.

- **What did we sell, and to whom** (Sales by Customer, Sales by Item): Invoice counts and values per customer or per item, over any period you choose.
- **Are we making money on it** (Profit by Item): Revenue against cost per item. The nearest thing available to a margin report.
- **Who owes us** (Receivable Summary, Customer Balance Summary): Outstanding balances per customer. Aged Receivables itself is not built, so these are the substitutes.
- **What do we owe** (Payable Summary, Vendor Balance Summary): The purchase-side equivalents, and the closest thing to a payables ageing today.
- **What hit the ledger** (General Ledger, Journal Report, Account Transactions): The accountant's view. These are built and they are where a Trial Balance question has to be answered from instead.

> **Tip:**
>
> **Star the five you actually use**
>
> Favourites sits next to All in the pill row, and every card carries a star. A month end usually needs the same handful of reports every time, and starring them turns a search into a click.

## The categories

| Category | Catalogued | Built |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Business Overview | 6 | None. Profit and Loss, Balance Sheet, Cash Flow Statement and three others are all pending. |
| Sales | 8 | Seven. Everything except the EC Sales list. |
| Receivables | 7 | Six. Aged Receivables is pending. |
| Payments Received | 4 | All four. |
| Payables | 10 | Nine. Aged Payables is pending. |
| Purchases | 8 | All eight. |
| Inventory | 10 | Seven. Inventory Valuation, Product Sales Report and Inventory Aging are pending. |
| Inventory Valuation | 3 | Two. ABC classification is pending. |
| Warehouse | 3 | All three. |
| Accountant | 6 | Five. Trial Balance is pending. |
| Budgets | 1 | Budget vs Actuals. |
| Activity | 2 | Both. |
| Currency | 1 | Realised Gain or Loss. |

## Reports never change data

Nothing in this module writes anything. A report is always safe to run, at any time, on any period, including one you have locked. That is worth knowing because it means the answer to "can I just check something" is always yes.

> **Note:**
>
> **A report can still disagree with itself tomorrow**
>
> Safe to run is not the same as fixed. Re-running last month's report after somebody backdates a bill into that month gives a different answer, and nothing warns you. If a number matters, export it and keep the export.