Combine and Consolidate

Copper Contributor

My client exported monthly profit and loss statements from Quickbooks into separate worksheets. I am trying to find an easier way to combine the monthly data. The categories are not identical month over month. Some months might have additional or fewer income/expense categories. Is there a way to avoid manually combining this information?

1 Reply

@rose_renteria 

 

  1. I can't address the matter of exports from Quickbooks, whether or not there might be ways other than monthly to export that data.
  2. I will say (as one who exports and then imports into Excel from four credit card accounts and three bank accounts) that it is most likely a serious mistake to import into separate monthly  sheets. My own multiple exports all are brought into the same growing database, now incorporating two years worth of individual transactions. 
  3. The way I've designed mine, I can categorize any given transaction line into a primary income/expense category, then a sub-category and, if needed, a sub-sub category. If something comes along that needs a new category, that can be added. It matters not a whit whether each category is present each month.
  4. Finally, I use Excel's incredible Pivot Table capability to summarize the data monthly, and  (again, via "natural" Pivot Table capabilities) I can easily drill down on any given summary number in any given month to see the details of what transactions are present.

 

All of which is to say, your question doesn't give an idea of how this workbook is structured, how you account for income/expense categories in the first place. Is it possible for you to post a sanitized (no confidential info) version of what you're working with? Without that, we can only give generalized advice.