Understand reports
Reports turn approved bookkeeping work into useful views of the business. Use them after the review queue, rules, transfers, and cleanup items are current.
What reports are for
Reports help you understand what happened in the business.
LeedBooks reports are only as useful as the underlying transactions. If the review queue has pending items, transfer matches are unclear, or holding categories still have balances, the report may be directionally useful but not close-ready.
Use reports to inspect the business, not to replace transaction review. Clean inputs create clean reports.
Clear pending transaction and AI approval work first.
Look for uncategorized, transfer, or owner-related cleanup.
Use reports to understand profit, balances, cash, and tax readiness.
Main reports
The Reports page groups the important bookkeeping reports in one place.
Common reports include:
- Profit and Loss: income, expenses, and net income for a period.
- Balance Sheet: assets, liabilities, and equity at a point in time.
- Cash Flow: cash movement across operating, investing, and financing activity.
- Trial Balance: account balances used to sanity-check the books.
- Budget vs Actual: planned amounts compared against actual results.
- 1099 Preparation: contractor payments and missing tax details.
Each report answers a different question. Do not expect one report to explain everything.
Before you trust a report
Before using a report for decisions, check the basics.
Look for:
- Review queue items still pending.
- Transactions sitting in uncategorized or holding accounts.
- Transfers treated as income or expense.
- Owner draws or personal expenses that need review.
- Vendors or contractors missing useful profiles.
- Reports with unusual balances compared to prior periods.
If a number looks wrong, ask the AI to inspect the source transactions before changing categories manually.
Use reports with AI
Reports become more useful when paired with AI.
You can ask:
- "Why did expenses increase this month?"
- "What changed in income compared to last month?"
- "Which categories look unusual?"
- "Are there any transfer problems affecting this report?"
- "What should I review before I trust this P&L?"
The AI should explain what it sees and point you back to the specific transactions or cleanup work that affects the report.
Month-end review
For month-end, reports should be part of a sequence.
First clear the review queue. Then check payees, categories, transfers, and 1099 readiness. After that, review the Profit and Loss, Balance Sheet, Cash Flow, and Trial Balance.
That flow keeps the month-end process simple: prepare the books, approve the work, then read the reports.
Review payees next
Payees help you understand who got paid, which contractors may need tax details, and where vendor cleanup is needed.
Read payees guide