QuickBooks Online has over 80 built-in reports. If you're like most contractors, you run exactly two of them: Profit & Loss and maybe Accounts Receivable Aging. Those are fine starting points, but they're not enough to actually manage a contracting business. They tell you the score without telling you which plays are working.

Here are five reports you should be running every month — and what to look for in each one.

1. Profit & Loss by Customer (or Job)

The standard P&L tells you that your company made — or lost — money last month. The P&L by Customer tells you which customers were profitable and which ones ate your margin. This is the single most underused report in QuickBooks for contractors.

How to run it: Go to Reports → Business Overview → Profit and Loss → Customize → Rows/Columns → set "Rows" to "Customers." Set the date range to the current month or quarter.

What to look for: Customers or jobs with negative net income, or margins significantly below your target. If your company average is 22% net margin and a particular customer is at 8%, that's a conversation worth having — either your pricing is wrong for that customer, or the scope is creeping without billing adjustments.

The limitation: QuickBooks calculates this based on how you've categorized income and expenses. If you're not tagging expenses to specific customers or jobs consistently, the numbers will be misleading. This is one area where dedicated job costing tools like Accomptant can help — they automatically allocate costs at the job level based on your transaction data, even when QuickBooks categorization isn't perfect.

2. Accounts Receivable Aging Detail

You probably already glance at your AR aging, but most contractors don't dig into the detail version. The summary tells you that $45,000 is over 30 days. The detail version tells you it's three invoices from one customer who always pays late — and you're about to start another job for them.

How to run it: Reports → Who Owes You → Accounts Receivable Aging Detail. Group by customer for the clearest view.

What to look for: Patterns, not just totals. Which customers consistently land in the 60+ day column? What percentage of your total receivables are overdue? If more than 15% of your AR is over 30 days, your cash flow is at risk regardless of what your P&L says. Revenue you can't collect isn't revenue — it's fiction.

Action step: For any customer with invoices over 45 days, pause new work until payment is received. This feels uncomfortable but it's the single most effective cash flow improvement most contractors can make.

3. Expenses by Vendor Summary

This report shows you where your money actually goes, broken down by vendor. It sounds basic, but most contractors haven't looked at it in months — and there are usually surprises.

How to run it: Reports → Expenses and Vendors → Expenses by Vendor Summary. Set the period to the last 12 months to see annual totals.

What to look for: Your top 10 vendors by spend. Are there vendors you're paying more than you realized? Subscription services that crept up? Supply houses where you could negotiate volume pricing? One electrical contractor we know found he was spending $14,000/year with a secondary supply house at list price, while his primary supplier offered 12% contractor discounts. A single phone call saved him $1,680 annually.

Action step: Export this report once a quarter and review your top 20 vendors. For any vendor over $5,000/year, verify you're getting the best available pricing.

4. Balance Sheet

The balance sheet is the report most small contractors skip entirely, and it's the one their bank, bonding company, and potential buyers care about most. It shows what you own, what you owe, and what's left over (equity).

How to run it: Reports → Business Overview → Balance Sheet. Run it as of the last day of the most recent month.

What to look for: Three things. First, your current ratio — current assets divided by current liabilities. If it's below 1.2, you're running tight on working capital. Second, your total liabilities trend — is debt growing or shrinking? Third, retained earnings — this is your accumulated profit that's stayed in the business. If it's negative, you've pulled out more than the business has earned.

Why it matters for contractors: If you ever want to bid on bonded work, apply for a line of credit, or sell your business, the balance sheet is the first thing they'll examine. Building a strong balance sheet is a 3–5 year game, and it starts with reviewing it monthly.

5. Cash Flow Statement (or Budget vs. Actuals)

QuickBooks can generate a Statement of Cash Flows, but most contractors find the Budget vs. Actuals report more actionable — if they've set up a budget. If you haven't set up a budget in QuickBooks, do that first. Even a rough one based on last year's actuals gives you a benchmark.

How to run it: Reports → Business Overview → Budget vs. Actuals. If you haven't created a budget, go to Settings → Budgeting first.

What to look for: Line items where actual spending exceeds budget by more than 10%. A single month over budget isn't alarming — seasonality is real in contracting. But if you're consistently 15% over budget on vehicle expenses or 20% over on subcontractor costs, something structural is off.

The gap QuickBooks doesn't fill: Standard QuickBooks reports are backward-looking. They tell you what happened. They don't tell you what's going to happen. For cash flow forecasting — predicting where your bank balance will be in 30, 60, or 90 days — you need a tool that projects forward based on your historical patterns, open invoices, and recurring expenses. This is exactly what Accomptant's cash flow forecasting does: it reads your QuickBooks data and models your future cash position so you can see problems before they arrive.

The 30-Minute Monthly Routine

Here's a practical monthly review cadence that takes about 30 minutes:

Week 1: Run the P&L by Customer. Flag any jobs below target margin.
Week 2: Review AR Aging Detail. Follow up on anything over 30 days.
Week 3: Check the Expenses by Vendor Summary. Note anything unusual.
Week 4: Review the Balance Sheet and Budget vs. Actuals. Update your budget if needed.

Spread across four weeks, it's less than 10 minutes per session. But those 30 minutes a month will give you more financial clarity than most contractors get in a quarter. The key is consistency — the value compounds when you can spot trends across months rather than reacting to individual surprises.

QuickBooks gives you the raw data. Your job is to turn that data into decisions. These five reports are where to start.

5 QuickBooks Reports Every Contractor Should Run Monthly