FAQ: Expense Summary Report

Q: Why is the report blank or showing no data?

A: Check your date range. If you set a start and end date but there are no expenses posted during that period, the report will appear empty. Try extending your date range or leaving the dates blank to include all data. Also verify that expenses in the selected date range have been posted (not left in draft status).

Q: Can I compare expenses from two different months?

A: Not in a single report view. However, you can run the Expense Summary report twice — once for each month — with the same category filters. Then open both reports side-by-side to compare the numbers manually. Alternatively, export both to Excel and create a comparison table.

Q: Which expense accounts appear in this report?

A: Only accounts classified as "Expense" or "Expense Category" in your chart of accounts will appear. Assets, liabilities, revenue, and equity accounts are excluded. If an expense account exists in your chart but shows no total, it means no transactions were posted to it during your selected date range.

Q: Why does my report include draft expenses when I selected "Posted only"?

A: Verify that your filter is actually set to "Posted Only" and not "Posted + Draft." If you ran the report with this filter and still see drafts, refresh your browser and try again. If the issue persists, contact your system administrator.

Q: Can I schedule this report to run automatically each month?

A: This depends on your Usystems setup. Some installations offer a reporting scheduler feature, while others require manual report generation. Check with your administrator or look in the Reports section for a "Schedule Report" or "Recurring Reports" option.

Q: How do I export the report to send to the owner or external auditor?

A: Generate the report, then click the Export button and choose either PDF (for sharing as-is) or Excel (if the recipient needs to analyze the data further). PDF is more secure if you want to prevent editing; Excel gives the recipient flexibility to work with the numbers.

Q: What if I only want to see expenses from one department or cost center?

A: Use the Department or Cost Center filter before running the report. Select the specific department or cost center you want to focus on, then click Generate. The report will show only expenses from that unit.

Q: The percentage column doesn't add up to 100%. Why?

A: If your report includes a "percentage of total" column, it may not sum to exactly 100 percent due to rounding. Each individual percentage is rounded to the nearest whole or decimal place, so the total of all rounded percentages may be slightly above or below 100 percent. This is normal and not an error.