What are reports all about?

Reports are where Banktivity really shows its value. After putting in the time and effort to set up your accounts, enter transactions, and assign categories and tags to everything, you can create reports to make sense out of all that information quickly and easily. The more meticulously you record and categorize your transactions, the more useful Banktivity's reports will be in helping you analyze your finances.

With very little setup, you can view breakdowns of your spending habits, see details of all the transactions assigned to a particular category or payee, examine the return on your investments, see how well you have been managing your debts, quickly access tax-related information, and more. Every report can be printed exactly as it appears onscreen or saved to a PDF file for archival purposes.

Use the built-in Summary reports

Banktivity automatically generates Summary reports to give you a quick look at the overall state of your finances. One is located in the "Overview" section of the sidebar: mouse over the "Overview" label and click "Show" or "Hide" to toggle the visibility of the items in that section. Click "Summary" to view a report showing your net worth over the last year, the value of your accounts by type, your savings rate for this year and last, upcoming scheduled transactions, your budget performance for the current month, spending in your top categories and tags, and performance stats for your investments.

Additionally, each account has a Summary report that is specific to its type. Select an account in the sidebar, then click "Summary" above the account register. Depending on the type of account, you may see charts of your recent spending, upcoming scheduled transactions, balances over time, spending in categories and tags, or investment metrics pertaining to the activity in the account.

To read more about the built-in reports, see How do I use the Overview Summary report? and How do I use Account Summary reports?

Generate quick reports

Now in Banktivity, you can select a group of transactions in any account register or search results and quickly create a report from them. Go to Transaction > Report On, or Control-click and choose Report On from the contextual menu, to see which quick reports are available for your selection. For more information, see Quick Reports.

Add a custom report

In addition to the built-in Summary reports, Banktivity provides several templates which you can customize to create your own reports. Use these to take a closer look at your income and expenses, net worth, categories, tags, payees, investments, debt, and more. To get started, click the plus (+) button on the toolbar and choose "Add New Report." For more information about creating reports, see How do I add a new report?

Each report you create is saved and displayed in the "Reports" section of the sidebar. Mouse over the "Reports" label and click "Show" or "Hide" to toggle the report list visibility. Click a report to view it in the main window.

As you navigate through a report, you can easily save the current view as a new report in the sidebar. Click the drag handle in the navigation bar above the report and drag it to the "Reports" section of the sidebar. A new report will be added so that you can quickly return to that view.

Edit a custom report

Each report has a number of settings that can be configured to adjust the information displayed on the report. After you create a report, double-click its icon in the sidebar to open the report inspector and modify its settings. The options available will change depending on the type of report.

Delete a custom report

To permanently delete a report from the "Reports" section of the sidebar, Control-click on it, then choose "Delete" from the contextual menu. Banktivity will ask for confirmation before deleting the report.

Duplicate a custom report

To make a copy of a report in the sidebar, Control-click on it, then choose "Duplicate" from the contextual menu. Banktivity add the new report and open a popup inspector so that you can change its name.

Group custom reports

To help organize your reports, you can create groups and keep reports inside them. Select a report in the sidebar, or Command-click to select more than one, then Control-click and choose "New Group" from the contextual menu. Banktivity will prompt you to enter a name for the group, then it will put the selected reports inside the group automatically. You can rename the group at any time by double-clicking on it. Use drag and drop to add reports to the group or remove them from it. To delete a group, Control-click it and choose "Delete Group" from the contextual menu. Reports inside the group will not be deleted.

Print a report

Any report can be printed simply by choosing File > Print and clicking the "Print" button. The paper size used for the printout can be changed by choosing File > Page Setup and selecting a different setting.

Save a report to PDF

To save a copy of a report as a PDF file, choose File > Print, then click the "PDF" button and choose "Save As PDF." Enter a name for the new file, choose where you want to save it, and click "Save." You will then have a copy of the report that you can view and print using the Preview application or any standard PDF reader.

Export data from a report

To save a copy of the data from any report in a tabular format that spreadsheet programs can read, click the "Export" button in the navigation bar above the report. In the sheet that appears, enter a name for the file, then click the popup menu button next to "Format" and choose a file type to use: CSV (Comma-Separated Values) or Tab Delimited. Both formats are recognized by most spreadsheet programs.