Which Reporting App Is Included with QBO Advanced?

Your client just upgraded from QBO Plus to QBO Advanced, partly because you told them the reporting would finally be worth using. Now they’re asking what they actually got. Fair question — Intuit bundles several reporting tools into Advanced, and each one does something different. Knowing exactly what’s included prevents you from recommending a paid add-on your client doesn’t need, or worse, leaving a capability sitting unused.

The Main Reporting App: Smart Reporting Powered by Fathom

QBO Advanced includes one license of Smart Reporting powered by Fathom at no additional charge. Fathom is a standalone business intelligence and reporting platform that Intuit has embedded directly into the QBO Advanced subscription.

What that means practically: your client doesn’t need to buy Fathom separately, create a separate Fathom account, or manage a separate login. The connection is native.

Fathom pulls in QBO data and lets you build management reports — profit analysis, KPI dashboards, cash flow summaries — that go well beyond the standard QBO reports list. For a client who has been sending PDF P&Ls and calling it reporting, this is a meaningful upgrade. For a sophisticated multi-entity operation, it’s a starting point, not a finish line.

The one-license structure matters. One Fathom entity is connected per QBO Advanced subscription. If your client has three legal entities and three QBO Advanced files, they have three Fathom entities — which is fine. But if they want to consolidate those three into one rolled-up Fathom report, that’s a separate Fathom plan conversation.

Advanced Reporting and the Performance Centre

Beyond Fathom, QBO Advanced includes what Intuit refers to as Advanced Reporting — a layer of customizable reporting built directly inside QBO itself. This lets users define custom fields and then search, sort, and filter report data by those fields. If your client tracks jobs by region, rep, or any internal classification they’ve set up as a custom field, those dimensions become available in reports.

This sounds like a small feature. It isn’t. A construction company tracking 12 job codes across three revenue streams can finally pull a report sliced exactly the way their project manager needs it — without exporting to Excel first.

QBO Advanced also includes the Performance Centre, a built-in dashboard for monitoring key metrics over time. Think of it as the operational view: revenue trends, expense tracking, cash position. It’s not a narrative reporting tool like Fathom — it’s a monitoring tool. The two serve different audiences. Fathom is for the board packet or the advisor meeting. Performance Centre is for the owner checking the business on a Tuesday morning.

Spreadsheet Sync: For the Excel-Dependent Client

One underused feature in QBO Advanced is Spreadsheet Sync, which connects QBO financial data directly to Microsoft Excel. Users can pull live QBO data into Excel, build the reports they’ve always built, and refresh the numbers without manual exports.

For clients who will never fully leave Excel — and most owners won’t — this eliminates the copy-paste step that causes errors. For accountants building custom models, it removes a full data-preparation stage.

This isn’t a third-party add-on. It’s included in QBO Advanced and works directly from within Excel once set up.

Multi-Entity Reporting: What’s Actually There

Intuit states that QBO Advanced supports multi-entity reporting in one place. In practice, this means you can view consolidated data across multiple QBO Advanced files without leaving the platform. Intuit

However, “in one place” doesn’t automatically mean full consolidated financials with eliminations. For a CPA managing a client with intercompany transactions, you still need to verify what the consolidation handles and what it doesn’t before presenting consolidated statements. The feature is useful and real — it just requires the same professional judgment any consolidation does.

When the Included Tools Aren’t Enough

The included Fathom license, Advanced Reporting, Performance Centre, and Spreadsheet Sync cover a lot of ground. But there are two situations where firms regularly need to go further.

Budgeting and forecasting. Fathom does scenario modeling, but it’s not a full driver-based budgeting tool. If your client needs rolling forecasts with departmental input, look at Planning Maestro Premium from Centage, which was made available specifically for QBO Advanced and adds budgeting, forecasting, reporting, and analytics capabilities on top of the native tools.

High-volume operational analytics. Some businesses need row-level transaction data in a data warehouse, or reporting across QBO plus a CRM plus a payroll system. At that point you’re outside what any QBO-native tool does well, and you’re looking at a proper BI stack.

For most small to mid-size clients, though, the included tools plus Spreadsheet Sync handle the reporting workflow without additional spend.

How Sagenext Helps

QBO Advanced’s reporting tools are cloud-native by design, but most CPA firms also run QuickBooks Desktop, Enterprise, or a tax platform like Lacerte or ProSeries alongside it — and those don’t live in a browser.

Sagenext provides fully managed cloud hosting for QuickBooks Desktop (Pro, Premier, Enterprise), Sage 50, Sage 100, Drake, Lacerte, ProSeries, UltraTax, ATX, and other accounting software. Provisioning, security, data backups, and software updates are handled for the firm. Every staff member accesses the hosted environment through a remote desktop session, from wherever they’re working.

For a firm that has some clients on QBO Advanced and others on QuickBooks Desktop, this removes the infrastructure gap — the Desktop environment gets the same anywhere-access model as the cloud tools. There’s a free trial available with no credit card required.

Key Takeaways

• QBO Advanced includes one license of Smart Reporting powered by Fathom at no additional charge — it’s the flagship reporting app in the subscription.
• Advanced Reporting inside QBO lets users filter and sort by custom fields, which matters significantly for businesses that track jobs, departments, or cost centers.
• The Performance Centre handles operational metric monitoring; Fathom handles narrative and management reporting — they’re complementary, not redundant.
• Spreadsheet Sync connects live QBO data to Microsoft Excel, eliminating manual exports for clients who build models in Excel.
• Multi-entity reporting is supported natively, but still requires accountant judgment on intercompany eliminations.
• For clients who need driver-based budgeting or rolling forecasts, Planning Maestro from Centage is a purpose-built add-on designed for QBO Advanced.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Fathom included in all QBO plans or just Advanced?

Fathom is included only in QBO Advanced. It is not bundled with QBO Plus, Essentials, or Simple Start. Those plans can access Fathom separately as a paid standalone subscription. If a client upgrades from Plus to Advanced specifically to get better reporting, the included Fathom license is a concrete part of what they’re paying for. Top AI Tools For QuickBooks Desktop

What is the difference between Advanced Reporting and Smart Reporting in QBO Advanced?

Advanced Reporting refers to the customizable report-building tools built directly inside QBO Advanced, including the ability to define custom fields and filter data by them. Smart Reporting powered by Fathom is a separate embedded application within QBO Advanced that provides management reports, KPI dashboards, and cash flow analysis. They work at different levels — one is data filtering inside QBO, the other is a full reporting and analytics layer.

Can QBO Advanced handle reporting across multiple entities?

Yes. Intuit includes multi-entity reporting in QBO Advanced, allowing data from multiple QBO files to be viewed in one place. However, accountants should verify how intercompany transactions are treated before presenting any consolidated statements to clients or third parties. The feature is real and useful; it just doesn’t replace professional review of the consolidation logic.

Does Spreadsheet Sync replace the need to export QBO reports to Excel?

For most purposes, yes. Spreadsheet Sync connects live QBO Advanced data directly to Microsoft Excel, so reports refresh from the source rather than requiring a fresh export. Users who build Excel models around QBO data benefit most — it removes the manual step that typically introduces formula errors and version confusion.

What do I need if my client outgrows the included reporting tools?

For budgeting and forecasting beyond what Fathom offers, Planning Maestro Premium from Centage integrates with QBO Advanced and adds structured budgeting, forecasting, and analytics. For clients needing cross-system analytics or data warehousing, you’ll be looking at a third-party BI solution outside the QBO ecosystem entirely. Most small business clients won’t hit that ceiling.