The Statement of Cash Flows in QuickBooks Online

The Statement of Cash Flows shows how cash actually moved through your business over a period of time. The Profit and Loss tells you whether you were profitable and the Balance Sheet shows what you own and owe on a single day. The Statement of Cash Flows connects those two by explaining where your cash came from and where it went, and it sorts that movement into three groups: operating, investing, and financing activities.

What the Statement of Cash Flows shows

Operating activities cover the cash side of your day-to-day business, such as payments from customers and payments to vendors and employees. Investing activities cover buying and selling long-term assets like equipment or property. Financing activities cover money from owners and lenders, loan repayments, and owner draws or distributions. The report usually starts from your net income for the period and adjusts for non-cash items and for changes in your balance-sheet accounts, arriving at the net increase or decrease in cash for the period.

Cash basis vs accrual basis

QuickBooks lets you set the accounting method on this report and run it under either cash or accrual basis. Because the statement is built from your net income and the period's changes in your balance-sheet accounts, the cash and accrual versions can come out differently, especially for a business that invoices ahead of payment or buys on terms. When you keep a copy of the report, it is worth saving both versions so an accountant can work from whichever basis they need.

Why a CPA or lender asks for it

A lender, investor, or buyer reads the Statement of Cash Flows to see whether the business produces enough cash from its actual operations to sustain itself, separate from one-time events like a loan or the sale of an asset. A company can post a profit on paper and still run short of cash, and this report is where that shows up. In a loan application, a sale, or a due-diligence review, it is one of the three core statements requested alongside the Profit and Loss and the Balance Sheet, so having it on hand for each fiscal year saves you from rebuilding it later.

How to run and export the Statement of Cash Flows in QuickBooks Online

1. Go to the Reports menu and type "Statement of Cash Flows" into the report search box, then open it.
2. Set the report period. For a complete archive, choose All Dates, or select a single fiscal year.
3. Set the accounting method to Cash or Accrual near the top of the report, and run it.
4. Use the export control at the top of the report to export it to Excel or PDF. The file downloads to your computer.
5. Switch the accounting method to the other basis, run the report again, and export that version too.

Keeping the Statement of Cash Flows after you cancel

The Statement of Cash Flows lives inside QuickBooks along with the rest of your reports, and a cancelled paid QuickBooks Online company goes read-only for 12 months and is then permanently deleted, a trial only 90 days. The IRS generally expects business records to be kept for at least three years, and longer in some situations, so if there is any chance you will need to show how cash moved in a given year, that copy has to exist outside QuickBooks before the deletion clock runs out.

Frequently asked questions

How is the Statement of Cash Flows different from the Profit and Loss?

On the accrual basis, the Profit and Loss records income and expenses when they are earned or incurred, so a profitable month can still be a tight one for cash, and a slow month can be flush if a large invoice was collected. The Statement of Cash Flows strips that back to the cash itself, which is why lenders read the two together.

Does the Statement of Cash Flows include my receipts?

No. The report shows the cash figures, but the receipts and documents behind those transactions are stored separately in QuickBooks and are not part of the report. Keeping the reports and the source documents together is part of why a saved archive is more useful than a single exported statement.

Can I export it for my whole history at once?

Yes. Set the report period to All Dates before you export, and run it under both cash and accrual basis so you keep a complete pair.