The Report creator in Data Health & Insights gives you access to all journal line items from a client's general ledger in Xero or QuickBooks Online, supplemented with contact, account, tax, and tracking data. You can configure the columns, group and filter the data, and save reports for use across all your Data Health & Insights clients.
To access it, go to a client's account and select Insights in the left navigation, then select Report creator.
Note: Reports you build and save in the Report creator are available under Custom reports in every Data Health & Insights client account — you only need to build a report once.
Who can use this
The Report creator is available to practices with the Data Health & Insights add-on, on Practice Essentials and Practice Advanced plans.
What the data includes
The Report creator starts with journal line items as its base — not just manual journals, but all transactions posted to the ledger, including invoices, bank transactions, credit notes, and reversals. Each line is supplemented with additional data depending on the transaction type.
The available data is organised into the following groups:
Contact & Description — contact name, contact ID, contact account number, and line item description
Account — account code, name, class, type, report code, and report category
Amounts — gross, net, and tax amount
Tax — tax type, tax name, and effective tax rate
Date — date, period, week, month, quarter, year, financial year, and created on
Source — journal number (#), category, type, reference, status, locked status, and a link to the transaction in Xero or QuickBooks Online
Tracking — tracking categories such as region or client type
Note: The # column is a journal number assigned by Dext — it doesn't appear in Xero or QuickBooks Online, but you can use it in the Report creator to identify and view all sides of a transaction together. All amounts are shown in the client's base currency with no foreign exchange conversion applied.
Building a report
You can customise the Report creator to show exactly the data you need by selecting columns, grouping rows, applying filters, and enabling pivot mode.
Choosing and arranging columns
Select Columns on the right side of the page to open the column panel. All available columns are listed here, organised into groups. Tick or untick individual columns to show or hide them. To start from scratch, untick the checkbox next to the search field to deselect all columns at once, then select only the ones you need.
To rearrange columns, drag them into the order you prefer within the grid. To pin a column in place — equivalent to freezing in Excel — select the three-dot menu at the top of that column.
Grouping rows
To group the data by a column, drag that column into the row grouping area at the top of the grid. The grid collapses into a grouped view showing totals per group, with an arrow to expand each group and see the underlying line items.
For example, dragging Contact into the row grouping area groups all line items by contact, so you can see totals per supplier or customer at a glance.
Filtering and searching
Select Filters on the right side of the page to filter the data by any column value. Use the search field at the top of the page to search within the current data set. Use the date range control to set the period for the report.
Pivot mode
To create a pivot table view, open the Columns panel and turn on Pivot Mode. Once enabled, a Column Labels area appears — drag any column into this area to pivot by it. A common use is to drag Period into Column Labels to see totals broken down by month across columns.
Example: VAT Summary by Contact
This example shows how to build a report that summarises gross amounts, net amounts, and tax by contact — useful for a quick VAT review.
Open the Columns panel and deselect all columns.
Select the following columns: Contact, Account > Name, Amounts > Gross, Amounts > Net, Amounts > Tax Amount, Tax > Tax Type, Tax > Tax Name.
Drag Contact into the row grouping area to group all line items by contact.
Set the date range to a single month.
The result is a grouped view showing each contact as a collapsible row. Expanding a contact shows the individual line items with account name, gross, net, tax amount, tax type, and tax name.
Saving a report
Once you've configured your report, select Save at the top of the page. In the Save custom report modal:
Enter a name in the Report name field.
Use the Share with your team toggle to make the report visible to all team members, or leave it off to keep it private.
Select Save.
Saved reports appear under Custom reports in the left navigation. From there you can select View Report to open it, or use the three-dot menu to edit or delete it.
Exporting a report
To export the current report, select Export at the top of the page. The report downloads as a CSV or Excel file for further analysis outside Dext.
Performance note
For clients with large amounts of data, use shorter date ranges when running reports in the Report creator. Large data sets may affect performance.