WARNING: Ghost reports could be haunting your business 🎃

As Halloween approaches, let me tell you a truly terrifying tale…

It's the story of a business owner who opened her accounting software one ordinary Tuesday morning. She needed a simple profit and loss report. But when she clicked on her saved reports, she was confronted by a horrifying sight:

🪦The Report Cemetery.

Dozens of reports with cryptic names. Duplicates that looked identical but weren't. Ancient reports from 2019 that hadn't been touched in years, yet somehow still lurked in her system. Reports that promised answers but delivered only confusion.

Every time she needed financial information, she'd waste 15 minutes just finding the right report. Then another 10 minutes updating dates manually. Then more time second-guessing whether she'd picked the right one.

Sound familiar?

Your report graveyard might be haunted too. Here are a few phantoms that could be lurking in your accounting software...

👻 THE GHOST OF REPORTS PAST

The Haunting: Reports from 2019, 2020, or even earlier, gathering digital dust in your system. "Balance Sheet - Old" ... "P&L Final Version 2" ... "Year End Report DO NOT DELETE" (from three years ago).

You don't use them. You're not even sure what they were for. But they're there, multiplying in the shadows, making it impossible to find what you actually need.

Every time you open your reports list, you have to scroll past the corpses of reports long dead. It's like navigating a graveyard just to find your front door.

How to Cast Out the Ghost: Set a timer for 30 minutes RIGHT NOW. Open your accounting software and go full Marie Kondo on those reports:

If you haven't opened it in 6 months → DELETE
If you don't remember creating it → DELETE
If the date range is hardcoded to 2019 → DELETE
If you have three reports with almost the same name → Keep one, DELETE the rest

The Rule: If you're not 100% certain you need it, you don't need it. You can always recreate a report. You can't recreate lost time spent searching through clutter.

🕷️ THE CURSE OF THE CRYPTIC NAME

The Haunting: You open your reports list and see:

"Report 1"
"Custom Summary"
"Thing for taxes"
"New Report (3)"
"Bob's version"

What do these reports show? What are they for? When would you use them?

It's a mystery wrapped in an enigma, shrouded in the fog of your own past confusion. Three months ago, these names made perfect sense. Today, they're ancient hieroglyphics.

How to Lift the Curse: Implement a naming convention that tells you three things at a glance:

What it shows
What time period
Who it's for (optional)

Examples:

❌ "Custom Summary" → ✅ "P&L Last Month"
❌ "Thing for taxes" → ✅ "Taxable Sales Verification - Monthly"
❌ "Report 1" → ✅ "Owner's Distributions This Year to Last Month"
❌ "New Report (3)" → ✅ "Balance Sheet Last Month"

Bonus Spell: Add report descriptions/notes where your software allows it. "Run this monthly before filing sales tax to verify all markup income was properly taxed."

🦇 THE SPECTER OF THE MANUAL DATE RANGE

The Haunting: You saved a report called "Monthly P&L" back in March. It was perfect! Exactly what you needed.

Now it's October, and every single time you open "Monthly P&L," it still shows March's data. You manually change the dates to October. You run the report. You use the numbers.

Next month, you open "Monthly P&L" again... and it's still showing March.

You're trapped in a time loop of manual date entry, clicking the same calendar fields over and over, for all eternity.

How to Expel the Specter: Most accounting software allows RELATIVE date ranges:

"Last Month" (automatically updates)
"This Quarter" (automatically updates)
"This Year to Last Month" (automatically updates)
"Last 12 Months" (automatically updates)

Stop hardcoding specific dates like "March 1, 2024 - March 31, 2024." Instead, use relative dates that update automatically.

🧹 FROM EERIE TO EASY

After one client completed her report cleanup with me, she said: "I like all my new fancy reports. I'm excited to dig in later."

That's the feeling I want you to have. Not dread when you open your accounting software. Not confusion about which report to use. Not frustration with manual date updates.

Excitement. Curiosity. Confidence.

Your reports should illuminate your business, not haunt it.

So this October, don't just hand out candy and watch scary movies.

Go forth and vanquish those ghost reports!

Quinn

P.S. If your report situation is truly nightmare-inducing, reply to this email. Sometimes you need a professional ghost report hunter to help you clear the haunted house. No shame in calling for backup when the demons are too powerful.

P.P.S. After you clean up your reports, treat yourself to something special. You've just saved yourself dozens of hours of future frustration. That deserves at least a fun-size Snickers. Or, you know, the whole bag. I won't tell. 🍫