Profit & Loss and Balance Sheet
Profit & Loss and Balance Sheet
This option is used produce your financial management reports in the form of a Profit & Loss statement and Balance Sheet. Using this option you can produce your financial management reports for any period or combination of periods you choose.
You can access this option by selecting Reports > Financial > Profit & Loss and Balance Sheet from the main menu. Alternatively you can click the Reports button in the Financial section and select Profit & Loss/Balance Sheet from the menu.
Selecting Periods
You can select up to 13 separate periods for each report either for display on screen or on the printed report. Each period can include balances for any range of dates whether individual months or cumulative periods such as financial quarters and financial years. By default the current and previous months will be selected.
Report Period
The Report Period drop-down box can be used to select a range of periods automatically rather than having to select each period individually. For example if you want to view each of the periods in a specific financial year. Click the down-arrow button (or press Alt+DownArrow on your keyboard) to view the options available. The options at the top of the list will use your financial calendar. Select the month-by-month options to select each month or period in the selected financial year and the balances for each month will be displayed in individual columns. Select the quarter-by-quarter option for the relevant financial year for balances for the four quarters in the selected financial year to be displayed in individual columns. You also have the option to select periods automatically based on the calendar year.
To select periods individually you can use the boxes in the Periods panel. Initially 6 period boxes are displayed however you can click the Show More Periods link underneath the 6th period box to view more and scroll down to access the additional period boxes. There are 13 period boxes available to select periods to view or report on. If you want to reduce the size of the Periods panel you can click the Hide Additional Periods link underneath the 13th period box.
Click the down-arrow button on the required Period box (or press Alt+DownArrow on your keyboard) and this will drop-down a list of standard periods for you to select from. The standard periods provided include the current month and previous 2 months, the 3 recent quarters and the current and 2 previous financial years. If one of these standard periods represents the required period you want to include then select from the list accordingly. If you want to clear the particular period from the report then select the None option at the bottom of the drop-down list.
If you prefer to specify a different period than the standard options provided in the drop-down list then you can click the Select Period link or the calendar icon displayed to the right of each Period select box. You can also select the Other Period ... option from the drop-down list to select a bespoke period. When you click any of these options the software will display the Select Period window which allows you to more precisely define any specific period you require. See the Selecting Periods page for more information.
Clear the Clear All link at the top of the Periods panel to reset all of the Period boxes to None.
Use the additional options in the left-hand criteria panel to define the report and view you require as explained below :
Profit & Loss
Click this option if you want to see a Profit & Loss report on-screen and/or produce a Profit & Loss report. This is the default option.
Balance Sheet
Click this option if you want to view or produce a Balance Sheet report.
Show Individual Accounts
This is used to specify if you want your financial management report to display the individual financial accounts or not. If you leave this checkbox unticked (as default) then the information displayed and included in the report will only include the groupings, as defined in the Financial Report Setup option, to display grouped balances. If you tick the Show Individual Accounts box then the defined groupings will be used and the individual accounts will also be displayed with their balances.
When you have defined the criteria for the report that you want the information is immediately displayed on screen. The information is grouped by report category and, if individual accounts are shown, also by report group (as defined in your Financial Report Setup). Each grouping is expanded by default and is displayed with - symbol on the group's header. To remove the information in a group so it is hidden simply click the - symbol and it change to a +. Click the + next to a group and the information contained in it will be expanded again.
Looking Up Balance Information
The report enables you to lookup or drill-down into the information that is displayed. This can be done in a number of ways. You can click the magnifying glass to the left of each record in the report. You can also double-click the record you want to lookup or you can highlight the record in the list and click the Lookup button in the toolbar. By default the lookup will always work on the balances for the very first period selected. If you want to lookup balances for other periods that are selected you need to double-click the column for the relevant period that you want to drill-down into.
The Lookup acts differently depending on whether you are viewing the report by Group (the default view) or by individual account. As explained above, you can switch between the two views using the Show Individual Accounts checkbox.
Lookup Group View
When you select to lookup a group, a window appears on the right of the report showing the accounts which make up the group along with their balances for the period you have selected to drill into.
In the Lookup window, each account has a lookup column on it's left which shows a magnifying glass icon. Click this icon next to the relevant account and you can drill into the individual transactions which make up the balance for the selected account and selected period. This will launch the Financial Account History report showing the account's transactions for the period which has been selected for the lookup. To return to the financial report click Close on the History window. Once the lookup window is displayed it will remain “on-top” and you can work through the report by clicking or double-clicking on the relevant groups in the list to drill into their details
Lookup Account View
In account view (the Show Individual Accounts checkbox is ticked) when you select to lookup an account the software will launch the History option displaying the transactions for the selected account and for the selected period. Click Close in the History report to return to the financial report.
The options in the toolbar provide access to additional options including printing the financial reports.
Report Layout
This button will only be displayed if you have set-up more than one financial report layout. If this button is displayed you can click it to get a drop-down menu of available report layouts and select the one you want to use to produce the report for. Once selected the report will be refreshed to display the information according to the selected financial report layout.
Lookup
Click this button to lookup the currently highlighted record (group or account) in the report list (as explained above). This will carry out a lookup for the balance on the very first selected period in the report. To perform a lookup for other selected periods you should double-click the column in the report for the relevant period that you want.
Click the Print button to produce the selected financial report. By default this will show an on-screen preview for you to view the report and you can then print it from the Preview window. If you prefer that the software send reports directly to the printer when selecting a Print option then you will need to change the Preview All Reports Before Printing setting in the Reports & Documents page in Company Preferences. See Company Preferences for more information.
Click the Email button to send an email to a specified recipient with a PDF document of the selected financial report attached to it. Once the report is produced you will be given an email window to enter the recipient's email address and the message you want to send with the report. See the Sending Emails page for more information.
Click the PDF button to export a PDF document of the report. Once the report is produced you will be given an export window which enables you to make settings about how you want the PDF document exported and whether you want to open it after it has been exported. You can then select where you want to save it and to save it under a specific file name. See the Exporting PDF Documents for more information.
Export
Click the Export button to export the report in the format of your choice. You will be given a menu of export options to select the format you want to export the report in. See Exporting Reports for more information.
Edit Layout
This button will launch the Financial Report Setup window which will enable you to define the layout of groupings and sections which make up your financial reports. When you have completed any changes to the layout of your report structure, the report will automatically refresh to display the information according to the changes you have made.
Refresh
The Refresh button will carry out a full rebuild of the selected report information. This is useful if you have left the report to change information elsewhere in the software and want it to be reflected in the selected report information.