Customize groups
- Denise McGettigan
If you have permission to manage financial statements, the groups you see on the Statement tab of the statement setup window are used to group your accounts into categories in the corresponding financial statement. You can add new groups, edit the existing groups and delete groups you no longer need.
For example, suppose your Profit and Loss statement has one Revenue group but you want to view your revenue value split into two categories, Retail and Online. You firstly need to add a new group for the online revenue and map it to the applicable accounts. As a result of adding the new group, you need to edit the name of the existing Revenue group (as it is now for retail revenue only) and edit the existing Gross Profit calculation (to include the new group). This page outlines how to add and edit a group. See Customize calculations to learn how to add the calculation.
Add a group
In the Statements menu, click the name of the financial statement you want to customize.
In the statement setup window, click the Add button where you want to insert the new group.
Set up the group:
Enter a name for the group.
Select the Reverse Sign checkbox, if required, based on your account setup. This setting displays a negative number as a positive, or vice versa. For example, a revenue number should always come through as a negative (as it is a credit in a Trial Balance) , so you need to select the Reverse Sign check box to make it display as a positive number on the financial statement.
Select the Lower is better checkbox, if you want to specify that when an account value is lower than previously was, it is a better outcome. This setting applies to values in the variance column in the statements grid, where a green color signifies if a current value is better than the previous value. This simple color coding gives you a quick glimpse of how your accounts are doing.
Select the Hidden check box, if you do not want this row to display on the financial statement. This setting allows you to use the group in calculations but not display it as a row on the statement itself. In the Balance Sheet, this setting is available for the Equity row but not for the disabled cash flow rows (cash at start of period, cash at end and so on).
Click Save.
Map the accounts to the new group*.
Back in the Statements window:
If you have not finished customizing the particular statement, click the statement to open the setup window again. You might need to edit any groups (see below) or calculations that are impacted by the new group.
If you are finished customizing the financial statement*, click Close > Yes to rebuild the database.
*If you do not map the accounts before you rebuild the database, you will see an unmapped Suspense row in your financial statement.
Edit a group
If you add a group, you might need to edit an existing group as a result. You might also want to edit groups for other reasons.
In the statement setup window, you can change the name and setup of the existing groups as required. You can also change the order in which the groups display in the financial statement, and change the corresponding account mapping. The steps are similar to adding a group (see above for details).
Continuing with the example above, after you add the Revenue Online group, you need to edit the name of the existing Revenue group, as it now only contains retail revenue. You may also need to edit the account mappings.
Delete a group
You cannot delete groups that are referenced by another line. For example, you can't delete the Revenue group if there is a Gross Profit calculation that references this group. If you delete a group that has accounts mapped to it, the accounts are moved to the Suspense row in your financial statement.
In the statement setup window, click the Delete button at the end of the group row, then click Save. Then, if you are finished customizing the financial statement, click Close > Close > Yes to rebuild the database.