Full Mode Financial Summary Definition - Nominal

A full mode financial summary prints a single ‘page’ (up to 132 lines). The page can be up to 255 characters wide. You can print up to twenty columns of figures (depending on product level), each column consisting of one particular type of value — such as the current balance, the year-to-date movements, the current period budget, a variance, and so on.

Within these parameters, however, you can print any values you like from the nominal ledger accounts file.You can print individual account values on a single line, or an accumulation of many account values.These accounts do not need to be in consecutive sequences in the file to be accumulated, and this factor gives enormous power to the reporting capability of full mode financial summaries.

You can add and subtract between lines on the summary, and calculate percentage values to print on other lines. You can print values in thousands, or in units with or without decimal places.The same summary can be used for the company as a whole, for individual departments, cost centres and branches, and for groups of departments or branches at a divisional level.

The financial summary definition process falls into three stages:

Define or amend some overall options

Design or amend a "mask” of the standard text which is always to print. This mask would include the name of the financial summary, column headings, and the names of the items which are printed, such as "Sales”, "Expenditure”, and "Salaries” and so on.

Define or amend the details of the values and calculations which are to print

These stages are chosen from the following sub-menu which is displayed when you select a financial summary

You normally take each of these options in turn, including the Print Summary Definition option so that you have a hard copy record of how this report works. This can be helpful for your auditors to see how you arrive at (say) your profit & loss and balance sheet results.

General Parameters — Screen 1

The general parameters are completed over two screens.

Easy mode set up summary?

This is where you set whether this summary is to be an easy mode or full mode summary. It should be left blank for full mode summaries.

If you want to change this definition to an easy mode summary, then set this prompt and you are prompted:

Reply ‘No’ to cancel this change to easy mode. You are then returned to the financial summary menu without any changes being made.

 If you reply ‘Yes’ the existing definition is completely cleared. You are also told:

This definition is now set as an easy mode financial summary. Return to the menu.

Printer control set (1-8)

You can define up to eight print styles for your system through the CONFIG user (see the System User Guide). The styles so far defined are listed at the bottom of the screen.Enter the number for the print style that you want to use for this summary.

Lines down to be printed (max 132)?

This represents the physical length of the page on which this financial summary is to print. It can take a value up to 132 lines. If the value entered here is larger than the page length defined for the print style then a second page is printed with the remaining details.

Maximum width of line (max 255)?

Set the width of the page, i.e. the number of characters to be printed across the page. This should match (or be smaller) than the width of the print style the report is linked to.

Allow Previous Periods for Printing

The report can be run for any period in the current year and, if still open, the previous year – this parameter does not impact on this. Instead this allows you to run the report to cover several periods, for example, when running the report for period 3 you may want to include the two previous periods so that you are printing the summary report for the quarter.

Columns and Items

Now you must specify which value items from the nominal accounts file are to print in which columns of the summary (the actual account codes to print on each line are defined later) .For each entry line you are asked for the:

Column

Item

Offset

Each entry defines one column of figures on the financial summary, and you can choose to print as many columns as you need between 1 and 20 (subject to the product level).

Column number — this represents the left-hand printing position across the page where this column of values is to print. It can take a value between 1 and the maximum line width specified above. If you do not want to use this entry, leave the column number zero. Value items generally take 14 characters to print (format 9999999999.99±). Each column should allow 15 characters if printed in full to include a space between the columns. You can reduce this to 12 characters if you omit decimal places (see later) or nine characters if you print thousands only.

Item — this is the value item which is to print in this column. It can take a value between 1 and 17, which represents one of the values in the balance items list in the right-hand part of your screen. These items are described fully below

Available balance items are:

1 Current Balance – The balance of the account as it would appear on the trial balance

2 Start of Year Balance – The opening balance at the start of the year

3 Start of Period Balance – The opening balance at the start of the current period

4 Comparative Year Balance – The balance of the account as at the end of last year

5 Comparative Period Balance – The movement on the account for the same period last year

6 Budget for Year Balance – The total budget set for the year

7 Budget for Period Balance – The budget set for this period

8 Movement for Year – This is the difference between the start of year balance on the account (item 2) and the current balance (item 1)

9 Movement for Period – This is the difference between the start of period balance (item 3) and the current balance (item 1)

10 Comparative Year Variance – This is the difference between the balance at the end of last year (item 4) and the movement for the year (item 8)

11 Comparative Period Variance – This is the difference between the movement on the account for this period last year (item 5) and this year (item 9)

12 Budget Year Variance – This is the difference between the budget total for the year (item 6) and the movement for the year so far (item 8)

13 Budget Period Variance – This is the difference between the budget for the period (item 7) and the movement for the period (item 9)

14 Budget for Year Accum – This is the budget year-to-date (i.e. up to the period you run the enquiry for) as opposed to item 6 for the full-year’s budget.

15 Budget for Year Accum Variance – This is the difference between the year-to-date budget (item 14) and the movement for the year (item 8)

16 Comparative Year Accum – This is the year-to-date balance for this period last year as opposed to the full year balance that is item 4.

17 Comparative Year Accum Variance – This is the difference between the balance at this point last year (item 16) with this year (item 8)

99 Accounts Data Item - This allows you to choose a specific data item from the file.Its data item number is then requested.For example, you could define a calculated field in the accounts file to accumulate one quarter’s results.

100 Percentage Value - This allows you to show the percentage of a total which the line represents. When set you are asked for which column you want a percentage of – this refers to the entries defined on the report – and whether you wish to round the resulting value.NB: When you set to print a line item for this column you are prompted for the line entry in where the total value (i.e. the 100%) is contained.

Note

Offset (Ofs) – Many of the balance items printed refer to the movement for a particular period – that being the period you run the summary for. This option allows you to print a balance item for a previous period (1-13 depending on the number of periods in the financial year). For example, you could print balance item ‘9-Movement for the Period’ three times and for the second and third print set the offset to 1 and 2 respectively showing the value for the quarter.

General Parameters – Screen 2

Print pence figures in values?

If no, ensure rounding?

If you don’t want to print decimal currency leave blank the first of these questions. If you omit pence, you should set the second question to ensure that the unit currency values are rounded before printing.

Print values in thousands only?

If yes, ensure rounding?

If you don’t want to print values in thousands leave blank the first of these questions. If you do print in thousands, you should set the second question to ensure that the values are rounded to the nearest thousand.

Print percentage with no of decimal

If a balance item set to print percentages then set here the number of decimal places to print the percentage value to. Default is 0 for no decimals; you can set to 1 or 2.

Print negative values with brackets?

You have the choice of printing negative values either with a minus sign, e.g. "435.25-”, or in brackets, e.g. "(435.25)”. Set to print negative values with brackets, whereas leaving blank prints them with a minus sign.

Balance Sheet Budgets not Cumulative

Values held in the nominal are in fact the differences between one month and the next. To get the actual balance in (say) month 6, the opening balance plus all the movements in the first six months are added together.When budgets for balance sheets accounts are created outside of Datafile and imported it is often the cumulative value that is recorded in the period in which case, if the program re-accumulates them it would give incorrect results. Setting this option means that instead of accumulating the budget values the system will read the budget for the period only. If budgets have been set in Datafile then this option should not be set.

Include Start-Year in Budget (Item 14)

When set this option includes the actual opening balance for the year as the base value to accumulate the budget(s) for the period to when printing balance sheet accounts against the balance item ’14-Budget for the Year Accum’

Specify Account Code Structure Selections

If using a cost centre structured nominal code, i.e. 999.99 where the first part is the nominal code and the second part is the cost centre / department, then setting this option at run-time allows you to enter a range of codes to process for each cost centre.When set, a pop-up form allows entry of the structure level up to which you want to allow input at run-time.

Allow specific wild-card selection at run-time?

Specify wild-card selection format

This feature allows you to use the same financial summary for the whole company’s results; for each of (say) your departments, cost centres or branches; and for (say) a region of branches or a division of departments.

Set the first question to activate this feature at run time. The second prompt defines in which positions of the account code you can enter wildcard selections at run time. You should enter here the nominal ledger account code format as it is defined in the Company Manager for the company, with asterisks in the wildcard positions.

For example, suppose your account code structure is formatted (say) 999.99, where the first three digits represent the expense code and the last two the department/cost centre code. If you want to define a financial summary — a trading report, say— which allows you to select each branch in turn, then you would enter "999.**” here.

At run time you could elect to print for the company as a whole, or enter any number of branch codes (up to 100) to print individually.

Print Description – Item / Code / Line / Column

These prompts allow you to pull out a data item from a specific account and print it at a specific position on the summary. This is intended particularly for use with the wildcard selection facility defined above, since you can include wildcard asterisks in the account code. You could include (say) the branch name as one account per branch (for instance, with an expense code of, say, 000) so that this can print on each summary to identify to which branch it refers.

Date printed on line / column

Period ‘From’ date on line / column

Period ‘To’ date on line / column

The date prompts are for convenience only and do not affect the way the report prints. It is good practice to print the date the report was printed (the first prompt). It is helpful to print legends such as "For period from <date> to <date>"on profit and loss reports and "As at <date>"on balance sheets. These dates satisfy this practice.

Enter here the printing positions on the financial summary where these dates are to be printed. If you do not want to print one of the dates, leave the parameters at zero. As usual, the printing position refers to the line and column number where the left-most characters of the dates are to print.

Run Time Comment on line / column

This allows you to enter a comment at run time, and specifies where it is to print on the financial summary. The comment can be up to 40 characters in length, and these parameters fix the line and column number of the first (left-most) character.

Output Value Lines to File

As an alternative to printing the financial summary to Microsoft Excel you can enter the pathname for a CSV file to be created at the same time as printing the report.

Pre-Printed Lines (Text Mask)

You use this option to design the text "mask” which gets printed every time you run this financial summary. This mask can include header details such as your company name and address; the name of this financial summary; column headings; the names of the items which are printed, such as "Sales”, "Expenditure”, "Salaries”; and any other details which help to make the document readable.

You will find it helpful to do some homework first, perhaps sketching out on graph paper how you want the financial summary to look when it is finished. You can copy an existing profit and loss statement or balance sheet and rule some lines on it to help you work out the co-ordinates.

A text mask can print up to 255 characters wide and up to 128 lines in depth. On the screen, however, you can only see 80 characters across and 20 lines down at one time — some lines on the screen are kept free to guide you in the design. The technique used, therefore, is to display a "window” onto the text, within which you may make changes, as illustrated below. At any time you can re-position this window elsewhere on the document in order to make further changes.

Specify the part of the document you want to edit by typing in the line number and column number of the top left-hand corner of the window you wish to see, pressing <Enter> after each. Then type in the text that you wish to appear on the document in the position you want it to print. The current co-ordinates of the cursor are displayed in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen.

Full text editing facilities are available to you during this process, including the cursor movement keys, <Insert> and <Delete> character, <Home> (which takes you to the left-hand edge of the screen), and <End> (which takes you to the right-hand edge of the screen).

<F5–InsLine> and <F6–DelLine> have extra tasks to undertake. Not only do they first confirm with you whether or not to insert or delete the line, but they then check through the complete specification of the report, adjusting any line calculations to take account of the line added or deleted.

Note down the line and column co-ordinates for particular items you want to print on the document — always note the left-hand end for each item. These could include the various dates, and in particular the columns in which the values are to print.

To exit from the text window, key <Escape>. This causes the prompts for line and column number (see above) to be re-displayed so that you can re-position the window elsewhere in the text. To complete the text mask and save it to disk, key <Escape> from the line/column prompt again, and you are returned to the definition sub-menu.

An example of what you might see on the screen is shown below. This is a window onto part of a profit and loss statement. A ten character margin is created on the left hand side by positioning the window at the first line, but indented by ten characters (a useful technique to give a binding margin for such reports).

Whilst creating the text on the page, note the column numbers where the current period, year-to-date, budget period and budget-to-date values are to print, and also note the line and column co-ordinates for today’s date (next to "Printed”) and the period from and to dates in the heading lines.

Line Specification

This type of financial summary has a maximum of 128 lines, and you have just designed the text mask which is to print. You have also defined up to twenty values and the column positions in which they are to print (see the General Parameters above).Now you must say which account codes are to be accumulated and summarised to print on each line.

The reporting program keeps 2560 accumulators — 128 lines times 20 columns — into which it saves the values according to the specifications you provide in this part of the program. Whether or not the value in any particular accumulator actually prints in its appointed line and column position is decided by a simple yes/no answer.

The specification process is now tackled eleven lines at a time, using a screen similar to that shown below:

You define the specification in the left-hand side of the above screen. On the right-hand side of the screen you are shown the left-hand portion of the text mask so that you can see what values are expected on each line.

For each line of the financial summary you must answer four questions:

How to derive the values to print on this line (Type)

The account code or codes from which the values for this line are derived

Whether or not to switch sign (sales, for example, are stored as negative values, but you would probably want them to print as positive)

Which column values you want to print on this line, and which not to print

Type of Line and Account Codes

These two go together because the type of line defines how you specify the codes. You have a number of choices for each line. These are:

To leave this line out of the equation

To print values from a single account code

To print the sum of a number of account codes (up to ten) or the sum of a consecutive range of accounts

To print a calculation based on the values in previous report lines

To print a percentage value calculated from the values in two previous lines

You can use up and down arrow keys in the Type column to move between document lines. For each line the Type code can be:

– The hyphen indicates that no values are accumulated on this line

L–LIST This allows you to specify up to 10 account codes to add together. You define the account codes in a subsidiary window at the bottom of the screen. You can use "Wildcards” here (see below) which can greatly expand the number of codes which are accumulated in this one line.If you cannot include all the accounts you want in this list, then you should read the tip about Hidden Calculations below

R–RANGE This allows you to specify an inclusive range of accounts. Key in the account codes of the first and last accounts to be included pressing <Enter> after each. You can use the wildcard facility here too

Note that an R range is fully inclusive. For example, if you are using a 99.999 account code format and you specify the range 01.100 to 05.200, then accounts like 02.500 and 04.010 are included within this range. See also S–Selective Rangebelow

S–SELECTIVE RANGE This is a very powerful facility and makes use of the account code structure to break the code into separate parts. The program considers each part of the account code range separately, and all conditions must be fulfilled for the account to be included

For instance, with an account code structure of 99.999, the selective range of 01.100 to 05.200 only includes accounts if the first part of the code is in the range 01 to 05, and if the second part of their code is in the range 100 to 200.Unlike the R–Range option, it would not include codes 02.500 or 04.010

*–CALCULATION The asterisk indicates a calculation based on line values, and can only use values accumulated on previous lines. You may include up to ten lines in the calculation, which can only be added and/or subtracted from each other. The line numbers are prompted at the bottom of the screen, and each must be prefixed with a plus or minus sign. If you need to include more than ten lines in the calculation, then you should read the tip on Hidden Calculations below

%–PERCENTAGE This indicates a ratio and allows the value of one line to be expressed as the percentage of another, both of which must precede this line. The result is always given with two decimal places. Key the line numbers at the bottom of the screen

I–ITEM VALUE This allows you to pick a specific value from a specific nominal account — you just fill in the account code and the item number on the record which you want. For example, you could pull out vehicle registration numbers for a report which analyses individual vehicle costs. You can use wildcards in the code where you plan to use the selective code feature at run time

Tip — "Wildcards”

Tip — Include All Accounts!

Reverse Signs

Credit values in the nominal ledger are stored as negative values. If the values on a line are expected to be a credit, but you do not wish to print the minus sign (or with brackets), key the letters CR in this column.Otherwise leave blank.

The effect of this is to reverse the sign, so that if the value in the file turned out to be a debit, then it would print as a negative (with a minus sign or brackets). For example, sales are credits and held as negative values in the file. These would print as negative values unless you specify CR here to switch their signs to positive.

Note

Columns to Print

Each column here relates to the value columns which you specified under General Parameters above. If you want to print the accumulated value for a particular column, you must answer set that column. If you don’t want the value for a column to print then leave it blank on this line in that column position.

A common example of the use of this feature is on balance sheets where two columns are used for display purposes.

Individual values are shown in the left-hand column, but the total for "Current Assets” is printed in the right-hand column

This is achieved by specifying the current balance to print in both columns, and then manipulating which one actually prints, through the print switches here. In practice the computer has accumulated two identical values for each line, but only one has printed.

The value of every line and column co-ordinate is calculated and stored in the accumulators. These parameters only determine whether or not they are to print.

Tip — Hidden Calculations

When you’ve reached the end of a line specification screen, or if you use the <Escape> key anywhere within the screen, the "Are the above details OK?” question is displayed.‘No’ allows you to return to amend the input, ‘Yes’ returns you to the line number prompt.

The number of the next line in sequence displays automatically. Accept this by keying <Enter> or overtype with the line number at which you want to continue and key <Enter>. (This number does not have to be a multiple of 11, incidentally, even though only 11 lines are shown on the screen at one time.)

To finish specifying any further lines at all, key <Escape> at this prompt.

Print Summary Definition

When you’ve finished specifying a financial summary, you are advised to take a hard-copy print of the definition by choosing this option. On selection you are asked for the print device to output the definition layout to.

This report is in two parts.First it shows the text mask that you have created, with the line number against each line — handy for the Line Specification stage. Then it shows the balance items used, the columns in which they are printed and full details of the line specification including account codes used in L- and R-type lines, account number and item number in I-type lines, and the lines used in *- and %-type lines.