GL Financial Statement Setup design types

Account

Use the Account design type to specify which accounts to include in any given section of a report. The account codes that print are determined by the information in this record in combination with the information in the Selection record.

Information printed on a statement is the result of three records. The Selection record indicates companies, divisions, and departments to print, and whether to print them in summary or detail. The Columns record indicates what information from an account or budget record prints and where the record prints. The Account record indicates which accounts from GL Account Setup or GL Budget Setup are included on the statement. The Accounts record type is required unless you are creating a horizontal statement, in which case you use the Horizontal Account record instead.

Account records make up the main body of the statement. A single Account record may result in one print line or many print lines, depending on the Detail or Summary options used here and on the Selection record. You can use Account records to print one or more accounts or to print a storage location.

You can specify either individual account numbers, which are validated by the system, or a range of account numbers, which are not validated by the system. To minimize your statement record maintenance, select accounts by indicating a range and include consecutive numbers in your account ranges, even if they do not exist. For example, your tools sales accounts are 4000 00 to 4500 00, and your miscellaneous sales accounts are 4800 00 to 4900 00. When you create your Account record for the sales accounts, specify a range of 4000 00 through 4999 99 to ensure sales accounts added in the future are included on your statement. A range is more likely to include accounts that are added, deleted, or changed, and reduces your record maintenance.

Columns

Use the Columns design type to determine the information to be selected for the records specified in the report. If you have not obtained a blueprint of your statement, you should obtain one now. You must have at least one Columns record in every design, and that record must be displayed before any Account, Totals, or Horizontal Account records in the design. Use additional column records as necessary to change the column layout midway through the report.

There are 15 columns available, each one representing a vertical location on the report. In most instances, the column is displayed on the actual printout. You can define a column that does not print but, instead, is used only to hold a value to be used in another column.

The columns defined in this record determine what is displayed as the result of every Account, Horizontal Account, or Totals record encountered after this column record and until the next column record. Although 15 columns are available, you are not required to use all 15. You might not be able to use all 15, depending on the width of the paper and the size of each column. Only identify those columns that will be used.

You can specify columns to print a value or to hold a value for later use. Amounts or text for a column are determined by the system through one of four methods.

You can choose to use field information from GL Account Setup, GL Budget Setup, SA Company Setup, or SA Table Code Value Setup by selecting Field for the first value. In addition, you can choose to use the previously defined value of one column in another column. This is useful for computed figures that require more than one calculation.

You can use the first column to perform a calculation that is not printed, and then use the value from the column in the calculation for another column. Third, you can choose to print the contents of a storage location or use the contents in a column calculation. Finally, you can specify a static value to be printed or used in a calculation.

Based on your Page record, the column sizes and positions are calculated by the system, allowing one blank space between columns. The report is centered. To create column labels, write down the column positions so you know at which position to place the labels.

Computation

Use the Computation design type to manipulate account numbers, total levels, values, and storage locations. Use this design type to extract information and calculate a ratio, compute sums, differences, products, and quotients. The Computation records do not directly cause anything to print, but after computation, the results can be stored and printed with an Account, Horizontal, or Totals record.

If the record was set up to save the result to a total level, valid columns are 0-15; or to save the result to a storage level, valid columns are 1-15.

Heading

Use the Heading design type to formulate headers, footers, and titles that print on the report. Set up heading records at the beginning of a design and throughout the design wherever headings, titles, or text are incorporated in your statement.

You must add heading line records before the point in the statement where they are to print. You can either use predefined text or specify text to print on your statement. To have blank lines displayed, rather than the carry-over headers or footers, you must, a) create heading line records with no description, and define them as header or footer lines with numbers matching those of the first set, or b) insert a new Page record with no header.

Horizontal Account

Like the Account design type, the Horizontal Account design type specifies the account or accounts to be used in this section of the report. Use the Horizontal Account record when you are creating a horizontal financial statement. Using the Horizontal Account design record type, you can print the account information horizontally across the page.

You must understand the use of the Horizontal Format record before using the Horizontal Account record. You must use the two horizontal design record types whenever all of the columns on one print line do not originate from a) one account code [company-division-department-account-sub account], or b) from one budget revision [company-division-department-account-sub account-revision].

Horizontal statements are the exception, not the norm. Designing and printing a statement is more efficient if you use the vertical format. Every vertical section must use a Selection record before any Account records, and must not contain any Horizontal Account records. Every horizontal section must use a Horizontal Format record before any Horizontal Account records, and must not contain any Account records.

Horizontal records differ from vertical records in the way they pull and display information from GL Account Setup and GL Budget Setup records.

On a vertical format statement, all columns on a print line must relate to the same account code [company-division-department-account-sub account]. The period, quarter, or year may vary, but the account code can not. In addition, all budget figure columns on a print line must be from the same account code and budget revision number [company-division-department-account-sub account-revision].

On a horizontal statement, you can mix different account codes and budget revisions on the same print line. This gives the capability, for example, to print Department 1 in one column and Department 2 in the second column. Or, place Budget Revision 1 in one column and Budget Revision 2 in the second column. This also enables the mixing of account numbers on one print line, for example, account 3510 in one column and 3520 in the second column.

Horizontal Format

Use the Horizontal Format design type rather than a Selection record when you are designing a horizontal statement or horizontal-statement section. Use this type to select and format the companies, divisions, departments, and budget revisions used on a statement. The selection criteria used here are the same as the Selection record. This record differs from the Selection record in that the selected companies, divisions, or departments can be specified to flow either across the page or down the page. If you choose to print them across the top of the page, assign a company, division, and department to each column.

You can mix vertical and horizontal formats on one report. This requires some careful thought as to how the printed statement product will look. It is often helpful to diagram the desired results first; then specify the options according to that diagram.

Memory

The Memory design type enables you to recall a total from a previously printed report. The previously printed total can be recalled if you assigned the total a memory location in the Totals record. Use this option to print a summary report using totals from previously printed financial statements.

Page

The Page design type records indicate the size of the page and are normally the second step in designing a statement. This record defines the size of the paper and formats the entire statement until the system encounters another Page record. If you are using condensed print, 132 columns print on a sheet of paper. Otherwise, 80 columns print on a page.

There are 66 lines on an 8 ½ x 11 sheet of paper. However, because the top and bottom margins default to 2, there are only 62 print lines available. You can accept or change the default values. If you increase or decrease the margins, the number of print lines increases or decreases accordingly. If you are using headers or footers, use this record to indicate the appropriate number of header and footer lines that contain text. Do not include the blank lines in your total.

You can designate multiple Page design records to accommodate a change in the report format midway through the report. Most designs have only one Page design type record.

Selection

Use the Selection design type to select the companies, divisions, and departments to include on the statement. Use this design type to determine whether the system prints this information in detail or in summary.

Each statement design must contain one Selection record, or one Horizontal Format record, if you are creating a horizontal statement. Although most designs contain only one Selection record, you can have additional Selection records in the design.

If there is more than one Selection record in the statement design, the criteria on the first Selection record is used by the system during the printing process. When a subsequent Selection record is encountered by the system, the criteria is changed to reflect the new Selection record from that point on.

As you specify the companies, divisions, and departments on this record, the data is accumulated by the system. The divisions pertain to the company selected, and the departments pertain to the company and divisions selected. If you select All companies, your test company is included in your statement.

To minimize your statement record maintenance, select companies, divisions, and departments by specifying a range. A range is more likely to include companies, divisions, or departments that are added, deleted, or changed. This reduces your record maintenance.

Detail versus Summary

Use the Selection record to define whether the companies, divisions, departments, and sub-accounts print a) in detail, one line per record, or b) in summary, all similar records are totaled and summarized on one line. Use the summary and detail print options so you can understand the print lines and balances on the statement. Initially, create your statement with detail, verify the totals, then change the level of detail to suit your needs. This ensures that your statement includes the appropriate accounts. The combinations are:

Totals

The Totals design type prints the sum of a group of preceding Accounts records, or prints to a storage location. There are nine accumulative total levels that are based on Account and Horizontal Account records, and five non-accumulative total levels that are based on Computation records.

Unless you have a complex financial statement, you are not likely to use all nine accumulative levels. When you create a balance sheet, assign level 9 to the total assets and total liabilities on your blueprint. All similar totals, such as total current assets and total real and personal property are assigned the same level number, usually 1. Totals that include other totals get higher numbers, and it is not necessary to assign consecutive total levels. Level 1 adds account balances, level 2 adds level 1 totals, level 3 adds level 2 totals, and so on.

About storage locations

In many cases, you can define a mathematical value as part of the Columns record, or as part of the statement itself when you use Account and Columns design types together.

Account, Horizontal Account, and Totals design types include an additional feature called storage locations. A storage location is not a specific record type, but an area that stores information or computations for later use. Storage locations contain information that is not directly available from the system, such as a calculated ratio or total number of employees.

You can specify storage locations on the Account, Horizontal Account, and Totals pages and define up to 99 storage locations. To print a storage location, specify a valid account number on the Accounts or Horizontal Account record and select the Print option. You can print a storage location on the same print line as an account. If a storage location conflicts with a column assignment based on the accounts, the storage location overrides and prints in the column indicated.

Printing a storage location does not add that storage location to the total levels. The information from the Account record is added to the total levels, even if a printed storage location is substituted for the information from the Account record.