Gathering Statistical Information

You can use statistical accounts in financial statements to compare important non-financial data to related financial data for measuring such things as productivity and controlling costs. Some examples of analytical measures that can be used are as follows:


Statistical	Measured Against	To Compute Ratios Of
# of lbs. shipped	Expenses	Expenses to lbs.
# of units shipped	Expenses	Expenses to units
# of shipments	Freight Expense	Freight to shipments
# of employees	Revenue	Revenue to employees
# of customers	Revenue	Revenue to customers

The steps below illustrate how to gather statistical information and use it in statistical accounts. For purposes of illustration, the example assumes that you want to track shipping expenses per unit. However, the same steps and principles could be used for any non-financial information that you wish to have available for use with financial data when preparing financial statements.

Set up a shipping Expense type account (example-50000) on the Chart of Accounts form.
Set up a shipping Statistical type account (example-90000) on the Chart of Accounts form.
Through shipping transactions, your expense account (50000) balance is $1000.00.
Create an entry on the Chart of Accounts - Budget and Plan form for account number 90000 of 50.

Note: You can enter numbers into any of the available columns. Each column serves a different purpose. For example, you can run financial statements by budget or by planned figures. If you look at the Budget vs. Actual Financial Statement that is provided as part of the demo data, you can see how the Actual column numbers are used.

Create financial statement lines using the above mentioned accounts. Enter the following:

For the first sequence line, specify 90000 as the account and specify 1 for the first position of the Ratio Position field.
For the second sequence line, specify 50000 as the account and specify 1 for the second position of the Ratio Position field.

Your output on the financial statement report would display as follows:


Account	$	%
50000 - Shipping Expense	1000.00	2000.00
90000 - Qty Shipped	50.00;	100.00;

The following defines the above calculations:

1000.00/50.00 = $20.00 per item