v.5 Financial Reports Features & Options (Course V46)

Transcription

1 v.5 Financial Reports Features & Options (Course V46) Presented by: Ben Lane Shelby Senior Staff Trainer 2017 Shelby Systems, Inc. Other brand and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of the respective holders.

2 Objective To demonstrate a wide array of reports available in the financial modules including key General Ledger reports, Contributions reports, and Payroll reports and to show how to maximize and streamline your financial reporting. This session presents the following topics: Useful tips for maximizing your monthly General Ledger reports How to run useful reports you may not have discovered How to create Special Reports to provide summary information to the appropriate groups 2

3 The Need for Financial Reports Types of Reports Statement of Financial Position (Balance Sheet) Statement of Activities (Statement of Income & Expense) Budgeted Financial Statement Statement of Cash Flows Why Provide Financial Information? To make informed decisions Can be a measure of effectiveness or ministry health Accountability Required in connection with loans Who is Responsible for your Financial Reports?... the fair presentation of a not for profit organization s financial position and activities in its financial statements prepared in accordance with GAAP is the responsibility of the not for profit organization s management. (Ruppel) The role of the independent auditor is to issue an opinion as to whether the financial statements prepared by management are presented in accordance with GAAP (Ruppel). The accounting department plays an integral part in making sure that all financial transactions are properly recorded and accounted for. 3

4 When designing or redesigning a Chart of Accounts, consider the following questions: Do you need multiple Balance Sheets? (Then you need multiple Funds.) Do you plan to use the same account number for the same expense for different ministries or Campus? (Using Departments allows you to reuse the same account numbers.) Do you want to offer easy access to accounts unique to a particular ministry and show totals of income over/under expense for that ministry? (Departments help with this.) Do you want to offer more granular tracking for distinct activity (such as events) as a subset to activity you need to report to the board? (Use Projects.) 4

5 Preparing Monthly Board Reports Three reports that are typically used for reporting on the financial state of affairs at an organization are: The Balance Sheet, the Income & Expense Statement, and the Budgeted Financial Statement. The Board of your organization may require additional reports, but these three are fundamental to getting a grasp of the financial situation. Running the Balance Sheet The Balance Sheet is the primary way to report on the status of Asset, Liability, and Capital (Net Asset) accounts. Use the Include/Exclude button to limit the report to one or a selection of funds. Select the Interface with Excel checkbox to output the report to Microsoft Excel for further editing before printing. Choose the desired Period to Print. 5

6 Choose the desired Report Type. The Totals report type prints only the Total Lines from the Chart of Accounts. The Sub Account Summary report types use the account numbers as a guide for subtotaling the report. Generally speaking, the Detail report type is the one most Boards want. If the Detail report is too much detail and the Totals report is too little, use the Special Report Design tool to create a custom Balance Sheet report. Choose the desired Report Layout. Note: The Current & prior year and the Current and prior month reports are useful for those who want a comparison with past numbers. The Current and beginning of year report type can show you a comparison with the opening account balances. The Columnar report type is useful if you have multiple funds and want to show them side by side. The Columnar report type also includes a Total of All Funds column to add them all together. Multiple (1, 2, 3, 4, or 5) Year Comparison prints the current year and up to five prior years (if they exist). Select the Print % of Total Assets checkbox if you want to add a column showing this percentage for each of your balance sheet accounts. This option is only available for the Current Year report layout. Select any desired cosmetic changes, such as Stagger total lines (to make them stand out more), Print Account Numbers (instead of just the account descriptions), or Wrap Account Description (to prevent long descriptions from being truncated). If you choose the Columnar report layout, you can specify up to nine funds to print on the report. If you have more than nine funds on which to report, you can also choose to report on them all in a comma delimited format by selecting the WP to print all Funds checkbox. 6

7 Detail Current Year Report 7

8 Detail Current and Beginning of the Year 8

9 Interface with Excel Selecting the Interface with Excel checkbox generates the report in a spreadsheet instead of a print preview screen. Excel is opened, and Shelby creates the spreadsheet. Many, but not all, financial reports have this option to Interface with Excel. 9

10 Running Balance Sheet with Multiple Funds 1. Click Reports on the General Ledger Home Base screen. 2. Select Monthly Reports and choose Balance Sheet. 3. Use the dropdown arrow on the Period to Print field and choose the current period. 4. Report Type should be Detail. 5. Change the Report Layout to Columnar By Fund. 6. On the far right select the appropriate funds. (You can add up to nine funds for this report. If you want to show more than nine, then you can select the WP to print all Funds checkbox.) 7. Click the OK button. 10

11 Running the Income & Expense Statement The Income & Expense Statement is the primary way to report the status of Income and Expense accounts. Go to Reports > Monthly Reports > Income and Expense Statement. Click the Include/Exclude button at the top of the window to select only certain funds and departments for the report, or leave it alone to report on them all at once. If you want to break out the department information into separate sections, select the Page Break after Each Department checkbox. Choose the Period from the drop down menu. If your board prefers a quarterly report, select the Print for Quarter radio button and choose the desired quarter for the report. Choose the desired Report Format. The most commonly used option is current & year to date. Select the one that contains the information that your board wants to see. Select the Sub Account Summary checkbox if you want to use that method of printing totals instead of detailed information. If you do, you also need to specify the number of digits to use for the summary grouping. Indicate whether you want to Print Account Numbers or Wrap Account. 11

12 If your organization uses Projects, you may want to select the Include Project Summaries checkbox. If you do, the Project amounts print below the totals for each account. If you want to report on just certain Projects, click the Project Specific button to open up a pick list and choose the Projects to include. Specify a Beginning and an Ending Account # if you want to report on a range of Income or Expense accounts instead of all of them. You can also use the Include/Exclude button at the bottom of the window to specify which accounts to include, whether or not they are contiguous on the chart of accounts. Click the OK button to run report 12

13 Run the same report, but this time choose YTD & YTD Prior Year. 13

14 Include the Project Summaries. 1. Go to Reports > Monthly reports > Income and Expense Statement. 2. This time select the Include Project Summaries checkbox. 3. Click the Ok button. What did you get?? Scroll through report to find summaries. 14

15 Budgeted Financial Statement The Budgeted Financial Statement (BFS) is one of the more frequently used reports in the financial analyst s toolkit. Shelby designed this report to provide a side by side comparison of an organization s proposed budget for each account and the actual activity for each account. Six standard reports are included that should satisfy most reporting needs, but there are many personalization options for custom report designs. For example, you can compare figures from any fiscal year to any other fiscal year. You can create custom formulas for your comparison purposes. You can even rename existing column names with your own descriptions. Overview When running the report, you can choose the report parameters, a report format, and formatting options. You can also create your own, customized report format instead of using a built in Shelby report format. Once you have the report preview on the screen, you can print the report, or save the report as a file. You can also choose to export the report to a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, allowing you to see more information on a page or to perform advanced calculations. Report Parameters Report parameters allow you to pick the accounts and the period of activity that should appear on the Budgeted Financial Statement. An option to view percentage adjustments to variable accounts is also available. 15

16 Choosing which Funds, Departments and Accounts to Print To limit the results to only certain funds or departments, click the Include/Exclude button near the top of the screen. This displays a pick list window that allows you to specify which ones to include. When the Fund and Department filter is active, the blue text you see will say For Selected Funds and Departments. Another way to limit the results is by using Account Filters. You can specify a Beginning and an Ending Acct # if you wish to report on a continuous range of account numbers. You can use the Include/Exclude button to choose account numbers individually. This allows you to report on numbers that are not within a continuous range. You can use a combination of both methods, but this can lead to unexpected results if you are not careful to select accounts that fall within the specified range of accounts. You can also choose to include All Income & Expense Accounts, Fixed Budget Accounts Only, or Variable Accounts Only. There will be more about fixed versus variable budget accounts in a later section. 16

17 Report Preferences (Choose your format) The BFS has several built in report formats from which to choose. Use the Which Format drop down list to select a format. Once you have selected a format, you can preview which columns display on the report by examining the contents of the Format Columns list. If you are interested in seeing how one of the built in reports functions, you can select a report using the Which Format drop down list and click the Edit Format button. You are unable to alter a built in report; however, you can use a built in report as the basis for another report (covered in the Custom Formats section). The built in reports include: Shelby Standard Format: Includes current year information such as budgets and actuals for the period, year, and year to date, and the variance between budgeted and actual amounts. Shelby Standard Annual & Rev Budget w/actuals: Includes proposed and revised budget information for the period and year to date, as well as actuals. Shelby Standard Annual Budget: Includes actuals and budgets for the period and year to date, variance between the two, and the remaining budget for the year. Shelby Standard Annual Budget with Variance: Includes annual budget, actual and budget year to date, and the variance between the two, expressed in dollar amounts and a percentage. Shelby Standard Multiple Years Comparison: Compares actuals for the current year and the previous three years, and reports the variance between the years expressed as a percentage. Shelby Standard TY Period vs LY Period: Compares actuals for the current year and the previous year and expresses the results in a percent change and a net change in dollars. 17

18 Custom Formats Custom formats allow you to choose which built in columns to include in the Budgeted Financial Statement. Custom formats also allow you to create your own columns produced by calculating one column against another. For example, you can choose to include the current period actuals in column A, the actuals from the same period from the previous year in column B, and you can create a formula column that finds the difference by subtracting A from B. Even if you do not need a complex report, you can use the custom formats to change the column order. Creating a New Format When you create a custom format, you have the option to create a format from scratch or to build off the format that was the selected option when you clicked the New Format button. If you choose to use a previous format as the basis of the new format, then all the options for that format carry over to the new format. You can then add, alter, or delete them as needed. 18

19 To Edit/Delete An Existing Format or Create A New Format Start from the General Ledger (Home Base) and select Utility and then Budgeted Financial Formats. To edit a format, highlight it, right click, and select Open to edit this format. To delete a format, highlight it, rightclick, and select Delete to delete this format. To create a new format using this utility, right click and select New. 19

20 The Format Designer On the left is a listing of the available columns that can be added to the report or collected into groupings for Account Information, formulas, and each fiscal year in the Shelby database. If the column has been made active for the current format, the box for that item is red. Click the box to toggle it active or inactive. Each active column is shown on the right hand side identified by a letter of the alphabet and by the text under the Fiscal Year header. If you want to use a column s value in a calculation without showing the original value on the report, unmark the Visible checkbox to hide it. Change the text in the Descr field to rename the column title on the printed report. Use the pipe symbol (the vertical line ) to add a line break for long titles. Titles longer than 10 characters look better on two lines. You can also use Shelby Printer Markup code to bold or italicize the fonts, change the font type, change the font size, and more. See the Shelby help files (under Supplemental Documents) for more information. 20

21 Use the Move Up and Move Down buttons on the far right to change the order of the columns, which print from left to right in the same order as they are listed top to bottom. Choosing Account Information Columns Account # adds a column to the report that prints the GL account number. Account #/Description adds a column that prints the GL account number and description as close together as possible. Description adds a column that prints only the GL account description. Adding Formulas There is a maximum of ten custom formulas that can be added to any single format design. To create or edit the formula, click the Description (Descr) field of that column to open the formula editor. Using the column letters and basic arithmetic functions (+,, *, /) you can define any formula and present the result in either Currency or Percent format. Use parentheses to control the order of operations for complex formulas. To round amounts to the nearest dollar, use the ROUND(X, 0) function. To use this function, replace X with the column letter or formula that you want to round off. 21

22 Choosing Columnar Information Notice that there is a column grouping for each fiscal year defined for the active financial company. When you expand the column groupings by clicking the Expand icon next to each year, you see that every year has its own set of built in columns. Actual for Period is the net financial activity (sum of credits and debits) for the selected period. Actual YTD is the net financial activity (sum of credits and debits) from the beginning of the fiscal year to the selected period. Actual Annual is the net financial activity (sum of credits and debits) from the beginning of the fiscal year to the end of the fiscal year (regardless of period selected). Budget for Period is the proposed budget for the selected period. Budget YTD is the proposed budget from the beginning of the fiscal year to the end of the selected period. Budget Annual is the proposed budget from the beginning of the fiscal year to the end of the fiscal year (regardless of period selected). Revised Budget for Period is the revised budget for the selected period. Revised Budget YTD is the revised budget from the beginning of the fiscal year to the end of the selected period. Revised Budget Annual is the revised budget from the beginning of the fiscal year to the end of the fiscal year (regardless of period selected). 22

23 Debits for Period is the sum of all debit amounts for the selected period. Debits for YTD is the sum of all debit amounts from the beginning of the fiscal year to the selected period. Debits for Annual is the sum of all debit amounts from the beginning of the fiscal year to the end of the fiscal year (regardless of period selected). Credits for Period is the sum of all credit amounts for the selected period. Credits for YTD is the sum of all credit amounts from the beginning of the fiscal year to the selected period. Credits for Annual is the sum of all credit amounts from the beginning of the fiscal year to the end of the fiscal year (regardless of period selected). To include one of these columns on the report, expand the column grouping for the year you want to include and click on each desired column. Feel free to mix columns for varying years. Sample Budgeted Financial Report using Shelby Standard Format 23

24 Financial Spreadsheet The Financial Spreadsheet prints net amounts posted to Income and Expense accounts (by each period for an entire year). The spreadsheet can be printed for the current or previous years. To limit the report to only selected funds and departments, click the Include/Exclude button. Accounts to Print allows you to pick which accounts or range of account numbers to include. Choose the Fiscal year and Ending Period. Use actuals for closed periods? This replaces budget columns with actual dollars if the month is marked as closed. This feature is only available for the Budget and Revised Budget options Click the appropriate Figures to Print radio button to indicate Actual, Budget, or Revised Budget. To have the report generated in Excel, select the Interface with Excel checkbox. Excel opens, and the spreadsheet displays. The following illustration is the completed report using Actual Figures (note Audit period). 24

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26 The following illustration is the completed report using Budget Figures (note Audit period). 26

27 The following illustration shows the completed report using Use actuals for closed periods. The closed months, November August show actual amounts. The remaining months, September October show budget amounts. 27

28 Designated Fund Summary Whether you are using liability accounts or the combination of income/expense/capital accounts to track your designated receipts and disbursements, this report provides the necessary information. This report prints the receipts, disbursements, and net monthly balances of a certain account number range for the specified period or quarter. This report is designed to use liability or capital accounts (or both, but not usually). This report is best to use for designated funds to measure monies that are not usually included in your organization s budget. Note: Interface with Excel allows you to create the report in Excel and it. 28

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30 General Ledger Special Reports General Ledger reports include a lot of detail, sometimes more than you need. Many of the reports allow you to generate the report for a given account range by supplying a starting and ending account number, but they do not let you choose accounts. The Special Reports allow you to run essentially the same reports but let you choose specifically which accounts to include and to exclude, in any order you want. You can also group like accounts together into one line. To use this feature, you must first create a Special Report design. This is where you choose which account to include and group together. Afterwards, you can run any of the Special Reports which look and function the same as their regular report counterparts using this new account structure. Creating the Cash Flow Special Report Design 1. From the General Ledger Home Base verify that you are using the correct company, or change the company using the drop down list on the company field located at the top of the General Ledger Home Base Screen. 2. Click Reports > Special Reports. 3. Choose Special Report Design. 30

31 Setting up the Report Create the Opening Balance Line for the Cash Account. 1. Click New while on the Special Report Setup screen. 2. Enter 10 in the Line # field. 3. Choose Balance Opening using the drop down list on the Line Type field. 4. Type a description that identifies this activity in the Description field. We will use Opening Balance. 5. Make sure the Reverse sign when printing checkbox IS NOT CHECKED. 6. Enter the account number of the cash accounts in the yellow grid below. Note: You can include additional lines for each cash account that you want to include in your report, or group them together on one line by including multiple accounts on the screen shown below. If the account spans multiple funds, you can leave the Fund # field and Dept # field blank to include activity across funds. If you leave the Fund # field and/or the Dept # field blank, then you have to type the account numbers into the Account Low and Account High fields rather than using the dropdown lists. 7. Click the Apply button to save line 10 and keep the form open for the next line. 31

32 Track Income and Expense Activity 1. Enter 20 in the Line # field. 2. Choose Detail using the drop down list on the Line Type field. 3. Enter a description for this activity. We will use Income. 4. Select the Reverse sign when printing checkbox. 5. Enter a value for Fund # if you use funds. (Note: Leave this field blank if you wish to include all funds for the account number range on this row.) 6. Enter a value for Dept # if you use departments. (Note: Leave this field blank if you wish to include all departments for the account number range on this row.) 7. Enter the account number range for the income to be included on this report line. We are including all accounts from through Click the Apply button. 9. Enter 30 in the Line # field. 10. Choose Detail using the drop down list on the Line Type field. 11. Enter a description for this activity. We will use Expense. 12. Select the Reverse sign when printing checkbox. 13. Enter a value for Fund # if you use funds. (Note: Leave this field blank if you wish to include all funds for the account number range on this row.) 14. Enter a value for Dept # if you use departments. (Note: Leave this field blank if you wish to include all departments for the account number range on this row.) 32

33 15. Enter the account number range for the income to be included on this report line. We are including all accounts from through Click the Apply button. 17. Enter 40 in the Line # field. 18. Choose 5 Total Level for the Line Type using the drop down list. 19. The Reverse sign when printing field should NOT be checked. 20. Enter a description for this total line. We will use Net of Income & Expense. 33

34 Track Asset, Liability, and Capital Activity. 1. Enter 50 in the Line # field. 2. Choose Detail using the drop down list on the Line Type field. 3. Enter a description for this activity. We will use Accounts Receivable Activity. 4. Select the Reverse sign when printing checkbox (when applicable). 5. Enter a value for Fund # if you use funds. (Note: Leave this field blank if you wish to include all funds for the account number range on this row.) 6. Enter a value for Dept # if you use departments. (Note: Leave this field blank if you wish to include all departments for the account number range on this row.) 7. Enter the account number for the Accounts Receivable to be included on this report line. We are including Accounts Receivable and Unapplied Cash, through Click the Apply button. 9. Enter 60 in the Line # field. 10. Choose Detail using the drop down list on the Line Type field. 11. Enter a description for this activity. We will use Accounts Payable & Liab Activity. 12. Select the Reverse sign when printing checkbox. 13. Enter a value for Fund # if you use funds. (Note: Leave this field blank if you wish to include all funds for the account number range on this row.) 14. Enter a value for Dept # if you use departments. (Note: Leave this field blank if you wish to include all departments for the account number range on this row.) 34

35 15. Enter the account number for the Accounts Payable and other liability accounts to be included on this report line. We are including all Liability accounts, through Click the Apply button. 17. Enter 70 in the Line # field. 18. Choose Detail using the drop down list on the Line Type field. 19. Enter a description for this activity. You use Direct Postings to Capital Accounts. (Note: Any journal entries that post directly to a capital account are included by using this line.) 20. Select the Reverse sign when printing checkbox. 21. Enter a value for Fund # if you use funds. (Note: Leave this field blank if you wish to include all funds for the account number range on this row.) 22. Enter a value for Dept # if you use departments. (Note: Leave this field blank if you wish to include all departments for the account number range on this row.) 23. Enter the account number for the Accounts Receivable to be included on this report line. We are including all Capital accounts, through

36 24. Click the Apply button. Create the Ending Balance Line for the Cash Account. 1. Enter 80 in the Line # field. 2. Choose 6 Total Level for the Line Type using the drop down list. 3. Reverse sign when printing? should NOT be checked. 4. Enter a description for this total line. You use Ending Balance. 5. Click the OK button. 36

37 Run the Cash Flow/Balance List Report 1. Return to the General Ledger Home Base screen. 2. Select Reports > Special Reports. 3. Select Cash Flow/Balance List. 5. Click the Include/Exclude button. 37

38 6. Select the special report that you want to run from the list. 7. Choose the report period using the drop down list on the Period to Print field. 8. Click the OK button. NOTE: Because you can only run this report against a single period and not year to date, you may wish to save the report output as a comma delimited file that you can import into Excel and build the year to date report there. After running each single period report and saving it as a CSV file, import it into Excel and then copy and paste the column of actual activity into a master Excel spreadsheet with a column for each period. 38

39 General Ledger Reports at a Glance Monthly Reports REFERENCE Detail Ledger: This report is the most detailed of the GL reports. It lists each journal entry for each account selected. It also includes the opening and ending balance for each account. You may want to print this report each month to have all detail transactions on file and to double check your activity. If your auditor asks to look at your activity for the month or year, this is a good report to use. The Detail Ledger can be printed for a certain account number range within a certain accounting period or date range. Balance Sheet: This report gives you the information needed to verify that your assets, liabilities, and capital accounts are in balance. This is not an activity report, but a snapshot of the balances in these accounts as of now, given that the current period is selected, or the balance as of the end of the period selected. By comparing the assets to the liabilities and capital accounts on this report, you can immediately see where problems may have arisen with journal entry procedures. Income and Expense Statement: This report prints a statement of the net amount posted to your income and expense accounts for the accounting period or quarter specified. While the Balance Sheet shows what you have, what you owe, and what you are worth, this report tells you where the money came from and where it is going. Use this report to find out if you are earning more money than you are spending. Budgeted Financial Statement: Use this report to compare actual income and expense figures to budgeted amounts. Use this report to find out if you are spending and earning what you had projected. If you did not spend what you had planned, this report quickly tells you how much you deviated from what you had planned. This report is good to distribute among your ministry staff to determine if they are on the mark. Designated Fund Summary: This report prints the receipts, disbursements, and net monthly balances of a certain account number range for the specified period or quarter. This report is designed to use liability or capital accounts (or both, but not usually). This is a report you will not find in QuickBooks or other secular programs. This report is best to use for designated funds to measure monies that are not usually included in your organization s budget. Financial Spreadsheet: This report gives a 12 month (13 periods including the Audit period) view of the Balance Sheet accounts, Income/Expense accounts, or both. Simply select the Ending Period and the report does the rest. The report prints actual amounts, budgeted amounts, or revised budgeted amounts. While the Detail Ledger report is focused on detail, this report gives you a better overall picture of activity for the year. This is a good year end report to run to spot trends between periods. Comparative Trial Balance: This report shows the beginning balance, current balance, and year to date balance. It also compares this year s figures to last year s figures. While this is a simple report, you would have to run multiple reports to gather all this information. 39

40 Maintenance Reports Company Information: This report prints out the setup information for the company selected on the General Ledger Home Base screen, along with year and period status and setup information. Fund/Dept. List: This report prints each fund, department, and closing account for the company selected on the General Ledger Home Base screen. Chart of Accounts List: This report allows you to specify an account range and prints details, including account number, description, closing account, etc. There are three versions of this report, each varying in detail. Journal Type List: This report lists all journal types created by users, along with each type s description. Project List: This report lists each project, its description, when it was set up, and by whom. Misc. Reports Preliminary Budget Report: This report is used for budget preparation. It is unique in that it can show up to two years of previous actuals and/or budgets. It has some helpful filters to vary the scope of the report. Trial Balance Worksheet: This report is a summary comparison of your debits to your credits, by account. The report is a good companion to the Balance Sheet. Journal History Report: This report is almost identical to the Detail Ledger with the exception of how it is sorted. Instead of sorting by accounts, it groups the information by journal entry. Additionally, you can use filters to include or exclude certain journal entry types. BUDGETED FINANCIAL STATEMENT Choosing Department Print Options Page Break After Each Department starts a new page for each separate department. Include Opening and Ending Balance for Each Department on the report. The opening balance is the Net Asset closing account for each department. If this option is selected and the Page Break after Each Department checkbox is selected, the opening balance appears under the report title at the top of each page. The opening balance comes from the Net Asset/Closing Account for each department. If this option is selected but the Page Break after Each Department checkbox is deselected, the department opening balance prints as a line item in the report. In both cases, the ending balance appears as an account line at the end of the department detail. 40

41 Including Purchase Order Encumbrances Include Encumbrances takes into account any pending purchase orders that have been submitted using the Purchase Order module. If you do not use the Purchase Order module, this option does nothing. Printing by Project Print By Project removes all non Project filter options because all accounts that have Project budgets are included. You can choose to run a BFS for only certain Projects, however. To do this, click the Project Specific button to open up a pick list and select the Project, or Projects, you want to include on the report. Choosing a Report Time Frame The next step is to decide whether you want to run the report for a specific period or quarter of the year. Select the Print for Period or Print for Quarter radio button, and then use the dropdown list below the radio buttons to select which period or quarter to include in the report. Choosing a Summary or Detail Type Report Use the Report Type drop down list to change from the Detail view, which shows every account, to a report with only Totals or to a report with summaries based on the leading digit of each account (called a Sub Account Summary). 41

42 The Sub Account Summary uses the specified number of digits as a pattern to match. For instance, if you choose to summarize to 2 digits, all the accounts that begin with 40 are considered one group. Those that begin with 41 would be a second group, and so on down the accounts. The account description of the first account that matches the pattern becomes the description of the entire group, and the group total is the sum of all the detail accounts in that group. For example, if you are using a five digit account notation, and all income accounts in your chart of accounts start with a 41 prefix, selecting the Sub Account Summary 2 digit report would group all income accounts into one line, named using the very first 41XXX account. Sub Account Summary reporting requires a meticulously designed and scrupulously maintained Chart of Accounts. It is not a recommended approach. It is generally a better practice to use Total Lines in order to have more control over the grouping of totals in your reports. Previewing Changes for Variable Budgets You can use the BFS to print a report with adjusted amounts for variable budgets. This saves you the trouble of first adjusting each account and then rerunning the report. To print the BFS with adjusted variable budgets, enter a percentage in the % Adjustment for Variable Budget Accounts Only field. Note: 100% represents no change. If you want a report with variable budgets at 10% greater than the current budget, you would enter 110. If you want a report with variable budgets at 10% less than the current budget, you would enter 90. Exporting to Excel If you select the Interface with Excel checkbox in the lower left of the report parameters, the report does not generate a print preview. Instead, it sends the information into Excel, where the presentation can be further adjusted before finalizing the report. 42

43 Report Preferences Report format options appear on the Preferences tab. This tab allows you to choose how each account line appears on the Budgeted Financial Statement and allows you to choose a report format. Each report format has different types of columns. You can see a list of columns that are currently selected in the Format Columns area at the bottom of the window. Several commonly used report formats are provided for you; however, you can design your own. 43

44 Selecting Account Line Formatting Options Print Line Description on Second Line: Selecting this checkbox prints account numbers on the first line and prints the account description indented on a second line. Leaving this option deselected prints the account number and account description together on the first line. Wrap Account Description: Selecting this checkbox prints the account description on the first line with the account number but shifts the description to the second line if more room is needed to print the whole description. If this option is left deselected, the account description truncates instead. Print % of Year Completed in Heading: Selecting this checkbox prints data from the year as it has progressed to date. Data is expressed by percentage (8.33% for January, 16.67% for February, etc.). Double Space: Selecting this checkbox adds an extra line of white space between accounts for easier readability. Special Reports To create a Special Report design, click Reports on the General Ledger Home Base; click Special Reports, and then select Special Report Design. This takes you to the area where you create new reports. Click File and select New to create a new special report design. Enter a name for the report in the Title field. Now you are ready to start adding account lines to the report. Click File and select New to add the first line to the report design. Line # is simply a way to establish the sequence of the report output. It does not print on the report. In order to give yourself room to add future items in between existing lines, it is a good idea to number the lines by tens. There is also a utility called Renumber Lines that allows you to spread out the lines at a later time. 44

45 Line Type and Description work exactly as they do for a chart of accounts. Reverse sign when printing allows you to show credits as a positive value for reporting purposes. If you are creating a detail or total line for liability, capital, or income accounts, and the recipients of the report would be confused by a negative number when they expect a positive one, then select this checkbox. Note: This has no impact on the arithmetic of any report except for the Cash Flow/Balance List report. That particular report is specially designed to use this feature in a unique way. Next, add the lines you want to sum into one account line. Every account that is listed is added together and summarized as one line on your special report. You can add accounts one at a time as the Account Low by itself or specify a range of accounts by entering the Account Low and Account High. If you use funds or departments, you can leave these boxes blank in order to add up the same account numbers across funds or departments. You can also specify a fund or department and leave the accounts blank in order to add up everything within fund or department. If you leave the fund number or department number blank, you must type in the rest of the numbers manually. The lookup pick list does not work unless you specify one particular fund and department. Click the Apply button to accept the current settings but keep the input window open for the information about the next line of the report. Continue this process until you have completed all lines for your Special Report design and then click the OK button. 45

46 When you are finished, return to the Home Base and run any of the special reports using the new design you created. Notice how the reports differ from the reports you are familiar with. When you run one of these reports, be sure to click the Include/Exclude button and to select the report design you created from the list. 46

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48 Ben Lane Shelby Senior Staff Trainer Before joining Shelby as a certified staff trainer, Ben Lane served as a youth minister and a minister of education at various churches. His desire is to help churches maximize their ministry through effective use of Shelby software. Currently he is a Senior Staff Trainer and trains on all Shelby products.