Design Financial Statements

Table of Contents

Overview

Upon opening the Design Financial Statement screen, press F8. Scroll through statements previously created using the blue scroll arrows  . It is recommended that you make a copy of the report you want to edit and work with this copy. This will leave you a clean copy that you can refer back to or reload if needed. 


Press the Show Lines button  to edit your report. 
If you would like to design a new report but do not want to start from scratch, use the Report Assistant to pull up a generic report to use as a starting point. 

Macro Report Design


When designing a report from scratch, it is necessary to decide on the macro design. This is done in the first screen of the Design Financial Statement editor. The report number is the number or alpha characters that you will use to pull up the report (the report name). After naming the report, enter the Report Title. The report title will display (generic titles usually work best i.e. Balance Sheet, Income Statement, etc.). The report title section allows you to set important universal parameters like the divisor. Larger companies will usually display their G/L amounts in thousands or millions for the sake of readability. Check the Exclude Zero Lines box if you do not want G/L line items to display that have zero balances.


The second section on the main screen allows you to define the columns. Your report can be expanded out to as many columns as you would like. In the example below, you can see that this report has two columns; the first being a G/L column type and the second representing those G/L numbers as a percentage of a total. In this case, the percentage of total is of sales for the current period. The percentage of totals and percentage as a variance allows you to create powerful reports that go beyond the basic balance sheet. 


The Col# is a unique column number that indicates where on the page a column should print. Each column is defined by the column type pull down menu. Your options include:

  • G/L Data – will display the G/L data for the date range selected based on the line definitions.

  • Budget Data – pulls for the G/L Budget data and allows for comparison of budget vs. actual.

  • Variance – allows a comparison of two existing columns and expresses the difference in a dollar amount.

  • Variance as a %- allows a comparison of two existing columns and expresses the difference as a percentage.

  • % of Total – is typically used to express all items as a % of total sales. For example, the user can identify the Total Revenue line as the base row and the G/L Data column as the base column and the report will express all income and expenses as a percentage of sales.

The Default Dates range defines the time frame of the report. They are not the actual dates they just represent the range to use. The actual dates populate when the report is printed. Date range options are as follows:

Balance sheet ranges

  1. As of...- leaves the beginning date blank and fills the ending date with the current period.

  2. As of Period End Prior year – allows the comparison of balance sheets: this year vs. last year.

  3. As of Prior Year End – Allows the current balance sheet to be compared to the prior year-end balance sheet.

*Note: All balance sheets must have the beginning date blank to run properly since the balance sheet runs from the beginning of time, leave the date blank to pick up all activity. ****

Income Statement Date Ranges:

  • Current Period – inserts the beginning and end date of the period when the report was run.

  • Year to Date – inserts the fiscal or calendar start date and the current period date.

  • Prior Year Current Period – inserts the prior year period for comparison against the current year period.

  • Prior Year: Year to Date - inserts the prior year start date through the prior year current period for a year to date comparison.

  • Prior Year End - displays the entire prior year numbers for reference.

  • Current Period -1 - Defaults the current period minus one month to allow trend analysis reporting. The user can select up to current period minus 12 for detailed analysis.

  • First Quarter this year – inserts the start and end dates of the first quarter of the current year. There is an option to choose for each quarter for quarterly analysis.

The column-heading box will allow you to enter the heading that you will have above the column. If you would like to have the date range included in the column heading then you should use $D1 for the beginning date range and $D2 for the ending of the date range. Below the heading box is the column format drop down box. This is where you choose the column format.

  • Budget – if the column type is budget data, the user needs to identify which budget to print.

  • Base Column – if this column type is a % of Total, Variance or Variance as % the user needs to identify the first column for comparison. In the % of Total column type only the base column is needed.

  • Base Column 2 – if this column is a Variance or a Variance as %, select from the drop down list the second column that will provide the number to calculate the difference.

  • Base Row – if the column type is % of Total, select the line that contains the total on which to base the percentage. This is usually the Total Revenue line of Income statements.

Defining and editing line detail

Once in the report editor your can add lines using the add line button  or delete them with the delete line button  . 


Place your cursor in the line number box that comes before the item you need to add and press the Add New Line button; a blank line will be inserted. You can adjust the line number that is assigned and it assigns a position within the report for your new line to print. (The report prints in numerical order) You will then have options as to what type of line you would like to create.

  • G/L Data – will pull G/L data directly from the general ledger totals.

  • Totals - assigns a G/L range you would like to total.

  • Blank Line – leaves the line blank.

  • Text – will allow you to enter text into the description and will not pull G/L data.

  • Add two lines – you can define what two lines to add in the formula tab.

  • Sub two lines – subtract two lines that you define in the formula tab.

  • Sum line range – will allow you to get a summation of a column, defined in sum tab.

  • Retained Earnings – indicate the retained earnings for the range entered.

  • Net income – indicates net income for the range entered.

  • Non-Fin Data – indicates the range entered is non-financial data.

Once you choose your line type and tab through, you will be taken to the description box. It is here that you can type the line description that will appear on the report.
Your next step will be the formatting tab: here you will tell TRX how you would like the print out of the report to look. Your first box will allow you to type in the amount of spaces you would like that line to indent. 

 
The "break after" box will allow you to add a page break after a line.
The "reverse sign" indicates that the G/L data in the line will have its sign reversed. In the sample above if the reverse sign was checked in the "Total Cost of Goods Sold" field 696,189 would show as a negative amount. This could be used for summation purposes. The "bold" and "print line" options are self-explanatory. If you want the line to print, check the Print box and if you want it in bold lettering check that box as well. The underline option will allow you to add underlining to the dollar amount columns for breaking or summation lines. The example above shows the underline before the 696,189 total costs of goods sold total. 

 


After completing the format screen you will be taken to one of three screen tabs, which one you go to is based off of your line type.

G/L Accounts

 
If the line type you are adding is a G/L data type, you will be sent to the G/L Accounts tab next. Here you will be able to assign the G/L account range that you would like to show up on the report you are creating. 
When the Print Account Number box is checked the G/L account number will display before the description on the report.

Formula Tab


Some of the line types that you can use in your report will contain formulas:
Add two lines and Sub (tract) two lines - are examples of the how the formulas tab would be used. 


The Formula tab will let you choose which two report lines to add or subtract.

Sum Tab

Other line types require summations and they can be set up on the Sum Tab:
An example of these would be the sum line range.

 
At any time during the design process you will be able to view your work by using the print preview button  . This will give you an up-to-date look at your report. 

 

 
At this point you have created a formatted balance sheet.

  • Text Line headings

  • G/L ranges

  • Totals Lines

  • Summation lines

  • And formulas


Next we will want to save this balance sheet by pressing F10 or the save icon.Â