Notes contain both the accounting policies and the financial statement notes (such as Cash & Cash Equivalents etc). These policies and disclosures work similarly in Active Ledger. They can be customised on three levels:
- Master Notes (managed by Active Ledger and Reporting (formerly Reportance))
- Firm Notes (managed by your firm)
- File Notes (managed by users for each client file)
This article will discuss notes at the firm level by looking at the following topics:
- Reporting Suites
- Adding a new policy or disclosure
- Policy and disclosure variants
- Editing policies, disclosures and their variants
To access notes, navigate to the Admin Centre from any screen using the navigation menu in the top right-hand corner of the screen. From here select Notes.
Reporting Suites
In order to manage different kinds of accounting policies and disclosures, Active Ledger has a concept of reporting suites. A reporting suite represents a set of related policies and disclosures designed to meet the requirements of a reporting framework.
Adding reporting suites
To add a new reporting suite, select + New Reporting Suite.
Each reporting suite requires a name and a description. From here you can include the policies and/or disclosures for the suite.
Adding policies to a suite
To add the relevant policies, click to expand the Accounting Policies area and select + Add Policy Variant. A pop-up list will allow you to tick the required policies. Click Select. Active Ledger maintains an up-to-date list of common policies. To add a new policy see the 'Adding a new accounting policy' section below.
Adding disclosures to a suite
To add the relevant disclosures, click to expand the Disclosure Templates area and select + Add Disclosure Variant. A pop-up list will allow you to tick the required disclosures. Click Select. Active Ledger maintains an up-to-date list of common disclosures. To add a new disclosure see the 'Adding a new disclosure' section below.
Finally, to complete to the new reporting suite select Save and Close.
Editing and deleting reporting suites
To edit or delete a new reporting suite, click on the suite and make the required changes. To save the suite select Save and Close. To delete a suite select Delete.
A master reporting suite maintained by Active Ledger is unable to be edited outright. However, you can perform a customisation process by editing the suite. This creates a new variant of the whole suite. This variant can be edited and deleted as required.
Note: The master reporting suites maintained by Active Ledger cannot be deleted.
Adding a new policy or disclosure
Adding a new accounting policy
Accounting policies are separated into general and numbered policies. To add a new policy for the firm click on the Policies tab and then select + New Policy.
The following table details the new policy fields:
Field | Description | Validation |
---|---|---|
Name | The name of the policy which will appear in the financial report. | Required |
Location (dropdown menu) | Sets which section the note appears within the notes. | Required Two options: - General - Numbered Notes |
Description | This is an internal description that provides users with the gist of the note. | |
Show by Default (dropdown menu) | Sets the default display of the note. | Three options: - If Related Account Type Appears - Always - Never |
Default when any of the following Account Types appear | Sets the account type which the above field looks for to display the note. More than one account type can be selected. | Appears when "If Related Account Type Appears" is selected above. |
After the basics of the policy have been completed select Save. This will bring up the variants section (see below).
Adding a new disclosure
To add a new disclosure for the firm click on the Disclosures tab and then select + New Disclosure Template.
The following table details the new disclosure fields:
Field | Description | Validation |
---|---|---|
Name | The name of the disclosure which will appear in the financial report. | Required |
Description | This is an internal description that provides users with the gist of the note. | |
Show by Default (dropdown menu) | Sets the default display of the note. | Four options: - If Linked Account Appears - If Related Account Type Appears - Always - Never |
Default when any of the following Account Types appear | Sets the account type which the above field looks for to display the note. More than one account type can be selected. | Appears when "If Related Account Type Appears" is selected above. |
After the basics of the disclosure have been completed select Save. This will bring up the variants section.
Policy and disclosure variants
Policy and disclosure variants represent the content of the policy or disclosure. Variants enable you to modify the note based on factors such as:
- The financial reporting framework
- The financial period to which the disclosure will relate
- Whether the disclosure could differ based on client context and/or management discretion
You can add multiple variants for different reporting suites and/or entity types. After clicking on Add Disclosure Template Variant or Add Policy Variant the following fields will be available:
Field | Description | Validation |
---|---|---|
Name | Name of variant. Normally this would be a defining attribute. | Required |
Description | This is an internal description that provides users with the gist of the note. | |
Application Date | The date from which the note will apply. | Date picker |
Earliest Application Date | May optionally apply to reporting periods beginning on or after this date. | Date picker |
Expiry Date | The note will not apply to reporting periods after this date. | Date picker |
Requires Customisation? (checkbox) | Only available for disclosures. If checked the disclosure is unable to be automated and must be edited by the user. | |
Reporting Suites (dropdown menu) | Selects which reporting suite the variant will belong to. More than one suite can be selected. | Three master options: - Simple - GPFR Simplified Disclosures - 2022 - SPFR - Pre 2021 |
Entity Types (dropdown menu) | Selects which entity type to display the variant for. More than one can be selected. | Default - applies to all entities |
Link to Accounts | Only available for disclosures. Can automatically add the disclosure when the relevant account appears in the financial report. For more information see below. | |
Content Fields | Allows entity-specific details to be added into a firm-wide note. For more information see the knowledge article: Content Fields. | |
Content | This is the content of the note that will be displayed in the report. For more information on how to build content within disclosures see the knowledge article: Report Content Editor. |
Adding a linked account to a disclosure
For Active Ledger to automatically add the disclosure when a relevant account appears in the financial report, you need to select these accounts when creating the disclosure. To do this, click on the + Add Linked Account button. This will open up a dialogue screen with the following fields:
Field | Description | Validation |
Account (dropdown menu) | Required | |
Link Option | Determines how the note will be displayed in the report. | Required Two options: Append Details - displays the header total in the body of the report and the financial detail and 'Content' in the note Link Only - choose to show or hide detail (see below) |
Force Link Option (checkbox) | If checked this prevents the user from being able to change the link option. | |
Account Display Option | Only available if 'Link Only' is chosen as the link option Two options: Show - displays the financial information in the body of the report and the 'Content' of the disclosure in the note Hide - displays the header total in the body of the report and the 'Content' of the disclosure in the note. | |
Placeholder Identifier |
After completing all the required fields select Save. This will save the disclosure variant into the system. It is possible to add many variants to each policy and disclosure. However, we recommend adding as few as possible.
Editing policies, disclosures and their variants
Editing a custom policy or disclosure template
To edit an existing policy or disclosure click on it and make any required changes. The same fields are available for edit as those available when adding a new policy or disclosure. Once all the required changes have been made click on Save.
Editing a master policy or disclosure template
A master template is unable to be edited outright. However, you can perform a customisation process on it. This creates a new variant of the whole policy or disclosure. The benefit of this process is that if the Standards update and Active Ledger updates the default policy or disclosure you can revert or merge any changes to the customisations that have been made.
To customise a master template, click on the policy or disclosure and then on the Customise button at either the top or bottom of the screen. This will enable you to edit and allows you to add, edit or remove variants.
Editing a policy or disclosure variant
To customise an existing master or firm variant, first select the relevant policy or disclosure and click on Customise. Then select the Customise button at either the top or the bottom of the screen IN the variant you wish to edit.
After saving the new customised variant, you will be able to track changes to the content component by comparing to the master version as shown below:
To delete the customised version and revert to the original master select Delete Customised Version. To maintain the current customised version select Save.
It is possible to distinguish between edited/created and master policies and disclosures in the list. Edited and created policies and disclosures do not have an 'archive' icon to the right.
For information on how to use these notes when generating reports see the knowledge article: Reporting - Accounting Policies and Disclosures.