Article Objective: To assist users in navigating Active Ledger & Reporting to create additional accounting policies and disclosures at a client level. Context: Accounting policies and disclosures work similarly in Active Ledger. They can be customised on three levels:
By default, they will be pre-populated by Active Ledger master notes, as well as any of the firm's changes or updates to those notes. Please refer to the Glossary for definitions of key terms used in this article. TABLE OF CONTENTS |
Accessing accounting policies and disclosures
To access policies and disclosures for a specific client file, select Accounting Policies or Disclosure Templates from the File Settings menu from any screen, as shown below:
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 this client click on + 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 |
| Note Group (dropdown menu) | Sets which section the note appears within the notes. There are three options:
| Required |
| Description | This is an internal description that provides users with the gist of the note. | Optional |
| Show by Default (dropdown menu) | Sets the default display of the note. There are three options:
| Required |
| Default when any of the following Account Types appear (dropdown menu) | Only appears when 'If Related Account Type Appears' is selected above. Sets the account type that the above field looks for to display the note. More than one account type can be selected. | Optional |
After the basics of the policy have been completed, select Save and Close.
This will bring up the variants section (see below).
Adding a new disclosure
To add a new disclosure for this client click on + 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. | Optional |
| Show by Default (dropdown menu) | Sets the default display of the note. There are four options:
| Required |
| Default when any of the following Account Types appear (dropdown menu) | Only appears when 'If Related Account Type Appears' is selected above. Sets the account type that the above field looks for to display the note. More than one account type can be selected. | Optional |
After the basics of the disclosure have been completed, select Save and Close.
This will bring up the variants section (see below).
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 + New Variant the following fields will be available:
| Field | Description | Validation |
|---|---|---|
| Name | Name of variant. Normally this would be a defining attribute. | Required |
| Reporting Suites (dropdown menu) | Selects which reporting suite the variant will belong to. More than one suite can be selected. There are two master options: - Simple - GPFR Simplified Disclosures - 2022, 2023 | Required |
| Description | This is an internal description that provides users with the gist of the note. | Optional |
| Disclosure/Policy Name | If the disclosure/policy name is different to the variant name, outline here. | Optional |
| Reporting Framework | This is what the user wants to describe it as. This would usually be the set of accounting standards you are applying, for example in AU, 'AASB GPFR', or 'AASB GPFR for Tier 2', or in NZ, 'SPFR for FPE's'. | Optional |
| Entity Types (dropdown menu) | Selects which entity type to display the variant for. More than one can be selected. The default is 'Applies to all entities'. | Required |
| Application Date | The date from which the note will apply. | Optional |
| Earliest Application Date | May apply to reporting periods beginning on or after this date. | Optional |
| Expiry Date | The note will not apply to reporting periods after this date. | Optional |
| Requires Customisation? (checkbox) | Only available for disclosures. If checked, the disclosure is unable to be automated and must be edited by the user. | Optional |
| Inactive (checkbox) | When checked, this will be removed from the variants and not displayed. | Optional |
| 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 the 'Adding a linked account to a disclosure' section below. | Optional |
| Content Fields | Allows entity-specific details to be added to a firm-wide note. For more information, see the administrator article: Reporting - content fields (only relevant if you are an administrator user). | Optional |
| 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 administrator article: Reporting - content editor (only relevant if you are an administrator user). | Optional |
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) | A list of system and custom headers will appear. Select the relevant one. | Required |
| Link Option | Determines how the note will be displayed in the report. There are two options:
| Required |
| Force Link Option (checkbox) | If checked, this prevents the user from being able to change the link option. | Optional |
| Account Display Option | Only available if 'Link Only' is chosen as the link option. There are two options:
| Required |
| Placeholder Identifier | If you have more than one placeholder in a disclosure, you can give an identifier. When this happens, as you link accounts, you can then type in that identifier to allow the details of different accounts to go to the different placeholders. | Optional |
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 and Close.
It is possible to distinguish between edited/created and master policies and disclosures in the list. Edited and created policies and disclosures have a menu icon to the left while masters have an 'archive' icon to the right.
Using policies and disclosures in reports
Viewing policies and disclosures in a report
To view the policies and disclosures that will appear in the report, first ensure that the correct reporting suite is chosen for the report.
To do this, create a new report (or use an existing template) in the Reports tab and then navigate to the 'Notes to the Financial Statements' page in the pages section of the report. Click on the Customise button to the right and ensure the correct relevant suite is selected from the dropdown menu. If not, select accordingly.
This will make available all disclosures saved to that reporting suite. It will also automatically link any disclosures that have been set to appear when the relevant account/account types are present, as shown by the wand icon in the image below.
To access the accounting policies, you will need to untick the Automatically Select Accounting Policies checkbox.
Editing policies and disclosures in a report
Policies and disclosures can also be edited on a per report basis. Before generating a report, navigate to the 'Notes to the Financial Statements' page and click on the Customise button to the right.
From here you have the ability to choose whether the policy or disclosure display is set to Auto, Yes or No. If multiple variants exist for the note you can select the relevant one using the dropdown menu. Clicking on the Customise checkbox of the relevant policy or disclosure will bring up an Edit Content button. This will enable you to make any required changes.
You will be able to track the changes to the template by comparing to the original version, as shown below.
Note: Content can be edited in the same way as all other reports. For more information if you are an administrator user, see the administrator article: Reporting - content editor.
Content fields in reports
If a content field was created, it will appear underneath the relevant policy or disclosure. A red exclamation mark will be present if the content field has been set to mandatorily interact with the field (see below) and will disappear once you have filled in the content. The field may or may not already be ticked depending on the setup.
Note: If the field is mandatory, an error will appear in the generated report acting as a reminder to interact with the field.
Clicking on a checkbox will enable you to enter any relevant information for the policy or disclosure. The placeholder text should guide the input required.
For more information of creating and using content fields, see the administrator article: Reporting - content fields.
Linking disclosures in a report
To link a disclosure that has not been automatically added, click on the Click to Link button next to the relevant account header on the relevant page (e.g. on the balance sheet).
This will bring up a dialogue screen where you can select the disclosure. Doing so will then allow you to choose the 'Link Option'. If 'Append Detail' is chosen you can also add a 'Placeholder Identifier' if required.
Select Save to link the disclosure.
Note: If the link option was set to 'Force Link Option' when the disclosure was created (see the 'Adding a linked account to a disclosure' section above), changing the link option here will not override the one set at creation.
Disclosures that have been linked manually will not display the wand icon.
