Overview

The number of pages of a particular page type that can be added to a report depends on the page template set up in the Admin Centre (for those with administrator access). For more information on page templates, see the administration guide: Reporting - page templates (for Admin users ONLY).       

To add a new page, select + Add Page at the bottom of the screen and select the required page. To remove a page from a report, select the cross located on the right side of the page title. 

Presentation pages

This includes the following pages:

• Cover
• Contents

Presentation pages can only have the title customised. To customise the title, click on the Customise button and then select the checkbox for 'Customise Content?'. 

Click on Edit Content and type the desired name. If you wish to revert back to the previous name, click on Revert to Master.

Financial statement pages

This includes the following pages: 

• Profit and Loss
• Statement of Comprehensive Income
• Balance Sheet
• Trial Balance
• Financial Excerpt 
• Statement of Changes in Equity
• Appropriation Statement
• Direct Cash Flow Statement
• Indirect Cash Flow Statement

The financial pages can be customised in a number of ways to alter the layout.

All financial statement pages

1. Changing the disclosures display 

Click on the dropdown menu of Disclosures Behaviour to show:

• Normal - this will display any linked disclosures as normal in the Notes pages with both relevant text and financial information
• Link Only - this will only display the relevant text of a disclosure in the Notes pages with no financial information
• Disabled - this turns off all disclosures so that none are shown in the Notes pages. 

2. Swinging Behaviour

You can change how the swinging behaviour works. This determines whether the account will be displayed in a different location if it has a negative balance. An alternative name, account type and tax category can be chosen for when the account swings. 

For example, if the entity has a GST liability in 2022 however in the 2023 financial year they had a payable, the GST account would swing from being a liability in the 2022 financial year to being an asset in the 2023 financial year. This ensures the account is represented as a positive figure on the page. 

The options for swinging are:  

• Keep Balances Together With Primary Column - balances from all datasets will be kept in the same line as the primary column, whether they are positive or negative
• Keep Balances Together - balances from all datasets will move to where the majority of figures are positive
• Separate - this will separate the figures so all appear positive
• Disable - this does not allow any swinging of account balances
  
  

Note: This is only available for certain accounts. 

3. Changing the page layout

You are able to customise the layout of financial statement pages in the Admin Centre using 'Labels' to tag accounts. This is useful for creating concise Profit and Loss reports. If any layouts have been created by an administrator they will be available in the Page Layout dropdown menu. For more information, see the administration guide: Reporting - page layouts (for Admin users ONLY).

4. Creating custom columns 

To maximise flexibility you can create different columns within a page template separate from the overall report template. This is particularly useful when you want to show a higher frequency of profit and loss but only a yearly balance sheet comparative, or visa-versa. To do this click the Click to create custom columns button. 

This will display a column layout exactly the same as the column layout options mentioned in the knowledge article: Reporting - creating a report. This column layout and dataset selection will override the selection made for the overall report. This gives you the flexibility to create multiple pages to display various financial information.

WARNING: Ensure that the correct datasets are used. If you use different datasets, divisions or filters for the Profit and Loss and the Balance Sheet the financial statements may be out of balance.   

To revert the columns back to the original columns select the Revert to standard report columns button.

5. Layout

To customise the layout of the report, row headers can be expanded or collapsed to change the amount of information displayed. To expand or collapse an account click on the arrow next to the account. 

Note: By default, all account headers will be expanded. If you wish to change the default settings of a report, see the administration guide: Reporting - report masters (for Admin users ONLY).

Sub-header accounts can be shown in the Notes to the Financial Statements when they are collapsed by checking the checkbox in the 'Show in Note' column. The following example shows both the collapsed and expanded options, as well as putting the detail of 'Income' into a Note.

You are also able to further customise the layout by using the visibility toggle (displayed as an eye icon) on headers. Clicking on the icon brings up three options:

• Show - normal display, showing the header, sub-accounts and subtotal balance of the group in the total row
• See-Through - will 'turn off' the header and it's associated total, so that only the child accounts and their balances are displayed. This is useful for tidying up headers that only contain one account
• Header Only - this shows the header and sub-accounts but does not show a subtotal
• Subtotal Only - will 'turn off' the header and the name of the total, but will still display the subtotal balance of the group in the total row.

Profit and Loss specific 

1. Changing the profit display

Click on the dropdown menu of the Profit and Loss Display Option to show:

• Profit Before Tax
• Profit After Tax
• Combined Profit and Loss with Statement of Comprehensive Income
  
  

2. Separating trading accounts or divisions

To separate trading accounts or divisions from the Profit and Loss, use the Display Trading Account Pages dropdown menu, which will give you the option of separating by trading accounts or divisions, or leaving as none. This will ensure each trading account or division is printed on a separate page. The trading account or division balances will cross reference to the Profit and Loss in the area chosen when the trading account/division was created (i.e. Income, Other Income or None). For more information, see the knowledge articles: Accounts - trading accounts and Accounts - divisions. Each trading account or division will inherit the column layout applied under the column section outlined above. 

Statement of Changes in Equity specific

1. Changing the report variation 

Click on the dropdown menu of Report Variation to show:

• Normal - this will display the report as per the layout selection (see 'Layout' section above)
• Equity Type Per Column Using Movements - this will use internal opening balances inside accounts to work out the ‘movements’, and rename accounts in the capital/reserves area to relevant ‘movement’ titles
• Equity Type Per Column Using Account Attributes - this will work off opening balances being those accounts where ‘opening balances’ are selected against the account, and otherwise display everything else as is - so you can create custom accounts as required to show very detailed movement constructs
  
  

Notes to the Financial Statements

The Notes to the Financial Statements page can be customised in a number of ways:  

1. Choosing an alternative reporting suite

Active Ledger has two standard reporting suites by default for AU and three for NZ, as below:          

For more information on creating custom firm notes, see the administration guide: Reporting - notes (for Admin users ONLY). A different set of notes can be selected by choosing from the Reporting Suite dropdown menu.            

2. Selecting accounting policies and disclosures

The Automatically Select Accounting Policies tick box is checked by default. This uses a set of assigned rules to check which policies to display. To manually override these rules, uncheck the tick box. 

After unticking the checkbox a list of available policies will be displayed. The list of relevant disclosures will always be expanded. The policies and disclosures available will change depending on the selection from the Reporting Suite dropdown menu. You can change the display status for each of the policies to one of the following: 

• Auto - note will use rules to determine if it should be displayed
  
• Yes - note will always be displayed
• No - note will never be displayed. 

If more than one variant is available for a particular note then you can select which variant you want to display from the dropdown menu in the variant column, as shown below: 

3. Manually linking disclosures

It is also possible to manually add disclosures in the Profit and Loss, Balance Sheet and Statement of Changes in Equity by using the Click to Link option. This will bring up a dialogue screen with a dropdown menu of disclosures available for the chosen reporting suite.

4. Editing a policy or disclosure

It is possible to edit a policy or disclosure at the report template level. To do this, tick the Customise checkbox, which will bring up an Edit Content button. 

You are then able to customise the content. For more information on adding and editing content at a firm level, see the administrator article: Reporting - content editor (for Admin users ONLY). At any point you are able to switch back to the original content by using the Revert to Master button. To remove the changes, simply untick the Customise checkbox in the policy/disclosure list.

5. Using policy or disclosure content fields

Standard Business Fitness content fields are available to be filled out under various GPFR policies and disclosures. Additionally, any other content fields added by the firms administrator users will be available. An example of a standard Business Fitness content field is as below.

This information will then be rendered in the generated report.

If the field is mandatory, an error will appear in the generated report.  

Note: The mandatory option, and subsequent warning, simply checks whether you have interacted with the field or not (which could be as simple as ticking or unticking a checkbox). It does not monitor whether you have actually completed the field.

For more information on accounting policies and disclosures and content fields, see the knowledge article: Reporting - accounting policies and disclosures and administrator article: Reporting - content fields (for Admin users ONLY).   

Depreciation pages

When adding a Depreciation page, by default the Year of the report will be set to the year chosen as the dataset in the first Column of the report and the Report will be set to Full Summary (both taxation and accounting depreciation). It is possible to customise both options as well selecting which Asset Groups to display.

Note: If selecting an option different from the default it is advised that you change the Title (see the 'Customising the title' section above) to reflect the change (e.g. Depreciation 2020, Depreciation Taxation) as headers do not appear in the report.

Blank pages

It is possible to add a blank page to reports. Blank pages can have the title and content customised. For more information on adding content at an admin level, see the administrator article: Reporting - content editor (for Admin users ONLY).

Legal pages

This includes the following pages: 

• Compilation Report - SPFR
• Accountant's Report Disclaimer
• Client Declaration
• Approval of Financial Report
• Directory     

Adding an independence clause to the Compilation Report 

The Compilation Report contains the option to show an independence clause. To add content to the clause, simply tick the Show Independence Clause checkbox, which will bring up a text box for you to enter the relevant information.

Story board pages

This includes the following pages: 

• Income Results
• Cashflow Results
• Working Capital Results

Story board pages display a graphical representation of the data depending on the page type chosen. Story board pages can have the title and content customised.  

Once you have added and customised all the relevant pages, you can go ahead and generate the report (return to the knowledge article: Reporting - creating a report).