How to configure your report using these tips & tricks
Sections in this article:
- How to Select or Enter a Date Range
- How to Select a Sequential Group of Items such as Accounts, Vendors, Bank Accounts, etc.
- How to De-Select individual Accounts that are Not grouped together sequentially
- How to Select by Entity or Dimension Filters (Account Code Levels)
- How to Select Various Items without losing those that you've already selected
- How to Include or exclude Inactive Accounts or those with Zero Balances
- How to Sort statements.
How to Select or Enter a Date Range
Reports
The date ranges referenced in all of these options except the Custom Date Range, is always in relation to your Current Accounting Period. Click on the link to learn how to determine your Current Accounting Period.
So, when you select This Month from the Date Range Options, ParishSOFT Accounting will give you a report for the Current Accounting Month, not the actual calendar month (unless they are the same).
When your Current Accounting Period is so far behind that it will not allow you to easily use any of the Date Range Options listed, you may use the Custom Date Range option and fill in your own date range. You may also choose to use the Custom Date Range option when you want to limit or expand your filter to a smaller or larger range than the other options allow.
Also, in statements, the date format is by period and fiscal year. You can only get to "Next Year" so if you are two or more years behind you will not be able to print statements for the current year.
How to Select a Sequential Group of Items
To select a sequential group of items, select the first item in the range, then scroll to the last one in the sequence and use the Shift Key in conjunction with your mouse click to select. This will select all items from the first clicked to the last.
For example, if you were running the Statement of Financial Position and you wanted to select a small sequential group of Accounts, you would click the first Account, then scroll down to the last Account you want and hold the Shift-Key and click that Account.
Read the next section to learn how to omit individual items from the selection.
How to De-Select individual Accounts without losing those that you've already selected
If you want to omit a selected item in the middle of a group of selected items, simply use the Ctrl-Key and click on the item.
This is true for any field where many items are available for selection such as the Vendor Reports where you may click on the first Vendor, then click the Shift-Key + Last Vendor, then use Ctrl-Key and click each Vendor to Omit.
How to Select by Entity or Dimension Filters (Account Code Levels)
If a section has an item highlighted, only the highlighted item(s) will be included in the report. If a section has no items highlighted, nothing will be filtered out; all items in that section will be used in creating the report. To review how Account Code Levels are added, see this article. For an article on how to select accounts on a report, click here.
- Example: For all entities, all sub-programs, all categories, only accounts with Program 31 Weddings will report; accounts for all other programs will be excluded.
- Example: This report configuration will filter out all accounts that do not have Entity 90 and Program 31.
How to Select Various Accounts that are Not grouped together sequentially
If you want to select a few items that are not listed sequentially, the Ctrl-Key + each item will allow you to select sporadic items in a list.
How to Include or exclude Inactive Accounts or those with Zero Balances
Toward the bottom of the Configure Report Page for most Statements, you will see the options listed in the figure above. Note, you must choose to Include Inactive History Accounts, so the default is to exclude them. For Zero Accounts, however, the default is to include them and if you do not want zero (balance) accounts to appear on your report, you must mark the option to Suppress Zero Accounts.
How to sort statements
This section in the Configure page of Statements allows you to sort the main sections on your account levels. For example, if you have a Level called Class as selected below, the report will print a heading and sub-total each time the level for Class changes.
Then, if the detail report is selected, the details will sort by Account Code.
If the report does not display the detail as you would like to see it, try to change these settings.
Related Articles
Why can't I see the current year on the Configure Report Screen?
Updated