Hello,

I'm just getting familiar with Financial Reporter and I'm trying to figure out the "drag and drop" feature.

I'm trying to change the name of certain balance sheet line items. For example, instead of "A/R", I would like it to read "Accounts Receivable".

Is there a way to do this using drag and drop from Account Groups? I seem unable to drag and drop single line items; it appears I would have to basically re-create the entire financial statements and re-do all the formatting.

Thanks,

JC

Hi, Jim,

After dragging your account groups onto the worksheet and while the statement is in 'collapsed' mode, you could create a blank column to the right of the column containing the account description (usually in column C or D). In the blank column, you might use a formula like:

= IF(D11="A/R","Accounts receivable",D11)

You would substitute the cell reference of the description used for the account range that contains the A/R account code. And, if needed, you would also include one or more spaces before the A or A/R or Accounts.

After, you'd want to highlight the original column of account descriptions and select Hide When Printed.

Would there be a benfit to doing it the way you suggested? I could likely save time and simply overwrite the formula with the account description. I was hoping there'd be a way to make all changes in one place (Account Groups), and have it propagate throughout the statements (using F9).

Here's the crux: If I decided to create a new account called "Other receivables" and create a new account group, How would I insert this account group into the FS statements without re-doing the FS? How could I "drag and drop" this single group into the existing FS?

If that is really the way you want the account to appear, why not edit the account description in the chart of accounts? Assuming the A/R you are referring to is actually from the chart of accounts.

David

The A/R I'm referring to is the collective name of a bunch of A/R accounts. Ex. "A/R east", "A/R west", "A/R north", "A/R south" are all rolled into an account group called "A/R" on the Account Group window. If I create FS from scratch, the FS line item is called "A/R", same as the Group Name. If, however, I want to change the group name, I can't figure out how to propagate this change to the FS without starting anew. Like I said, I'm new to Financial Reporter so please bear with me

Hi Jim,

You shouldn't have to re-create a form from scratch to change text. However, you will have to edit the appropriate cell(s) to get what you want. You are correct that you cannot drag-and-drop particular account ranges onto an existing sheet - this functionality is reserved for new sheets.

Once an account group is dropped onto a sheet, the group titles and sub-titles are created as simple text and cannot be automatically updated based on changes to the Account Group itself. If the text 'A/R' is a title or sub-title, you could use the Edit / Replace function to look for all occurences of 'A/R' and replace with 'Accounts Receivable'.

If the text you want to change is for the Account Description when the form is in a summary mode, click on the cell where you see this. I suspect you will see a formula such as =GLDESC("A/R",3,$B10) which will output 'A/R' in summary mode, and the real account description when expanded to detail mode. Should this be the case, all you have to do is edit this formula and replace 'A/R' with 'Accounts Receivable'.

If you are not sure about how to make this change, please click on the cell that contains the 'A/R' text you want to change, and let us know what you see in the formula field on the toolbar.

Hi,

I get the following formula: =STRCAT(" ",IF($A16==".Range","A/R",TRIM(ADGETF("GLDATA.DESC",$B16))))

Originally I assumed all I had to do was change "A/R" in the formula above and presto... but nothing changed. That's what set me on the current quest to find the answer!

ps. These FS were created some time ago and it's possible that they were not created using the ideal method. If not, I would be happy to re-create using the best method.

Hi Jim,

Your thoughts for changing that portion of the formula are correct. As also that the form was created some time ago.

When editing financial statements, ensure that the form is 'Collapsed' or in summary mode when the change is made. This is because 'Expanded' detail rows are actually deleted when a form is refreshed or summarized.

Expand/Collapse does not result in any differences (I have watched your webinars where expand and collapse are fully functional). So it appears these FS might not be working properly.

If you wanted to replace that monster of a formula for the description with something a little more bearable, with the desired text change, collapse the sheet and try this one instead (in cell C16, I suspect):

=GLDESC("Accounts Receivable",3,$B16)

This description field will print the text 'Accounts Receivable' when the sheet is collapsed, the actual account description when expanded, and prefix whichever text by 3 spaces.

Your change above should have worked, provided that cell A16 actually contains the text '.Range'.
If you don't intend to allow breaking out each A/R account on separate rows (ie you always want the sum of the 4 accounts and never each one) and have deleted the .Range text, then forget the whole formula stuff and simply overwrite everything with the straight text 'Accounts Receivable'.