departments and financial reporter question

I've been creating new financial statements. I've made account groups and drag and drop it onto a sheet. We have many departments and often use the same statement and want to be able to choose the department and show just the accounts for that department. Alternatively I have also found a use for a statement with selected accounts and all departments on the one statement. I've produced both, but I'm having trouble reproducing it when I want it. I'm not sure what I did differently - what/where is the choice that would make that difference?

Hi Barb:

The Financial Reporter can do everything that you describe. However we would need more information to be able to answer your question. We don't know how you designed the statement(s) nor the problems you are encountering.

In general: You design a statement such that it is suitable for all Departments. Then from the selection box at the top of the screen, you can choose Consolidated or Departments, either singly, in a range or another predefined combination.

What are the specific problem(s) that you are encountering?

I've traditionally been using what you describe where you choose the department or consolidated from the box at the top of the screen. But I've somehow managed to create a statement that specifies both account and department on each line, so it ignores what is in that selection box. This is helpful in some cases, but I don't know what I did differently.

I've created account groups - that doesn't even give an opportunity to specify department, and I drag and drop them on a new sheet to create the statement. Then there are choices to make such as current balance, or budget amount and it makes different columns for these for each account. Maybe somewhere in here is some that is ticked or not ticked that makes the difference, but I thought maybe someone else would know what and where that choice is. Hope this is clearer.

Hi Barb,

Collapse the SmartSheet and look at column B where the accounts are. You probably have the account (range) followed by -* that lists all departments individually (ie 'Show Detail' in the Account Group), rather than -` which 'Summarizes to Account'.

For your reference, here is a short video describing the steps for creating a financial statement from the Account Group setup.