Overview: This article assists users in navigating Active Ledger & Reporting to create a report.
Active Ledger enables users to generate various standard reports or customise their own report templates. This guide provides an overview of the steps required to create, customise, save, and regenerate report templates in Active Ledger.
For more information on creating a firm standard report, see the support article: How to customise reports. New firm defaults can only be created by a user with administrator privileges.
Please refer to the Glossary for definitions of key terms used in this article.
Creating a new report
To create a new report, navigate to the Reports screen in Active Ledger. Click on + New Report to select the type of report you want to create.
Note: The list of available report templates will vary based on your firm's selections.
After selecting the appropriate report, you will be presented with the report settings page. There are three sections on this page:
Setup: Setup settings for the report, such as names and sign off dates.
Report columns: The columns that will appear in the financial section of the report.
Report pages: Settings for each individual page, including the layout of financial information.
Notes to the financial statements: Specific accounting policies and disclosures.
Options: General settings for the report, such as swinging behaviour and footer.
Setup
The setup setting fields are outlined below:
FIELD | DESCRIPTION | VALIDATION |
Template Name | This is the name given to the template. It is only saved to the local client file, not any other files. | Required |
Report Title | The title of the report, which will be displayed on the index page. | Required |
Link to Active Binder | You are able to select a binder to link financial statements to, with workpapers and supporting documents. | Optional |
Import Tables | If you have linked a binder, you are able to import tables from the binder into the financial report by clicking this button. This is especially relevant for certain sections such as the notes to the financial statements where amounts can be picked up from the tax reconciliation and put into the tax note, for example. | Optional |
Use Report Dates from Primary Column (checkbox) | When ticked, the cover page and financial titles will display the report dates used in the first column. To change this, untick this checkbox and input the start and end date manually. | Required |
Accountant Sign Off Date | The accountant sign off date you wish to outline on the report. This is automatically set to the date the report is generated but can be manually overridden if required. | Required |
Client Sign Off Date | The client sign off date you wish to outline on the report. There is not default option for this so the date has to be manually outlined. | Optional |
Consolidated Options | When preparing a consolidation, select the checkbox for 'Consolidated Report' and enter a consolidated group name for the report. | Optional |
See below for an example.
Report columns
In the columns section, you can update and change the column layout for the report. Below is a summary of the different fields and how they can be used:
FIELD | DESCRIPTION | VALIDATION |
Dataset | Select the dataset from which the data will be displayed. | Required |
Column Header | These three headings will appear at the top of each financial page. By default, this will be the year and currency symbol. These can be manually overridden if required. This is useful when you wish to distinguish between actual and budget data. | Required |
Spread By | Creates new columns based on the frequency selected, reducing your need to create multiple columns and filter by a specific date, division, etc. This is useful for creating quick filters for reports. Options include:
| Optional |
Primary Column | Automatically ticked for the first column as the system assumes this is the current year dataset. If not, untick this checkbox and select the column that is. | Required |
Filters | By Start Date (date picker): Only displays transactions after and including this date. Be sure to select a date within the dataset. | Optional |
By Division | Select the division you wish to display. Filters the data shown to a single division. For more information on divisions, see the support article: How to set up divisions. | Optional |
By Trading Account | Select the trading account you wish to display. Filters the data shown to a single trading account. For more information on trading accounts, see the support article: How to set up trading accounts. | Optional |
Below is a sample of a completed column layout. The report will display only the Brisbane Office division with six months of data for each column and the variance between the two.
Note: You can also add a year-to-date (YTD) column using this feature. For example, if you wanted to see quarterly results for the 2024 financial year and include a YTD column since it was not yet 30 June, you could do so by specifying the start and end dates.
Report pages
Active Ledger comes with a variety of customisable pages that can be used to generate a report:
Cover
Contents
Compilation Report – SPFR
Accountant's Report Disclaimer
Client Declaration
Profit and Loss
Statement of Comprehensive Income
Balance Sheet
Statement of Changes in Equity
Appropriation Statement
Direct Cash Flow Statement
Indirect Cash Flow Statement
Notes to the Financial Statements
Depreciation
Trial Balance
Financial Excerpt
Income Results
Cashflow Results
Working Capital Results
Blank
See below for an example.
For more information on adding and customising different page types, see the support article: How to customise report pages.
Notes to the financial statements
The notes to the financial statements fields are outlined below:
FIELD | DESCRIPTION | VALIDATION |
Reporting Suite (dropdown menu) | This will differ depend on the report you are creating. For example, if you create a SPFR, then it will default to 'Simple', whereas if you create a GPFR, it will default to 'GPFR Simplified Disclosures'. The options are as follows:
| Required |
Accounting Policies | You can select the checkbox to 'Automatically Select Accounting Policies' which will do it for you. Alternatively, if you wish to manually select accounting policies, untick this checkbox. | Required |
Disclosures | This will outline all the disclosres to be included in the report. These will all be selected either Yes, Auto or No by default however you are able to override these accordingly. | Required |
See below for an example.
Options
The general settings fields are outlined below:
FIELD | DESCRIPTION | VALIDATION |
Style | Determines the look of the report. This automatically sets to the 'Default' option. Styles can be created in the Admin Centre. For more information, see the support article: How to customise report styles. | Required |
Default Footer | The default footer applied to all pages within the report. This defaults to 'Compilation'. The options are as follows:
| Required |
Page Layout | Automatically sets to 'Default'. If you wish to change it to a short-form profit and loss, select from the dropdown menu. | Required |
Swinging Behaviour | Automatically sets to 'Default' and determines how accounts configured to swing should behave when their balances are negative. The options are as follows:
| Required |
Show Account Numbers (checkbox) | When ticked, all account numbers are shown in the report. | Optional |
Hide All Page Numbers | When ticked, all page numbers are hidden in the report. | Optional |
Rounding Options | There are multiple parts within this section:
| Required |
See below for an example.
Generating a report template
There are four options when generating a report:
View in browser (default): Select the Generate Report button. Once opened in your browser, you also have the option to export to Excel, PDF, or Word.
Export to PDF: Select the arrow beside the Generate Report button and choose PDF.
Export to Excel: Select the arrow beside the Generate Report button and choose Excel.
Export to Word: Select the arrow beside the Generate Report button and choose Word.
Alternatively, you can choose to save only by pressing the Save icon.
Viewing a report in Excel
Unlike many other systems, Active Ledger maintains the formatting and layout of your report when you export it to Excel. The Active Ledger add-in provides a formatting function that optimises row heights and page breaks.
After exporting the report to Excel, click on the Format Report button of the Active Ledger add-in in the Home ribbon of Excel. You will see a pop-up and a message at the bottom of the screen indicating that the report is being formatted.
Note: If you have not already done so, you can download the Excel add-in directly from Microsoft AppSource by clicking here. Alternatively, follow the installation details that appear after creating the data source, as shown in the support article: How to install the Active Ledger & Reporting Excel add-in.
Saving a report template
Once you have customised the pages and layouts of your report, you can save the report template for that client to use again in the future.
WARNING: If you leave the Reports page to navigate to any other area in Active Ledger, any changes to your report layout will be lost unless you save the template first. Additionally, if you make changes to a generated report, these changes will not be saved to the report template and can only be saved to that particular report.
To save a report, there are two options which can be found at the bottom of the report template screen:
Save Only (default): This will override the currently selected report settings for the current client (clicking Save and Close will also override the existing report and take you back to the Reports screen).
Save As: This allows you to save the report as a new template for the current client.
Regenerating reports
There are a few ways to quickly regenerate and view reports from within various areas of Active Ledger.
Within the reports screen
In the Reports screen, click on the Run Report button next to any saved template. This saves you from having to enter the report template to generate the report.
Regenerating a report
Within a generated report, you can use the Regenerate Report button at the bottom to refresh the report with any changes made. This is particularly useful if you have the generated report open in one tab on your browser while working on journals or the chart of accounts in another tab.
