About Account Order in Financial Statements
About Account Number References
About Consolidating Account Ranges
In financial statements, Financial Reporter lists ranges of accounts in the order set in the financial report specification or (if not set in the specification) in the order you specify when printing.
You can sort accounts by any account segments, and you can specify a range of values for each segment you sort by. You can also sort by account group, using the formula \\acctgroup or by account-sorted group, using the formula \\acctgroupsort.
If your accounts have two segments, the account reference 100~120-A~B generates two possible account listings, depending on the sort order you specify:
- If accounts are sorted by segment 1, they are listed like this:
- 100-A
- 100-B
- 120-A
- 120-B
- If accounts are sorted by segment 2, they are listed
like this:
- 100-A
- 120-A
- 100-B
- 120-B
Specifying Order at Print Time or in the Default Row Specification
The default order for processing accounts is the order specified at print time on the Financial Statements screen (or the FR View screen when editing specifications).
You can also enforce the order of processing accounts in ranges for all or part of a report by specifying the order in the first column of the default row specification (immediately after the backslashes "\\").
You may process account numbers in any of the following orders:
- \\ACCTID (account number order)
- \\ACCT (account segment order)
- \\ACCTGROUP (account group order)
- \\ACSEGVALn (account segment #n order)
- \\Segment_desc (to list accounts by the segment with description Segment_desc. For example, \\REGION)
The order you specify determines:
- The order in which accounts in expanded account references are printed.
- The ease (and, consequently, the speed) with which the accounts can be retrieved by Financial Reporter.
In the following example, account numbers have two segments: a department segment and an account segment. The department segment is first (not recommended), and there are only two department codes in the ledger, but a large number of accounts. The first account segment in the ledger is 1000.
If Financial Reporter processes accounts in order by the account segment, it will only have to process accounts 1000 through 1100 (specified like this).
| A | B | C | D |
|---|---|---|---|
| \\ACCT | |||
| %-1000~1100 |
The accounts will appear in the following order on the report (by account segment, then by department):
- A-1000
- B-1000
- A-1100
- B-1100
If, on the other hand, Financial Reporter processes accounts in account number order (which lists the department segment first) it will have to scan each account in the ledger to see if it matches the range.
| A | B | C | D |
|---|---|---|---|
| \\ACCTID | |||
| %-1000~1100 |
The final report will also be in account number order, which, in this case, will be in department order for the indicated range.
- A-1000
- A-1100
- B-1000
- B-1100
The order of segments in an account number is defined by the account's structure code—not by the order of segments shown on the G/L Options screen in General Ledger. Consequently, if you have different structures that have different first segments, ACCTID order will produce odd results, and you should order accounts by a particular segment or by account group.
If you choose to print by the account segment, the order for processing is first by that account segment, and second by the complete account number (as defined by its structure).
If you print by the account group code, the order is first by account group, second by account segment code, and third by account number.
The default sort order remains in effect until you specify another sort order, or unless it is overridden in a specific account reference (see the next section).
Specifying Account Order for One Account Reference
You can choose to process a single account reference in a different order than indicated by a default row specification or by the report options on the Financial Statements screen.
You specify a processing order for an account reference by placing it immediately after the account reference Account reference | Order.
- 1000-% |ACCT uses account order, so processes only account 1000. Segment 2 will appear in any order.
- 1000-% |ACSEGVAL2 uses segment 2 order, so will scan all account numbers. However, segment 2 will be in order.
- 1000:3000[REGION] |ACCTID uses account number order for accounts that use the REGION account structure. Will only process particular accounts in the range.
Note: If the account reference specifies a range using a colon :, this reference will be processed in account number order unless you set an order for the reference using the | character (no matter what order is set in the Print dialog box or in the default row specification).
As you can see from these examples, the way you reference accounts can have a substantial impact on performance.
For information on specifying account references, see About Account Number References.