Article Objective: To assist users in navigating Active Ledger & Reporting to create a report.
Context: Active Ledger has various standard reports, as well as the ability to create your own report templates.
For more information on creating a firm standard report see the administration guide - Reporting - overview. 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.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
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Creating a new report
To create a new report navigate to the Reports screen in Active Ledger. From here 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 firms selections.
After selecting the appropriate report, a user will be presented with the report settings page. There are three sections on this page:
General options
The general settings fields are outlined below:
Report columns
In the columns section, a user 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 $ sign. These can be manually overridden, if required. This is useful when you wish to distinguish between actual and budget data. | Required |
Spread By | This will create 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. | Optional |
Primary Column (checkbox) | This is 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 | Only displays transactions after and including this date. Be sure to select a date within the dataset. | Optional |
By End Date | Only displays transactions before 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 knowledge article: Accounts - 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 knowledge article: Accounts - 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 are also able to add a year-to-date (YTD) column by using this feature. For example, if you wanted to see quarterly results for the 2024 FY and include a YTD column as it was not yet 30 June, you could do so by including a start and end date.
Pages
Active Ledger comes with a variety of customisable pages that can be used to generate a report:
For more information on adding and customising different page types see the knowledge article: Reporting - pages.
Generating a report template
There are four options when generating a report:
Alternatively, you can choose to Save Only, by pressing the save icon.
Viewing a report in Excel
Unlike many other systems, Active Ledger is able to maintain 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 get a pop-up, as well as a message at the bottom of the screen, indicating that the report is being formatted.
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 will appear after creating the data source as shown in the knowledge article: How to install the Excel add-in.
Saving a report template
Once you have customised the pages and layouts of your report, it is possible to save the report template for that client so it can be used again in the future.
A few things to note regarding saving a report template:
To save a report, there are two options:
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, you can 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 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.
