The number of pages of a particular page type that can be added to a report depends on the page template set up in the Admin Centre (for those with administrator access). For more information on page templates, see the administration guide: Reporting - page templates (for Admin users ONLY).

To add a new page, select + Add Page at the bottom of the screen and select the required page. To remove a page from a report, select the cross located on the right side of the page title.

This includes the following pages:

Presentation pages can only have the title customised. To customise the title, click on the Customise button and then select the checkbox for 'Customise Content?'.

Click on Edit Content and type the desired name. If you wish to revert back to the previous name, click on Revert to Master.

This includes the following pages:
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The financial pages can be customised in a number of ways to alter the layout.

1. Changing the disclosures display

Click on the dropdown menu of Disclosures Behaviour to show:

2. Swinging Behaviour

You can change how the swinging behaviour works. This determines whether the account will be displayed in a different location if it has a negative balance. An alternative name, account type and tax category can be chosen for when the account swings.

For example, if the entity has a GST liability in 2022 however in the 2023 financial year they had a payable, the GST account would swing from being a liability in the 2022 financial year to being an asset in the 2023 financial year. This ensures the account is represented as a positive figure on the page.

The options for swinging are:

Note: This is only available for certain accounts.

3. Changing the page layout

You are able to customise the layout of financial statement pages in the Admin Centre using 'Labels' to tag accounts. This is useful for creating concise Profit and Loss reports. If any layouts have been created by an administrator they will be available in the Page Layout dropdown menu. For more information, see the administration guide: Reporting - page layouts (for Admin users ONLY).

4. Creating custom columns

To maximise flexibility you can create different columns within a page template separate from the overall report template. This is particularly useful when you want to show a higher frequency of profit and loss but only a yearly balance sheet comparative, or visa-versa. To do this click the Click to create custom columns button.

This will display a column layout exactly the same as the column layout options mentioned in the knowledge article: Reporting - creating a report. This column layout and dataset selection will override the selection made for the overall report. This gives you the flexibility to create multiple pages to display various financial information.

WARNING: Ensure that the correct datasets are used. If you use different datasets, divisions or filters for the Profit and Loss and the Balance Sheet the financial statements may be out of balance.

To revert the columns back to the original columns select the Revert to standard report columns button.

5. Layout

To customise the layout of the report, row headers can be expanded or collapsed to change the amount of information displayed. To expand or collapse an account click on the arrow next to the account.

​Note: By default, all account headers will be expanded. If you wish to change the default settings of a report, see the administration guide: Reporting - report masters (for Admin users ONLY).

Sub-header accounts can be shown in the Notes to the Financial Statements when they are collapsed by checking the checkbox in the 'Show in Note' column. The following example shows both the collapsed and expanded options, as well as putting the detail of 'Income' into a Note.

You are also able to further customise the layout by using the visibility toggle (displayed as an eye icon) on headers. Clicking on the icon brings up three options:

1. Changing the profit display

Click on the dropdown menu of the Profit and Loss Display Option to show:

2. Separating trading accounts or divisions

To separate trading accounts or divisions from the Profit and Loss, use the Display Trading Account Pages dropdown menu, which will give you the option of separating by trading accounts or divisions, or leaving as none. This will ensure each trading account or division is printed on a separate page. The trading account or division balances will cross reference to the Profit and Loss in the area chosen when the trading account/division was created (i.e. Income, Other Income or None). For more information, see the knowledge articles: Accounts - trading accounts and Accounts - divisions. Each trading account or division will inherit the column layout applied under the column section outlined above.

1. Changing the report variation

Click on the dropdown menu of Report Variation to show:

The Notes to the Financial Statements page can be customised in a number of ways:

1. Choosing an alternative reporting suite

Active Ledger has two standard reporting suites by default for AU and three for NZ, as below:

For more information on creating custom firm notes, see the administration guide: Reporting - notes (for Admin users ONLY). A different set of notes can be selected by choosing from the Reporting Suite dropdown menu.

2. Selecting accounting policies and disclosures

The Automatically Select Accounting Policies tick box is checked by default. This uses a set of assigned rules to check which policies to display. To manually override these rules, uncheck the tick box.

After unticking the checkbox a list of available policies will be displayed. The list of relevant disclosures will always be expanded. The policies and disclosures available will change depending on the selection from the Reporting Suite dropdown menu. You can change the display status for each of the policies to one of the following:

If more than one variant is available for a particular note then you can select which variant you want to display from the dropdown menu in the variant column, as shown below:

3. Manually linking disclosures

It is also possible to manually add disclosures in the Profit and Loss, Balance Sheet and Statement of Changes in Equity by using the Click to Link option. This will bring up a dialogue screen with a dropdown menu of disclosures available for the chosen reporting suite.

4. Editing a policy or disclosure

It is possible to edit a policy or disclosure at the report template level. To do this, tick the Customise checkbox, which will bring up an Edit Content button.

You are then able to customise the content. For more information on adding and editing content at a firm level, see the administrator article: Reporting - content editor (for Admin users ONLY). At any point you are able to switch back to the original content by using the Revert to Master button. To remove the changes, simply untick the Customise checkbox in the policy/disclosure list.

5. Using policy or disclosure content fields

Standard Business Fitness content fields are available to be filled out under various GPFR policies and disclosures. Additionally, any other content fields added by the firms administrator users will be available. An example of a standard Business Fitness content field is as below.

This information will then be rendered in the generated report.

If the field is mandatory, an error will appear in the generated report.

Note: The mandatory option, and subsequent warning, simply checks whether you have interacted with the field or not (which could be as simple as ticking or unticking a checkbox). It does not monitor whether you have actually completed the field.

For more information on accounting policies and disclosures and content fields, see the knowledge article: Reporting - accounting policies and disclosures and administrator article: Reporting - content fields (for Admin users ONLY).

When adding a Depreciation page, by default the Year of the report will be set to the year chosen as the dataset in the first Column of the report and the Report will be set to Full Summary (both taxation and accounting depreciation). It is possible to customise both options as well selecting which Asset Groups to display.

Note: If selecting an option different from the default it is advised that you change the Title (see the 'Customising the title' section above) to reflect the change (e.g. Depreciation 2020, Depreciation Taxation) as headers do not appear in the report.

It is possible to add a blank page to reports. Blank pages can have the title and content customised. For more information on adding content at an admin level, see the administrator article: Reporting - content editor (for Admin users ONLY).

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This includes the following pages:

The Compilation Report contains the option to show an independence clause. To add content to the clause, simply tick the Show Independence Clause checkbox, which will bring up a text box for you to enter the relevant information.

This includes the following pages:

Story board pages display a graphical representation of the data depending on the page type chosen. Story board pages can have the title and content customised.

Once you have added and customised all the relevant pages, you can go ahead and generate the report (return to the knowledge article: Reporting - creating a report).