Customize Layout is a function in Cloud Accounting which allows you to customize and organize your own financial report presentation based on available account types. This function is only available in Profit and Loss Statement and Balance Sheet Statement.
Scenario
You had added a new Account Type – “OTHER SALES”, which is used to keep record of any other sales which is not related to your core business. However, the presentation of Profit and Loss Statement is wrong if you did not organize where to show your “OTHER SALES”.
Example of Profit and Loss statement presentation by default after adding a new Account Type:
You will see that by default the “OTHER SALES” is not parked around the Sales Section at the top, which will cause the presentation and calculation of your Profit and Loss to be incorrect.
Arrange Account Row
To get the correct presentation based on the scenario provided, you will have to make some simple customization to the presentation layout of your Profit and Loss Statement.
1. Click on Customize Layout.
2. It will direct you to Profit and Loss Statement Layout page. Click on “+New” to create a new layout.
3. Provide a name for this layout.
4. You can see the default layout arrangement of the account codes at the grid. This is also the main area that you will perform your layout customization. Each Account Type will be presented by an Account Row.
5. Look for “OTHER SALES” from the grid. Then drag it and place it to the section that you wish to present it. In this case, you would like to place it between your “SALES” and “SALES ADJUSTMENTS”.
6. You will also need to specify the positive value of your account type. Select “OTHER SALES” and tick on “Credit Positive”. This is because for any usual sales performed, the amount will be credited into your sales account (CR Sales, DR Customer).
*For Discount / Sales Return or Expenses is usually Debit Positive.
7. After that you will need to amend the formula for “NET SALES”. This is because the current formula for “NET SALES” is “SALES – SALES ADJUSTMENT” only and you would like to include this “OTHER SALES” into the formula to get the correct net sales.
8. Click on “NET SALES” and amend the Formula by adding “OS” into it. It should now be SL + OS – SA (SALES + OTHER SALES – SALES ADJUSTMENT).
9. To identify variables that you can put into the formula, for instance OS represents “OTHER SALES”, just click on the “OTHER SALES” and refer to the “NAME” field.
10. Click “Save” after you had done your changes. You can now go back to your Profit and Loss Statement and choose this layout to inquiry. You will now see that your “OTHER SALES” is presented in between your “SALES” and “SALES ADJUSTMENT” as you had placed.
Adding Formula Row
After you had placed “OTHER SALES” correctly, you also will like to have a subtotal showing your total sales, which is “SALES + OTHER SALES”. Since Net Sales will deduct Sales Adjustment and does not fulfil the requirement, you will have to create your own subtotal by using Formula Row.
1. Go back to Customize Layout page and click “Edit” on the layout that you had created.
2. Click on “+ Formula Row” to add a formula row into the grid.
3. Provide Name, Description and Formula for this Formula Row. For the formula, since you would like to have “SALES” + “OTHER SALES”, put in “SL + OS” into the formula field.
*You may refer previous section “Arrange Account Row” step 9 on how to get the code to fill in the formula.
4. Drag and place the Formula Row to where you wish to see this subtotal. For this scenario, it will be placed after “OTHER SALES”.
5. Click “Save” after you had done your changes. You can now go back to your Profit and Loss Statement and choose this layout to inquiry. You will now see a new subtotal “TOTAL SALES” appear on your Profit and Loss Statement.
Adding Group Row
Sometimes you might want to group certain of your rows into a group. In this case, you can use Group Row to handle it. Group Row is an optional row as you can see from the default layout, no Group Row is being applied by the system to present the Profit and Loss Statement. It is more for organizing multiple Account or Formula Rows and to present it better.
1. Go back to “Customize Layout” page and click “Edit” on the layout that you had created.
2. Click on “+ Group Row” to add a Group Row into the grid.
3. Provide Name, Description and Total Description (if you wish to display Total) for this Group Row.
4. Drag and place the Group Row to where you wish to see this grouping. You can also drag any Account Row and Formula Row into this Group Row to grouped under this grouping. Any Account Row or Formula Row that is placed into the Group Row will have a slight indent on the left.
5. Click “Save” after you had done your changes. You can now go back to your Profit and Loss Statement and choose this layout to inquiry. You will now see your “SALES”, “OTHER SALES” and “TOTAL SALES” being grouped under “MY SALES”.
*Group Row is extremely useful if you wish to group different Accounts based on different purpose, type, categories etc. You will be able to present your Profit and Loss Statement better with proper organization.
*Whenever you delete a Group Row when modifying the layout, it will also delete the Account Row and Formula Row in that group. Remember to ungroup those rows first if you do not intend to delete those rows.
The steps above also apply to Balance Sheet Statement, another financial report that you can customize the layout.