Comparing data-Inc & Exp. Report

[SBCTrustee]

Hello Everyone,

I don't understand what the Income & expense (P & L) report calculates. Here is what I am trying to understand. My Board meets monthly. They want to see how our Income & expenses compare with our objectives.

Let's say that the actual calender month is July. They want to review June's results at our July meeting. I am having trouble understanding what does the current month & the Current Budget refer to June or July? Iam selecting the wrong month? In my example I would have selected From June 05 to June 05.

What am I doing wrong? I am getting zeros as the current amounts!!

Much Thanks for your help.

Tom

[foxygramps]

It looks as if your starting and ending months are both June. Try June 05 to July 05. That should solve your problem.

[SBCTrustee]

Hello Everyone,
Thanks for your input, but I am still somewhat confused. What I am seeking is a way to report on a previouse month say June, while we are actually in Jul, Say July 15th. I want to see my P & L to show July 1 to July 15 in the current col. I want to see Jan- June in the YTD col., etc.

Also, how would I be able to show just the results of June 1-June 30 in July?

Thanks for searching for an answer for me. I have a Board meeting Aug 8, and I want to show our July 1- July 31 & also Jan 1 to July 31 results.

You "guys" are the greatest!!!!

Tom

[Jeff]

Your not going to get what you want. The month range is to select the range of months in the current period column. The year to date range is then determined by the ending month of your selection.

In your example if you select June - July 2005 as the months to run the report for the current period will show any transactions posted for June 2005 & July 2005. The year to date column will show transactions from January 2005 through July 2005, assuming a calendar fiscal year.

The common use of these options would be to run the report for May - June (2nd quarter) and then year to date would be January through June.

[tborgal]

Thanks for searching for an answer for me. I have a Board meeting Aug 8, and I want to show our July 1- July 31 & also Jan 1 to July 31 results.


The above report should work as you want if you select July 2005 to July 2005 and select in column 2 "Year to Date Actual" in the "Income and Expense Satement" report.

[SBCTrustee]

Hello Everyone,

In light of the responses that I received, then does the Budget Report do the following:

If the current month is July, & I want to have a report showing June 1- June 30 would the current month show june's only & the year to date show Jan 1- June 30 if I select from June to June on the Budget Report? ( I am not now talking about the Income & Expense Report. I am now referring to the Budget Report)!!

Believe me I am not trying to trip up anybody. I just need to know what numbers I am dealing with!!

Thanks
Tom

[Jeff]

Don't worry so much about the current month is, once your report selection is made it is not used by the report in any way. All the current month does is provide the default month when entering, posting, and running reports. Once you make your selection, it has no impact on the report or the process.

For example, if your current month is July. When you run the budget report the range of month will default to July because your current month is July. If you change the months to June through June then the current period column will be June and the YtoD amounts will be January to June.

Same holds true for the I & E report. The initially selected months will be July to July. If you change the month range to June to June, only June entries will be in the current period and the YtoD will be Januray to June.

What I meant by you could get what you wanted your post said you wanted the current month to be June 1 to July 15 and the YtoD to be January to June. The YtoD is always through the "TO" month of the specified range.

In version 9 you can now have up to 12 months open at any time. The current month is just a method to keep you from having to change the month each time you have to deal with an accounting month. If your current month is July and you run across 10 journal entries that need to be posted to June, you can temporialy change your accounting month to June so you don't have to change it each for each transaction. When you are done you can change it to July or any other month that you can currently post to.

I can see where your confusion is coming from. The months selected on the report options dialog set the current period column on the report. The term current period is largly just beacuse it is what we have always called it. The month range for the current period is usually displayed in the report header.

People have tried to read more into the current month than it is. The current month is only the default month displayed when running reports, entering transactions and posting. You can change the default month at any time to any open month.

[tborgal]

Jeff,

I don't find that to be true with the Budget report. No matter what I have for a current month the Y to D column is always January to the last data entered into Power Church for that fiscal year. I have just tried what you say and the Y to D is thru Aug 1 ( the last day of data on my system ) no matter what month I select for the report or what month the current month is. Maybe I'm missing something in what you are saying.

[SBCTrustee]

Hello Everyone,

I must say that Jeff & others have really been helful. I now think that I have a better handle on the Income & Exp. Report.

I do wish to clarify one thing. I was not referring to the working month in my example. I was referring to the actual physical calender month.

I do wish the report would have calculated the percentage variance from the budget instead of the way it does. It would be nice if this could have been selectable i.e. % variance from ytd budget, % variance from previous month or year, etc. It would be nice if more reports would allow users to change titles or sub-titles i.e. the Budget Report. It would be nice if there was a backup reminder dilog say before closing the month.

We have been using PC+ V.9 for almost 12 months now, & the more I use it, the more I like it.

Tom

[Jeff]

Tom,

On the budget report you have 2 options. The second column can be either annual budget or year to date budget. The default setting is to display the annual budget. You are correct in that the annual budget is everything posted in the fiscal year of the "to" month. The YtoD should be the everything up to the and including the "to" month.

[tborgal]

Another DAH on my part. Wasn't paying attention to the radio buttons on the options page.