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Custom Date Ranges

Posted: Thu Sep 26, 2019 11:55 am
by DBS_CBC
Is there a way to produce reports with custom date ranges such as income and expenses from March 18 to August 10 rather than by month to month?

Re: Custom Date Ranges

Posted: Thu Sep 26, 2019 12:16 pm
by NeilZ
DBS_CBC wrote:Is there a way to produce reports with custom date ranges such as income and expenses from March 18 to August 10 rather than by month to month?
It would have to be a locally created custom report. The standard reports reflect how most churches do their financial reporting which is monthly.

Re: Custom Date Ranges

Posted: Thu Sep 26, 2019 12:30 pm
by DBS_CBC
NeilZ wrote:
DBS_CBC wrote:Is there a way to produce reports with custom date ranges such as income and expenses from March 18 to August 10 rather than by month to month?
It would have to be a locally created custom report. The standard reports reflect how most churches do their financial reporting which is monthly.
Do you mean by using Excel or MS Access, etc.

Re: Custom Date Ranges

Posted: Thu Sep 26, 2019 12:45 pm
by Zorak
Custom Reports in Fund Accounting only give access to month/year balances and budgets. It doesn't report on individual transactions and therefore doesn't allow you to query against transaction dates.

Re: Custom Date Ranges

Posted: Thu Sep 26, 2019 2:10 pm
by DBS_CBC
Zorak wrote:Custom Reports in Fund Accounting only give access to month/year balances and budgets. It doesn't report on individual transactions and therefore doesn't allow you to query against transaction dates.
What is the rationale for limiting reports this way? We routinely have requirements to provide financial reports based on other than month/year balances. We have been running PC alongside our current software hoping to possibly convert over, but this is a significant limitation to our doing that.

Re: Custom Date Ranges

Posted: Thu Sep 26, 2019 3:20 pm
by NeilZ
DBS_CBC wrote:
Zorak wrote:Custom Reports in Fund Accounting only give access to month/year balances and budgets. It doesn't report on individual transactions and therefore doesn't allow you to query against transaction dates.
What is the rationale for limiting reports this way? We routinely have requirements to provide financial reports based on other than month/year balances. We have been running PC alongside our current software hoping to possibly convert over, but this is a significant limitation to our doing that.
Churches operate on a cash basis. Most churches have budgets based on a 12 month period, and have budgets setup to reflect a monthly spending budget. They need to see a monthly report of income and whether their expenses exceed that income.

In 20 years, and 5 different churches, I've not seen any requirement other than a monthly period report.

Re: Custom Date Ranges

Posted: Thu Sep 26, 2019 3:24 pm
by TAG185
My question too. I get asked by the pastor for previous ytd to compare with current ytd, for eg. jan-jun 12 2018 to compare jan-jun 2019. For example in the summer months, maybe income is dropping off and the trend is needed to anticipate where it is heading before the month's up, maybe to put a plug for reminding to give etc.

Re: Custom Date Ranges

Posted: Thu Sep 26, 2019 3:27 pm
by NeilZ
TAG185 wrote:My question too. I get asked by the pastor for previous ytd to compare with current ytd, for eg. jan-jun 12 2018 to compare jan-jun 2019. For example in the summer months, maybe income is dropping off and the trend is needed to anticipate where it is heading before the month's up, maybe to put a plug for reminding to give etc.
Doing a cutoff by day doesn't reflect anything differently than from the 1st of Jan to the 30th of June. Any trend will still be there.

Re: Custom Date Ranges

Posted: Thu Sep 26, 2019 5:21 pm
by DBS_CBC
NeilZ wrote:
TAG185 wrote:My question too. I get asked by the pastor for previous ytd to compare with current ytd, for eg. jan-jun 12 2018 to compare jan-jun 2019. For example in the summer months, maybe income is dropping off and the trend is needed to anticipate where it is heading before the month's up, maybe to put a plug for reminding to give etc.
Doing a cutoff by day doesn't reflect anything differently than from the 1st of Jan to the 30th of June. Any trend will still be there.

I have to respectfully differ with you on this. Our current software breaks the budget down by day. We have income at least weekly, and expenses posted throughout the week. We can print reports and analyze financial data over any date range we wish and find this extremely beneficial for much more that just developing trends. Is it that difficult provide date range flexibility in report generation?

Re: Custom Date Ranges

Posted: Thu Sep 26, 2019 6:46 pm
by NeilZ
DBS_CBC wrote:
NeilZ wrote:
TAG185 wrote:My question too. I get asked by the pastor for previous ytd to compare with current ytd, for eg. jan-jun 12 2018 to compare jan-jun 2019. For example in the summer months, maybe income is dropping off and the trend is needed to anticipate where it is heading before the month's up, maybe to put a plug for reminding to give etc.
Doing a cutoff by day doesn't reflect anything differently than from the 1st of Jan to the 30th of June. Any trend will still be there.

I have to respectfully differ with you on this. Our current software breaks the budget down by day. We have income at least weekly, and expenses posted throughout the week. We can print reports and analyze financial data over any date range we wish and find this extremely beneficial for much more that just developing trends. Is it that difficult provide date range flexibility in report generation?
Most churches have income weekly, as well was daily expenses. You run the report for the current month, and you get month to date reports.

Changes to reports for what you want could involve database changes, along with report changes. If you believe that this capability would enhance the workflow of the majority of churches using Powerchurch, send an email to wishlist@powerchurch.com listing the request, and showing how the request would enhance the reporting capability for churches, along with any other benefits you may see.