Why does the optional heading not show up when you generate a profit and loss account? I have asked for a report with multiple years and wanted to give it a unique heading but it will will only give me a heading based on the first column of the report. Same thing with the balance sheet.
The P&L statement allows you to add “comparative” columns to the first column. This means that it is a report about the first column but you can add other columns for comparison reasons but the statement is not about them.
Then what is the point of having an optional heading if you can’t use it??
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Are you using Manager on windows or mac? I am using it on a mac The description says it is optional but wont print what I type. I am doing a 5 year comparative P&L but the description keeps coming out as the period for the first column.
Windows 10. What version of manager are you using? Is what you are after what I have shown or something else? The description is what appears when you look at the report list, the title is what appears on the actual report, as per my previous post.
I already explained that the dates listed in the heading will be for the period in the first column because that is the one reported on. The other columns are just for comparison reasons, but not the core of the report.
Where you have circled on my system the description reads “5 Year Comparison” but the pdf reads " For the period from 1/11/22 to 31/10/23" which is not the description that I want. I understand that it is the period for the first column but that is not what the report is about and if there is supposed to be an optional description then that is what should appear on the pdf report. Seems like the program is not being flexible enough.
Forgot to mention that I am using version 22.9.26.402
Which is 100s of versions out of date
Update to the cuurent version
But it is what the report is about. In essence the additional columns have no role to play except being their to compare the first column with.
There is no optional heading, only description! The default Title is “Profit and Loss Statement.” @Vacuumdog may have written “optional heading” as “Title” to show that you can change it and description but they need to reflect what the report is about. In this case the first column is the content of the report while the others are optional and only to help compare with the report.
Have updated but makes no difference.
Then the system report is flawed. The result I have is a period from 2018 to 2023 being yearly columns so that comparatives can be made from year to year. The first column is not the content of the report. If that is how the system is set up and the only way it will work then it needs to be revisited by the systems analysts and programmers.
Maybe I need to look at creating a custom report which is really crazy as the only thing that needs to change is the narrative on the pdf.
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That it does not do what you like it to do does not make it flawed. The principle is that you would generate a P&L statement for a particular period and Manager does as expected. As a bonus it allows you to show P&L information of other periods for comparison reasons and you may notice that the amounts in the first column which constitutes the P&L statement are presented in bold print to distinguish with the optional additional columns.
The word optional already indicates that it is not essential for the report. Similar is explained in the guides at Prepare a quick profit and loss statement | Manager
So actually the first column IS the content of the Profit and Loss Statement and your point is mute.
ADDED: similar Accounting Applications either do not have this function or present it exactly as Manager as comparative.
The system is not flawed. I suggest that you copy the report to clipboard and rename and format it the way you want. I wont take you a long time to do that.
Please show the EDIT screen of your report
The first column can be used as an aggregate of the the remaining columns. For example you may show the overall result in the first column with divisional results in the other columns - like this:
Conversely, the first column can also be separate from the other columns in its own right, and is often used to show the most latest yearly result (the result that is the main focus of the report and why the dates in the heading reflect this and the characters in this column are in bold print) with other yearly results to compare to the latest result. This is a convention that is used extensively in accounting reports.
Like this:
Regarding the Description field: Note that the Description field does not appear any where in the heading but appears in the report list to give information about the report such as format etc. - Like this:
I agree with other forum members who have posted in this thread that the reports are operating as designed to produce reports that comply with popular accounting conventions.
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Personally I would prefer to not have the name tied to the left hand column range.
I have many reports using time periods in chronological order, as a result the most current column is moves to the right hand side.
I find the format useful to show quarterly totals of a financial year as well as annual totals for current and many past years.
The left hand side column being current only really makes sense if you only have one past years total for comparison. A some what limited data set in my experience.