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How to create a multi-company reports

jwest — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 18:24:00 GMT

HOW TO CREATE MULTI-COMPANY REPORTS

Sometimes you may need reports that will provide information on more than one company. The standard reports in FAS Asset Accounting will only cover a single company, and that is the one that is open when you launch the report. However, you can create a custom report that will cover multiple companies, as long as the companies are included in the same database.

First, create a custom report through the FAS Report Writer. Creating a multi-company report in the FAS Report Writer is almost identical to creating a report for a single company. However, there are several steps that will need to be done differently.

In Step 3 of the Report Helper, deselect the check box to have the Company Name show on the report. If a report has information on multiple companies, it would not make sense to have only one of the companies in report title.

In Step 4, select Company Name as one of the report columns. This will allow a listing of the company with the asset. Finally, in Step 5, select Company Name as one of the sorts for the report, if that is needed.

After creating the report, there are two different approaches to have the report cover multiple companies. The first approach allows the selection of specific companies from the database to include in the report. The second will allow the inclusion of all companies in the database in the report.

Approach 1: Selecting Specific Companies

Once the report is finished in FAS Report Writer, the program will automatically launch Design tab in Crystal ReportsTM. From the top menu bar, select Report\Select Expert. Go to the tab marked "Company Information.Company Name." It indicates that the Company Name represents the company that was open when FAS Report Writer was launched. Go to the box that has "is" in the window, hit the pull-down arrow, and select "is one of." Go to the box immediately on the right, hit the pull-down arrow, and select the desired companies, pushing the Add button after making each selection. Then hit the "OK" button, run the preview, and save the report.

Approach 2: Selecting All Companies in a Database

If you want the report to display all of the companies in a database, you can accomplish that in one step. Open Select Expert as described above. When you go into Select Expert, select the "Company Information.Company Name" tab. Then go to the box that has "is" in the window, hit the pull-down arrow, and select "is not like." In the last box, type "-*". This will exclude "companies" that are actually templates which are set up in the database each time you create a company.

Regardless of which approach you chose, once you have created the report, you can launch it as you would any other custom report. If you launch it in FAS, you will see this dialog box:

Just select to "Run the report as is," and you will get your multi-company report.

Troubleshooting Depreciation This Run

jwest — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 23:54:00 GMT

The value that appears in the DEPRECIATION THIS RUN column on the Depreciation Expense Report is a common cause for concern among FAS Asset Accounting users. Troubleshooting this report field is a simple matter. All it requires is a basic understanding of what the data in this field truly represents.

The first thing to keep in mind is that this column is, by nature, a volatile one. There is no set interval of time that represents a depreciation run. A company that commonly does their depreciation yearly is going to show a different Depreciation This Run than a company that does depreciation quarterly or monthly, but this still does not guarantee that a run is always going to be that period of time. Fortunately, the Depreciation Expense Report gives you all the data necessary to find out what period of time the Depreciation This Run column is representing.

Depreciation Expense Report:

Above, you can see a sample Depreciation Expense Report. The reported asset has a DEPRECIATION THIS RUN of $25.49. For the purposes of this article, let's assume that Westfields Bakery depreciates their assets on a monthly basis. Looking at this report, we know that FAS Asset Accounting is reporting a monthly depreciation calculation. Why?

There are two dates that are circled on this report. One is the date under the Prior Thru column, and one is the "as of" date at the top of the report. The date displayed in the Prior Thru-column represents the previous time that depreciation was run on the asset. The "as of" date is the date that was entered during your current depreciation calculation. The depreciation calculated in the time between these two dates is your DEPRECIATION THIS RUN.

So, Westfields Bakery is satisfied with their depreciation for January 2008 and decides to book it to their ledger. Some time passes, and after booking their May 2008 depreciation, they realize that they need to reprint that January 2008 report. They depreciate their asset back to January 2008 and draw up their report and see the result below:

Where did that Depreciation This Run of $4519.69 come from? That definitely doesn't match the value of $25.49 on the previous report. Looking at the top of the report, we can see that the "as of" date is correct, but what about the Prior Thru? It no longer says 12/31/2007 like it did in the previous report. In fact, it's blank. What happened?

Westfields Bakery had already depreciated their assets to May when they decided they needed to reprint the January report. They depreciated directly to January. The problem is DEPRECIATION THIS RUN is not a stored field, and they didn't give FAS Asset Accounting a starting point for that depreciation. When you're depreciating forward, the program is always going to have a starting point for the calculation: the previous month's depreciation date.

When you depreciate to a past period, FAS Asset Accounting doesn't have a prior date to pull from. Therefore, it's going to start its calculation from one of the three firm points of data that the program has, each of which is circled on the screenshot below:

Most commonly, this is going to be the Service Date of the asset, which is shown in the second report screenshot. When the program calculates forward from the Service Date, the Prior Thru date is going to be blank. The other two possible starting points are the Beginning Date or the Period Close date. FAS Asset Accounting will start from the most recent of these dates that is available.

So how do we fix this problem? The solution is quite simple. We need to give FAS Asset Accounting an actual starting point for its calculation. Since Westfields Bakery does their depreciation monthly, the starting point we need is going to be December 2007.

Once this depreciation calculation completes, you will be given a report that looks somewhat similar to the problem report we had in January:

Don't worry about this report looking wrong. The data in it is irrelevant to what we're doing. After completing this calculation, FAS Asset Accounting now has a starting point for our January calculation. Let's depreciate to January and see what happens:

As you can see, we once again have a proper interval for our Depreciation This Run. With the Prior Thru reading 12/31/2007, the report shows the value we would expect: $25.49. Problem solved.

Any time you see a value under Depreciation This Run, be it under an active asset or a disposal, the very first thing you should look at is the date in the Prior Thru column. If you depreciate yearly, it should display the end of the previous year. If you depreciate quarterly, it should display the end of the previous quarter. If this date is ever wrong, you know immediately that the program isn't giving you the interval you would expect. Depreciate your assets to the end of the previous period, and then the current period, and the issue will nearly always resolve itself.

Understanding the History Tab

jwest — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 23:53:00 GMT

In FAS Asset Accounting you have the ability to track user-created events by logging their History. An event is anything from creating an asset to running depreciation in the FAS Asset Accounting application. By default, event logging of a company is turned on when that company is created. To turn off historical event logging, you go to “File | Company Utilities | History | Setup History” and uncheck any checked entries in the “Setup History” dialog box.

The History Tab

Once you have opened a company and when you are in the “Detailed View” of an asset, you have access to the “History Tab.”
Note: You get in to the “Detailed View” of an asset by double-clicking an asset in the “Group View” or by selecting an asset and selecting “Detail View” from the Asset menu.

Here we are in the “Detailed View” of system number 7 in the Westfields Bakery demo company.

Notice the 6 asset tabs that are displayed above the Co Asset No.

Click on the History tab and you see a log of all events concerning system number 7. The History Tab opens in the “Summary View.” This view displays a list view of all tracked events.

Double-clicking an event displays the “Detail View” of a specific event.

The History Tab displays “Action, Date, Time, User, and Description” information for an asset.

“Action” lists the specific action that a user performed on the asset. The following chart explains all tracked actions that one can perform on an asset.

Note: The application displays the CHANGE event code whenever you make a change to either a book-related field or a general information field. The CHANGE event code is also displayed when you perform a 168(k) Allowance Switch or a MACRS Convention Switch.

You will not see any asset calculations in the History Tab as this information is not tracked in the event log.

For more information on the History Tab, please refer to the Viewing Asset History section of the FAS Asset Accounting user’s guide.

Partial Disposals

jwest — Thu, 01 May 2008 23:50:00 GMT

FAS Asset Accounting enables you to partially dispose or transfer an asset within a company. We will take a look at partial transfers at a later time. For this article, let’s take a look at partial disposals.

A partial disposal is the act of disposing of a percentage or portion of an asset. With the wide range and complexity of assets one can have, it’s not at all uncommon to get rid of a portion or part of an asset. Whether you determine that a portion of an asset has become useless, or you simply decide that selling part of an asset would be profitable, FAS allows you to track your partial disposals.

Below you will see a print screen of the “Detailed View” of an asset in “Westfields Bakery”:

Detailed View of System Number 170

Looking at the “Main” tab we can see that this is a non-disposed, active asset. If the asset were already disposed of, the program’s title bar would display the word “Disposed” to the right of the system number on the blue bar. If we click on the “Disposal” tab, we can do a full or partial disposal of this asset.

When doing a partial disposal or any disposal, you must first give the asset a disposal date. Once a date has been entered in the “Disposal Date” field, we can move on to the other fields on the “Disposal” tab. The “Disposal Method” field is used to tell the program how you got rid of the asset. For this example I chose “Sale” and then moved on to the next field.

The “Partial Disposal” field is used to tell the program if you are disposing part of the asset.

After choosing “Yes” in the “Partial Disposal” box and pressing the “Enter” button of your keyboard, the “Partial Disposal” dialog box pops up on your screen. This dialog box allows you to enter the dollar value that represents the disposed of portion of the asset.

In the “Book” field you can choose which book’s acquired value you are basing the partial disposal on, as the dollar amount can be different for each accounting book. The program will subtract a percentage of the acquired value of the other open books that is based on the disposal amount you choose for the initial book. In this example I disposed of $5000.00, based on the Tax book’s acquired value.

The “Description” field can be used as a way of documenting the process.

When a description is entered or when you click in the “Description” field box, a preview of the assets, new and old, can be seen in the bottom portion of the “Partial Disposal” dialog box.

This process creates two new assets and places the original asset in an inactive state for tracking purposes. The “Disposal Portion” gets the extension of “001,” the “Remaining Active Asset” gets the extension of “002,” and the “Original Asset” maintains the original extension of “000.” Click “OK” to close the “Partial Disposal” dialog box.

If there are any proceeds, cash or non-cash, enter the dollar amount in the respective box, and then move on to the “Expense of Sale” box. If you incurred any expense with the sale of this item, such as running a newspaper ad, enter that amount here. Once that is done, click the Save button to complete the partial disposal.

Use the “<>” buttons to navigate between the “Disposed of” and “Remaining Active” assets.

For more information on partial disposals, please refer to the Performing Asset Functions section of the FAS Asset Accounting user’s guide for more details.

How to Create Groups

jwest — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 00:49:00 GMT

With FAS Asset Accounting, you can create groups of assets based on any attributes that are specified in the general information fields or book-related fields. Additionally, within these groups, you can specify up to three sorts, if needed. Groups are created using the Group Manager tool, which can be used to create a group, edit an existing group, or delete groups. These groups then can be used to specify ranges and sorts on standard reports, depreciation, and to establish criteria for extractions or custom exports.

Creating a group using Group Manager
First, from either the Group or Detail View, select Customize/Group Manager from the menu bar. This will display the Group Manager window.

For example, we want to create a group that would display the assets that are stored in Store 2 of the Westfield Bakery – Demo Company, and to sort it by the G/L Asset Account Number. Enter Store 2 in the Group Name field, and click the Add button. This will display the following window.

Note, that you have two tabs. The first is the Group Criteria tab. This tab will specify what assets are to be included in the group.

First, go to the window that is highlighted in blue and click on the pull-down arrow. This will bring up a list of all fields that can be used to create the group. In this case, we will select Location. Note, underneath this field is the Book Selector field, which will only be enabled if you select a book- specific field, such as Estimated Life or Current Year to Date Depreciation.

The second window from the left is the Operator Selector field. This field specifies the relationship with contents of the third and fourth windows, which is were the data is entered. In this case, the default statement is will be used, but there are other operators such as Is greater than, is less than, is not, and so forth. To see the complete list, click in that field, and then click the pull-down arrow, and select the desired operator.

As described earlier, the third and fourth windows are the Data Selector fields. In this case, Store 2 will be entered. If there is a SmartList for the selected field, a pull-down arrow will appear when the field is selected. Note, that there are two Data Selector fields. The second would be used if is between was selected in the Operator Selector field. So, if a list of assets placed in service between two dates is desired, both fields would be used.

Once all of the data has been added to the Data Selector fields, click the Add button to the right of the Include assets that meet the following conditions window This will copy the information from the fields into this window, which will include all ranging and sorting information when the group is completed. If additional Group information is needed, it can be entered at this time. For example, if we needed to limit the group to “Class is ME,” we would now enter this. Do not overdo the Group Criteria. If the group has too many criteria statements, it will exclude all assets!

Sort Criteria
Since the only Group Criteria that is needed is the “Location is Store 2,” we will proceed to the second tab, which is Sort Criteria. Remember that a sort by G/L Asset Account Number is needed. When the Sort Criteria tab is selected, this window appears.

First, observe that what was added in the Group Criteria tab is still included in the Include assets that meet the following conditions window. The organization of this tab is similar to the Group Criteria tab. The first window on the left is where the sorting field is selected. The second window allows the choice of in ascending order or in descending order. The third window allows the choice of subtotals or no subtotals. In this example, G/L Asset Acct number in ascending order subtotals has been selected. Push the Add button to move these selections into the Include assets that meet the following conditions window.

At this point, if a secondary sort is required, it would be added the same way. Remember that there is a limit of three sorts per group, as noted in the Sort Criteria tab. By default, the final sorts are by System Number and Extension, so normally you do not have to specify them. Once all of the Group Criteria and Sort Criteria are in the Include assets that meet the following conditions window, click the OK button that is to the left and below. This will save the group, and the original Group Manager window will appear, with the new group on the list.

Now that the group is created, how can it be used? The first use would be to show the group in Group View. To do this, click on the Group window near the top center of the Group View, and select the pull-down arrow. A list of all groups in the company will appear in a pull-down menu, including Store 2, which was just created.

If Store 2 is selected, those assets will appear with the GL Asset Account Number sort.

This is also used in reports. Select Reports\Standard Reports\File Listing from the menu bar. The Report Definition dialog box will appear with File Listing selected as the report:

As shown above, Store 2 can be selected as the group to run the report. This will limit the range of the report to assets in Store 2, and will sort the assets by the G/L Asset Account Number.

Groups can also be used in specifying Custom Exports, Asset Extractions, and inventories if you are using Asset Inventory. All of these functions require a group to set the range of assets to include.

The Group Manager is a very powerful, but easy-to-use feature of Asset Accounting. It allows you to easily set up groups that you can use over again to run reports—simplifying the report creation process. Proper use of Group Manager will allow you to maximize what you can accomplish in Asset Accounting.