Overview

This style of report is generated automatically when creating the report by allocating an account to a division. There are three steps in this process:

1. Creating a division 
2. Allocating an account to a division classification 
3. Producing a report with divisional report settings.

A sample of a division report layout is as follows. 

Creating a division

To create a new division, navigate to the Divisions section from the File Settings menu from any screen within the client file.

You will be directed to a screen where all available divisions are listed. To create a new division, select +New Division. 

You will need to give the division both a code and a name. You can then select the profit and loss location. There are three options; income, other income or none. This will determine where the summary will appear on the profit and loss. You can also choose to select an alternative page title for the division report. By default if the field is left blank the page title will just be the name of the division.

If you have tracking categories already set up in the client accounting file, you can choose to link these to this file. This has the added benefit of not having to manually select the accounts to allocate to the tracking category. Clicking on the Link to Source Division button will bring up the option to select the relevant source and associated divisions available for that source. Once selected click the Add button to link the division. 

Note: Multiple divisions can be chosen from multiple sources.

Once completed click the Add Division button to create the division. 

You will now see it appear in the list. 

Allocating an account to a division

If you have chosen to link to a source division as described above, you are only required to select any additional accounts you wish to report within that division.   

To allocate an account to a division, navigate to the Accounts screen and edit an account by selecting the edit icon to the right of the relevant account. 

On the account edit screen, select the required division from the drop-down list.

There are two options, you can either select the default behaviour of the whole Active Ledger account or select the behaviour of a single source account. This is useful for sub-accounts or linked accounts that may have different properties. 

Note: An account can be added to both a division and a trading account. For more information on trading accounts, see the knowledge article: Accounts - trading accounts. This allows you the most flexibility when reporting. 

After editing the account, select the Save Account button. The account has now been allocated to that division for the purpose of reporting.

Divisional and trading account view

To allocate multiple accounts to divisions quickly you can use the 'Divisional and Trading Accounts' view in the Accounts screen. For more information, see the knowledge article: Accounts - overview. 

Producing a report with divisional report settings

To produce a report with divisional report settings, see the knowledge article: Reporting - creating a report. 

Divisions vs trading accounts

You can also use trading accounts in a similar way. 

For a comparison between the two, refer to the table below. See the knowledge article: Accounts: trading accounts for more information.