A well known technique to provide Division and Department reporting is to use GL Analysis Codes.
These analysis codes are called differently in each accounting product
- Cost centres or Jobs (in MYOB)
- Tracking Codes (in Xero)
- Class / Locations (in QuickBooks Online)
- Sub-Accounts in Acumatica
This requires you to have allocated every transaction or line of a transaction to a Division / Department, and that is a lot of data entry and can result in errors.
Using BI4Cloud Business Intelligence we provide an alternative method that we call GL Custom Lists where you Tag each GL account to belong to a Department or Division.
Then in BI4Cloud easily report on monthly Actuals v Budgets by Division. This is a great option for States or a small number of Divisions.
For a complete review of the various options available to account for Divisions :
- MYOB users see Accounting for Divisions or Cost Centres Using MYOB.
- XERO users see Xero : Tracking Code Report and Budgets
- QuickBooks users see QuickBooks Online: Location and Class Reporting
Using GL Custom List Labels / GL Tags
Login to BI4Cloud as the main BI Account Admin User so that you see the Admin screen or if already logged in go to the Company page.
1. Click on the Cool Stuff button
(Available in the Enterprise 5 user and above version of BI4Cloud. See Below for Initial Setup of Cool Stuff.)
2. Click on GL Custom Lists
3. Select the Company (if you have multiple Companies linked up)
4. Give the GL custom List a name e.g. Division, Branch, State
5. Allocate each P&L account to a Segment, Division, State, etc.
Select the GL accounts you wish to allocate to a Division using the Search/Filter field.
For example enter "4-" to select all GL account starting with "4-".
Then assign segments.
6. Assign Values to each GL Account then Click Exit & Save. Highlighted options allow you make new, edit and reset values.
Run Accounts Profit & Loss [base] selecting tab P&L by MTH
A pivot report with Accounts in rows and Months in columns Is shown.
Create a Copy
Select the edit pencil
Open Accounts table and drag the Reporting Segment and replace the AccountName (hover to the right of AccountName to delete it). Ensure the indent under Format Totals remains. Press Save
The GL tags values replace accounts. Ensure to press Save in the Blue menu to save the workbook.
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Divisions as Columns
Divisions as Columns - Actual v Budget
Monthly Pivot - Actual v Budget P&L Filtered by One Division
Monthly Pivot - Divisional Summary P&L
Visualisations can also work well - Track Monthly Income by Division
Initial Setup
This Feature is available for users on enterprise 5 ( Cool Stuff) or above. We allow you to allocate each P&L account to up to 3 different Custom Lists in BI and store this outside of your MYOB or XERO file. To turn this feature on: