The Management Snapshot is actually a generalized method of creating custom reports using either the balances or the change in period from any General Ledger Accounts. The time period that it covers is user selected when each of the reports is run.

All of the reports are user defined. You must enter the definition in, General Ledger File Maintenance, Edit Financial Report Formats. You can define as many of these reports as you like.

An example of a report that you can produce is a Net Quick Assets Report.

Your Net Quick Assets are the total of your Cash, Marketable Securities and Accounts Receivable, minus your total Current Liabilities. The amount of your Net Quick Assets provides a good indication of how well you will be able to pay your bills. This is the data that is used to calculate your Quick Ratio. (Your Quick Ratio is your Quick Assets divided by your Current Liabilities).

In order to define the report, go to General Ledger File Maintenance, Edit Financial Report Formats. Press <Enter> to get a new Format Number Assigned. Then enter a Title for your report.

Press <Enter> or <Esc> and you will be brought to the following screen:

Press <Enter> to get a New Line.

The Column Designator (A) is automatically assigned by the system.

There are up to three lines of Heading Information that can be entered. These lines are limited in length to help you with formatting.

You have the ability to have the report reverse the sign of the Account, e.g. if you are showing A/P, which is normally a Credit Balance, you would say yes to Reverse Sign. If you were showing Cash or A/R, which are normally a Debit Balance, you would say no to Reverse Sign.

You also have the ability to show the Balance in the Account at the end of the period, or the Change in Period. For Balance Sheet Accounts, you would normally want to report on Balances, while for Sales and Expense Accounts, the Change in Period would be more useful.

We’ve selected a Title for our Quick Assets Column above. Now let’s select the Accounts to include in the category.

Press <Enter> to select a New Line. You will see this screen:

Select the Beginning G/L Account in the Range.

Next, select the end of the G/L Account Range then press <Esc> and your screen should look like this.

You have defined a group of Accounts to be used in this field in the Report. You can have as many groups of accounts as you need under each column.

Repeat the process above for the Current Liabilities. Note that on the Liabilities you will want to say Yes to Reverse Sign.

The column that includes both Assets and Liabilities includes multiple ranges of Accounts. It will look like this.

When you are done, your format should look like this.

Now you are ready to run your report. Go to General Ledger System, General Ledger Reports, Financial Reports. It is called Management Snapshot.

The Report Format that you have selected is shown on the top line along with the Report Title.

The direction of the report can be Forward (oldest date first) or Backward (most recent date first). The report always reports on month end figures. If you include the current month it will use the G/L Account Balance so that if you have transactions in the system dated later than the report date, but in the current month, they will be included in this report.

Enter the Beginning and Ending Dates. This report can go beyond fiscal years. However, if you want to run the report back into the last century, you must run two reports, one for last century and one for this.

Truncate Screen Column Headings is asking if you want to shorten the headings so that more information will show on the screen. If you are going to export the report to Excel, you may want to say no to this, because then the entire three lines of heading information can be used. If you are just going to look at it on the screen, say yes.

The report looks like this:

Note that the report is presented in a Scrolling Box. One click of your Mouse will put it in Excel for you.

The maximum number of columns in a single report is 8 (Level H). This means that the report will always be able to be printed. When you are displaying it on the screen, you can only see a maximum of 5 columns (even if there are 8). When you Print or export to Excel, all columns are printed or sent.

I would encourage you to experiment with this new reporting capability. You can produce all types of very useful reports that will help you get a handle on how your business is doing. When you know exactly where you stand, it is easier to implement improvements.