Report and Graph Tips
How to Change the Layout of your Reports
Changing Report Names & Headings
Printing Winforecast Reports Simultaneously
Do you know how to display a courtesy message on the bottom of your WinForecast Reports?
How to Display More Information on Your WinForecast Reports
How to Make A Number Of Changes In Less Time By Using Drill Down
Did You Know You Can Create & Save Graphs in WinForecast?
Do you need to send your WinForecast Reports to people who don't use WinForecast?
Are you Aware of the "Audit Type" Schedules in WinForecast?
How to Print Formulas on Your Ratio & Stats Reports
Numbering Pages on Report
Graphing Actuals, Budget & Revised Budget Data
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How to Change the Layout of your Reports
To change the layout of a report you are viewing, select File>Report Layout.
To change the layout of a report, or the layout of all the reports of the same type, select Options>Report Layout from the menu bar on your main screen, then select the report or reports you want to change.
On the dialog which appears, you can change:
- The Sub-Heading and Sub-Title of the report
- Alignment and Font Bold status of each heading line on the report
- Font used to display and print the report
- What data (by month, quarter or year) is in each column of the report
(month, quarter-to-date or year-to-date on variance reports)
- Whether the report has a Total column
- The overall level of detail of the report ie summary, standard or detailed.
- Rounding (none, to nearest 0.1 or 1 thousand) applied to the data in the report
- Formatting options such as - underline side headings, show negatives in red, show all lines including those with no data
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Changing Report Names & Headings
You may be aware of the changes for Financial Reporting Layouts, such as the
names for Profit & Loss and Balance Sheet are now referred to as Statement
of Financial Performance/Position.
To reflect these amended names in your WinForecast reports you will need to do the following:
Note: You may like to do this in your template file so that all new files you create have the changes made. *The default
template for WinForecast is in the Forecast folder under your Sage WinForecast Program File and is called win4c_32.fs0
How to Do It
- From the Main Screen, select VIEW>PROFIT & LOSS, then Select FILE>REPORT LAYOUT. The Sub-Title in the Profit
& Loss Report will display PROFIT & LOSS FORECAST, this can be renamed to Statement of Financial Performance Forecast.
- Back on the Main Screen, select VIEW>BALANCE SHEET, then select FILE>REPORT LAYOUT. The Sub-Title in the Balance
Sheet Report will display BALANCE SHEET FORECAST, this can be renamed to Statement
of Financial Position Forecast.
- Back on the Main Screen, select VIEW>CASHFLOW/OR FUNDS FLOW, then select FILE>REPORT LAYOUT. The
Sub-Title in these reports will display CASHFLOW FORECAST/FUNDS FLOW FORECAST, these can be renamed to Statement of
Cashflows Forecast.
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Printing Winforecast Reports Simultaneously
From the main screen, you can print one or more reports by selecting File>Print
from the menu bar (this may say File>Print/Send/Export). Select the type of report(s)
you want to print and then the report. To print multiple reports, choose Select Reports.
Then indicate the reports you want to print and whether to Number Pages.
If a multi-year forecast or consolidation is active, you select for which year of the
forecast you wish to print the report or you can select to print a Multi Year report
or you can select to print the report for All Years of the forecast.
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Do you know how to display a courtesy message on the bottom of your WinForecast Reports?
The Courtesy Message is a message which can be printed
at the bottom of reports, optionally followed by the date.
There is a range of options for what can be printed, where it
is printed and where the page number on the report is printed.
How to Do It
From the main screen's menu, select Options>Preferences.
There will be a drop down menu with the following options:
Use Message Below
Type a message in the box. This message will be printed at the foot of all reports of all forecasts and consolidations. To make a second line in the message, type {ctrl-enter}.
Use Forecast Message
When this option is selected, each forecast and consolidation can have a different message. To change the message for a forecast, from the main screen's menu select Options>Other Options and click on the Courtesy Message tab. Type in the message as described above.
Use Report Main/Sub Heading
When this option is selected, the Main Heading or Sub-Heading of the report will be printed as its Courtesy Message.
Use File Path with Date/Time
This option is useful if you are working on a number of different forecasts or versions of forecasts and want to be able to easily identify which is which, and which is the latest version.
Use Nothing
No Courtesy Message is printed.
Click ON or OFF the Show Date check box as required. If ON, the date is printed after (the last line of) the Courtesy Message. Select the Placement of the Courtesy Message and the Page Number Placement.
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How to Display More Information on Your WinForecast Reports
Report Formulas are lines which you can add to any report to bring out
or highlight key information or statistics relating specifically to your requirements.
A Simple Report Formula
To see how to use report formulas, follow the steps below to add a line to the Profit & Loss Report of a forecast showing Net Profit as a Percentage of Sales.
- From the main screen's menu, select View>Customise Reports>Profit & Loss.
- In the Report Definition list, highlight Net Profit and click on New Formula.
- Type Net Profit % in the New Formula's Name box and click on OK.
- Click on the Change Formula button.
- Find and highlight Net Profit near the bottom of the Records list and click on the Add >> button.
- Highlight the division sign (÷ or /) in the Op list and click on the Add >> button.
- Highlight ¢Total Turnover near the top of the Records list and click on the Add >> button.
- Click on the Properties button and then click ON the Show as Percentage check box in the Options frame.
- Click on OK, OK again (Yes, you do want to include changes) and then click on Close.
Now view the Profit & Loss Report and see the Net Profit % line on the report.
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How to Make A Number Of Changes In Less Time By Using Drill Down
If you have a number of changes to make to a forecast or consolidation follow these steps:
- View the appropriate report (View>Profit & Loss)
- If a section or sub section is summarised, double-click to view the component records, and then double click these to change their data. You can re-summarise by double-clicking on the section or sub section headings.
- If you have a number of changes to make to a forecast or consolidation go to Options and click off the Auto-Recalc option.
This allows you to make the changes you require without having to wait while WinForecast re-merges and recalculates between each change.
Warning: While Auto-Recalc is off, the data displayed may not be correct. Correct Data will always be printed or exported
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Did You Know You Can Create & Save Graphs in WinForecast?
- To make a new graph select View>New Graph from the main screen's menu bar.
- While viewing the graph select File>Graph Records and Name from the menu bar.
- So you can save your graphs, type the new Graph Name over the current name in the box.
- To select or change the records shown in the graph, click on the large Select Records in Graph button under the record list.
- To add a record to the graph, first select From which Report the record comes.
- Highlight the record you want in the open list below and click on the Add>> Button.
- If the forecast contains Actuals and you want to show the Original Budget Data or
Revised Budget Data from the Use list while the record is highlighted in the Records
in Graph list.
- Graphs normally show data with the same sense (positive/negative) as used on reports. Click on
the Show Data Negated check box if you want the data shown on the graph to have the opposite sense.
- To save the details of the graph for later use click on the Save button in the tool bar.
- If you haven't given the graph a Name, you will be asked to do so.
- Then click on the Save button again.
- You will notice in your View Menu you will see all saved graph names in here.
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Do you need to send your WinForecast Reports to people who don't use WinForecast?
If Word for Windows 95 or later is installed on your computer, you can create a Word document
which looks almost identical to one or more printed WinForecast reports. You can either save
the document for later use or automatically send it as an attachment to a e-mail message.
While viewing a report, click on the Send or Word toolbar buttons to send the document or save
it.
From the main screen's menu, select File>Print/Send/Export and then the report(s) to send or
export.
To Export to Excel, View your Report and then click on Export>Clipboard. Open Excel and select
Edit>Paste. You may need to format your reports when you select to export into Excel.
Note: If you do not want people to amend your reports in any way, you can export it out to
Excel and password protect to ensure the documents are read only.
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Are you Aware of the "Audit Type" Schedules in WinForecast?
Schedules provide back up information or greater detail of certain aspects of the forecast or consolidation, kind of like an audit type trail of the information of the data that has been entered into WinForecast.
For Forecasts the schedules are;
- Input Data Report: a comprehensive listing of the data input into the forecast
- Employee Schedule: a listing of the data for all employees listed in the forecast (ie wages type records using lists)
- Non Current Asset Schedule: depreciation schedule for all assets inc sales, purchases of assets
- Loans Schedules: showing the capital and interest for all loans received and made in the forecast
- GST Schedules: shows the movements in the GST accounts each month
- NPV Schedule: show the NPV of the forecast 9once you have set parameters for this in Options>NPV Parameters)
For Consolidations, the schedules are;
- Details of Recalculations Schedule: Reconciliations that have been applied to the consolidation
- Non Current Asset Schedule
- Loans Schedule
- P&L Contribution Schedule: shows what is contributed to each record by each forecast or consolidation
- NPV Schedule
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How to Print Formulas on Your Ratio & Stats Reports
While viewing your Ratio & Statistics Reports, or any other report with formulas, you can print out the calculations for future reference. This information can be used to present calculation methods to others who need to view your reports, aswell as for yourself.
Click on the Print button while viewing a formula, ie double clicking on a displayed formula to drill down to the formula screen. You can print all the formulas in the report or just the displayed formula.
Extra Tip: WinForecast creates temporary files in your Windows Temp directory which start with w4cxxxx.tmp (where xxxx equals a series of numbers). These can be deleted from time to time as a form of "tidy up" on your hard drive.
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Numbering Pages on Report
You can select to print a number of reports all at
the same time and have them numbered.
This option is only available from the File menu on the toolbar.
How to Do It
From the main screen:
- Select File>Print/Send/Export>Standand Reports.
- Select the particular report you want print or click on Select Reports to choose which reports you want printed.
- Once you have clicked on OK to print reports, on the bottom of the next screen, you get to select
the reports you want and on the bottom, click on the Number Pages box to number pages on your reports.
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