Financial reporting #2

Last time we saw that using the XGLP function we can fetch any figures from the GL related or not to other module. One thing that XGLP won’t do is return an account balance.

With XGLP, you can leave the beginning of the period empty and use only an end date to retrieve a pseudo-balance. It is not a real balance because it does not use starting balance. XLGL only adds transaction amount, not starting balance for account/department.

You can still use the method above to get the balance for a project, or a vendor, but when you need the exact balance for an account or account-department, you must use XGL.

XGL is very similar to XGLP, only with fewer arguments. Here is an example:

=XGL(1020, “12/31/2008″, “0100″)

will return the balance for account 1020, department 0100 on December 31st 2008. XGL take only one date as it returns a balance. XGL will take your starting balance and add transactions amount up to the date you request.

This is the function you would use to create a Balance sheet for example.

There is one thing concerning the GL we still have to look at and that is Budget. Next time, we’ll look at the new XGLBudgets function as it related to the GL.

What is XLGL?

So what is XLGL and, more importantly, what can it do for you?

Technically speaking, XLGL is an Excel Add-in, a piece of software that attach itself to Excel and augment its features. XLGL creates a bridge between Excel and Simply Accounting both easier to use and more powerful than MS Query or other import/export tools.

In more simple terms, XLGL helps you report from Simply Accounting data using Microsoft Excel.

Now, most people I’ve talk to in the accounting world use Excel for reporting, analysis, forecasting and other words I don’t quite understand At some point you may need data coming from Simply Accounting. The balance of an account, a list of projects, a phone number?

If you’re creating financial statement, you may need a lot of data from Simply Accounting, and you’ll want to organize it in a certain way. Same thing for an inventory report, or a sales report. Maybe you just need your total sales for the period? Whatever it is, XLGL will get it for you, with the help of easy to use functions and lists, that are both flexible and powerful.

Since most people use XLGL for financial reporting, in my next blog entry I will take some time to show how to report those number using XLGL. One simple function.

How do you do your reporting using Excel? Do you enter everything by hand? Copy and paste? Import? Let us know.