Create a Custom Report in Intacct

Although there are 150 Sage Intacct built-in reports, on occasion you may not find one that provides the exact parameters you need. Not to worry, though, because Sage Intacct has user-friendly and extremely flexible tools to create your own. Gone are the days when the only way to get a customized report was to call on a system administrator to build it for you.

The other option used to be relying on external tools, many of which didn’t integrate well, so the data may have been inaccurate, as it was not always gathered in real-time.

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Why create a custom report?

We like being able to drill down to a transaction detail level right in Sage Intacct. This lets a user review any discrepancies or variances in the report without needing to separately log into the ERP system to do so.

Whether you start from scratch and use the Financial Report Writer or make a copy of an existing report and modify it, General Ledger accounts or any Dimensions defined in the system can be set as rows, making it possible to gather data on any of the metrics important to your business. You decide which data to populate in the rows and columns, set computations such as variance percentages, and determine filters and formatting. In addition, your administrators can control which users or user groups can access the report. You can also leverage other functionality in Intacct such as account groups and reporting periods, and rely on that set-up to create rows and/or columns without having to list out every individual element each time you need to create a new report.

How to create a custom report in Intacct

We will use this example to show you how to create your custom report: Top Ten Customers’ Month-to-Date Sales and Year-to-Date Sales

Step 1

In Intacct, go to Reports and select “Financial Report Writer.”

Step 2

Go to the “Report Info” section (Image 1).

Report name:

Here, type a name that identifies the specific parameters of the report, for your reference.

Check the box before the phrase, “This report is active.”

Report structure:

Select the data you would like to view on the left side, in rows, versus that which will appear in columns.

  • Choose “Accounts” to position the account data on the left side, in rows.
  • Choose “Dimensions” to populate the rows with one of your dimensions.

In our example, we selected “Dimensions,” to list customers in the report rows.

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Image 1

Step 3

Go to the “Rows” section (Image 2).

Under “Row Structure,” click the “Select dimension structures” button.

Select the dimension structure to show on the reports. In this case, we chose “Top Ten Customers.”

You can also define additional dimension structures for added reporting flexibility.

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Image 2

Step 4

Go to the “Columns” section (Image 3).
Here, you may set titles, display options, and parameters for each column you would like to see in your report. Make selections for the following options:

Dimensions—
Here is where you choose which data to include, so you won’t have to view extraneous information.

Display—
Customize the way data is shown, including color scheme and highlights,

 

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Image 3

Step 5

Go to the “Filters” section (Image 4).

Set any filters to further restrict the data that will show on the report.

Select the “As of Date.”

Define Dimension Filters—

Indicate specific categories or choose “All.” In our example, these are the presented options:

Department, Location, Project, Customer, Vendor, Employee, Item, Class and User Defined Dimensions

You may also indicate if you’d like to “hide inactive” (customers), and whether or not to run individual reports for your chosen department(s) and location(s).

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Image 4

Step 6

Go to the “Format” section (Image 5).

This is where you choose how to format the report for display on screen and in print.

Go to the “General” tab:

  • Indicate if you’d like to copy formatting from an existing report, and if so, which one.
  • Set display preferences for numbers.

Under dimensions, choose how to display departments, locations, and all others, and indicate if you’d like to sort these categories alphabetically.

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Image 5

Go to the “Page Set-up & Columns” tab (Image 6):

  • Indicate page header preferences (whether or not to use a logo, report title, subtitles, title comment, and whether or not to display departments/locations as individual report titles).
  • Input page footer text and other preferences.
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Image 6

Go to the “Rows & Totals” tab (Image 7):

Define rows: Indicate preferences for row formatting, total formatting and currency.

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Image 7

Step 7

Go to the “Permissions” tab (Image 8).

Here, you can add or edit the access list and exclusion list, setting permissions by user or group.

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Image 8

Step 8

Go to the “Next Steps” tab (Image 9).

You’re almost done!

Here, you can set the report to “Active” if you did not do so in Step 1.

Click on the hyperlinks to do the following actions:

  • Add the report to your “My Favorites” list in the Reports Center.
  • Add the report to a dashboard.
  • Schedule the report to run periodically.
  • Include the report in a report group.

Lastly, once you have defined the rows and columns, you may preview the report at any time. This can be very useful, as it allows you to make changes while you are creating the report rather than waiting until after you have saved and run the report, then having to go back to make modifications. This added efficiency can be extremely beneficial in creating your reports.

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Image 9

Once you are satisfied with the report, click the “Save” button. Now, it will now be available to view in your Reports List.

In Intacct, you can provide faster and more detailed operational and financial data based on the dimensions you design and use to get superior reporting power with ease.


Contact us or watch this product tour to learn more about how Sage Intacct can help your business.