FRx Tips & Tricks – Part 2

ROWS
1. Use wild cards and ranges as much as possible in a row. This way, if a new account is added to the GL it will automatically be included in the row format.
2. If you have any pre-existing reports in Excel, you can copy and paste descriptions from Excel into a row format.
3. You can use the Copy / Paste function to / from Excel to utilize the spell check functionality in Excel. Just copy the Description column out of the row format and paste it into Excel. Then run spell check on it.
4. You can Copy / Paste account codes to / from Excel. If you want to combine several natural account codes with several department codes, you can use the concatenate feature in Excel, then copy and paste the results back into the row format.
5. FRx Financial Reporting has a Find and Replace feature. To use it, go to the menu option Edit > Find (keyboard shortcut Ctrl+F), or Edit>Replace (keyboard shortcut Ctrl+H).
6. In the row format, add rows to your report that contain check figures. This will help insure that you have included all the GL accounts in your row format. For example, if the range of account numbers on your income statement is 4000 to 9999, add a single non-printing row at the end of the report that includes that range. Then, have a row below it that calculates the difference between the net income you calculated and the net income of the check row. If there is a difference, the row will print the out of balance amount.
7. You can manually type format codes and column types once you are familiar with them so you do not have to zoom as much.
8. You can put a Remark in your row format. Use the REM format code. Then, in the description column leave a note about the design of the report. For example, when the row format was last updated and why.
9. To format a report with a solid line running across it, select LNE from the dropdown in the Format column. You can select from different line types by putting a TYPE code in the description column. TYPE=1 results in a thin line, TYPE=2 is a thick line, TYPE=3 is a dotted line, TYPE=4 results in two lines, thick followed by thin, and TYPE=5 results in two lines, thin followed by thick. You can apply any font you like to the line to change its color and thickness.
10. To format a report with a box around one or more sections, insert a BXB format code on the row where you want the box to start and a BXC format code on the row where you want the box to be completed.
11. Keyboard shortcuts include pressing F1 to bring up the help screen, F2 to edit and F3 to zoom.
12. To put an IF THEN statement in a row, use the CAL format code in column C and the IF THEN statement in column D.
13. If you run out of row codes between two rows, you can renumber the rows by going to the menu item Edit > Renumber rows. If you use this feature, FRx Financial Reporting will automatically update all the formulas you have input into column D of the row format.
14. To apply a font to multiple rows all at once, hold the CTRL key down and click in the grey section to the left of the rows you want to highlight. Next, with the rows highlighted, select the font you wish to use from the Font Style dropdown window.
15. In Version 6.0 or higher of FRx Financial Reporting, you can use a modifier to have an entire row of data from the budget, effectively overriding the book code selected in the column. To take advantage of this feature, click on the dropdown in column H, click on the dropdown for Row Modifiers, click on the dropdown for book code and select the book code you desire.
16. To correct rounding differences in a balance sheet, go to the menu item Edit >Rounding Adjustments in the row format. Fill in the Total Asset Row, the Total Liability & Equity Row and the Row where you want to place the rounding adjustment. Note: The rounding adjustment row must be a GL account row. You can also place a limit on the total rounding adjustment. If the adjustment exceeds the limit, you will receive an error message. This insures that you don't plug the amount of a GL account number missing from the report. |
17. If you have a row that is only valid for certain columns, put the applicable column letter(s) in column G of the row format. The column letters should be separated by commas. Any columns that are not listed in column G will not show a value in the final report.
18. There are two page break options in the format code column. They are PB and PL. As a rule of thumb, you should use a PI for all reports. PB is used only in a report that contains both a balance sheet and an income statement. This tells FRx that the following page is a balance sheet, or a supporting schedule to the balance sheet. However, the PB code is commonly mistaken to mean "Page Break" instead of its true meaning "Page Balance Sheet." Since a balance sheet does not include income and expense accounts, when this code is used to create page breaks, income and expense accounts will not pull into the reports or the column headings for these entries. So it may appear that FRx Financial Reporting is not functioning properly.

COLUMNS
1. To put an IF THEN statement in a column, use the CALC column Type and put the IF THEN statement in the calc formula row.
2. When you enter a value in the "Extra Spaces Before Col" row, these will be in addition the spaces between the columns as defined in the catalog on the Report Options > Formatting Tab.
3. To create a quarterly report, hard code the range of periods in the period code row of the column format.
4. To dynamically suppress columns that contain periods that are later than the report date, select the P<=B print control.
5. You can center your descriptions in a column. To accomplish this, choose Center from the dropdown in the Justification row.
6. If you want to use a format mask in the row, but can't remember the syntax, you can select the appropriate format mask from the dropdown in the column and Copy / Paste to the row. In the row format, remember to put the special format mask in double quotes.
7. You can show favorable and unfavorable variances as positive and negative numbers respectively. To do this, in your variance column, subtract budget –actual. Then, add the XCR Print Control to the variance column. This print control will reverse the sign on any row in the row format that has a 'C' in the Normal Balance Column. To work correctly, you must place a 'C' on all income related rows including totals, such as Total Revenue, Gross Margin and Net Income.
8. Runtime Error 5: Invalid Procedure Call or Argument. This error message can be received after generating a report with DDV output, right before the FRx DrillDown Viewer opens.This is often caused by Column Headers that spread beyond the last column with information entered or Column headers have the spread set backwards (i.e. – D TO C) or column headers that spread into/across NP columns. To fix this problem, examine all column headers for correct spread. Be sure that none spread backwards or into NP columns. As a last resort, remove all column headers and start over paying close attention to the spreads that are setup for each header.

TREES
1. Any long description entered into column D can be pulled into the report header with a @TITLE code. You can also pull these descriptions into a row format by putting a @UNIT code into column B of the row format.
2. To avoid error messages, be sure to always have the number of ampersands in the account mask of the tree equal to the number of account code characters you have entered into column H of the row.
3. You can have FRx Financial Reporting build a tree for you based on the account segments you have created in the GL. To accomplish this, use the menu item Edit > Add Reporting Units from Chart of Accounts. This can save you from having to type in all the descriptions and the hierarchies will be created for you.
4. When you click on a branch of the tree to drag and drop it, the cursor turns into a dark file folder. The file folder will have an arrow attached to it. A bent arrow means the unit will be dropped as a child and a straight arrow means it will be dropped as an equal to the unit it is dropped on.
5. A unit of the tree must either have children or have an account mask. If it doesn't, the unit will contain no data.
6. When linking to data from an external spreadsheet using the separate method, the columns T, I, and W must be completed and the box in the catalog "use row formats and worksheet links from the reporting tree" must be checked.