Article Objective: To assist admin users in navigating the Admin Centre within Active Ledger & Reporting to customise the notes to the financial statements. Context: Notes contain both the accounting policies and the financial statement notes (such as Cash & Cash Equivalents, etc.). These policies and disclosures work similarly in Active Ledger. They can be customised on three levels:
Please refer to the Glossary for definitions of key terms used in this article.
TABLE OF CONTENTS |
Accessing the Admin Centre
Navigate to the Active Platform home page.
Click on your name icon and press Admin Centre.
Click on Ledger & Reporting Admin.
Click on Notes.
The below screen will appear.
Reporting suites
In order to manage different kinds of accounting policies and disclosures, Active Ledger has a concept of reporting suites. A reporting suite represents a set of related policies and disclosures designed to meet the requirements of a reporting framework.
Adding reporting suites
To add a new reporting suite, click on the Reporting Suite tab and select + New Reporting Suite.
The below screen will appear.
The following table details the fields requiring completion.
| Field | Description | Validation |
| Name | Will appear in the relevant area in the Reports screen to identify the field. | Required |
| Group Name | Used to visually group related fields together in the template. | Optional |
| Reporting Framework | This is what the user wants to describe it as. This would usually be the set of accounting standards you are applying, for example in AU, 'AASB GPFR', or 'AASB GPFR for Tier 2', or in NZ, 'SPFR for FPE's'. | Optional |
| Jurisdiction (dropdown menu) | This will only appear if the firm is in multiple jurisdictions. Select as appropriate. This defaults to 'Available for all jurisdictions'. | Required |
| Description | Details about the field that will appear in the Reports screen to give the user an idea of what the field is about. | Optional |
| Application Date | The date from which the note will apply. | Optional |
| Earliest Application Date | May apply to reporting periods beginning on or after this date. | Optional |
| Expiry Date | The note will not apply to reporting periods after this date. | Optional |
| Policy Layout (dropdown menu) | This outlines how the policies in the reporting suite will be presented. This sets to 'Default'. See the 'Policy layouts' section of this article for more information. | Required |
| Inactive (checkbox) | When checked, this will be removed from the reporting suites and not displayed. | Optional |
Adding policies to a suite
To add the relevant policies, click to expand the 'Accounting Policies' area and select + Add Policy Variant.
A pop-up list will allow you to tick the required policies. Once selected, click Select.
Note: Active Ledger maintains an up-to-date list of common policies. To add a new policy see the 'Adding a new accounting policy' section below.
Adding disclosures to a suite
To add the relevant disclosures, click to expand the Disclosure Templates area and select + Add Disclosure Variant.
A pop-up list will allow you to tick the required policies. Once selected, click Select.
Note: Active Ledger maintains an up-to-date list of common disclosures. To add a new disclosure see the 'Adding a new disclosure' section below.
Finalising the reporting suite
Once you are satisfied with the details outlined in the reporting suite, click Save and Close.
Editing and deleting reporting suites
To edit or delete a new reporting suite, click on the suite and make the required changes. To save the suite select Save and Close.
To delete a suite select Delete.
A master reporting suite maintained by Active Ledger is unable to be edited outright. However, you can perform a customisation process by editing the suite. This creates a new variant of the whole suite. This variant can be edited and deleted as required. For more information on how to do this, see the advanced knowledge article: Reporting - accounting policies and disclosures.
Note: The master reporting suites maintained by Active Ledger cannot be deleted.
Policy layouts
Adding a policy layout
To add a new policy layout, click on the Policy Layouts tab and select + New Policy Layout.
The below screen will appear.
The following table details the fields requiring completion.
| Field | Description | Validation |
| Name | Will appear in the relevant area in the Policy Layout screen to identify the field. | Required |
| Default (checkbox) | If checked, this will be the layout used when generating a report, unless overridden in the page layout when generating a report. | Optional |
| Location for 'General' Accounting Policies (dropdown menu) | This is the view of the policies in the report. There are three options:
For more information on this, refer to the 'Location for 'General' Accounting Policies' section below. | Required |
| Policies List Format (dropdown menu) | If you wish to turn the policies into a list, select one of the options in the dropdown, otherwise leave the default option, 'None'. | Required |
| Note Title Format | You are able to customise the format of the note headers. For more information on this, refer to the 'Note Title Format' section below. | Required |
Location for 'General' Accounting Policies
As mentioned above, there are three options here - standalone, standalone note and policies note.
For information on how to create additional policies see the administrative guide: Reporting - Notes.
1. Standalone: In this view, the general policies will appear before Note 1 without a note heading.
2. Standalone Note: The general policies will become Note 1 and therefore the accounting policies will move to Note 2. An additional field will become available to allow you to customise the title of Note 1.
3. Policies Note: In this view, the general policies are combined with the accounting policies to all become part of Note 1.
Note: If you are editing the 'Location for 'General' Accounting Policies', before doing so, click Reset All in the top right corner of the 'Customise Policy Layout' list. Once this is done, select the new location and generate the desired report. This will update the report accordingly.
Note Title Format
As mentioned above, you are able to customise the format of the note headers. To do this you can use the fields {NoteNumber} and {Title} to determine the position of the number and the title in the header. You may add other information if relevant.
Changing the note format to that shown above will result in the following display:
Policies and disclosures
Adding a new accounting policy
Accounting policies are separated into general and numbered policies. To add a new policy, click on the Policies tab and then select + New Policy.
The below screen will appear.
The following table details the fields requiring completion.
| Field | Description | Validation |
|---|---|---|
| Name | The name of the policy which will appear in the financial report. | Required |
| Note Group (dropdown menu) | Sets which section the note appears within the notes. There are three options:
| Required |
| Description | This is an internal description that provides users with the gist of the note. | Optional |
| Show by Default (dropdown menu) | Sets the default display of the note. There are three options:
| Required |
| Default when any of the following Account Types appear (dropdown menu) | Only appears when 'If Related Account Type Appears' is selected above. Sets the account type that the above field looks for to display the note. More than one account type can be selected. | Optional |
After the basics of the policy have been completed, select Save and Close.
This will bring up the variants section (see below).
Adding a new disclosure
To add a new disclosure, click on the Disclosures tab and then select + New Disclosure Template.
The below screen will appear.
The following table details the fields requiring completion.
| Field | Description | Validation |
|---|---|---|
| Name | The name of the disclosure which will appear in the financial report. | Required |
| Description | This is an internal description that provides users with the gist of the note. | Optional |
| Show by Default (dropdown menu) | Sets the default display of the note. There are four options:
| Required |
| Default when any of the following Account Types appear (dropdown menu) | Only appears when 'If Related Account Type Appears' is selected above. Sets the account type that the above field looks for to display the note. More than one account type can be selected. | Optional |
After the basics of the disclosure have been completed, select Save and Close.
This will bring up the variants section (see below).
Adding policy and disclosure variants
Policy and disclosure variants represent the content of the policy or disclosure. Variants enable you to modify the note based on factors such as:
- The financial reporting framework
- The financial period to which the disclosure will relate
- Whether the disclosure could differ based on client context and/or management discretion
You can add multiple variants for different reporting suites and/or entity types. After clicking on + New Variant the following fields will be available:
| Field | Description | Validation |
|---|---|---|
| Name | Name of variant. Normally this would be a defining attribute. | Required |
| Reporting Suites (dropdown menu) | Selects which reporting suite the variant will belong to. More than one suite can be selected. There are two master options: - Simple - GPFR Simplified Disclosures - 2022, 2023 | Required |
| Description | This is an internal description that provides users with the gist of the note. | Optional |
| Disclosure/Policy Name | If the disclosure/policy name is different to the variant name, outline here. | Optional |
| Reporting Framework | This is what the user wants to describe it as. This would usually be the set of accounting standards you are applying, for example in AU, 'AASB GPFR', or 'AASB GPFR for Tier 2', or in NZ, 'SPFR for FPE's'. | Optional |
| Jurisdictions (dropdown menu) | This will only appear if the firm is in multiple jurisdictions. Select as appropriate. | Required |
| Entity Types (dropdown menu) | Selects which entity type to display the variant for. More than one can be selected. The default is 'Applies to all entities'. | Required |
| Application Date | The date from which the note will apply. | Optional |
| Earliest Application Date | May apply to reporting periods beginning on or after this date. | Optional |
| Expiry Date | The note will not apply to reporting periods after this date. | Optional |
| Requires Customisation? (checkbox) | Only available for disclosures. If checked, the disclosure is unable to be automated and must be edited by the user. | Optional |
| Inactive (checkbox) | This will only appear if the firm is in multiple jurisdictions. Select as appropriate. | Optional |
| Link to Accounts | Only available for disclosures. Can automatically add the disclosure when the relevant account appears in the financial report. For more information see the 'Adding a linked account to a disclosure' section below. | Optional |
| Content Fields | Allows entity-specific details to be added to a firm-wide note. For more information, see the administrator article: Reporting - content fields. | Optional |
| Content | This is the content of the note that will be displayed in the report. For more information on how to build content within disclosures, see the administrator article: Reporting - content editor. | Optional |
Adding a linked account to a disclosure
For Active Ledger to automatically add the disclosure when a relevant account appears in the financial report, you need to select these accounts when creating the disclosure.
To do this, click on the + Add Linked Account button.
This will open up a dialogue screen with the following fields:
| Field | Description | Validation |
| Account (dropdown menu) | A list of system and custom headers will appear. Select the relevant one. | Required |
| Link Option | Determines how the note will be displayed in the report. There are two options:
| Required |
| Force Link Option (checkbox) | If checked, this prevents the user from being able to change the link option. | Optional |
| Account Display Option | Only available if 'Link Only' is chosen as the link option. There are two options:
| Required |
| Placeholder Identifier | If you have more than one placeholder in a disclosure, you can give an identifier. When this happens, as you link accounts, you can then type in that identifier to allow the details of different accounts to go to the different placeholders. | Optional |
After completing all the required fields select Save. This will save the disclosure variant into the system.
It is possible to add many variants to each policy and disclosure. However, we recommend adding as few as possible.
Editing policies, disclosures and their variants
Editing a custom policy or disclosure template
To edit an existing policy or disclosure, click on it and make any required changes. The same fields are available for edit as those available when adding a new policy or disclosure. Once all the required changes have been made click on Save.
Editing a master policy or disclosure template
A master template is unable to be edited outright. However, you can perform a customisation process on it. This creates a new variant of the whole policy or disclosure. The benefit of this process is that if the standards update and Active Ledger updates the default policy or disclosure, you can revert or merge any changes to the customisations that have been made.
To customise a master template, click on the policy or disclosure and then on the Customise button at either the top or bottom of the screen. This will enable you to edit and allows you to add, edit or remove variants.
Editing a policy or disclosure variant
To customise an existing master or firm variant, first select the relevant policy or disclosure and click on Customise. Then select the Customise button at either the top or the bottom of the screen IN the variant you wish to edit.
After saving the new customised variant, you will be able to track changes to the content component by comparing to the master version as shown below:
To delete the customised version and revert to the original master select Delete Customised Version.
To maintain the current customised version select Save and Close.
It is possible to distinguish between edited/created and master policies and disclosures in the list. Edited and created policies and disclosures have no 'archive' icon to the right, while masters do.
For information on how to use these notes when generating reports, see the advanced knowledge article: Reporting - accounting policies and disclosures.