Inserting a chart in a financial statement

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Product support for the Creative Solutions Accounting platform ended on September 30, 2020.

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The ability to create full color charts and insert them anywhere within a financial statement is one of the most powerful tools available within the Financial Statement Editor. The simple but flexible interface is easy to use and quickly produces the most commonly used charts customized to your preferences.

For examples, see Sample Statements and Chart Examples (PDF).

  1. Highlight the row or cell in which you would like to insert the chart, then click the insert chart /_images/acct_pr/csa/insert-chart.gif button or choose Insert > Chart. If you want the chart to automatically fit on an entire page, choose Insert > Full Page Chart.
  2. On the Chart Type tab in the Insert Chart dialog, highlight the type of chart that you would like to create and click the next button.
  3. On the Data Definition tab, enter the number of periods per data point. If you would like each point to represent one year for a monthly client, enter 12. If you would like each point to represent one month for a monthly client, enter 1.
  4. Enter the number of data points that you would like to appear in the chart. If you would like to show each period and have chosen 1 period per data point, you would enter 12 (for a monthly client). Generally for a pie chart, both the number of periods per data point and the number of data points would be 1.
  5. In the name column, enter the name that you would like to appear on the legend for the amount defined in this row.
  6. In the amount column, choose the specific account or account group that you would like to graph. If you are entering one account or a range of accounts you must use the following format act(###) or act(###:###) where # represents the actual account number.
  7. In the years back column, enter a 1 for prior year values, a 2 for values from two years ago, etc. For the current year, you can leave the field blank or enter a 0.

    Note: The default number of years of balances to display on a chart or financial statement is 2. You can change the Years of Balances option by selecting another number from the drop-down list in the Financial Statement Print options dialog. (Click the Print reports icon on the toolbar, and then select Financial Reports, and click the Options button to open the Financial Statement Print Options dialog.) For more information on Financial Statement Print options, click here.

  8. Mark the Change sign checkbox to have credits show as positive numbers. Mark the Cumulative checkbox to make the amount cumulative for each data point. If you do not mark this item, each point will display the net change of the specified account(s). Mark the Begin balance checkbox to include the beginning balance in the calculation of amounts. This option is only available if Cumulative has been selected. Mark the Account detail checkbox if you want the amount to be broken down by account.
  9. You may repeat this process for as many accounts/account groups as you want to graph. When finished defining the data, click the next tab.
  10. On the Properties tab, specify how you would like the chart to appear by marking the appropriate options. As you mark or unmark options, the changes appear in the chart preview pane on the right side of the dialog.
  11. Click the Done button.
  12. A very small or compressed version of the chart may be inserted into the statement depending on how many rows/cells were highlighted when you selected to insert the chart. To enlarge it, move the cursor over the row description column on the left side of the editing worksheet until the cursor becomes an up/down arrow. Click and drag the mouse to enlarge the row to the desired size. If you chose the command Insert > Full-Page Chart, the chart should appear on a completely blank worksheet.

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