Using period indicators in a financial statement

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A period indicator is a symbol or code that tells the application the time period to pull amounts from for a specific column, cell, or group of cells. A period indicator can specify Year to Date, Current Period, Cumulative, and Beginning Balance amounts for the current, future, or preceding years.

In Cell mode, make your selection from the drop-down list in the Period field of the properties box or press F5 to open the Formula dialog for a complete list of period indicators. Period indicators may be included in a formula as in the example below.

Procedure example

To include the Beginning Balance from 3 years ago, click within the cell to select it. In the Cell Properties pane, choose BA as the Amount Type. Click in the Period field (also within the Cell Properties pane) and then press F5 to open the Formula dialog. Highlight CB - Current Beginning Balance within the listview pane, choose 3P - 3 Prior Years Ago from the F4 drop-down list in the Year field, click the = operator button, and then click OK to close the Formula dialog. The notation [3PB] will then appear in the Period field within the Cell Properties box for the selected cell. (Note that, as an alternative method, you could enter 3PB directly into the Period field of the Cell Properties box.)

Period indicator examples

  • CB - Current Year Beginning Balance
  • C1 - Current Year Period 1 (First period of the fiscal year. For example, for a monthly GL client, C1 will pull in the activity for the month of January when the year end is December.)
  • CM - Current Year Memo
  • CP-1 - 1 Period Ago
  • CP-2 - 2 Periods Ago

Notes

  • You can format all of the cells in a column by clicking on the column header.

    Procedure example: If column B should display current-month information, you can highlight the entire column and enter the correct period indicator CP in the Period field. This will automatically enter CP for all cells in that column. Then highlight and change the individual cells that require different indicators. This is much faster than inserting the period indicator in each cell for a column.

  • While many period indicators exist in the drop-down list for the Period field, you can specify other periods by using the Edit > Formula dialog or press F5 while your cursor is in the Period field. A complete list of period indicators is displayed for current year. In the upper right corner of the formula dialog is a Year field that is used to select period indicators for future or prior years.
  • Most variables and conditional expressions require a period indicator. For instance, a the Statement Date variable requires a period indicator to create the desired column headings in your financial statement. For Date variables, the period indicator CC (Current Cell Contents) can be selected from the drop-down list in the Period field at the bottom of the Variables dialog. Use CC if the period you need (example CP-1) does not appear in the drop-down list for the Period field. If CC is selected, the date variable will display the date that corresponds to the period being used to display financial data in that cell or column.
  • If the 999 placeholder does not appear in the appropriate cell(s) of the worksheet in the Financial Statement Editor where you would expect it to appear, then either the period indicator is missing from the Cell Properties or an account group is missing from Row Properties.
  • Percent columns require period indicators that match the period indicator for the column on which the formula is based. For example, if Column B has a period of CY and Column C is a percent column based on Column B, then Column C also needs a period of CY.

Related topics

Using formulas

Creating and editing financial statements

Using period indicators in percent columns and formulas

Period indicators available for selection in financial statements

Creating a rolling financial statement using period indicators

Using memo amounts in financial statements

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