How to create AFR report with daily budgets from iScala?

As you know, budgets are entered in iScala monthly. Probably it will be changed in the new version, and now, when this material is written, you can not enter them on a daily basis. However, this does not prevent us to consider the various ways in which this limitation can be overcome. «If you can not, but really want, you can!». I should add that it will be about the additional reporting tools, and not about the standard iScala General Ledger reports.

First, the easiest way — is to divide the amount of the monthly budget by the number of days in a month. It is suitable for those whose business is not dependent on the day of the week or holidays.

The second — a little more complex way, using the coefficients of the monthly budget for each day of the month. Such method is suitable, for example, in case where the revenue on weekends and holidays is greater than on weekdays, for example on holidays — in 2 times, and on weekends is 1.5 times more than ordinary days. There may be several coefficients, for example, one coefficient for revenue accounts, the other — for the cost of goods sold accounts, the third for the salaries, the fourth — for the other costs, etc. To enter these coefficients we should add one or more statistical accounts into iScala chart of accounts, then import the transactions for each day in which the above coefficient is specified instead of the sum. A bit like a trip from St. Petersburg to Moscow via Helsinki, but allows you to use iScala functionality without any «external» tools 🙂

The third method — the use of «external table».

By the way, did you know that AFR can read data from an external table?

This method will not discuss in detail because of its «non-standard», but you can read separate article «Usage of external tables with primary data. How to design Daily Budget Report».

Fourth — the most creative, but provides enormous opportunities. The idea of using this method is to create a separate «Budget» iScala company. Chart of Accounts is copied from the work company (or it is a compilation of the chart of accounts of several companies), type of account is replaced to the statistical to not balance transactions. I suggest change the structure of accounting dimensions of this «Budget» iScala Company, adding new dimensions «Company Code» and «Budget number». Then transactions containing Account Number, budget amount, Company Code (to which you want to compare the budget) and Budget number are imported to the general ledger of «Budget» iScala Company. Thus it is possible to create more than 5 budget alternatives (like in iScala), but as much as necessary. As you know, AFR can build reports on several companies in one report. Accordingly, this functionality can be used in our case.

If you have any questions, do not hesitate to ask:

Other procedures and articles in English: