Cash Flow Statements in Management Reporter

Posted on 06. Aug, 2013 by Jack Boyer in Boyer & Associates ERP Blog, Microsoft
Dynamics SL
Many of you are familiar with the challenges of creating a cash flow statement on paper, now
combine that with reporting tool like Management Reporter (MR) that pulls data from your
Dynamics ERP system. In looking at the a cash flow statement it would seem fairly straight
forward, similar to building a balance sheet, however there are a three items that require some
thought and more advanced knowledge with MR report writing.
Beginning Balances
Beginning from prior periods or years are needed in the calculations of the cash flow
statement. The column definition will define the period and year for that column but in the
row definition you have the ability to modify that row with an account modifier and pull in
different periods. Using the row modifier you are able to override the period in all the
columns for that row. You have several options for what period you want to report on for that
row.

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Calculations Using the Beginning Balances
Now that you have the beginning balances added to your row definitions you may have the
need to pull in amounts from different columns in order for your calculations in the column
definition to work properly. To accomplish that you can add a related formula in the row
definition for a specific row. In the below example that row 100 will return the value in
column B equal to column B row 1270 and the value in column E equal to column C row
1270.

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FASB Style Cash Flow Statements
Now the more challenging aspect of building a cash flow statement is involved. Most
companys use a FASB format of a cash flow statement which requires items such as fixed
assets to be reported in more detail such as additions to fixed assets and disposals of fixed
assets.
During our MR training classes we discuss the different ways that everyone is using to
produce their cash flow statements and what can be done to eliminate the need to export to
excel and adjust numbers to complete the cash flow statement. Below are a few of the ideas
that have come from our classroom discussions, each having some pros and cons.
External Worksheet
The training manuals for MR uses the example of pulling in data from an external excel
worksheet. The setup for this is more involved so I will refer you to the Microsoft MR
manuals, as they do a good job of describing the setup for this.
This is probably the easiest way to input the data for the details needed in the cash flow
statement.
The downside of this is that the excel worksheet can be unsecured and is prone to being
incorrectly changed or deleted by others. The other potential issue is that the excel
spreadsheet is only for that specific year and if you are running prior year data you would
need to modify the external link in MR to pull from a different spreadsheet.
Print Controls
Another option is to use the print control in the row definition and select DR for all debits and
CR for all credits. In the example below row 880 will return all the debits or additions and
row 895 will return all the credits or dispositions.
The benefit of this method is that the report does not require any maintenance of outside
worksheets or other additional setup.
The potential problem with this method is what happens if an adjusting entry is made to those
accounts, then the amounts may not reflect the true additions for disposals.

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Statistical Ledger or Unit Accounts
So far this method has proven to be the best solution based on our discussions in the
classroom. The idea is to setup a statistical ledger (Dynamics SL) or Unit Accounts
(Dynamics GP) and enter the one side journal entry as part of your month end process to an
account for additions to fixed assets and another account for disposals of fixed assets,
repeating this idea for other account details needed. Refer to the following blogs for setting up
Statistical ledgers in Dynamics SL . and Dynamics
GP http://www.boyerassoc.com/blog/how-to-use-dynamics-gp-unit-accounts-to-enhance-
your-management-reports . This is similar to the above beginning balances but you would
select the Book Code Modifier not the Account Modifier for Dynamics SL then you would
enter the account # in the Link to Financial Dimensions used for the details you are looking
for. For Dynamics GP you would just enter the Unit Account number for the Link to Financial
Dimensions.

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The benefits of this are that the numbers are secured from being changed or deleted just like a
normal journal entry, the numbers are stamped with the year and period posted and will pull
into you MR report according to the date parameters setup in your reports, and you can
accommodate for any adjusting entries made to the accounts.
The downside is that if the account balance changes after your initial one sided entry your
report may not balance. You can then build check figures in the report to alert you that these
numbers do not tie which you can then post an additional one sided entry to correct the
balances.

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by Ian Grieve | September 2013 | Enterprise Articles
In this article by Ian Grieve, the author of the book Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 Financial Management looks at
the methods for inquiring and reporting on budgets in Dynamics GP, including the use of Management Reporter
2012.
(For more resources related to this topic, see here.)
Budgets in Management Reporter 2012
The inquiries and report in Dynamics GP for budgets are good but fairly limited in functionality. Fortunately,
another range of Dynamics products is available for use to report on budgets.
This is the Management Reporter 2012 financial reporting product. With the Dynamics GP 2013 Starter Pack (the
base licensing pack), an unlimited number of administrator, designer, generator, and viewer licenses are
available.
Management Reporter allows for the reporting of multiple budgets for periods, ranges of periods, or YTD. In this
section, we'll take a look at producing a fairly simple budget for the Sales division using the 2017 SALES budget
created earlier.
Before producing the report, you will need a fully implemented installation of the latest version of Management
Reporter 2012 (at time of writing, this is Rollup 6). You also need security access to Management Reporter and a
basic understanding of the reporting product.
We are going to cover a fairly simple report in this section in three parts showing how to create the row definition,
column definition, and then the report definition, which pulls the first two together into a working report.
Creating the row definition
To create the row definition, follow the given steps:
1. Launch Management Reporter 2012 and log into the Fabrikam, Inc. company as normal.
2. Press Ctrl + Shift + R to create a new row definition.
3. Click on the Edit menu and then click on Insert Rows from Dimensions.

4. In the Division column, perform the following steps:
1. Enter &&& into the Dimensions row.
2. Enter 300 into the Dimension Range Start and Dimension Range End rows.
5. In the Account column, change the value in Dimensions to ####.
6. Click on OK to close the Insert Rows from Dimensions window and update the row definition.

7. Click on Save.
8. Enter BUDGET-SALES in the Name field.
9. Enter Budget Sales in the Description field.
10. Click on OK and close the row definition.
This row definition is very simple in structure, and will give an overview of the figures for the Sales division.
However, with the options on the report definition that we will set later, we'll be able to drill down and see more
details.
Creating the column definition
To create the column definition, follow the given steps:
1. Launch Management Reporter 2012 and log into the Fabrikam, Inc. company.
2. Press Ctrl + Shift + C to create a new column definition.

3. Enter Desc in the Column Type in column A.
4. In column B, perform the following steps:
1. Double-click on the Header 1 cell and enter Sales Budget @FiscalYear in the Column
header text and enter B in Spread from and G in Spread to.
2. Click on Ok to close the Column Header window.
3. In Header 2 enter 1 to 3, which is the period range that the column will contain.
4. Enter FD in the Column Type row which defines this column as containing either actual
or budget figures from the financial dimension.
5. Enter 2017 Sales in the Book Code / Attribute Category row to select the required
budget.
6. Enter 2017 in the Fiscal Year row.
7. Enter 1:3 in the Period row, which will calculate the figures for periods 1, 2, and 3.
8. Enter PERIODIC in the Periods Covered row.
9. Enter P<=B in the Print Column row.
5. Repeat step 4.2 to step 4.8 for 4 to 6, 7 to 9, and 10 to 12 in Header 2; 4:6, 7:9, and 10:12 in the
Period row.
6. In column F, perform the following steps:
1. In Header 2, enter Year-to-Date.
2. Enter FD in the Column Type row.
3. Enter 2017 Sales in the Book Code / Attribute Category row.
4. Enter 2017 in the Fiscal Year row.
5. Enter BASE in the Period row.
6. Enter YTD in the Periods Covered row.
7. In column G, perform the following steps:
1. In Header 2, enter @FiscalYear.
2. Enter FD in the Column Type row.
3. Enter 2017 Sales in the Book Code / Attribute Category row.
4. Enter 2017 in the Fiscal Year row.
5. Enter 1:12 in the Period row.
6. Enter PERIODIC in the Periods Covered row.
8. Click on Save to save the new column definition.
9. Enter BUDGET-SALES-2017 in the Name field.
10. Enter Budget Sales 2017 in the Description field.
11. Click on OK and close the column definition.
Creating the report definition
To create the default records needed for analytical accounting, follow the given steps:
1. Launch Management Reporter 2012 and log into the Fabrikam, Inc. company as normal.
2. Press Ctrl + Shift + P to create a new report definition.

3. Set the Detail level: to Financial, Account, & Transaction.
4. Fabrikam, Inc. is operating in 2017, so change the Base Year: to 2017.
5. Set the Row: to BUDGET-SALES.
6. Set the Column: to BUDGETSALES 2017.
7. Click on the Output and Distribution tab.
8. Enter BUDGET-SALES 2017 in the Output name: field.
9. Click on Save to save the new column definition.
10. Enter BUDGET-SALES-2017 in the Name field.
11. Enter Budget Sales 2017 in the Description field.
12. Click on OK and close the column definition.
13. Click on Generate to produce the report and launch the Report Viewer.

As the base period was set to April, the print control means only the first of the periodic columns displays on the
report. Clicking on the line will drill down to the account level showing the breakdown of the budget values on the
accounts.

As with report created in Management Reporter, additional columns can be added to the column definition to
include actual figures in the report as well as calculation fields.
Summary
In this article, we have taken a look at the inquiries and reports available within a standard implementation of
Microsoft Dynamics GP as well as looking at how Management Reporter 2012 can be used to extend this
reporting.