Account Ordering, Processing Order, and Account Segment Ranges
The Financial Reporter will list ranges of accounts in the order set in the financial report specification or (if not set in the specification) in the order chosen at print time in the Financial Statements print dialog box.
You can sort accounts by any account segments, and you can specify a range of values for each segment you sort by. You can also sort by account group, using the formula \\acctgroup or by account-sorted group, using the formula \\acctgroupsort.
For example, if your accounts have two segments, the following account reference will generate two possible account listings, depending on the sort order you specify:
100~120-A~B
If the accounts are sorted by segment 1, the above reference will generate a series of lines like this:
100-A
100-B
120-A
120-B
However, if the accounts are sorted by segment 2, they will be listed like this:
100-A
120-A
100-B
120-B
Order is specified on the print/preview statements screen
The default order for processing accounts is the order specified at print time on the Financial Statements screen (or the FR View screen when editing specifications).
Specifying account order in the default row specification
You can also enforce the order of processing accounts in ranges for all or part of a report by specifying the order in the first column of the default row specification (immediately after the backslashes "\\").
You may process account numbers in any of the following orders:
\\ACCTAccount segment order
\\ACCTGROUPAccount group order
\\ACSEGVALnAccount segment #n order
\\Segment_descto list accounts by the segment with description Segment_desc. For example, "\\REGION"
Affects print order and processing speed
The order you specify has two separate affects. It determines:
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The order in which accounts in expanded account references are printed.
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The ease (and, consequently, the speed) with which the accounts can be retrieved by the Financial Reporter.
In the following example, account numbers have two segments: a department segment and an account segment. The department segment is first (not recommended), and there are only two department codes in the ledger, but a large number of accounts. The first account segment in the ledger is 1000.
If the Financial Reporter processes accounts in order by the account segment, it will only have to process accounts 1000 through 1100 (specified like this).
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A |
B |
C |
D |
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\\ACCT |
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%-1000~1100 |
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The accounts will appear in the following order on the report (by account segment, then by department):
A-1000
B-1000
A-1100
B-1100
If, on the other hand, the Financial Reporter processes accounts in account number order (which lists the department segment first) it will have to scan each account in the ledger to see if it matches the range.
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A |
B |
C |
D |
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\\ACCTID |
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%-1000~1100 |
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The final report will also be in account number order, which, in this case, will be in department order for the indicated range.
A-1000
A-1100
B-1000
B-1100
Note that the order of segments in an account number is defined by the account's structure code -- not by the order of segments shown in the G/L Options form.
Consequently, if you have different structures that have different first segments, ACCTID order will produce odd results, and you should order accounts by a particular segment or by account group.
If you choose to print by the account segment, the order for processing is first by that account segment, and second by the complete account number (as defined by its structure).
If you print by the account group code, the order is first by account group, second by account segment code, and third by account number.
The default sort order remains in effect until you specify another sort order, or unless it is overridden in a specific account reference (see the next section).
Specifying account order for one account reference
Finally, you can choose to process a single account reference in a different order than indicated by a default row specification or by the report options on the Financial Statements screen.
You specify a processing order for an account reference by placing it immediately after the account reference:
Account reference | Order
Note the following examples. For information on specifying account references, see Specifying Account Numbers in Formulas and Rows.
1000-% | ACCTuses account order, so processes only account 1000. Segment 2 will appear in any order.
1000-% | ACSEGVAL2uses segment 2 order, so will scan all account numbers. However, segment 2 will be in order.
1000:3000[REGION] | ACCTIDuses account number order for accounts that use the REGION account structure. Will only process particular accounts in the range.
Note: If the account reference specifies a range using the symbol ":", this reference will be processed in account number order unless you set an order for the referece using the "|" (no matter what order is set in the Print dialog box or in the default row specification).
As you can see from these examples, you can affect the efficiency of the Financial Reporter by the way you reference accounts.