Article ID: 8264

Financial Statements Overview

Financial Statements (G/L Statements) consist of the General Ledger, Trial Balance, Income Statement, and Balance Sheet. You can use the Financial Statements to show accounting information for a specific period. A firm's Financial Statements collectively provide a complete picture of their finances, tracks profit and loss, and shows net worth.

Unique Features of Financial Statements in PCLaw

Financial statements differ greatly from other PCLaw report types. Both of the following financial report features are unique to financial statements and differ from other PCLaw reports:

  • PCLaw creates Financial Statements on templates that you can create or change through Template Editor. PCLaw provides several templates for each statement type. Depending on the template, your statement can show year-to-date figures, prior year figures, budget comparisons, or a twelve month overview.
  • G/L accounts do not save individual entries. The Financial Statements pull transactions from the Source Journals when you create them. A detailed General Ledger Statement lists the source journal for an entry in the Srce column.

NOTE:

PCLaw saves month-end balances when you close a month to help it create Financial Statements faster.

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Source Journals for Financial Statements

Financial Statements draw transactions from the following source journals:

  • General Bank Journal
  • Trust Bank Journal
  • Client Costs Journal
  • Billing (Fees) Journal
  • Purchases Journal

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Producing Financial Statements

Take the following steps to produce all four Financial Statements:

  1. Click G/L and select G/L Statements... to open the Statements window.
  2. Click Load Last to load the report selections as they appear on the last report run though the Statements window.
  3. Click to check the General Ledger box, and select a template for it.
  4. Click to check the Trial Balance box, and select a template for it.
  5. Click to check the Income Statement box, and select a template for it.
  6. Click to check the Balance Sheet box, and select a template for it.
  7. Select Range from the G/L Account Selections box.
  8. Select First Current Asset from the Start drop-down list.
  9. Select Last Expense from the End drop-down list.
  10. Enter the period start and end dates in the Current Report Period date boxes.
    NOTE: Click Use Previous to run the report for the same dates as the last statement you ran. Click Default to run the report for the next open period.
  11. Click to check the Detailed box to show each debit and credit on the report or uncheck it to only show balances for each G/L account.
    NOTE: Summarized G/L accounts only show a summary of debits and credits on the report, even when you check the Detailed box.
  12. Select Output options.
  13. Select the Other tab for additional report options.
  14. Click OK to generate the report.
    NOTE: Click Yes if you get the Do you want to re-read G/L information? prompt.

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