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UKMany charity finance professionals share a common problem: the ability to complete their annual accounts without resorting to the cumbersome task of manually analysing transactions offline in a spreadsheet.
Thankfully, this analysis is possible to obtain directly from your finance system but, in order to do so, it must have multiple reporting dimensions. Get in touch with our dedicated team to learn more about Xledger’s real-time reporting tools.
Think of a reporting dimension as a set of rubber stamps. One set of stamps might relate to the fund that income and expenditure pertain to, whilst another set might relate to the type of income or expenditure.
Each transaction entering the system is then stamped with the appropriate stamps relevant to each transaction. Reporting is simply asking your finance system to bring back all the transactions relevant to one collection of stamps in the columns of your report and another set, in the rows.
Having multiple sets of stamps (or multiple reporting dimensions) allows the user to slice and dice in the many different ways required for SORP reporting.
Every finance system has at least one reporting dimension, and many have two, although we don’t necessarily think of them as such. The Chart of Accounts and Cost Centre are both reporting dimensions.
Just because you are currently only using two reporting dimensions doesn’t necessarily mean that others are not available to you. You can easily get in touch with your finance system provider to find out the reporting dimensions available
The number of reporting dimensions that your business needs will depend on the size and structure of the charity, but common ways that data needs to be analysed in the SORP are as follows:
It’s true that there are a lot of different reporting dimensions. But, does that mean you need to stamp each transaction many times? To some extent, yes. To get information out of a system, you must first enter it. That being said, the key to minimising the amount of input required is understanding the relationship between the different types of information that you are trying to capture. If there is a direct relationship between two types of data, it could potentially exist in one reporting dimension.
One example of this is the fund and fund type. Each fund relates to one and only one fund type at any given time. As we are able to derive the fund type from the fund, you only need to specify the fund on each transaction to directly or indirectly report on the fund type. Remember: direct reporting requires hierarchical reporting dimensions.
Find out how many reporting dimensions you have access to in your current finance system and thinking about the different types of data you need to capture in your finance system. Also, consider any relationships between the different types of data you are looking to capture and whether they can exist in the same reporting dimension.
We deliver these advanced capabilities through our true, multi-tenant cloud ERP system. With Xledger, you can expand service without increasing overhead. Access Xledger anywhere, anytime, from any device for one pay-as-you-go subscription fee.
Xledger empowers 10,000+ organisations in 50+ countries with best-in-market automation, insight, and scalability. We serve tax-exempt organisations of all sizes and levels of complexity—from regional hospitals to global aid networks. Contact our expert team to understand how Xledger can support your not-for-profit or charity.
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Speak to one of our dedicated team members for more information on how Xledger can support your business.
