For specific reporting requirements, and particularly when consolidating multiple companies, FinJinni will allow you to report on accounts and groups of accounts using names and grouping different from what is used in QuickBooks.
To do this, you will assign custom fields to accounts. QuickBooks does not let you use custom fields with accounts, but FinJinni does. For example, you can assign “_Acct_Alias” and “_Acct_Group” to each account with an alias name and grouping for reporting. You can then use those fields in place of the usual Account_Description or Account_Type. Whatever fields you use in a summary query (e.g. P&L Summary) is what FinJinni will total by.
These files are named “companyid_Accounts.csv”, where “companyid” is the company identifier (aka nick-name) that you assigned when you added the company to FinJinni.
This file has three columns and requires a header with the column name in the first row:
- Account_Description
The account-number and name assigned by FinJinni from the QuickBooks accounts. This has the format “number – name” where “number” is the account number from QuickBooks and “name” is the account name from QuickBooks. If you are not using account numbers, only use the name.
- Field_Name
The custom field name that you want to assign to the account. For example, “Alias” or “Group”. FinJinni will add a prefix “_Acct_” to these names but you should not.
- Field_Value
The field value. This would be the account alias or group in this example.
For an example, look at the supplied file “samplecompany_Accounts.csv”. Then replace “samplecompany” with the name you have used for your company in FinJinni.
Any names you put in the “Field_Name” column will appear in FinJinni’s Field list in the Custom Fields section with a prefix “_Acct_”. Refer to the FinJinni Pro Queries Manual for instructions on how to use customized queries.
Tip: You can obtain a list of all the accounts in your company using the query under “System Information Queries, Account Information” for all accounts or “System Information Queries, Posting Accounts Only” to choose only accounts that have GL postings.
Defining an Alias field
FinJinni recognizes the custom field “Alias” in a special manner. You can use it normally as “_acct_Alias”, but FinJinni will also create a field named “Account_Alias” as a convenience for reporting. It will also fill in a field called “Account_Hierarchy_Alias” which contains the complete account hierarchy using the Alias field so that reports showing parent-child accounts can show the alias value.