About Insights

Insights is our flexible advanced reporting module built directly on your consolidated ledger data. Every figure in Insights comes from the same consolidation that drives the rest of AccountsIQ, including FX translation, intercompany eliminations, ownership percentages and minority interest. 

Reporting is highly customisable, cutting down on data manipulation in external spreadsheets.

It is ideal for Group CFOs, Finance Directors and Financial Controllers who need reporting that meets specific requirements.

Insights Modules

Insights has two modules that work together:

• Report: Our P&L Report – Group lets you update layout, change the period and comparison, drill down to the underlying transactions, and export to Excel.
• Data Model: This is where finance leaders define the reports' structure, such as included categories, line names, line order, line calculations, or KPIs. See Insights Setup & Data Model - Beta for more details.

Permissions

To access the Report tab, you will need any of the following permissions:

See:

📗 Insights Setup & Data Model - Beta 

📗 Create & Manage Entity GL Accounts 

📗 Create & Manage Group GL Accounts 

Opening Insights

Once your system admin has set your permissions, you can access Insights Reports. 

1. Log in to AccountsIQ as normal. No separate login method or password is required for Insights.
2. In the side navigation, go to Switch Module and select Insights.
3. Insights has its own side navigation, where you will see the Report and Data Model options, depending on permissions. The side navigation can be expanded or collapsed using the arrow at the bottom. Click Report to view your library of financial reports.
4. Next:
   • If you open Report before a Data Model has been published, you will see a message asking your Data Model owner to publish one first. The Board P&L becomes available once the model is published. 
   • If the Data Model owner has already published the Data Model, a Board P&L – Group will be available to select immediately. 

Report Library

Reports are grouped into two sections:

Each currently available report tile shows:

• Name and description: For example, Consolidated profit & loss for board-level review.
• Entity: The entity code and name the report is built on, such as a consolidation entity. For a group, this brings in all subsidiaries through your consolidation structure.
• Default period: For example, Rolling 12 months.

If the published Data Model is out of sync with your current chart of accounts, the report card shows an indicator so you know before you open the report. The Data Model owner needs to update and re-publish the Data Model. The updates will automatically flow to the reports.

1. Select the Board P&L – Group card. The report opens with its default view.
2. To get the latest figure from AccountsIQ, click the refresh icon and Refresh data.
   
3. Choose what data to show with selectors in the header, referencing the table below.

4. Use the report features outlined in the table to read the report.

5. Decide how to show the report using the Display Settings and Filters. See the relevant sections of this article.
   

6. Drill down to entity, account, or transaction as required. See the section below.
7. Choose how to capture the report using Saved Views and Export. See the relevant sections of this article.
   

1. Open Display Settings with the sliders icon. Settings are grouped into Variance and Formatting.
2. Set Variance preferences if you are using Variance based reports.

3. Set formatting preferences.

Display Settings are remembered: Your Display Settings are kept when you change entity, period or preset, and are restored when you reopen the report. If you switch to a preset with no comparison, variance switches off and your variance choices return when you pick a comparison again.

This feature lets you filter by Entity and/or Dimension Code or Dimension Tag. For more on Dimensions, see Dimensions Codes / Tags Setup.

1. Click the Filters icon in the top right.
2. There are two filter tabs available. 
   • In the Entities tab, select an entity to report on.
     
   • In the Dimensions tab, select one of the following. The report results will be the sum of all items you select:
     • Dimension Codes. You will only see the Dimension Codes that are available in the entity you selected.
       
     • Dimension Tags. You will only see the Dimension Tags that are available in the entity you selected. 
       

Any selections made will appear in the report header:

Drilling down to the source

Any figure on the Board P&L – Group can be traced back to the transactions behind it, in three levels: Entities, Account Balances, and Transactions.

1. Click a figure in the report grid. A panel will open on the right showing the drill-down.
2. Use the breadcrumb at the top of the panel to step back up a level, or close the panel to return to the report.

Lines

Lines will have only an Entities tab. Note: Reports only include entities you have access to in AccountsIQ. If you don’t have access to the group entity, you won’t see it in the entity list, and every total, drill-down and export reflects only the entities you can access.

Clicking the entity lets you view the transactions that make up the figure. These can be filtered by Dimension and searched: 

Calculations

Calculated lines, such as EBITDA, will have an Entities tab and a Split tab showing the lines it is calculated from:

Sections

Sections will have an Entities tab (without a drilldown). In addition, they also have a Split tab that shows the lines that make up that Section.

Saved views lets you bookmark a report, including all Display Settings and Filters used for a selected Preset. The periods in saved views are fixed.

1. Click the Saved Views icon in the top right.
2. Choose the required visibility: Private if only you see the view or Public if you want other users to also have this view available. Public views can also be edited by other users.
3. Enter a View Name.
4. Click Save. Your saved views will now appear for selection in the Saved Views screen. When you select a saved view, the View Name will appear at the top of your report.

Editing Saved Views

Note: If a view is Public, it can be edited by other users with the Insights Edit Reports permission.

All Saved Views can be renamed, and their visibility changed. 

1. Click the Saved Views icon.
2. Click the pencil icon next to the relevant view. Saved view can also be deleted by clicking the trash can icon next to the listing.
3. Make any changes needed, and click Save.

Both full reports and drilldowns can be exported.

Export the Report

1. Set up the view you want: preset, value type, period, filters, and Display Settings.
2. Click the Export (download) icon.
3. The .xlsx file will download, named with the entity, report, period end and export time.

When you open the Excel file, you will see the following content:

• On Screen Data Only: The file mirrors what is on screen; the same entities, column order, visible rows, rounding, scaling and variance colours.
• Worksheet Layout: One worksheet is named after the report, with frozen headers and grouped rows that collapse like the report screen.
• Header Data: A header block above the grid records the report name, entity, value type, period window, comparison, currency, scale, data last consolidated, who exported it and when. If the report showed an unresolved Data Model warning when you exported it, the header block records that.

Export Drill-down Data

Transaction level drill-downs can be exported by clicking the Export option.

For drill-downs, the exported transactions add up to the figure you drilled down into, and the file records the drilldown path that produced it.

Numerical Values in Exports

Every numerical value is in Excel number format, not text, including Decimal places, Hide trailing 0s, Reverse signals, Rounding, and thousands scaling.

• A cell shows the rounded figure while the formula bar shows the full value.
• Excel's SUM over exported cells agrees with the exported total. 
• If you clear a cell's number format, it shows the unscaled value (for example 1234567 instead of 1,235). The value is correct; only the display format has been removed.
• Copying and pasting as values gives you the full-precision figure.
• Totals are exported as values, not formulas.