What’s new in Calxa this month? We are greatly expanding the flexibility of Business Units for Xero and QuickBooks users this month. From here on, you will be able to report on the intersection of them. For example, you will be able to isolate Project A in Department 1. In addition, just so there is something for everyone, you can now use Report Bundle kits with Account Trees or for an Organisation Group.
What are Business Unit Combinations?
We have always given you the ability to report on one or more business units from a list. Combinations let you budget and report on the intersection of 2 business units.
For example, if you have 2 lists of tracking categories in Xero, you might have Regions and Projects. Our current Business Unit Selections let you select one or many from either of these lists and report on them. You can budget on either list and consolidate them to the organisation budget.
Business Unit combinations take this a step further and recognise that, in Xero, you can attach 2 tracking categories to each transaction. Similarly, in QuickBooks, you can apply both a class and a location to a transaction.
Creating Business Unit Combinations in Calxa
To set this up, go to Settings, Organisation settings and it is fairly simple. Pick your primary category, such as Regions. Then select which projects belong to that region. The next time you sync your data, we will pull in the actuals by month for your combinations.
As a side note, this will slow your sync so just select the combinations that you use. Just because you have 20 regions and 20 projects, you probably do not use all 400 possible combinations. Keep your life simple and select the ones you use!
Budgeting on Intersecting Tracking Categories
In Budgets & Actuals you can now budget for your combinations. Just select them on the left-hand side as you would for any business unit. You can do the same for Metrics and use all the familiar shortcuts and formulas.
Reporting the Intersection of Business Units
When reporting on your combinations, simply add them to a Business Unit Selection as you have always done. Report on just one or several and give your audience either detailed or consolidated business unit reports.
Bundle Kit Improvements
Report Bundle Kits have always been a popular way to get started with reporting in Calxa. When you select the Create New Bundle option, you can choose one of the pre-set bundle kits. To make this more flexible, we have now added the ability to use bundle kits with Organisation Groups and added an Account Tree option.
If, for example, you regularly prepare 3-way forecasts for your clients, you can do that with a bundle kit. You will be able to create a full set of reports for a consolidated group of entities. As a result, you will get a chart and report for the P&L Forecast, Balance Sheet Forecast and Cashflow Forecast.
Even for those of you creating bundles for a single organisation, you can use the Small Business Management Reports or the Not-for-Profit Board Reports and include your favourite Account Tree. This will group the accounts the way you like them. It is easy then to change the report level in some reports to change to more or less detail, depending on your audience’s needs.
What’s Next in Calxa?
The big project the team is working on is Business Unit Trees. We are expecting this to be completed in late August. This will give you the ability to create a hierarchy of your business units and combinations, both within and across organisations. Watch this space!
There are also some smaller but still important changes on the way such as:
- Improved notifications when adding an organisation.
- Balance sheet actuals by business unit.
- And more.
Keep the feedback coming and we will do our best to deliver when we can. Keep adding your thoughts to the feature wishlist! To find out more about Calxa’s new features, go to our Product Info articles or check out our change log.