Creating a report template is the first step in creating a custom G/L report. The template defines the account or group of accounts that each line of the report represents.
G/L report templates can serve two purposes, both of which are related to creating reports. Each G/L report you create must have a corresponding template that identifies all the accounts to include in that report. This template may call other templates. The most basic template can define a single group of related accounts. Though it is possible to create a report from this template, you may never use it for this purpose; other report templates may just call the template.
For example, you can create a template called "cash" that defines all your cash accounts, such as each checking account, and your cash box. Whenever you create a template for a report on which you want to list your cash accounts or have a line item that represents the total of all your cash accounts, you can call the "cash" template into that template, instead of creating a new group from the beginning each time.
You can insert both comments and subtotal lines throughout the template.
A group consists of one or more G/L accounts delimited by a Start tag and an End tag. A group can also consist of multiple subgroups of accounts, each delimited by Start and End tags. You can also create a group or subgroup by imbedding or calling all the accounts defined in another template. Each imbedded group and subgroup can display on the template screen, or print on a report in its expanded format (showing each G/L account in the group), or as a single line item representing the total value of the accounts contained in the group.
For information about how line items operate within a template, see Detail Levels in G/L Templates.
Use the following procedures to create templates: