Management Reports
This article explains how to access Management Reports in FreeAgent.
The article covers the following topics. Please select a link to jump straight to that section:
- What are Management Reports?
- Accessing Management Reports
- Filtering Management Reports
- Adding a front cover to Management Reports
- Adding notes to Management reports
- Exporting Management Reports
Please note that you’ll need level 7 access or above to your FreeAgent account in order to view Management Reports and full (level 8) access to add notes and a front cover.
What are Management Reports?
Management Reports focus on specific areas of the business, both financially and operationally, and typically include financial data, key performance indicators (KPIs), forecasts and narrative analysis. This is different to financial reports which focus on overall financial performance.
You can prepare Management Reports to allow you to understand your data quickly and in a way that suits you. By understanding your data, it allows you to make informed financial decisions for your business.
Management Reports in FreeAgent include an Executive Summary, Profit & Loss, Balance Sheet, Aged Debtors, and Aged Creditors reports.
Accessing Management Reports
Navigate to the ‘Accounting’ tab at the top of the screen and select ‘Reports’ from the drop-down menu.
Select ‘Management Reports’ from within the High Level section.
Filtering Management Reports
You can filter the displayed reports by report, view and reporting period.
Filtering by report
When filtering by report, you can select to display the Executive Summary, Profit & Loss, Balance Sheet, Aged Debtors or Aged Creditors reports.
Executive Summary report
The Executive Summary report provides a snapshot of the Management Reports to provide key information to stakeholders at a glance and allow them to make informed decisions.
Please note that the figure for ‘Assets minus Liabilities’ on the Executive Summary may not match the ‘Total Assets’ figure on the Balance Sheet as the figure on the Balance Sheet will be rounded up to the nearest pound, whereas the figure on the Executive Summary won’t.
Profit and Loss report
The Profit & Loss report shows a summary of your business's trading during a given period of time. It shows your business's income less its expenses to give your business's profit or loss for the year.
Balance Sheet report
The Balance Sheet report shows you everything that your business owns (fixed assets and current assets) and everything that it owes (current liabilities and long-term liabilities) at a given moment in time.
Aged Debtors report
The Aged Debtors report shows how much each customer owes the business, and a breakdown of each invoice. If your business is registered for VAT, the figures shown on the report will be inclusive of VAT.
Aged Creditors report
The Aged Creditors report shows how much the business owes each supplier and a breakdown of each bill. If your business is registered for VAT, the figures shown on the report will be inclusive of VAT.
Filtering by view
When filtering by view, you can select to display the Executive Summary, Profit & Loss and Balance Sheet reports by ‘Yearly’, ‘Quarterly’, ‘Monthly’ or ‘Comparative’.
Aged Debtors and Aged Creditors reports will show the report as at the given end date and won’t update to filter by view.
How to use the Comparative view
If you select the ‘Comparative’ view option and then choose two periods that you want to compare, you can compare two different quarterly or annual reports side by side, or you can view a custom date range.
Filter by reporting period
When filtering by reporting period, you can select to display reports by current year to date, a specific accounting year, or a custom date.
Adding a front cover
To add a front cover, select ‘Report settings’.
Enter the title of the report, who they were prepared by and the date they were prepared.
Select ‘Save changes’ at the bottom of the screen to complete the process.
Adding notes
To add notes to your Management Reports, select the ‘Notes’ tab.
Enter any relevant details in the ‘Note’ field and select ‘Add note’. Notes are included at the beginning of the exported full Management Report.
To edit a note previously added, select ‘Edit’ and to remove a note previously added, select ‘Delete’.
Exporting Management Reports
To export Management Reports, select ‘Export Report’ in the top-right and choose ‘Full Report (PDF)’ from the drop-down menu.