Prepare Management Reports for clients
This article explains how to collate and customise key financial reports around the unique needs of each client.
You can prepare Management Reports in FreeAgent to allow you to understand your client's data quickly and in a way that suits you.
Management Reports in FreeAgent include an Executive Summary, Profit & Loss, Balance Sheet, Aged Debtors, and Aged Creditors reports.
Please note that clients with level 7 access or above to their FreeAgent account can view Management Reports and those with full (level 8) access can add notes and a front cover.
The article covers the following topics. Please select a link to jump straight to that section:
- Accessing Management Reports
- Filtering Management Reports
- Adding a front cover to Management Reports
- Adding notes to Management reports
- Sharing Management Reports with your clients
Accessing Management Reports
Log in to your Practice Dashboard and select ‘Switch to’ beside the relevant client to access their account.
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.
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.
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 the 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’.
Sharing Management Reports with your clients
There's multiple ways that you can share the Management Reports with your clients. Clients with level 7 access to their FreeAgent account will be able to view the report but won't be able to edit the notes or settings unless they have full (level 8) access.
Once the reports are fully prepared, you can export the Management Reports by selecting ‘Export report’ in the top-right and choosing ‘Full Report (PDF)’ from the drop-down menu. You can then send the full report your client.
Alternatively, you can send your client the URL of a specific section of the Management Reports. When they click the link, they'll be able to log in and view that section of the reports.
Finally, you could go through the reports with your clients in person or share your screen over a zoom call remotely.
What's next?
This is just the first release of our Management Reports functionality. We’re already listening closely to Partner feedback and gearing up for the next phase of development. Find out more on our blog.