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7. "Playing" with transactions...visually! |
  
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7. "Playing" with transactions...visually! |
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All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy...so the old saying goes. And it's not an exaggeration to describe this lesson as being about "playing" with transactions. ManagePLUS gives you several ways to organize and view transactions visually—by just dragging column headings and making a few mouse clicks. These let you get useful management information from your accounting records in seconds, without needing to learn complicated procedures or even expending much effort.
This lesson describes what you can do with the Transactions window's visual controls. Here's a screen shot with most of them labeled, to serve as a reference for the discussion:
Resetting the grid (to default settings)
The techniques described in this topic all share a common hazard: they make it possible to rearrange the grid to the point that figuring out how to "change it back to the way it was" can be difficult. If that happens there's an easy way out: you can reset the grid to return it to its default (as-designed) settings:
| 1. | Click on the Grid button in the data window toolbar, to display the grid menu. |
| 2. | Choose Reset grid (to defaults) in the menu, to reset the grid. |
Choosing columns to show or hide
Often you may want to show fewer columns than are available. Especially if you are getting ready to print or export the grid, you may want to limit the columns it displays. Here's one of the ways to do that.
| 1. | Click the column selection button in the upper left corner of the grid to show the drop-down list of available grid columns. |
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Columns currently included (shown) in the grid have a check mark beside them. Columns which are currently hidden have no check mark. |
| 2. | Place a check mark beside columns you want to show in the grid, and un-check columns you want to hide. |
 | Tip: While the drop-down list is showing, you can also drag column names upward or downward in the list to change the column order in the grid. |
| Another way to hide/show grid columns is to use the Column Chooser window. For details, see the How To topic Choosing and arranging grid columns. |
You can drag column headings to different positions to change the column order:
| 1. | When the mouse cursor is over a column heading you want to move, click and hold down the mouse button. |
| We might click on the Account column's heading, to move it between Name and Amount. |
| 2. | Drag the column heading to the left or right, until it is at the desired location. |
| Green arrows will appear as you drag to the left or right, to show where the column will be inserted if you release the mouse button. |
| 3. | Release the mouse button. |
| The Account column is now positioned between Name and Amount. |
| Another way to change the column order is to click the column selection button (described above) to display the list of column names, then drag column names upward or downward in the list to reposition them in the grid. |
For more information, see the How To topic Choosing and arranging grid columns.
To sort by any column of the grid:
| • | Click once on the column's header. |
 | Avoid clicking toward the right side of the column header, or you might unintentionally invoke the column's filtering button. |
The grid will immediately be sorted by the column you clicked, and the column header will display a sort order indicator: a small triangle that points upward when the column is sorted in forward/alphabetical order, and downward when the column is sorted in reverse order.
To reverse the sort order:
| • | Click a second time on the column's header. |
The sort order will immediately be reversed, as the sort order indicator shows.
You can sort by several columns at once if you want. For more information, see the How To topic Sorting grids.
You can organize the grid's data rows into groups based on the contents of specific column(s). Let's group the grid by the Account and Class columns.
| 1. | Click and hold down the mouse button on the Account column's heading. |
| 2. | Drag the column heading upward, into the grouping panel. |
| Green arrows will appear to show where the column will be inserted when you release the mouse button. |
| 3. | Release the mouse button. |
| ManagePLUS then groups the transactions by account. Actually, it groups by account level. Most QuickBooks lists have multiple levels (accounts and sub accounts, classes and sub classes, etc.) When you group by one of those columns ManagePLUS swaps in substitute columns representing each of the list's levels, to make the grouping have the multilevel structure you expect to see. |
| 4. | Duplicate the three steps above, for the Class column's heading. |
The grid will then be grouped by Account and by Class (i.e., with classes as subgroups of accounts) and should look something like the screen shot farther below after you've expanded groups to show detail.
| 5. | Expand groups to show the amount of detail you want to see. You can either: |
| • | Click the  or  button of any grouping to expand or collapse it, respectively. |
| • | Use one of the toolbar buttons available for working with grouped grids: |
Here's a grouped grid with all grouping expanded:
Things to know about grouping:
| • | You can group by any number of columns. |
| • | The grid automatically subtotals and totals all grouping levels. Also, groupings based on columns which have management quantity information, such as the Classes column, provide additional per-unit statistics and information. |
| • | You can rearrange the grouping order by dragging column headings to different positions within the grouping panel. |
| • | You can ungroup any column by dragging the column heading back out of the grouping panel and into the grid's heading area. (Drag the column heading to wherever you want it to appear within the grid.) |
| • | The current expansion state of grouped rows is adhered to when you print or export transactions. You can leave some groups expanded and others collapsed to control the appearance of printouts or exported files. |
| • | Most column header commands (sorting, filtering, column selection) work even for grouped columns. For example, you can click on a column header in the grouping panel to change that column's sort order. |
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A neat grouping trick: Arranging Classes however you want!
Most people worry at least a little bit about getting their Class list set up "just right" in QuickBooks. The big concern is that, in QuickBooks at least, there's no way to rearrange the class levels for reports. So if your class structure is like this:
Corn Smith Farm 2009 2010 Jones Farm 2009 2010 Soybeans Smith Farm 2009 2010 Jones Farm 2009 2010
...then you're "stuck with" getting all of your class reports structured the same way.
But there's no such limitation with ManagePLUS! In the example shown earlier, class levels are arranged as: Class1 --> Class2 --> Class3 in grouping panel. But you can drag them into any order you want. For the class list shown above, if you drag Class headings into the order Class3 --> Class1 --> Class2 in the grouping panel, Transactions will be arranged this way:
2009 Corn Smith Farm Jones Farm Soybeans Smith Farm Jones Farm 2010 Corn Smith Farm Jones Farm Soybeans Smith Farm Jones Farm
In fact, any arrangement of class levels is possible. More important, the management quantities you entered on the Classes tab—things like acres or bushels of production—properly "follow" classes to their new spot in the hierarchy and are properly accumulated "upwards". For example, the total crop acreage at the 2010 level would be the sum of acreages from the Corn and Soybean levels, and the acreages at those levels would be corn and soybean acreages specified for the Jones farm and the Smith farm for 2010. This means things like per-acre and per-bushel revenues and costs will be based on the "right" management quantities.
(Yes, it's perfectly OK for you to say "Cool!" right now.) |
For more information, see the How To Procedures topic Grouping grids.
Filtering: limiting what gets displayed
You can use filtering to limit what data is displayed in a grid. Clicking on a column's filtering button displays a list of data values available for the column, like the one shown at right. Check mark any items in the list, and the grid will show only those items. For example, if we check mark Mid County Equipment Co....
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The grid will then only display transactions for that vendor:
How do you un-filter a grid? Click on the column's filtering button again, but this time select the (All) item at the top of the list:
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The easy way to learn ManagePLUS grid techniques is visually. Check the ManagePLUS Videos & Tutorials Library on our Web site for videos about working with grids. |
Page url: http://www.goflagship.com/help/mp/index.html?qs_trans_playing_with.htm
