Changing the Body of an A/R Report

Accounts Receivable Reports Basic Procedures

A printed report consists of several elements: the title, the company logo, column or field headings, and the body of the report. The body contains the customer name, customer account number, or other information that makes up the actual report. You can control the information that prints in the body by changing the sorts or limits set up in the report selector. You can also add information to the body by adding detail lines to the selector.

Note: To change the body of a report, you should have a good understanding of report structure. For more information, see About Report Structure.

Once you type A at the Do You Want to Change All message, you can change sorts, limits, or detail lines.

The Change Sorts prompt displays, along with the default sorts for your report. If you don't need to change the sort selections or add sorts for this report, press Enter and go to Step 11. To change the sorts for this report, type Y. The Fill Field Completely message displays.
To specify a sort, enter the number corresponding to the sort order. For example, to make the customer's name the primary sort for the report, enter 1s in the Name field. You don't have to enter the sorts in order. For example, you can fill the Acct # field with 3s before you fill the Name field with 1s. Remember that A/R reports must always have customer account number and invoice number as the last two sorts.
The Date field has duplicate sorts. Enter the same sort number in all three date fields (month, day, year) to use duplicate sorts for Date.
You can skip fields and groups as needed:
- To skip a field, press Tab.
- To clear a field, space through it, then press Tab.
- To skip a sort group, press Enter.

Note: You can enter the same sort number in more than one field. If you do, the fields are used together as a combined sort. The two sorts are treated as one long sort. Suppose you enter 1s in both the Name and City fields. The customer name and the customer's city sort alphabetically as one.

At the Break Page On Sort message, you can force a page break for a sort. To begin a new page on the specified sort, type Y. To skip this, press Enter.

Note: All characters, including letters, numbers, and symbols are sorted in the standard ASCII Sort Order.

At the Ascend Or Descend Order On Sort prompt, specify whether to sort in ascending or descending order. Ascending sorts words from A to Z, and numbers from lowest to highest. Descending sorts words from Z to A, and numbers from highest to lowest.
- Press Enter to sort in ascending order.
- Type D to sort in descending order.

Note: Note: The five Sorts fields just above the print lines are quick references to the page break and sort order you set. The first part of the field references your response to the Break Page prompt. The second part corresponds to your response to the Ascending or Descending prompt. Refer to the Sorts fields as you complete the rest of the sorts for this report, as needed.

After you set page breaks and sort order for each sort group on the screen, the Do You Wish To Sort From History/Totals prompt appears. If you don't need to sort the report by history and/or totals, press Enter and go to Step 11. To sort this report from history and/or totals, type Y. As with previous sorts, the history sorts determine the order in which history information prints on the report. For example, if you sort by month-to-date sales, all of the information for each customer is grouped together and printed in alphabetical order according to customers' month-to-date sales. You can also specify page breaks and ascending or descending order for each history sort—however, you can only specify five sorts for a report.

Note: The Break Page On Sort and Ascend Or Descend Order On Sort messages repeat for each sort. This lets you set page breaks and order method individually by sort.

Use the History/Totals sub-screen to set the sorts. You can specify sorts in three different sort groups:
- The first is the Shipping Manifest Record. It comes from the text-based (AQ) Customer Service Quality screen. It contains the Deliveries MTD through Instructions fields. For more information about these fields, see About Customer History.
- The second is the Customer Tax Record. It comes from the Tax District window. It contains the Location through Cap By Item fields. For more information, see About Tax Districts.
- The third consists of current Accounts Receivable balances, monthly totals, and annual totals. These fields come from the Customer History window. For details, see Customer History Window Definitions.

Note: The Starting Credit Limit $ field is not part of the Shipping Manifest Record. However, it appears with this sort group. The Starting Credit Limit $ field is from the Customer window. For details, see Customer Window Definitions.

At the Do You Wish to Sort From A/R File prompt, specify whether to sort using A/R fields. To skip this step, press Enter and go to Step #. To sort this report with A/R fields, type Y. The A/R Selections subscreen opens.
Enter the number corresponding to the sort order, as you did in Step 2.
When the Change Limits prompt displays, all fields on the screen fill with question marks. If you do not need to change the limit selections for this report, press Enter and go to Step 21. To change the limit selections for this report, type Y. The Entering Limits From prompt displays.
To set limits for the report, enter the beginning range in the appropriate field. For example, to limit the report to include only account numbers 1000 to 2000, enter the beginning range of 1000 in the Acct # field. You can set an unlimited number of limits. A record must meet all of the limits you set to be included on the report.
You can skip fields as needed:
- To skip a field, press Tab.
- To skip to the next sort group, press Enter.
The Entering Limits To prompt displays. Tab to each field that you selected as a beginning limit and enter the ending value. For example, to limit the report to include only account numbers 1000 to 2000, enter 2000 in the Acct # field.

Note: The fields that you selected as limits display the beginning ranges that you entered in the From fields.

To limit the report to a single piece of information, tab past the To field to accept the same range limit that you entered in the From field.
Press enter to move through the remaining sort groups.
The Do You Wish To Limit From History/Totals prompt appears. If you do not need to limit the report from history and/or totals, press Enter and go to Step #. To limit this report from history and/or totals, type Y.
Enter limits the same way you did in the previous screen.
At the Do You Wish to Limit From A/R Master prompt, specify whether to limit using A/R fields. To skip this step, press Enter and go to Step #. To limit this report using A/R fields, type Y. The A/R Selections subscreen opens.
Use the A/R Selections Subscreen to set limits. Set limits as you did earlier. You can specify limits in the same two groups you used to specify sorts.
At the Add On Detail Fields prompt, you can add information to the report. Each new detail field creates an additional column on the right side of the report. If you don't need to add detail to the report, press Enter and go to Step 28. To include additional detail on the report, type Y. The format loads and the cursor moves to the Acct # field.
At the Fill Field With Characters To Select prompt, fill the field with alphanumeric characters. As with sort fields, the number of characters you enter determines the portion of the field that prints on the report. If you completely fill the field, the entire field prints on the report.

Note: Some detail fields accept only numbers.

For each detail field you add, the Enter Column Text message appears. It lets you specify a heading for the detail field. The text you enter appears on the report as the column heading for this information. Press Tab if you do not need to enter a heading. You can enter up to 30 characters of text. However, the number of characters that actually print on the report is determined by the number of characters you entered in the corresponding detail field. For example, if you enter five characters in the detail field and a 15 character header, only the first five characters of the heading print.
The cursor moves to the next detail field. Select any additional fields by entering characters as described above. To skip a field, tab to the next one.
When you finish selecting detail fields, press Enter until the Do You Wish to Select Fields from History Totals prompt appears. If you do not need to select fields from history totals, press Enter and go to Step 22. To add history detail fields to this report, type Y. Select detail fields as you did earlier.
At the Do You Wish to Select Fields From A/R Master prompt, specify whether to add fields from the A/R Master. Press Enter to skip this step and go to Step #. To add A/R detail fields to the report, type Y. The A/R Selections subscreen opens.
Select detail fields as needed.
Header text is a subheading or other descriptive text for the entire report. It prints between the report title and the column headings on the report. For example, if you sort this report to display sales and usage for each salesperson, you might enter CUSTOMER TRIAL BALANCE BY SALESPERSON, CITY, AND ACCOUNT for the heading. You can enter a heading of up to 60 characters. To enter a heading, enter the first 20 characters in the Header Text 1 field. Per the example above, you would enter CUSTOMER TRIAL BALAN. The Enter Header Text 2 prompt appears.
Enter the next 20 characters of your heading. Per the example, you would enter CE BY SALESPERSON, C. The Enter Header Text 3 prompt appears.
Enter the remaining characters for the heading, as needed. Per the example, you would enter ITY, AND ACCOUNT.
Press Enter when finished. Now, you can move on to Changing the A/R Print Line.

Note: If you do not need a heading, press Enter at the Enter Header Text 1 prompt to skip this step.