It is not unusual for an accounting software system to provide a very limited
number of reports. Some may recommend the purchase of Crystal Reports or other
packages where you can build your own. Others will offer a separate Report
Writer package where again you will need to build your own reports.
ICommander is the opposite. Our menus include hundreds of reports with many also having various options for selecting records and sorting the output. The initial release of each system provides detailed and summary reports on virtually every file in which data is stored. We also have been responsive to user requests for new reports so a great number have been added over the years.
In order to extend the reporting capabilities of ICommander even further, we developed what we refer to as Free-Form Data Extraction programs. If you have used or evaluated software tools that enable you to define the file layouts of files in your accounting packages in order to then use those tools to pick and choose the information you want, that is what our FFDE programs bring to you. The BIG difference is that ICommander comes with all of the file layouts already defined and ready to use. The second big difference is that you do not introduce any security risks because the FFDE programs are subject to the same strong ICommander controls as other programs. Third-Party packages, if not properly controlled may provide an easy backdoor to confidential accounting data with potentially no trail of any abuses.
The hundreds of standard ICommander reports on the menus each have a very defined purpose and re-running on a regular basis simply involves noting the Menu Choice Number. Each report includes the Menu Choice used to produce it at the top of the report. This makes it very simple to locate and re-run any report that is useful to you for a particular purpose.
General Ledger reporting includes a Batch Reporting Facility that allows setup of any number of different Batch Groups for various purposes and then to save the selections made to produce a particular report for automatic execution from that Facility. The ICommander G/L Chart Structure extends far beyond the components of the actual account numbers. Each component must first be defined in a Level Codes File before it may be used in an account number. The Level Codes are assigned to Standard Level Groups and the Standard Level Groups may then be assigned to Group Classification Codes. You may also setup Alternate Level Code Groups and Group Classification Codes and within those definitions may even cross-reference to an external coding scheme.
The ICommander approach to the G/L Account Structure provides amazing flexibility for reporting as any of the background codes and groups may be used for selection or sorting or for the level of detail printed. Producing a summary report is as simple as electing not to print the report in full account number detail. Picking the object account component, the object group background code, or any other applicable background code as the level of detail, will result in automatic summarization.
Some accounting packages force you to plan out your primary financial statements as you build your chart of accounts by assigning various codes and classifications and others provide a separate report writer to do the same. The ICommander reporting is automatic once the background codes are in place and you never need to worry about remembering to update report definitions as changes are made to your chart of accounts.
The failsafe approach used by ICommander was developed as a result of the experience of the primary ICommander designer with other approaches requiring constant maintenance and monitoring to assure that financial statements were accurate. The background codes also let you easily implement additional grouping as needed as you simply define a new set of alternate codes, assign to the standard codes or groups, and then you are ready to run a new report that uses them.
ICommander watches for any maintenance of the background codes, groups and classifications files and will force you to validate your chart of accounts whenever anything is changed. This assures that you never will have an orphan account number that does not fit into the background groups.
Many standard ICommander reports have an option to output them as a tab-delimited file for importing into a spreadsheet. The Free-Form Data Extraction programs initially always sent output to a tab-delimited file for spreadsheet import. In both cases ICommander tab-delimited output is already formatted for use in a spreadsheet and has any subtotals and totals already there so you don't have to try to group and total within the spreadsheet.
This approach to using spreadsheets is based on the many errors often introduced in spreadsheets because of the need for constant vigilence to adjust formulas for changes. ICommander avoids that risk.
Since ICommander does all the work for you that would normally have to be done by you with the spreadsheet program, importing to a spreadsheet is primarily for formatting the report. New reporting facilities that enable graphical output of ICommander reports and FFDE output substantially eliminate that need. ICommander Enhanced Printing options for laser printers enable very attractive output directly from the system. All reports and FFDE programs now also have the option to output the report as a Web Page that will immediately popup in your browser.
Sites using ICommander on a Redhat Linux Server with an Intranet managed by ICommander may easily transfer Web Pages to appropriate areas on the Intranet for access by non-ICommander users or to accumulate several reports for a particular purpose. If there are a variety of such reports, ICommander File Manager allows you to define a consistent Intranet location for all such reports and to attach notes about the content of the reports when desired. If you don't want to take the time to manage Web Pages that provide links to the reports you are sending to the Intranet, ICommander provides an Intranet tool that will automatically build a Web Page for a Directory containing various ICommander output. The automatically generated Web Page will contain excerpts from the reports in the directory and subdirectories in order for users to understand the purpose of each report plus may include your notes about each and/or an alert note to highlight particularly significant ones.
ICommander also provides several ways to output both standard reports and FFDE
output as PDF Files.