The accountancy profession has also transitioned to one where an investor focus requires detailed attention to sustainability. Indeed, the days of the three-column cash book, manually posting from the cash receipts journal to the ledger account and posting from the debtor’s ledger to the general ledger are long gone. Shift forward to the present, almost 20 years later, and we have accountants working remotely or in jeans, wearing white sneakers, and using artificial intelligence-enhanced software and fully integrated systems to carry on their trade. This certainly sent shockwaves down the corridors – that and the fact that Excel was replacing both the trusty standard and the financial calculator. Then the benefit would extend beyond just information type reports.Īnd it goes without saying that PDF file output is essential.Īnyway, I’m eager to see the report module take shape and come to fruition.Times do move on, luckily, and I remember when my firm at which I did my traineeship (or served my articles as it was known then) adopted a ‘no tie’ policy. If the user had full control over the output of the data – both formatting and layout – then data fields could be placed where needed so that, for example, a report could be created to print checks. ![]() Then features could be added over time to allow for grouping within a report and pre-processing of data in multiple steps in the creation of complex reports. And allowing the user control over the output of the data would be ideal. Using the range and filter idea, the header of the report manager could allow for ad hoc reporting on an as-needed basis for fast and efficient report generation. If that were possible, then the use of filters (e.g., inclusion/exclusion) and ranges (e.g., dates and account name/numbers) could be employed to create a number of reports for various purposes and eliminate the need to store reports based upon absolutes, as is the case presently. To that end, is it possible to identity or tag all the data fields in such a way so that a report manager could query all the tables that make up the database and report the table name and data fields back for easy selection in creating a report? That would sort of fall in line with your visual tool, which might include a drag and drop feature. Some may be happy with a simple columnar report, while others want a complex report that includes pre-processing and grouping. Then, as you said, people want different things. And if the data field labels change occasionally out of necessity, the report manager would lose its ability to find them and query the data. It’s a relational database with the records stored across many different tables. After all, it’s not a simple flat file database with all the records in a single table. Depending on how you initially designed the database, it could be a real headache to develop an all-encompassing report manager that can query all the data. I see your point regarding how to approach the issue. Visual tool can handle upgrades gracefully but it will be - well - limited. You have a few carefully crafted SQL queries which work but you won’t be upgrading the software because you don’t want these SQL queries to break. So introducing a feature like this could induce upgrade anxiety. ![]() If I implement something visual, then a lot of users will be disappointed in limitations what can be done using a visual tool.Īlso, the issue with SQL queries is that they are not going to survive as database schema keeps evolving. To the point, they won’t use the feature after all that effort they’ve put into requesting it. If I implement SQL queries, a lot of users will be shocked how big and complicated database schema actually is. For example, some users want SQL queries, others want something more visual. ![]() The worst of all is that many people think they have the same idea but once you dig deeper, you realize they have all different expectations of how the feature should work. With big ticket features, it’s not as simple as having an idea.
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