Factors for Determining How to Set Up Row Definitions
If any component of the financial statement requires different functionality in the rows, then you must set up separate row definitions to handle the differences. For example, in a balance sheet you might need to reverse the sign of the account balances in the liability accounts. In such a case, you could not use one row definition for all of the account balances in the balance sheet and use data selection to select all balance sheet accounts. You would need to set up one row definition for the assets so that you can display amounts without reversing the sign, and you would set up a different row definition for the liabilities so that you can reverse the sign for those amounts. You select a check box on the Revise Row Definitions form to specify that you want to reverse the sign.
The levels at which you want to total and subtotal account balances are also a factor in deciding how to set up row definitions. You can have the system provide totals of a range of accounts by setting up a data row definition without grouping elements. For example, if you want to provide a total of all revenue accounts, you could set up a data row definition with no grouping elements and select your revenue accounts in the data selection to provide a total of revenues that you can place in your financial statement.
You can also set up a subtotal type row definition. Subtotal row definitions enable you to provide subtotals of accounts within your financial statement. For example, you might have several categories of costs to include in your income statement. You can set up subtotal row definitions to provide subtotals that you then combine into a total for the costs. You set up the subtotal row definition in the Row Definitions program (P09310), and specify which sections to subtotal in the Statement Definitions program (P09330).