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Jim2® Business Engine Help File

The Account Watch widget allows you to view all areas of your financial (general ledger) information. It can be configured to display any account within your general ledger, including headers and computed accounts such as gross profit, net profit and operating profit for a given period. Account Watch widget can also be configured to display information relating to branch, sub-branch or GL department.

 

Periods include days, weeks, months, quarters, etc. The widget will display results which can be compared to the same/different account over the same/previous period.

 

An extremely powerful feature of the Account Watch widget is the MAT function. MAT stands for Moving Average Total. When looking at a year of information, this is also known as Moving Annual Total.

 

Click Configure to open the account watch widget Options screen.

 

configure dashboard button

 

account watch widget options

 

Explanation of fields

Group

Option

Description

Widget Settings

Caption

This is the caption that will be displayed at the top of the widget. Example: Assets vs Liabilities FY (financial year).

Refresh

The widget's refresh interval in minutes. It is suggested not to set this too low, eg. set to 15 minutes or higher.

Chart Settings

Chart Type

Choose from:

 

Bar

bar Line
lineArea
area

Show Labels

Shows description and value above each point of the chart. If not ticked, the label will be displayed as a hint when your mouse is over a graph point.

Palette

Select the colour palette that will be used in the graph.

Point Size

The size of the graph's points. Default = 2. Try 8 or 10 on smaller graphs.

 

2 points:

2 points

10 points:

10 points

Period

Days

Default is 365. Use up/down arrows to change number of days.

Weeks

Default is 1. Use up/down arrows to change number of weeks.

Months

Default is 3. Use up/down arrows to change months.

Quarters

Default is 1. Use up/down arrows to change quarters.

Years

Default is 1. Use up/down arrows to change calendar years.

Fin Years

Default is 1. Use up/down arrows to change financial years.

Exclude current period

Tick to exclude the current period from any results for a chosen period, eg. if Months is set to 1 and this box is not ticked, the current month will be shown. If it is ticked, the previous month will be shown

Account

Account

Display the selected general ledger account as the graph's first series of data.

Gross Profit

Display gross profit as the graph's first series of data.

Operating Profit

Display operating profit as the graph's first series of data.

Net Profit

Display net profit as the graph's first series of data.

Actual

Tick to display the actual (real) account figures.

MAT

Tick to display the MAT (using MAT options below) account figures.

Compare

Don't Compare

Display only the graph's first series of data.

Last Period

Compare to data from last period. Example: If Period = This Month, comparison = Last Month.

Same Period Last Year

Compare to data from same period last year. Example: If period = this month, comparison = last month.

Account

Compare to data from a different general ledger account.

Compare to Account

Account

Compare against the selected general ledger account.

Gross Profit

Compare against gross profit.

Operating Profit

Compare against operating profit.

Net Profit

Compare against net profit.

Actual

Tick to display the actual (real) account figures in the comparison.

MAT

Tick to display the MAT (using MAT options below) account figures in the comparison.

Other

Display

Group and display data by selection: daily, weekly, monthly or quarterly.

Accumulative Total

Display data as an accumulative total. Example: when displaying a P&L account, the data will start at zero and will be added together for the period selected.

MAT Period

The number of periods used in MAT calculations. Example: when displayed by months, 3 would be the total of the current month and the previous two months.

MAT Avg

Display MAT as an average (rather than a total). Example: 50 + 100 + 60 = 210 and then 210÷3 = 70

Show Balance in Jim2

Displays the balance of the selected account, or the gross profit, operating profit or net profit (whichever of these has been selected in account options).

Branches

Branch

Filter P&L account data by a specific branch.

SubBranch

Filter P&L account data by a specific sub-branch.

GL Dept

Filter P&L account data by a specific GL department.

 

What to Look at

You can add and configure multiple Account Watch widgets to see your entire financial position, along with trends. It is suggested that you configure several dashboard tabs to cover the various financial aspects of your business.

 

Where is This Information Coming From?

All data displayed in the Account Watch widget comes directly from your transaction journal. Any information within the widget can be compared directly to information displayed within your profit & loss and balance sheets. Any general ledger account, including headers and computed accounts, such as net profit, can be selected and displayed.

 

Some Suggestions

Sales and Profit

Try comparing a stock GL group's income account versus its COGS account. Or total income (header account 4-0000) versus expenses (header account 6-0000).

 

sales & profit

 

Profit and Loss

Compare your gross profit versus net profit, or your net profit this year compared to last.

 

profit & loss

 

Assets and Liabilities

Try viewing your current bank balance or your cash assets (all bank accounts and unbanked funds) over a given period.

 

assets v liabilities

 

Keep an eye on your GST and tax liabilities.

 

GST liabilities

 

Monitor your SOH (stock on hand) figures for this year versus same period last year.

 

SOH dashboard

 

Looking for Trends – MAT

Depending on your type of business, when looking for trends you would normally look at data over a year. In this case try setting the period to Fin Year = 1 or Days = 365.

 

The Moving Average Total (MAT) feature is particularly useful here. For example, try displaying a profit account and tick both Actual and MAT. In the Other section of Options, set Display to Monthly, the MAT period to 3 and tick MAT Avg.

 

mat average

 

The widget will now show a year's worth of data, displayed monthly, along with a three month MAT.

 

MAT is an extremely powerful method that looks for trends by smoothing out the highs and lows and displaying a rolling average. This makes it easier to compare performance, especially to previous periods.

 

Chart Types and Palettes

Try changing chart types to match the type of data you are looking at. It's amazing how some data looks better when displayed as an Area chart rather than a Bar chart, or vice versa.

 

chart types

 

Use palettes to make your widgets more distinctive, eg. Office for profit & loss, or Nature for balance sheet.

 

dashboard colours

 

Further information:

Dashboard Widgets

Dashboard Widgets Management

Debtors/Creditors Widget

Job Widget

Status Widget