Let's start at the very beginning. What is financial reporting all about and why is it any different from sales and marketing reporting or manufacturing reporting? Well, financial reporting deals with the production of specific types of reports. Income statements, balance sheets and cash flows are types of reports typically involved in a financial reporting process.

In a sales and marketing report, a developer would lay out the columns to appear on the report. The rows would be printed in the sort order of the report. But in a financial report, the developer would not only lay out the columns but also the specific rows and order of rows that are to appear on the report. The rows reported on within a financial report, such as a balance sheet or income statement, are called general ledger accounts. The columns of the report could be Time Periods, Actual Dollars, Planned Dollars, or Forecast Dollars. I will cover planning and forecasting in a future article.

Click the link to read more...

Hi Efrem,

I tried to click on this article but it no longer exist, probably because it's from almost 6 years ago. Do you have any new or updated reference material?

Hi Darryl,

Looks like it was just an IBI newsletter, it interested me a bit so I tried to find it as well and nothing. I'm guessing though that since it was almost 6 years ago it's probably of little use today anyway. Just google "information builders what's different about financial reporting" and you'll find a couple of things. I know in the past any information about FML we've received direct from IBI.