# Custom report layouts

> Build your own Profit & Loss and Balance Sheet from simple blocks — groups, account rows, summary rows, formula rows — then save the design to reuse anytime or share as your organization's default.

Source: https://www.accountfun.com/docs/guides/report-layouts/

Every business likes to see its numbers slightly differently. A **custom report layout** is a saved design for your **Profit & Loss** or **Balance Sheet**: which lines appear, in what order, grouped how, under what names, and with which extra columns. Save a design once, and it’s one click away every time you run the report.

You can have as many layouts as you like — say, a “Board summary” that shows only the big groups, and a “Detail” one with every account — and switch between them while you work.

Which reports support this

Custom layouts apply to the **Profit & Loss** and the **Balance Sheet**. All the other [reports](https://www.accountfun.com/docs/guides/reports/) use their standard layout.

## Switching layouts

Open **Reports → Profit & Loss** (or **Balance Sheet**) and look at the bar at the bottom of the report. The **Layout** picker lists the standard layout plus any saved layouts your organization has created — the one everyone sees by default is marked **(default)**.

Pick a layout, then click **Run Report**. Nothing is saved until you decide to save it — switching layouts is just a viewing choice.

Who can do what

Anyone who can see reports can **switch** layouts. **Creating and editing** layouts is an admin job — if you don’t see the **Edit layout** button, ask your admin.

## Editing a layout

On the Profit & Loss or Balance Sheet page, click **Edit layout** in the bottom bar. A full-screen editor opens showing the report exactly as you had it on screen — your starting point is the report you were just looking at, not a blank page.

The editor has two parts: a **live canvas** of the report you rearrange directly, and a **settings panel** on the right for whatever row you’ve selected. As you rearrange things, the canvas shows your real numbers, so you always see what you’re getting.

### The building blocks

A report is a tree of blocks, nested as deep as you like:

| Block           | What it shows                                                                                                                                                                       |
| --------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Group**       | A heading with rows (or other groups) inside it, and an optional total row                                                                                                          |
| **Account row** | One account from your chart of accounts                                                                                                                                             |
| **Funnel**      | The catch-all for one account type — every account of that type you haven’t placed explicitly renders at the funnel’s position, and accounts you create later flow in automatically |
| **Formula row** | A calculated line built from other rows — for example Liabilities + Equity                                                                                                          |

One funnel per account type

Each account type (Bank, Current Asset, Expense, and so on) has one funnel — in the editor its rows carry a small funnel icon. Accounts you place somewhere specific are skipped by it automatically — an account only ever appears once.

### Rearranging the report

* **Drag a row onto a group’s heading** to drop it inside that group.
* **Drag between rows** — a line shows where the row will land.
* **Drag a top-level group’s heading** to move the whole group; drop it on the very top or bottom edge of another group to place it between groups.
* Select any row and use the **Position** buttons in the panel to move it up or down, nest it into the group above, or lift it out one level.
* **Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Y** (Cmd on a Mac) undo and redo as you go.

Deleting a group never deletes its rows — they lift out to where the group was, so nothing gets lost. Account rows and engine-computed rows (like Retained Earnings) can’t be deleted at all; they always belong to the statement, and simply move.

Deleting a group that a formula uses

If a formula row adds up a group you delete, you’ll be asked to confirm. The formula is marked with a warning triangle and shows its broken references in the panel until you fix it — a layout with broken references can’t be saved.

### Styling and collapsing

Select any row to rename it and style it — bold, italic, underline. A group’s total row has its own label and styling (click the group’s **Total** row).

**Collapsed** renders a group on the report as a single row summing the sub-total. In the editor the group keeps showing its contents with a **Collapsed** badge, so you always see what’s inside; the report shows the one summarized row. Turning Collapsed on turns the separate total row off — the summarized row *is* the total.

### Flipping a row’s sign (credit vs debit)

Rows display with their natural sign — income as a positive credit, expenses as a positive debit. To show a row the other way round, you don’t need a formula: use a group’s **Sign convention**.

1. Click **Add row** and add a **Group**.
2. Drag the row (or rows) you want flipped into the group.
3. With the group selected, set **Sign convention** in the panel to the opposite of the rows’ natural one — **Credit positive** to flip an expense, **Debit positive** to flip income.
4. Turn **Collapsed** on, so the group renders as a single row.

The collapsed row sums its contents with the flipped sign — an expense reading as a credit, income reading as a deduction — while the underlying figures and every other row are untouched. Delete the group later and the rows lift straight back out, sign and all.

### Adding rows and columns

Click **Add row** in the toolbar to add a **Group**, a **Formula** row, or a **Spacing** gap. Build a formula in the panel by picking rows to add or subtract, step by step. Accounts come from your chart of accounts — create the account first (**Accounting → Chart of Accounts**), and it flows into its type’s funnel automatically unless you drag it somewhere specific.

Click a column heading (or the **Add column** button) to add extra columns — up to twelve:

* **Prior year** — the same figures 1 to 12 years back.
* **Fixed date range** — any dates you like, for a “this quarter vs. last quarter” style comparison.
* **Variance** — the difference between two columns, so you can see how much things moved.
* **Percentage** — each line as a share of a chosen column.
* **Notes** — a free-text note next to any line (“rent went up in March”).
* **Formula** — your own calculation over other columns.

Use **Insert Content** to add text above or below the report — headings, explanations, or commentary with basic formatting. They appear on screen, in print/PDF, and in the Excel download. You can also set a page break before any row so long reports print neatly.

### What stays automatic

Group totals always sum everything inside them — including nested groups, so the math always matches what’s shown. An account the layout leaves without a home — no funnel covers its type and it isn’t placed individually — collects in a trailing **Unassigned** section with its own subtotal, so nothing quietly disappears.

## Saving your work

Click **Save** and give the layout a name. Turn on **Org default** if this design should be what everyone in your organization sees first.

A few safeguards keep editing friendly:

* **Undo/redo** works as you’d expect, and the editor warns you if you try to leave with unsaved changes.
* If another admin saved changes to the same layout while you were editing, you’ll be offered **Overwrite** or **Reload** — no silent clobbering.
* If the layout was deleted in the meantime, you can **Save as new layout** instead of losing your work.

Rename or duplicate saved layouts from the small menu next to the layout picker; deleting a layout that’s in use returns the report to the standard layout.

## Saving the report itself

Separately from layouts, the **Save** button on the report bar saves the report as a document:

| Status        | Figures                                                                    |
| ------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Draft**     | Work in progress — figures stay live                                       |
| **Custom**    | A saved custom report — figures stay live                                  |
| **Published** | Freezes the currently displayed figures into a snapshot that never changes |

Published snapshots capture exactly what was on screen — ideal for month-end packs and year-end archives — and can be archived (and restored) later from your saved reports list.

## Worked example: a simpler P\&L for the monthly meeting

Your full Profit & Loss has forty accounts; the monthly team meeting only cares about the shape of things.

1. Run the **Profit & Loss** and click **Edit layout**.
2. Drag all the income accounts under one new group called **Money in**, and the expense accounts into groups like **Team**, **Office**, and **Marketing** — turn **Collapsed** on for each so the report shows one summarized row per group.
3. Add a **Prior year** column and a **Variance** column, so each line shows this year, last year, and the change.
4. Use **Insert Content** to add a short note under the report: *“Figures are preliminary until the bank feed is reconciled.”*
5. Save as **Monthly summary** and tick **Org default**.

Next month, open the report — your summary is already on screen. Click **Save**, pick **Published**, and the frozen snapshot is ready for the meeting.