The Trends report displays up to five years of data allowing you to analyse trends and track changes over time. The report can include the current year a future year and previous years and enables you to understand how your business is performing year on year and highlights any irregularities.
How to use the report
The report can be used:
to validate your current year's Working plan and check that it is realistic, based on the last four years of actuals.
to compare this year's actuals against the last 4 years, to see if there has been any disruption in trend.
to see how a draft plan compares with the previous year's data when investigating alternative scenarios.
to review any five consecutive historical years.
How to create the report
Go to Reports > Trends.
Select the Start year. This is the most recent year e.g. if you select 2023/24 as the start year, then the trends report will be from 2019/20 to 2023/24.
Select the number of years. The maximum number of years is five years.
If you have selected the current year as your start year then:
Select the dataset for the current year.
If you select Actual + Plan, you will also need to select a revision month. If the revision month is set to the current month, this will include coded transactions as well as paid and unpaid coded invoices, rather than planned items.
If you select Actuals then only actual data will be shown.
If you have selected the next financial year as the start year then:
Select the plan you want to use in the analysis
Select to view the report by Payment date or Accrual date
View options
GST Exclusive / GST Inclusive. The report can be viewed as GST Exclusive or GST Inclusive.
Section, category or extended code detail. Use the chevrons on the left-hand side of the report to collapse or expand the report to the required level of detail. This can be useful to understand the variance at a high level or more detailed level, depending on your needs.
Filter. Use the filter icon in the top right-hand corner to filter for codes, bank accounts or tag. This can be useful if you want to focus on a specific part of your business.
How to interpret the data
This report can be used in conjunction with other reports e.g., the variance report. If a variance has been highlighted, the trends report can be used to further understand if this is an abnormality or a trend.
It can provide information on questions like:
What farm expenses have increased or decreased over the 5 years?
Are you making more or less money year on year?
How did the policy change impact your business?
TIP: Utilise the chevrons, settings or filter icons, so you are only viewing the data that is required.
More information