Sage Intacct Account Groups: Rule of Ranges and Smart Event Email

Building account groups for financial reports in Sage Intacct would ideally always follow the “Rule of Ranges”. However, whether that is the case or not, we'll teach you how to write a Smart Event Email to notify your financial report guru when a new account is added thus ensuring accurate reports.

What’s the “Rule of Ranges”?

Assume the following 9 accounts make up your Cash and Cash Equivalents row on your Balance Sheet or Statement of Financial Position:

Now, when building the account group you could do one of two things:

1. Individual Accounts: Select individual accounts to include in the group

2. Range of Accounts: Identify the range to include in the group

Which is the right way to go? The title, “Rule of Ranges”, is a bit of a giveaway to the correct answer. Yep, you guessed it, number 2 is the best way to go.

Why Account Group Ranges?

Imagine it's been a year or two since my implementation. The person who built out my financials is now leaving the company. If I’m lucky (and they don’t have an evil vendetta against me) they left me documentation or trained me on how the reports are built. If that's the case, I know exactly what to do when new accounts are added. If I’m unlucky, however, I go on my merry way adding a new bank account GL account blind to how this may impact my financial reports. At the end of the month, I proceed to run reports and the Balance Sheet or Statement of Financial Position does not balance. I panic and spit my coffee at the screen. How could that be?

If account groups are built identifying individual accounts in the group, when a new account is added, it does not automatically get added to the group and therefore does not appear on the report. If, on the other hand, account groups are built in ranges, when a new account is added, it will appear on the report automatically without any account group maintenance.

What if Ranges Aren't Possible?

Regardless of whether you fall into category #1 or #2, a smart event email which sends an email to your report writing guru notifying them a new account has been added and reports should be reviewed to make sure it appears where it should is a good idea. So let’s build it!

Smart Event Email

Navigation: Platform Services > + Smart Events

Step 1: Select the object to extend (GL Account) and click Next

Step 2: Set the event properties

Step 3: Set the email properties (the merge field insert tool makes inserting the GL account number, name, and even URL easy).

Step 4: Select the deployment options (make sure your ID does not have spaces)

Save!

What's Next?

Questions about report writing or anything else Sage Intacct related? New to Sage Intacct and need a little bit of help answering questions? Reach out to your CLA Sage Intacct team! 

Subscribe to receive an email notification with new Intacct blog posts!

Want more blogs from CLA? Check out our new Innovation in Nonprofit Finance blog where you can find myself as well as my colleagues, Curt Klotz, Director of Nonprofit Innovation, and Kelly Kienholz, National Director of Outsourced Accounting for Nonprofits. Join in the adventure as we discuss principles and practice of elegant design in nonprofit accounting systems.