Print Account Ledgers

To print account ledgers details:

Position on any table of accounts (blue), or table of reports (brown).

This can be anywhere accounts appear as rows of a (blue) table, including reports.
Either position on the account/report you want to print or mark a block of accounts/reports.

If no block is marked then the current account/report is processed. Note that in this case, many accounts may still be printed. For example, if the current account is a total account and you specified breakdown in the Total Account Option field, then all posting accounts that total to the current account are printed. In fact, this is a very good way to select the accounts to print and it is often preferred over marking a block (for example, a Balance Sheet or Trial Balance proof account will likely pick up everything of interest).

If you want to explicitly select a number of accounts to be printed then use the Block>Start and Block>End commands to mark the accounts in a block. Note again that if the Total Account Option field is set to breakdown and there are total accounts in the block, then instead of printing the total accounts, the posting accounts that total to them are printed. A further note in this case is that a particular posting account may appear in the block and also may total to other accounts that are in the block. If an account has already been printed, it is skipped if encountered again during the same print operation.
Issue the Print>Account Ledgers command.

A print settings window will appear as shown below.

You can use the User Option, Prompt Display Style to switch between modern and classic styles for the prompt.
Fill in the print settings fields.

The meaning of each setting is described later in this section.
Click the <Continue> button or press <F5> to print the account ledgers.

When <Continue> is clicked, the output might be sent to Excel or to a file instead of the printer, depending on the value set in the Destination field.

Print Settings Field Summary

Print Account Ledger Settings
Line	Field	Values	Comments
1	Order	date	The postings are printed in this order. Only date order is allowed in this version.
2	Debit Postings	yes no	`yes` - debit postings are printed. `no` - debit postings are skipped.
3	Credit Postings	yes no	`yes` - credit postings are printed. `no` - credit postings are skipped.
4	Open Postings	yes no	`yes` - open (unreconciled) postings are printed. `no` - open (unreconciled) postings are skipped.
5	Closed Postings	yes no	`yes` - closed (reconciled) postings are printed. `no` - closed (reconciled) postings are skipped.
6	Tag	financial order budget empty	`specified` - only postings with the specified tag are printed. *financial, order, and budget* are built-in partition tags but you can add custom tags as well. `empty` - all postings are printed regardless of their tag.
7	Opening Balance Date		Periodic account running balances begin at zero on this date. It has no effect on perpetual or opening accounts. See Setting the Opening Balance Date
8	Begin Date		Only postings dated on or after the begin date are printed. See Setting Begin and End Dates
9	End Date		Only postings dated on or before the end date are printed. See Setting Begin and End Dates
10	Opening Balance Type	zero open closed ledger all_closed	If you are in the open view and select all_closed. The running amount total column will include the sum of all reconciled items. If you select zero, the running amount total column will only include the sum of all unreconciled items. See Ledger/Posting Table Views - Opening Balance for more.
11	Historic Aging	yes no	`yes` - to print an aged analysis report as at the End Date set in line 9. See Historic - Aged Receivables
12	Include Empty Accounts	yes no	`yes` - any account for which no postings match the selection criteria, is simply skipped. `no` - prints accounts (headers only) even when there are no postings.
13	Total Account Option	ledger breakdown	`ledger` - total account ledgers are printed. No attempt is made to print the sub-tree that totals to any total account. `breakdown` - total accounts are not printed but instead each posting account in the sub-tree that ultimately totals to it is printed.
14	Print Boomerangs	yes no	`yes` - boomerang postings are printed. `no` - boomerang postings are not printed.
15	Print Transaction Details	no yes	`no` - only the ledger level is printed, detail lines are skipped. `yes` - detail lines are printed. See Selecting Columns to be Printed SeePrint Transaction Details.
16	Detail Sort By	date account	`date` - transaction details are sorted in date order `account` - transaction details are sorted by cross account
17	Detail Summarize	no yes	`no` - full details are printed `yes` - transactions details are summarized
18	Detail Summarize Pattern List	account path * ?	An optional pattern list may be entered to summarize transactions see Pattern List
19	Detail Flow Analysis	no yes	`no` - prints default account ledger details `yes` - generates a Flows Analysis Report.
20	Detail Flow Analysis Sort By	amount_descending name description path	`amount_descending` - default sort order, sorts the transactions by value `name` - sorts the transactions by the cross account's name `description` - sorts the transactions by the cross account's description `path` - sorts the transactions by the cross account's path
21	Account Title 1	%_today %_path %_report_path %_name %_description %_report_name %_report_description %_begin %_end %_view	Text to print at the top of each account ledger. Today's Date Account's Path Report's Path Account's Name Account's Description Report's Name Report's Description Date Range Begin Date Range End View
22	Account Title 2	as above
23	Account Title 3	as above
24	Account Title 4	as above
25	Account Separator	page sheet none	`page` - each account ledger starts a new page. `sheet` - each account ledger is sent to a new *Excel* sheet. `none` - multiple accounts are printed per page.
26	Destination	display file printer	`display` - exports to *Excel* and opens *Excel* for a preview. `file` - sends output to the file specified in *Filename. `printer`* - sends output to the printer identified by *Printer*.
27	Filename		The output file name. The file type must be `{".xls"}`, `{".xlt"}` or `{".pdf"}`. Important see note on Output File Names options.
28	Printer		If *Destination* is `printer` then output is sent to the printer specified here. If this field is empty then output will be sent to the Windows default printer. Press <F3> to select from a list of available printers. NOTE: To clear the Printer field Press <F3> to select from the list of printers, and click on <Cancel>
29	Fit to # pages wide		Shrinks the output, if necessary, to fit on the number of pages wide specified here.
30	Scaling (10 - 400%)		Stretches the output (shrinks or expands).
31	Orientation	portrait landscape	Prints pages vertically (portrait) or horizontally (landscape).
32	Template

Setting Begin and End Dates

Normally, begin and end dates are straight forward. One exception is the case when you want to print all ledger items, certain that you have missed none. NewViews dates are restricted to most of the Unix Epoch, meaning Jan 01, 1904 to Dec 31, 2036. Transactions outside this date range are prohibited, so setting the range to these dates will guarantee that all ledger items are printed.

Setting the Opening Balance Date

Each account has a normal representation field that can be set to perpetual, periodic, or opening. Perpetual is used for balance sheet accounts such as assets, liabilities, customer and vendor accounts, etc., periodic is used for income statement accounts such as revenues and expenses, and opening is used for special accounts that bridge the gap, such as opening retained earnings. Note, any account whose normal representation field is empty, i.e. not filled in, is treated as a perpetual account.

The opening balance date is used only when running balances are printed and only affects the running balances printed for periodic accounts. Keep this in mind when reading the rest of this section. Running balances for perpetual accounts are always perpetual regardless of the opening balance date.

The opening balance date offers more control over the running balances printed for periodic accounts. Here are three examples of how it might be used:

For periodic running balances set the opening balance date the same as the begin date.

The opening date and the begin date are set to the same value in the majority of cases. Suppose the begin and end dates are Jun 01, 2007 and Jun 30, 2007, which selects all postings for June 2007. The running balance of periodic accounts will start at zero and end at the sum of postings for the month of June.
For year-to-date running balances set the opening date to the beginning of the year.

Again suppose the begin and end dates are Jun 01, 2007 and Jun 30, 2007, which selects all postings for June 2007. If the opening date is Jan 01, 2007 then the running balance starts with the total for all postings from the beginning of the year to the beginning of June, i.e. the year-to-date, and continues through June, ending with the year-to-date total at the end of June.
For perpetual running balances set the opening balance date to a date that precedes any transaction date in the books. For example, you could set it to Jan 01, 1904. (NewViews dates are restricted to most of the Unix Epoch, meaning Jan 01, 1904 to Dec 31, 2036.)

Again suppose the begin and end dates are Jun 01, 2007 and Jun 30, 2007, which selects all postings for June 2007. This time the running balance for a periodic account will behave exactly as it would for a perpetual account, i.e. the balance starts with the balance as at the end of May 31, 2007 and continues as a perpetual amount right to the end of June. If the periodic accounts were sales and/or expenses then the running balance would display the total perpetual sales or expenses since the "beginning of time". Perpetual running balances for periodic accounts are rarely, if ever used.