Introduction to Exports in the Consolidation Module

The 'Exports' function allows you to export information from your Hansa database to tab-delimited text files from where you can incorporate it in word processing programs for mailmerge, in spreadsheets for further statistical analysis or in page make-up programs for incorporation in publicity material or published reports. Alternatively, you can import the information into other Hansa databases or Companies using the 'Automatic' and 'Automatic manual file search' import functions in the System module. Remember that Reports can also be printed to disk, so most of the information that is stored in Hansa is available to other applications via the medium of the text file.

To begin exporting, select 'Exports' from the File menu or click the [Exports] button in the Master Control panel. The window illustrated below appears. This lists the Exports that can be produced from the Consolidation module. Double-click the required item in the list. A specification window will then appear, where you can decide the contents of the exported text file. Click [Run], and a 'Save File' dialogue box will appear, where you can name the file and determine where it is to be saved.

Consolidation

Hansa's Consolidation module is designed so that information in Daughter Companies can be made available to certain reports in the Mother Company without the need physically to transfer any Daughter Company information to the Mother Company. This makes it very easy to produce consolidated reports, and removes the risk of error inherent in copying information from one Company to another.

However, the requirement to have the Mother and Daughter Companies in the same database may not be practical in every case. Where this is so, you can use this function to export Transaction information from a Daughter Company to a text file. You can then import this text file to the Mother Company, which could be in a different database.

Before you use this function in a Daughter Company, it is recommended that you produce a Consolidation Report. This will show what will be included in the text file.

You should produce the export from each Daughter Company. You can then import each export file to the Mother Company using the 'Automatic' or 'Automatic manual file search' Import options in the System module.

The file produced by this function will not contain individual Transactions. Instead, it will contain a single record, with balances for each Account. You can import this record to the Transaction register or to the Simulation register: if you are not using the Preliminary Transactions feature, it might be advisable to import to the Simulation register for final checking. You can easily convert the Simulation into a Transaction using the 'Transactions' function on the Operations menu of the 'Simulations: Browse' window.

The imported record will have a separate row for each Account balance. The balance of a Daughter Company Account that has a Consolidation Account specified will be posted to that Consolidation Account in the Mother Company. Otherwise, the balance will be posted to the Mother Company Account with the same Account Code as the Daughter Company Account. Any Accounts used in the export file but not present in the Mother Company will be added to the Mother Company's Account register.

If you have used the Main Owner Percentage register to record partial ownership of the Daughter Company, the balance for each Account whose Reduce Minorities box has been checked will be reduced to the correct percentage.

Any Objects used in the Daughter Company will not be included in the export file. The imported record will not have any Objects, unless you specify one in the Cons. Object field in the 'Specify Consolidation Export' window.

If the record does not balance when it is imported, the import routine will add a balancing posting to the end of the Transaction or Simulation. This posting will use an Account created by the routine for the purpose, with an Account Code of "9999". This will most commonly occur when the Reduce Minorities box has been checked for some Accounts only.

If you are using different Currencies in the Mother and Daughter Companies, you must make sure that one Currency (the "Group Currency") is used as a Base Currency in both Companies. In the Consolidation Settings in each Company, you should specify whether the Group Currency is being used as Base Currency 1 or 2 in that Company. All figures in the export file will be in the Group Currency. If you are using different Currencies and will be consolidating using this export function, it is recommended that you use the Mother Company for consolidation purposes only: it should not have any Transactions of its own.

Period
Paste Special    Reporting Periods setting, System module
Enter the start and end dates for the period to be covered by the export, separated by a colon.

Accounts
Paste Special    Account register, Nominal Ledger/System module
Range Reporting    Alpha
Specify here the Accounts whose balances are to be included in the export file. Accounts will be included in the export file if their Account Code is within the specified range but their Consolidation Account is outside this range.

Object
Paste Special    Object register, Nominal Ledger/System module
If you enter an Object here, the Account balances in the export file will be calculated from Transaction rows with that Object. If you enter a number of Objects separated by commas, balances will be calculated from Transaction rows featuring all the Objects listed.

Note that the Object(s) specified here is used for search purposes only: it will not be included in the export file itself. If this is required, enter the Object(s) in the Cons. Object field below as well.

Rate
If the Mother Company has a different home Currency to the Daughter Company, enter an appropriate exchange rate here. The exchange rate should represent the quantity of the home Currency of the Mother Company that can be purchased with 100 units of the Currency of the Daughter Company. When the export is imported to the Mother Company, all Account balances will be converted to the Mother Company's home Currency using this exchange rate.

Cons. Object
Paste Special    Object register, Nominal Ledger/System module
Any Object specified here will be attached to each Account balance in the record created when the export file is imported to the Mother Company. This means that it will be easy to report from the Mother Company on each Daughter Company using Objects. This might be useful if, for example, the Daughter Companies have different VAT Numbers.

You can specify several Objects, separated by commas. If any Object specified is the head of an Object hierarchy, all members of the hierarchy will appear in the export file.

Date
Paste Special    Choose date
When the export produced using this function is imported to the Mother Company, it will be as a record in the Transaction or Simulation registers (determined by the Export As options below). The date entered here will be used as the Transaction Date.

Text
Enter here any descriptive text which will appear in the Text field of the Transaction or Simulation record when imported to the Mother Company.

Backup Comment
Use this field to enter a description of the back-up file (up to 40 characters are permitted). This description will be shown in the list of importable files shown by the 'Imports' function.

Values
Use these options to determine how the values contained in the export file are to be calculated.

Export as
When the export file produced using this function is imported to the Mother Company, a record in the Transaction register or in the Simulation register will be created. Use one of these options to determine which.

Including Simulations
Click this check box if you want the calculation of the Account balances to be exported to include simulated transactions.

Used Accounts Only
Use this option to restrict the export to Accounts that have been used in the period specified. This includes Accounts that have balances brought forward from a previous period but that have not been used in the report period.

Consolidation - The 'Consolidation' Maintenance Function

The 'Consolidation' Export function described here produces a text file containing Transaction information from a Daughter Company that you can then import into a Mother Company. The Mother Company does not have to be in the same database as the Daughter. If they are in the same database, you can reduce the two steps (exporting and importing) into one by using the 'Consolidation' Maintenance function instead.

As described here, the philosophy of the Consolidation module is that information in Daughter Companies can be made available to certain reports in the Mother Company without the need physically to transfer any Daughter Company information to the Mother Company. This makes it very easy to produce consolidated reports, and removes the risk of error inherent in copying information from one Company to another. The 'Consolidation' Maintenance function does physically transfer Daughter Company information to the Mother Company, in the interest of faster reporting. However, its use will require careful management as any changes made in a Daughter after information has been transferred will cause the Mother to be out-of-date. There is also nothing to prevent the Maintenance function being run more than once for a particular period.

To run the Maintenance function from a Daughter company, first choose 'Maintenance' from the File menu, and then double-click 'Consolidation' in the resulting list. The following specification window opens:

This is identical to the 'Specify Consolidation Export' window described here with one exception: the To Company field. Enter here the Company Code of the Mother Company, as entered in the Code field in the Company register. Enter criteria in the other fields as described and click the [Run] button. A new Simulation or Transaction will be created in the Mother Company containing account balance information copied from the Daughter.

Transactions

This page describes the Transactions export function in the Consolidation module.

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The file produced by the 'Consolidation' Export function will not contain individual Transactions. Instead, it will contain a single record, with balances for each Account (or the net change over a specified period). If you would prefer to export and then import individual Transactions, you may be able to use the 'Transactions' Export function. This function will export individual Transactions from one Company in a format that is suitable for importing into another. To use this function, you should be working in the Company from where you need to export (usually a Daughter Company).

After creating an export file using the 'Transactions' Export function, you will be able to import it to the Mother Company using the 'Automatic' or 'Manual file search' Import options in the System module. When you create the export file, you will specify the Company into which it is to be imported. This information will be included in the export file, so you don't need to be working in that Company when you import the file. Do not name the file with two leading minus signs/hyphens (e.g. --Data.txt) as it is not possible to import information from files named in this way.

It may not be appropriate to use the 'Transactions' Export function in the following circumstances:

Trans. No.
Range Reporting    Numeric
If you need to export a certain range of Transactions, enter the first and the last transaction number, separated by a colon. If you leave the field blank, every Transaction will be exported.

The Transaction Number must include the prefix as shown in the 'Transactions: Browse' window. To export a Transaction that was entered directly to the Nominal Ledger, enter, for example, "2018.3" or, for a range, "2018.3:2018.10". To print a Transaction that was created from a Sub System, enter, for example, "S/INV.180003" or "S/INV.180003:S/INV.180010" for a range.

Trans. Date
Paste Special    Choose date
By default, Transactions will be exported with their original Transaction Dates. If you need them to be exported (and therefore subsequently imported) with a particular Transaction Date, enter that date here.

To Company
Paste Special    Company register
Enter here the Company Code of the Company into which the export file will be imported. Usually this will be the Mother Company. You should not leave this field empty or set to zero.

Backup Comment
Use this field to enter a description of the back-up file (up to 40 characters are permitted). This description will be shown in the list of importable files shown by the 'Imports' function.
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Export functions in the Consolidation module:

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