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Financial grouping structures

In Caseware, financial grouping structures are containers that organize trial balance accounts for financial reporting, tax preparation, and regulatory filings. They work like a chart of accounts by mapping account numbers received from a client to a consistent set of groups.

The Data page with the Financial Groups structure selected under Default Structures in the left sidebar. The right panel shows the trial balance titled Trial Balance - Financial Groups, with accounts organized into expandable groups such as Balance sheet, Current assets, and Cash and cash equivalents across columns including Prelim, Adjustments, CY-Final, and PY-Final.

Terminology

The following terms describe financial grouping structures and their components:

  • Financial grouping structure - A hierarchy of groups used to categorize and arrange accounts in the trial balance or financial statements.

    • Primary grouping structure - The main structure (Financial Groups). Trial balance imports target it by default.

    • Secondary grouping structure - An additional structure for specialized reporting.

    • Tax grouping structure - A hierarchy of groups used to categorize and arrange accounts for tax purposes. A tax grouping structure resembles the tax codes applicable to your market.

    • Chart of accounts - A hierarchical listing of each posting account in the trial balance. Certain Caseware Cloud apps may employ a standard chart of accounts that does not necessarily resemble the line items in the financial statements.

  • Linked group - A group in a secondary structure connected to a group in the primary structure.

  • Financial group (or group) - An item within a grouping structure, such as Revenue or Current Assets.

Grouping structures on the Data page

Available grouping structures appear in the left sidebar on the Data page. By default, Caseware includes up to three financial grouping structures. Trial balance imports automatically target the primary default structure, Financial Groups.

Depending on the product template settings, you may also see secondary structures, such as:

Structure Purpose
Financial Groups

The primary grouping structure. Trial balance imports target this structure by default. Caseware can add up to 10 additional financial grouping structures for specialized needs. Firm authors, enterprise authors, and end users can be enabled to add and manage their own custom grouping structures.
Tax Grouping

A grouping structure for tax-specific account categorization.
Prescribed

A grouping structure for regulatory or jurisdictional filing requirements.

For authors

Authors can rename and show or hide financial grouping structures from the Product Settings of the template.

To manage financial grouping structures (authors only):

  1. Open your product template.

  2. Select the Info [].

  3. Select Settings.

  4. Select Trial Balance | Groups.

    The list of grouping structures appears in the right panel.

  5. Turn the grouping structure on or off to show or hide it.

  6. Select the grouping structure name field to edit the name.

  7. Return to the Manage your template page.

  8. Save the template.

  9. Publish the template.

Manage grouping structures from the engagement

Note: The ability for all user levels to add structures from the engagement is currently being rolled out and may not be available in your product. No action is required to receive the feature when it becomes available.

Each user level (firm authors, enterprise authors, and end users) can have up to 10 grouping structures from the engagement. Structures created at a higher level are visible and usable by all lower levels, but can only be modified by the level that created them. Each level can also create its own structures as needed.

When this feature is enabled in your product, Financial Groups on the engagement Data page displays in Authoring mode.

From this mode, you can view, add, and edit grouping structures associated with your user level. The sidebar organizes grouping structures into collapsible sections. If the number of structures exceeds the available space, scroll the sidebar to view the remaining structures.

The Data page in Authoring mode showing My Structures expanded in the left sidebar with Import Groups, Edit Group, and Hide from List options for a group.

To add a grouping structure in the engagement:

  1. Open the Data page and verify that the right panel displays Authoring mode in the title.

  2. Under My Structures in the left sidebar, select Create Group.

  3. Select the More actions [].

  4. Select Edit group.

  5. Select the group box and enter a name.

Export or import a financial grouping structure

You can import and export grouping structures as CSV files. CSV import and export support linked-structure columns.

To export a financial grouping structure:

  1. Select the financial grouping structure from the left sidebar.

  2. In the right panel, select Export options[].

  3. Select Export structure to CSV.

To import a financial grouping structure:

You can download the default Financial Groups structure CSV file, customize it, and then import the updated file into your grouping structures.

  1. Select your financial grouping structure in Authoring mode.

  2. Select More actions [].

  3. Select Import groups.

  4. Select Yes, I want to import.

  5. Select Browse, choose the file to import, and wait for the data to load. Refresh the page if the right panel does not display the imported data.

The open Export options menu on the Data page, with Export structure to CSV and CSV Structure Guide highlighted among the export options.

You can link a group in a secondary grouping structure to a group in the primary structure from the Group Properties dialog. You do not need to edit the primary structure to create the link.

To link a group in a secondary structure to the primary structure:

  1. Open the Data page.

  2. Select your grouping structure.

  3. Select Edit group [] beside a group.

    The Group properties dialog opens.

  4. Open the drop-down menu beside Secondary grouping structures.

  5. Select the financial grouping structure to apply as secondary.

The Group properties dialog with the Secondary grouping structures drop-down open, showing available structures to link.

Assign accounts to grouping structures

To assign accounts to grouping structures:

  1. Select Assign Accounts from the left sidebar.

  2. In the right panel, open the Grouping structure drop-down list.

  3. Select your financial grouping structure.

    The structure opens and you can drag accounts into the appropriate groups.

To learn more about managing groups within a grouping structure, see: