Help_ch_Reports.xml

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<chapter id="Reports">
  <title>Reports And Charts</title>

     <note><para>This section is a <quote>work in process</quote> all of the material has not been reviewed for V2.0.
      While it may not be strictly accurate, it is at least a "guide".</para></note>

   <para>Reports and Charts give <application>&app;</application> the ability to present an overview of financial
    data in various ways. This can range from a simple summary of account totals to an
    advanced portfolio view. This section will present an explanation of the main <application>&app;</application>
    reports and how to adjust them.</para>

   <para><application>&app;</application> has classified the main types of reports into four major classes. These
    are all available under the Reports menu.</para>

     <sect1 id="report-general">
      <title>General Reports</title>

       <para>The General Reports include the Account Summary Report, Custom Reports, the Tax Schedule Report and <acronym>TXF</acronym> Export, and the Transaction Report and also the reports in the Sample &amp; Custom menu.</para>

        <itemizedlist>
         <listitem>
          <para>Account Summary:</para>
         </listitem>

         <listitem id="report-taxreport">
          <para>Tax Schedule Report and <acronym>TXF</acronym> Export: The tax schedule report lists all taxable income and deductible expense amounts used in the preparation of US Income Tax returns. The purpose of the report is to provide a complete audit trail for these amounts. The report is intended to be used by a tax payer to manually prepare his or her own tax return, or alternatively, to be provided to a tax preparer for that purpose. The report can also be used to generate an export of all tax related income and expenses to a <acronym>TXF</acronym> (Tax eXchange Format) file (this is in addition to exporting to the <acronym>HTML</acronym> format that all reports allow). The <acronym>TXF</acronym> file can be imported into tax filing programs such as TaxCut or TurboTax. The report should be run, inspected carefully for errors or omissions, and then corrections made to transactions, report settings, currency conversion rates or the account structure as needed. This process should be repeated as often as needed until all the amounts on the report are correct before a final version is used and saved along with the tax returns.</para>

          <para> For accounts specified in the report options (none = all) that are also flagged as <guilabel>Tax-related</guilabel>, all transactions for the time period selected (also in the report options) are included. The report sorts transactions by date within account providing subtotals by account within tax code within Form or Schedule line number. Support is also provided for multiple copies of and for sub-line items for selected Forms/Schedules. Optionally uses special date processing to include federal estimated tax payments after year end.</para>

          <para>All totals are in USD since this is the currency required for filing US Income Tax returns. Non-USD transaction amounts are converted to USD using the transaction conversion rate to USD, if available. If not, a conversion rate from the price database is used (either the date nearest the transaction date or nearest the report date as specified in the report options; if none is available, transaction amounts are converted to zero and the report provides a comment accordingly). A complete audit trail of conversions is provided.</para>

          <note><para>For this to work, the user has to segregate taxable and non taxable
           income to different accounts, as well as deductible and non deductible expenses.
           The Income Tax Information dialog is used for this. To access the Income Tax
           Information dialog go to <menuchoice><guimenu>Edit</guimenu><guimenuitem>Tax Report Options</guimenuitem></menuchoice>. The user
           also must set the <acronym>TXF</acronym> category of each tax related account. The Income Tax
           Information dialog is described in the <xref linkend="set-tax-options"></xref> section.</para></note>

         </listitem>

         <listitem>
          <para>Transaction Report:</para>
         </listitem>

         <listitem>
          <para>Welcome Sample Report:</para>
         </listitem>

         <listitem>
          <para>Custom Multicolumn Report: This report is used to place multiple reports
           into a single report window to examine a set of financial information at a glance.</para>
         </listitem>

         <listitem>
          <para>Sample Graphs</para>
         </listitem>

         <listitem>
          <para>Sample Report with Examples:</para>
         </listitem>
        </itemizedlist>

   </sect1>

   <sect1 id="report-assets">
    <title>Assets &amp; Liabilities</title>

     <para>The Assets &amp; Liabilities reports includes the Balance Sheet             report, Investment reports and the Net Worth report.</para>

      <itemizedlist>

       <listitem>
        <para>Advanced Portfolio:</para>

        <para>Columns</para>
          <itemizedlist>

            <listitem><para><guilabel>Account</guilabel> &mdash; Stock Account</para>
            </listitem>

            <listitem><para><guilabel>Symbol</guilabel> &mdash; Ticker Symbol/Abbreviation as defined in the Security Editor. A report option can suppress this column.</para>
            </listitem>

            <listitem><para><guilabel>Listing</guilabel> &mdash; Type as defined in the Security Editor. A report option can suppress this column.</para>
            </listitem>

            <listitem><para><guilabel>Shares</guilabel> &mdash; Number of shares           (quantity). A report option sets how many decimal places to show.
	    A report option can suppress this column.</para>
            </listitem>

            <listitem><para><guilabel>Price</guilabel> &mdash; Unit market price as at report date. A report option can suppress this column.</para>
            </listitem>

            <listitem><para><guilabel>Basis</guilabel> &mdash; Cost of all shares acquired by any means, including brokerage fees if the option to include them is checked. Report option <emphasis>Basis calculation method</emphasis> can be set to Average, LIFO or FIFO.</para>
	    </listitem>

            <listitem><para><guilabel>Value</guilabel> &mdash; Number of shares * Unit market price as at report date</para>
            </listitem>

            <listitem><para><guilabel>Money In</guilabel> &mdash; Sum of the cost of stock purchased, excluding stock acquired as part of a Dividend Reinvestment Plan. I.e. External money used to purchase shares.</para>
	    </listitem>

            <listitem><para><guilabel>Money Out</guilabel> &mdash; Money from selling shares or a spin off transaction.</para>
	    </listitem>

            <listitem><para><guilabel>Realized Gain</guilabel> &mdash; Money received for selling shares minus basis for shares sold, minus brokerage fees for the sale if the option to include them in basis is checked.</para>
	    </listitem>

            <listitem><para><guilabel>Unrealized Gain</guilabel> &mdash; Value less Basis for unsold shares</para>
	    </listitem>

            <listitem><para><guilabel>Total Gain</guilabel> &mdash; Realized Gain + Unrealized Gain</para>
	    </listitem>

            <listitem><para><guilabel>Rate of Gain</guilabel> &mdash; Total Gain / Money In * 100 (from <application>&app;</application> 2.6.1 onwards)</para>
	    </listitem>

            <listitem><para><guilabel>Income</guilabel> &mdash; Total of all income transactions associated with a stock account.</para>
              <note>
                <para>To include income from dividends which are not reinvested:</para>
                <para>Ensure there is a dummy transaction split to the stock account with quantity 0 price 1 value 0 in the dividend transaction. You can just enter the dummy stock split with no values in the dividend account and it will create the transaction with price 1 even though you cannot see the Price column in that register.</para>
	      </note>
	    </listitem>

            <listitem><para><guilabel>Brokerage Fees</guilabel> &mdash; Brokerage Fees</para>
	    </listitem>

            <listitem><para><guilabel>Total Return</guilabel> &mdash; Total Gain + Income</para>
	    </listitem>

            <listitem><para><guilabel>Rate of Return</guilabel> &mdash; Total Return / Money In * 100</para>
	    </listitem>

          </itemizedlist>

        <para>Common report options are described in <xref linkend="report-custom"/></para>

        <para>Report Specific Options</para>

        <itemizedlist>	<!-- list of Tabs -->

          <listitem><para>Accounts Tab</para>

            <itemizedlist>

              <listitem><para><guilabel>Include accounts with no shares</guilabel> &mdash; Unchecked (default) or checked.</para>
              </listitem>

            </itemizedlist>

          </listitem>	<!-- end of Accounts Tab -->

          <listitem><para>Display Tab</para>

            <itemizedlist>

              <listitem><para><guilabel>Show ticker symbols</guilabel> &mdash; Checked default) or unchecked. If unchecked, Symbol column will be omitted.</para>
              </listitem>

              <listitem><para><guilabel>Show listings</guilabel> &mdash; Checked (default) or unchecked. If unchecked, Listing column (source of shares price quotes) will be omitted.</para>
              </listitem>

              <listitem><para><guilabel>Show number of shares</guilabel> &mdash; Checked (default) or unchecked. If unchecked, Shares column will be omitted.</para>
              </listitem>

              <listitem><para><guilabel>Share decimal places</guilabel> &mdash; The number of decimal places to show in the number of shares. Default is 2.</para>
              </listitem>

              <listitem><para><guilabel>Show prices</guilabel> &mdash; Checked (default) or unchecked. If unchecked, Price column will be omitted.</para>
              </listitem>

            </itemizedlist>

          </listitem>	<!-- end of Display Tab -->

          <listitem><para>General Tab</para>

            <itemizedlist>

              <listitem><para><guilabel>Price Source</guilabel> &mdash; Nearest in time (default) or Most Recent.</para>
              </listitem>

              <listitem><para><guilabel>Basis calculation method</guilabel> &mdash; Average (default), FIFO or LIFO.</para>
              </listitem>

              <listitem><para><guilabel>Set preference for price list data</guilabel> &mdash; Checked (default): Use price list data. If there is no relevant price list data, transaction prices will be used and there will be a warning. Unchecked: Get prices from stock transactions.</para>
              </listitem>

              <listitem><para><guilabel>How to report brokerage fees</guilabel> &mdash; Include in basis (default), Include in gain or Ignore.</para>
              </listitem>

            </itemizedlist>

          </listitem>

        </itemizedlist>

       </listitem>

       <listitem>
        <para>Asset Barchart:</para>

        <para>The Asset Barchart report displays bars that present the value of all assets in a
        <application>&app;</application> file over time.  By default, the report shows all accounts
        in <emphasis>Accounts Receivable</emphasis>, <emphasis>Current Assets</emphasis>,
        <emphasis>Fixed Assets</emphasis>, <emphasis>Investments</emphasis> and Special Accounts
        (if they exist) and it displays monthly bars for the current financial period. 
        This report provides a graphic view of the assets in the file over time.</para>

        <tip>
          <para>Like all the generic reports, the user can assign a title and save the report with 
          it's selected options for re-use later.</para>
        </tip>  
        
        <para>The display is in the form of either a stacked barchart or simple barchart with an 
        option to display a table of the values.</para>

        <para>This report calculates and displays a default of 8 bars or up to 24 separate asset
        accounts value at the end of the day on several dates through a specified time period.
        The report automatically selects the most significant accounts to display with all other
        selected accounts summed as <emphasis>Other</emphasis>.</para>

        <para>The report exploits the outline structure of the chart of accounts to allow the user
        to select top level accounts and sub-accounts down to a user-selectable depth.  Selected 
        sub-accounts below the selected depth are automatically <emphasis>summed up</emphasis> into
        the next level when it is also selected.  The default number of sub-account levels is 2,
        giving a summary view.  Increasing the number of sub-levels increases the detail available
        to display. It is possible to un-select a higher level account and leave sub-accounts 
        selected to force greater detail to appear in the report.</para>

        <para>By default the report includes all <emphasis>asset</emphasis> accounts and sub-accounts,
        as well as <emphasis>Imbalance</emphasis> and <emphasis>Orphan</emphasis> Special accounts
        in whatever currencies or commodities may be present. The report's base currency is the 
        default currency of the <application>&app;</application> file but if the file has data
        for multiple currencies, then it can be changed to another currency.</para>

        <para>Since each account may be individually selected, the report can be designed to focus 
        on a small subset of data such as current assets or investments.</para>

        <para>The overall interval of the report defaults to start at the start of the current 
        accounting period and to end at the end of the current accounting period. Numerous 
        other starting choices and ending choices are available.</para>

        <para>The first bar shows the selected values at the end of the day on the first date chosen.
        There are a number of choices for step size from <emphasis>day</emphasis> to 
        <emphasis>year</emphasis> with the default being <emphasis>month</emphasis>. Note that if any 
        step date would fall on the 29th, 30th or 31st in a month that does not have such a date
        the next interval will be 31 days later. For that step only the date will <emphasis>slip</emphasis>
        up to 3 days into the following month. This is true for releases at least through 2.4.13.
        Bug 639049 is open in Bugzilla to modify this behavior.</para>

        <para>Currently, there is no option to start the report on the last day of any period. 
        There is also no option to show <emphasis>beginning</emphasis> balances or <emphasis>end of 
        previous step</emphasis> balances. This makes it difficult to correlate this report to 
        business quarterly reports, for example.</para>

        <para>The Net Worth linechart report, Liability barchart report and Net Worth barchart 
        report are similar except for the graphic type and default account groups selected.</para>

       <para>Other features are customizable in a manner similar to other standard reports.</para>

       </listitem>

       <listitem>
        <para>Asset Piechart:</para>
       </listitem>

       <listitem>
        <para>Average Balance:</para>
       </listitem>

       <listitem>
        <para>Balance Sheet: This report summarizes assets, liabilities, and equity.
         When properly maintained, assets should equal the sum of liabilities and equity.
         If that is not the case, there is some kind of internal imbalance in the
         accounts.</para>
       </listitem>

       <listitem>
        <para>General Journal:</para>
       </listitem>

       <listitem>
        <para>General Journal:</para>
       </listitem>

       <listitem>
        <para>Investment Portfolio: This report summarizes the value of the stocks in
         the current portfolio.</para>
       </listitem>

       <listitem>
        <para>Liability Barchart:</para>
       </listitem>

       <listitem>
        <para>Liability Piechart:</para>
       </listitem>

       <listitem>
        <para>Net Worth Barchart: Net worth is the difference between the value of assets
         or liabilities.</para>
       </listitem>

       <listitem>
        <para>Net Worth Linechart: Net worth plotted over time.  Net worth is the difference between the value of assets
         or liabilities.</para>
       </listitem>

       <listitem>
        <para>Price Scatterplot:</para>
       </listitem>
      </itemizedlist>
   </sect1>

   <sect1 id="report-income">
    <title>Income &amp; Expense</title>

     <para>The Income &amp; Expense reports includes the Cash Flow and Income Statement reports.</para>

      <itemizedlist>
       <listitem>
        <para>Budget Report:</para>
	<para>This report is used to compare budgeted and real amounts for selected accounts. It allows you to review how well you follow the budget.</para>
	<para>The report is generated as a table in which each row represents an account and each set of columns shows the <emphasis>budgeted amount</emphasis>, the <emphasis>real amount</emphasis>, and the <emphasis>difference</emphasis> between them for each report period.</para>
	<para>Each entry in the <emphasis>real amount</emphasis> column is the sum of all the splits in the row's account over the column's period. For example, if the report is set up for monthly periods, the column is for May, and the row is for Expences:Groceries, then the value will be the sum of all Expenses:Groceries splits for that May.</para>
	<para>The report supports selecting a range of periods instead all of them. Periods that are out of range can be included in report as the consolidated columns around the selected range. This allows you to focus on particular periods, for example the current one, and is especially useful for budgets with many periods. For example, if you have a 12 period budget you can make a 3 column report with the format "(all periods before columns set) (current period columns set) (all periods after columns set)" that is easily fits on the screen and allows you to match values with account names.</para>
	<para><emphasis>Budget report options</emphasis></para>
	<para>
	  <note><para>Here we describe only options that are specific for the Budget Report. You can find information about standard parameters in <xref linkend="report-custom"/>.</para> </note>
	  <itemizedlist>
	    <listitem><para><emphasis>Show budget</emphasis> - include the budgeted values for the period</para></listitem>
	    <listitem><para><emphasis>Show actual</emphasis> - include the real values for the period</para></listitem>
	    <listitem><para><emphasis>Show difference</emphasis> - include the difference between budgeted and real values for the period. Enabling this option does not force including budgeted and actual values in report</para></listitem>
	    <listitem><para><emphasis>Show Column with totals</emphasis> - Adds a final column set containing budgeted, real value, and difference columns summing those values across all periods of the report.</para></listitem>
	    <listitem><para><emphasis>Rollup budget amounts to parent</emphasis> - not used in report, can be deleted or should be fixed</para></listitem>
	    <listitem><para><emphasis>Include accounts with zero total balances and budget values</emphasis> - enables display of accounts with no budget or splits in any period.</para></listitem>
	    <listitem><para><emphasis>Budget</emphasis> - Select the budget to use for report generation</para></listitem>
	    <listitem><para><emphasis>Report for range of budget periods</emphasis> - Enables reporting on a subset of the budget by selecting a beginning and an ending period.</para></listitem>
	    <listitem><para><emphasis>Range start</emphasis> - a combobox with a list of variants how to select start period:
	    <orderedlist>
	      <listitem><para><emphasis>First</emphasis> - select first budget period</para></listitem>
	      <listitem><para><emphasis>Previous</emphasis> - select previous period.</para></listitem>
	      <listitem><para><emphasis>Current</emphasis> - select current period.</para></listitem>
	      <listitem><para><emphasis>Next</emphasis>  - select next period.</para></listitem>
	      <listitem><para><emphasis>Last</emphasis> - select last budget period</para></listitem>
	      <listitem><para><emphasis>Manual</emphasis> - enables spinbox where you can select exact period</para></listitem>
	    </orderedlist></para>
	    <note><para>The <emphasis>current</emphasis>, <emphasis>previous</emphasis>, and <emphasis>next</emphasis> options select the period based on the date on which the report is run, with <emphasis>current</emphasis> being the period in which the date falls, <emphasis>previous</emphasis> being the one before that, and <emphasis>next</emphasis> the period after. If the current date falls outside the date range covered by the budget, the <emphasis>first</emphasis> or <emphasis>last</emphasis> period will be used as appropriate.</para></note>
	    </listitem>
	    <listitem><para><emphasis>Exact start period</emphasis> - options for select exact start period, enabled only if range start option is set to <emphasis>Manual</emphasis></para></listitem>
	    <listitem><para><emphasis>Range end</emphasis> - a combobox with a list of variants how to select end period. Values are the same as in <emphasis>Range start</emphasis> options</para></listitem>
	    <listitem><para><emphasis>Exact end period</emphasis> - the same as <emphasis>Exact start period</emphasis> but for the end of range</para></listitem>
	    <listitem><para><emphasis>Include collapsed periods before selected</emphasis> - if on, then includes in report all budget periods, that are before selected period range, as a single consolidated column set</para></listitem>
	    <listitem><para><emphasis>Include collapsed periods after selected</emphasis> - if on, then includes in report all budget periods, that are after selected period range, as a single consolidated column set.</para></listitem>
	  </itemizedlist>
	</para>
      </listitem>

       <listitem>
        <para>Cash Flow:</para>
       </listitem>

       <listitem>
        <para>Equity Statement:</para>
       </listitem>

       <listitem>
        <para>Expense Barchart:</para>
       </listitem>

       <listitem>
        <para>Expense Piechart:</para>
       </listitem>

       <listitem>
        <para>Expense vs Day of Week:</para>
       </listitem>

       <listitem>
        <para>Income Barchart:</para>
       </listitem>

       <listitem>
        <para>Income &amp; Expense Chart:</para>
       </listitem>

       <listitem>
        <para>Income Statement: This report summarizes sources of income and expenditure.
         (This report was called Profit &amp; Loss in gnucash-1.8.)</para>
       </listitem>

       <listitem>
        <para>Income Statement:</para>
       </listitem>

       <listitem>
        <para>Income vs Day of Week:</para>
       </listitem>

       <listitem>
        <para>Trial Balance: This report summarizes sources of income and expenditure.</para>
       </listitem>
      </itemizedlist>

   </sect1>

   <sect1 id="report-biz">
    <title>Business Reports</title>

      <para>The Business Reports includes Customer and Vendor Reports and Printable
       Invoices as well as Aging reports.</para>

       <itemizedlist>
        <listitem>
         <para>Customer Report:</para>
        </listitem>

        <listitem>
         <para>Easy Invoice:</para>
        </listitem>

        <listitem>
         <para>Employee Report:</para>
        </listitem>

        <listitem>
         <para>Fancy Invoice:</para>
        </listitem>

        <listitem>
         <para>Payable Aging:</para>
        </listitem>

        <listitem>
         <para>Printable Invoice:</para>
        </listitem>

        <listitem>
         <para>Receivable Aging:</para>
        </listitem>

        <listitem>
         <para>Vendor Report:</para>
        </listitem>
       </itemizedlist>

     </sect1>

     <sect1 id="report-custom">
      <title>Customizing Reports and Graphs</title>

        <para><application>&app;</application> reports have many options
        for customization. First, run the original report itself. Then,
        access the report options with the <guibutton>Options</guibutton>
        button on the toolbar.</para>

           <note> <para>Check changed Graphic Engine Options and describe Saving Customized Reports</para></note>
<!--
              suggest how to save report options E.g. Choose definite options when you
              want to see an Income Statement, so you want to save them for future and
              not to choose all the time.

                File -> Add Report   (in 2.0.5).
              But first, you must change the title of the report in the options. -->

        <para>Many reports share similar sorts of options. Some common ones include:</para>

        <itemizedlist>
          <listitem>
            <para>Report Name: Set the title of the report. This is also used to print the
             report for later viewing.</para>
          </listitem>

          <listitem>
            <para>Date Options: Reports typically specify either a single date, or a date
             range, for the report. Dates can be specified in two ways, either directly
             (using the date selector), or by selecting a relative date from the menu.
             Relative dates allow you to specify dates like <guilabel>Beginning of this year</guilabel> or
             <guilabel>Today</guilabel>.</para>
          </listitem>

          <listitem>
            <para>Step Size: This option is used on bar charts to determine the interval which
             each bar represents. Typical values are daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly.</para>
          </listitem>

          <listitem>
            <para>Accounts: Select the appropriate accounts for the report. Note that in some
             reports only certain types of accounts can be selected. For example, an expense
             piechart only allows expense accounts to be selected. </para>
          </listitem>

          <listitem>
            <para>Show Long Account Names: This option allows displaying either short account
             names (for example, Power) or long account names (for example, Utilities:Power).
            </para>
          </listitem>

          <listitem>
            <para>Include Subaccounts?: Summary reports typically have an include all
             subaccounts option, which if selected ensures that all subaccounts are included
             if the parent account is.</para>
          </listitem>

          <listitem>
            <para>Depth: This option allows the selection of how many levels the report
             displays subaccounts. If the subaccounts go deeper than selected, an overall value
             for all the subaccounts is calculated and included in a total. To make sure every
             account selected is individually displayed, select <guibutton>All</guibutton>.</para>
          </listitem>

          <listitem>
            <para>Style Sheet: Select a Style Sheet. Style sheets control how reports are
             displayed. At the moment, there are four style sheets: <guilabel>Default</guilabel>, <guilabel>Easy</guilabel>,
             <guilabel>Footer</guilabel> and <guilabel>Technicolor</guilabel>.
             You can customize each of these from the <menuchoice><guimenu>Edit</guimenu><guimenuitem>Style
             Sheets...</guimenuitem></menuchoice> menu item.
             This is described in the Changing Style Sheets section. <xref linkend="change-style"></xref></para>
          </listitem>

          <listitem>
            <para>Plot Dimensions: There are width and height options for most graphs, which
             specify the displayed dimensions (in pixels).</para>
          </listitem>

          <listitem>
            <para>Report Currency: Select the report currency. Generally, values will be
             converted to this currency for display.</para>
          </listitem>

          <listitem>
            <para>Price Source: Select how stock and currency prices are calculated in this
             report. Choose between a weighted average of prices over all transactions, prices
             at current values, or prices at the time of the report date.</para>
          </listitem>

          <listitem>
            <para>Totals: Charts display totals in the chart legend if this option is selected.
            </para>
          </listitem>

          <listitem>
            <para>Maximum Slices: Controls the maximum number of slices displayed in a
             piechart - other accounts will be placed in a slice marked Other. </para>
          </listitem>

          <listitem>
            <para>Maximum Bars: Controls the maximum number of bars displayed in a barchart.
            </para>
          </listitem>

          <listitem>
            <para>Display Columns: Choose columns to show from the register.</para>
          </listitem>
        </itemizedlist>
      </sect1>

      <sect1 id="report-print">
        <title>Printing or Exporting Reports and Graphs</title>

          <note><para> Verify !!!  How customize printing with Gnome?</para></note>

        <para><application>&app;</application> is able to print reports and to export the reports to <acronym>HTML</acronym> (web) pages. The
         Print <application>&app;</application> Document dialog is accessed from the <guibutton>Print</guibutton> button on the <emphasis>Toolbar</emphasis> or
         go to <menuchoice><guimenu>File</guimenu><guimenuitem>Print</guimenuitem></menuchoice> in the menu. To Export a report to a web page (<acronym>HTML</acronym>) select
         the <guibutton>Export</guibutton> button on the <emphasis>Toolbar</emphasis> and type in a file name.</para>


        <para>The Print <application>&app;</application> Document dialog is used to select which Printer to send the
         print job to or to print to a File. It also contains a Preview button to view the
         document before printing. Press Print to send the job to the selected printer or
         <guibutton>Cancel</guibutton> to dismiss the Print dialog.</para>


        <para>Printing from an open register prints the Account Report, which is also called
         the Register Report. This lists transactions in the account with a total. Other
         reports print as viewed in the Report screen.</para>
      </sect1>

      <sect1 id="report-create">
        <title>Creating Reports and Graphs</title>

             <note><para>This section may need updating !!!</para> </note>

        <para>It is possible to write reports if the current ones are not suitable. To do this
         you will need to know Scheme (a LISP-like programming language), and it is an
         excellent idea to have a copy of the <application>&app;</application> source code available. </para>

        <para>The reporting interface is documented in the source code file
         <filename>src/report/report-system/doc/report-html.txt</filename>. The file <filename>src/report/utility-reports/hello-world.scm</filename>
         in the <application>&app;</application> source distribution provides a good example of how reports are
         developed.</para>

        <para>It is also necessary to access data from the engine to get information for your
         report. This is performed by a set of Scheme wrapper functions that are documented in
         the file <filename>src/g-wrap/gnc.html</filename>. Examine some of the other reports in src/scm/report for
         an indication of how they are used.</para>

        <para>At present, reports are produced by calling a <acronym>HTML</acronym>-generation API, which outputs
         a dialect of <acronym>HTML</acronym> and rendering this with a <acronym>HTML</acronym> widget. This has limitations,
         particularly when trying to align objects precisely, as might be necessary for
         printing onto pre-printed invoices for example.</para>
   </sect1>

</chapter>