This article outlines what are GL Calculations, how to set them up and why they can be a valuable aid to financial reporting and balanced scorecards.
What are PL Calculations?
GL Calculations form a valuable part of the GL Module from tRS. They are popular financials measures such as EBIDTA, EBIT %, Employee Expenses as a percent of trading revenue and presented as selectable facts in your tRS GL Service rather than having to rely on using Account Codes.
How to set up your PL Calculations?
To set up your PL Calculations in your GL Module, follow these steps:
Tip: Its a good idea to have a downloaded copy of the latest Account Master File from your tRS Admin site before you begin so you are referencing the correct and exact matches in your Calculations template.
Go to your tRS Admin site by clicking on the wrench icon in your tRS Portal
Go to the Account Master file in your external upload files and click on the three vertical dots to download the last successful upload
Step 1. Create an simple Excel Workbook as illustrated below and save as PL_Calculations_Template
| TYPE | CALCULATION | LABEL | DISPLAY FORMAT |
| Mapped | Account_Group_2 = "EBIT" | Total EBIT $ | #,### |
| Mapped | Account_Group_2 = "EBIT" | Total Sales $ | #,### |
| Calculated | [Total EBIT $] / [Total Sales $] | Total EBIT % | ##.0% |
- Type = two options for PL Calculations include "Mapped" which uses reference columns and the exact value to match on vs "Calculated" which use previously defined PL Calculations to produce a derived measure such as EBITDA %.
- Calculation = is where you need to identify the Account Master File column reference and the exact match to be used.
- Label = is what you want the measure to be called and how you want it displayed in your tRS GL Module.
- Display Format = This is where you can control how the measure should be formatted. For example, with a currency sign or no decimal places or as a percentage.
Please note that the Account Master File column and the CELL reference must be a direct match from your Account Master File
Step 2. Once you have successfully completed your PL Calculations Template, save it centrally that others in your Finance Team can reference it. Then email your calculations template to support@theretailscore.com and the tRS operations team will load these up into your tRS GL Module.
Please note Currently, tRS is responsible for loading your calculations into the production platform. Ultimately, we are working on this step being managed by finance teams directly.
Also note that changes to your account master file may impact your GL Calculations.
Step 3. You will be notified by the tRS Support Desk when your Calculations are ready. They will be available under your GL Balances or GL Transactions table in your data warehouse.
(see the example below)
Why are PL Calculations important?
The power of the tRS GL Module lies in both the simplicity to query your General Ledger by Account, Cost Centre and over time and the ability to integrate with your traditional retail KPI's to produce what is called a balanced scorecard.
In the example below, you can now co-locate financial KPI's such as Employment Expense % Trading Revenue, along side retail KPI's such as Avg Transaction Value (AVT), Foot Traffic Conversion Rates and Units per Transactions (UPT)
