Run a capital comparison

A capital comparison shows the difference between the net worth in two capital declarations of the same client and lets you explain it year by year: income, taxes paid, living expenses, sources and uses. Whatever is not explained appears as the unexplained difference. The system calculates and suggests; the accountant decides.

Open a comparison

1. Open Reports → Capital comparisons and choose New comparison, or open the client → Reports → Capital comparisons.
2. Choose the current declaration.
3. Choose the previous declaration from the existing ones, or choose Enter a previous declaration and enter its date. A historical declaration is then created in the records phase; open it from the comparison and enter its assets and liabilities.

A new comparison starts in Preparation when both declarations already have their records, and in Data when one of them has none yet.

The comparison opens inside the client’s page, so Message, New task, and Schedule are at the top of the screen. The back button returns to where you came from: Back to the client’s comparisons when you opened it from the client’s page, and Back to capital comparisons to the office-wide table.

On the client’s page, under Reports → Capital comparisons, each comparison shows its period, stage and next step. Open the office’s comparisons opens the office-wide table.

The period is derived from the two declaration dates. When a declaration is not dated 31 December, the first or last year is marked as partly covered.

The office’s comparisons table

Reports → Capital comparisons holds every comparison of the office in one table. Each row shows the client, Period, Stage, Next step, Primary assignee, Deputy assignee, Change in net worth, Unexplained difference and Updated. Click a row to open the comparison.

• Work queues: above the table there is a tile for each kind of next step, with how many comparisons are in it: for example Data with the client, Preparing, Review and follow up and Done, and a tile for each manual step by its name. Click a tile to show only its comparisons; click it again, or All, to show them all. The dot next to the next step says whose turn it is: orange for the office, blue for the client.
• Search and filter: under the page header, search by client name or tax ID, and filter by Stage, Current declaration year, Primary assignee and Deputy assignee. Each filter takes several values at once, and the assignee filters also offer Unassigned. While any filter is applied, Clear filters appears and brings every comparison back. The list remembers your search, filters, sorting and column order, and you can save views of your own. See Arranging lists and saved views.
• Sort: click a column heading to sort by it, and click again to reverse the order. The info icon next to Change in net worth and Unexplained difference explains the column when you hover over it.
• Assignees: you can change the primary and deputy assignee right in the table. To assign several comparisons at once, tick them in the boxes at the start of the row and choose Set primary assignee or Set deputy assignee. Clear selection clears the ticks. Before anything changes, a window lists every row with its assignee now and after, and nothing changes until you choose Assign. If some rows could not be updated, the message names them.
• Your own fields: owners and admins see Manage fields, where they add their own fields, such as a fee or an internal category. Each field appears as a table column and can be filled in right there. A choice, multiple choice or yes/no field also gets a filter.
• Export to Excel downloads an Excel file with the rows shown now, with the search and filters.

Read the summary

The top of the screen always shows: previous net worth, current net worth, change in net worth, income, taxes paid, living expenses, sources, uses, adjustments and the unexplained difference. Clicking a number opens the tab that explains it. When the difference is zero the bar says The comparison is balanced; otherwise A difference remains to be explained.

If the records of either declaration changed since the last save, a notice with a Refresh button appears.

Assets and liabilities

The Assets and liabilities tab lists every category with its previous value, current value, change and percent change. Summary shows categories; By section opens the declaration sections that make up each category. Liabilities are shown as positive amounts and reduce the net worth.

Explain the change

In the Income, sources and uses tab add entries per year: income and taxes, living expenses, sources (inheritance, gift, loan received, asset sale and more), uses (asset or vehicle purchase, gift given, loan repayment and more), signed adjustments and explanations without effect on the calculation.

Every amount shows its source. An amount pulled automatically keeps its source value; a manual change is saved separately with a reason and marked Changed manually. You can go back to the source value at any time.

Why did the gap arise?

The Why did the gap arise? tab gathers the first five checks: the unexplained difference, the five largest changes in assets and in liabilities, years with gaps, points to check, open suggestions and the explanations already added.

Search for possible reasons runs rules over the existing data: a new asset without a funding source, a loan that shrank without a repayment among the uses, an unusual change in bank balances, a year without income, living expenses reduced below the table, and more. Every suggestion carries a confidence level (high, medium, low). A suggestion never changes a number: Add as source, Add as use or Add as explanation open the entry form prefilled, and you save it. You can also mark as reviewed or ignore; running the search again keeps your decisions.

The rule thresholds are set under Settings → Capital comparisons (office administrators only). The available living-expense tables are listed there as well.

Stages, next step and review

The top of the comparison shows its four stages, as annual reports and capital declarations do:

1. Data: you are waiting for data from the client. When a declaration has no records yet, that is written under the next step. Once everything needed has arrived, choose Finish gathering the data.
2. Preparation: enter the declarations’ records and explain the difference. The next step says what is left: enter a declaration’s records (Open declaration), explain the remaining difference (Explain the difference), or, once the comparison balances, Send to review. You can send it to review with a difference left too.
3. Review: whoever checks it chooses Mark checked and complete. It is best checked by another team member than the one who prepared it, so the page shows who prepared it; an office of one checks its own work. Back to preparation returns it for corrections.
4. Completed: the comparison was checked and is read-only. Reopen returns it to preparation, and once it is sent to review again someone checks it again.

Under the stages is the Next step: what to do now, whose turn it is (orange for the office, blue for the client) and the button that does it. Under it is a line of what already happened: when it was opened, who sent it to review and who checked it. To move it to another stage without the button, open the actions menu (the three dots) and pick from Move to another stage.

Manual steps

Manual step at the end of the stage line adds something that has to happen and that the system does not know about, for example “Fee received”. Choose the stage it belongs to; owners and admins can add it to every capital comparison of the office. Until it is marked done it is the next step, and the comparison cannot move on past its stage.

Deletion

Delete comparison (in the actions menu) is available to owners and admins only. Deleting removes the comparison, its entries, its manual steps and its history; the declarations stay.

Produce a PDF or Excel

In the Export menu at the top of the comparison: Print / PDF opens the browser’s print dialog with the comparison: the client details, the declaration dates, the summary, assets and liabilities, income and living expenses by year, sources, uses, adjustments, points to check and the accountant’s notes, in the comparison’s saved design or the default template; choose Save as PDF. Excel downloads a workbook with one sheet per part, including the change history. Automatic suggestions are left out unless you tick Include automatic suggestions.

To change how the printed comparison looks (logo, titles, columns, and notes), choose Design and edit report in the same menu. See Design and edit a report for printing.

Change history

The Change history tab lists every field change: who changed it, when, before and after, and the reason when one exists. Filter by member, data type and year.