Overview: Within report templates, information is populated from the Active Ledger file by using special fields. These fields let you build a generic report that you can use for all entities. They can be used to perform simple tasks, such as returning a report title or entity name.

Please refer to the Glossary for definitions of key terms used in this article.

Assessing report fields

From the Ledger Admin Centre, click on Page Templates, Header Template or Notes.

Fields can be used anywhere in Active Ledger that administrators can create or edit content (see the support article: How to customise report content). They can also be used in titles, headers and footers.

Below is an example of how fields have been used in a paragraph in the Compilation Report template to return names and dates.

Note: All fields are case sensitive. Each field must be wrapped within two sets of curly braces as shown by: {{text}}.

To return subsets of properties, use the '.' syntax between each property. For example to return which state an office is in you would use: {{Office.Address.State}}.

Reporting fields

Below is a complete list of fields which can be used within a report to populate information:

NAME	FIELD	RETURN	EXAMPLES
Report Title	{{Title}}	String
DateTime*	{{DateTime: d MMMM yyyy}}	String	e.g. format of date: 1 January 2024 (see below)
Office Id	{{Office.Id}}	GUID - Unique Office Identifier
Office Name	{{Office.Name}}	String
Office Trading Name	{{Office.TradingName}}	String
Office ABN	{{Office.ABN}}	String
Office Address	{{Office.Address.AddressLine1}} {{Office.Address.AddressLine2}} {{Office.Address.AddressLine3}} {{Office.Address.State}} {{Office.Address.Suburb}} {{Office.Address.PostCode}}	String
Entity Name	{{Entity.Name}}	String
Entity Trading Name	{{Entity.TradingName}}	String
Entity ABN	{{Entity.ABN}}	String
Entity Type	{{Entity.EntityType}}	String	e.g. 'Company', 'Trust', 'Partnership', 'Sole Trader'
Entity Responsible	{{Entity.Responsible}}	String	e.g. 'Director', 'Directors', 'Trustee, 'Trustees'
Name of Responsible Person	{{ClientSignatory}}	String	e.g. Will return full name of Responsible Person. e.g. John Smith
Entity Extended Responsible	{{Entity.ExtendedResponsible}}	String	e.g. 'Directors of ABC Company Pty Ltd', 'Trustees of ABC Trust', 'Proprietor'
Entity Responsible Plural	{{Entity.ResponsiblePlural}}	True/False - Boolean	e.g. 'Shareholders', 'Beneficiaries', 'Members', 'Proprietor', 'Partners'
Entity Owner	{{Entity.Owner}}	String
Principal Activities	{{Entity.PrincipalActivites}}	String
Is Not For Profit	{{Entity.NotForProfit}}	True/False - Boolean
Is Company	{{Entity.IsCompany}}	True/False - Boolean
Is Trust	{{Entity.IsTrust}}	True/False - Boolean
Is Association	{{Entity.IsAssociation}}	True/False - Boolean
Entity Registered Office	{{Entity.RegisteredOffice.AddressLine1}} {{Entity.RegisteredOffice.AddressLine2}} {{Entity.RegisteredOffice.AddressLine3}} {{Entity.RegisteredOffice.State}} {{Entity.RegisteredOffice.Suburb}} {{Entity.RegisteredOffice.PostCode}}	String
Entity Principal Place of Business	{{Entity.PrincipalPlaceOfBusiness.AddressLine1}} {{Entity.PrincipalPlaceOfBusiness.AddressLine2}} {{Entity.PrincipalPlaceOfBusiness.AddressLine3}} {{Entity.PrincipalPlaceOfBusiness.State}} {{Entity.PrincipalPlaceOfBusiness.Suburb}} {{Entity.PrincipalPlaceOfBusiness.PostCode}}	String
Start Date*	{{StartDate:d MMMM yyyy}}	String	e.g. format of date: 1 January 2024 (see below)
End Date*	{{EndDate:d MMMM yyyy}}	String	e.g. format of date: 1 January 2024 (see below)
IsWholeYear	{{IsWholeYear}}	True/False - Boolean
Partner Id	{{Partner.Id}}	GUID - Unique User Identifier
Partner Email	{{Partner.Email}}	String
Partner First Name	{{Partner.FirstName}}	String
Partner Last Name	{{Partner.LastName}}	String
Partner Position	{{Partner.Position}}	String	Will return the Partner's position as shown in their Active Ledger User profile
Partner Display Name	{{Partner.DisplayName}}	String => First Name and Last Name
Page Title	{{Page.Title}}	String
User Id	{{User.Id}}	GUID - Unique User Identifier
User Email	{{User.Email}}	String
User First Name	{{User.FirstName}}	String
User Last Name	{{User.LastName}}	String

*The following shows how date patterns can be used in the above fields to display in the format you require:

PATTERN	RESULT STRING
dd/MM/yy	30/06/2024
yyyy-MM-dd	2024-06-30
dd MMMM yyyy	30 June 2024
dddd, dd MMMM yyyy	Tuesday, 30 June 2024
MMMM dd	June 30

Also, in the date formula, the DateTime text needs to be replaced with a date field from Active Ledger that can be referenced. See below for some example Date fields that can be referenced:

Date field	Where it comes from	Formula example	Example output
`StartDate`	Primary column Start Date in the report Column screen	`{{StartDate: dddd, dd MMMM yyyy}}`	`Tuesday, 01 July 2025`
`EndDate`	Primary column End Date in the report Column screen	`{{EndDate: dddd, dd MMMM yyyy}}`	`Tuesday, 30 June 2026`
`SignOffDate`	Accountant Sign Off Date in the report Setup screen	`{{SignOffDate: dddd, dd MMMM yyyy}}`	Displays the entered Accountant Sign Off Date
`ClientSignOffDate`	Client Sign Off Date in the report Setup screen	`{{ClientSignOffDate: dddd, dd MMMM yyyy}}`	Displays the entered Client Sign Off Date

The format dddd, dd MMMM yyyy controls how the date is displayed, for example: Tuesday, 01 July 2025.

Tip: Your firm Admin can also set up a custom formula field box for a Report Page Template. This allows users to manually enter a date, which can then be referenced by the custom formula embedded in the Report Template. See screenshots below:

Financial fields

Below is a complete list of fields which can be used within a report to populate financial information. The values will be chosen from the primary report column.

NAME	FIELD
Gross Profit	{{Financial.GrossProfit}}
Profit from Operations	{{Financial.ProfitFromOperations}}
EBITDA	{{Financial.EBITDA}}
EBIT	{{Financial.EBIT}}
Net Profit	{{Financial.NetProfit}}
Income Tax	{{Financial.IncomeTax}}
Profit Before Tax	{{Financial.ProfitBeforeTax}}
Total Assets	{{Financial.TotalAssets}}
Total Liabilities	{{Financial.TotalLiabilities}}
Total Equity	{{Financial.TotalEquity}}
Net Current Assets	{{Financial.NetCurrentAssets}}
Retained Earnings	{{Financial.RetainedEarnings}}
Distributions	{{Financial.Distributions}}

Formatting

Format the result as a number by adding :C or :N and the number of decimal places to round to, for example, to format the net profit with two decimal places:

Or to format a plain number with 0 decimal places:

You can also use Excel style combinations for formatting negative numbers and zeroes, for example to get negatives in brackets and 0's showing as '-':

Prior periods

You can access prior periods by appending 'Array' to the field title and using .X where X is the number of the column you wish to refer to. For example, to get the net profit from the second column in the report (usually your prior year) you would use:

You can test for the existence of the value by using it in conjunction with a #if statement, for example:

{{#if Financial.NetProfitArray.2}}Text to show if there is a second column.{{/if}}

In addition, you can access the column headers by referring to the following fields:

NAME	FIELD
Header Text (1st row)	{{Financial.ColumnHeaderTextArray.1}}
Period Text (2nd Row)	{{Financial.ColumnPeriodTextArray.1}}
Sign Text (3rd row)	{{Financial.ColumnSignTextArray.1}}

Use these in conjunction with an 'if' statement to build a 'prior year value in brackets'. For example, you can test for the existence of the value by using it in conjunction with a #if statement.

For example the following statement:

{{Financial.NetProfit:C0}}{{#if Financial.NetProfitArray.2}}({{Financial.ColumnPeriodTextArray.2}}: {{Financial.NetProfitArray.2:C0}}){{/if}}

Will render as the following if there is a second column where the period text says '2:

$15,000 (2021: $12,000)

Reporting tags

If statements

Within a report an 'If Statement' can be used to return different text.

The following example takes a True/False variable and returns the text "Are" if True and "Is" if False:

{{#if Entity.ResponsiblePlural}}are{{#else}}is{{/if}}

The following example checks to see if a property exists and returns an ABN {{Entity.ABN}} if it does exist and blank if it does not exist:

{{#if Entity.ABN}}ABN {{Entity.ABN}}{{/if}}

Uppercase/lowercase

You can use 'uppercase' and 'lowercase' in a tag to convert the contents of a string to that case, for example:

How to customise report fields