Sign class

Introduction

The sign with which amounts are shown in forms depends on general settings made in the system and on any specific overrides made at the individual account or FST item level, therefore in the report and/or template definition.

Depending on the needs of the project, it is possible to show the amounts with their original sign inverted in relation to the sign they have in the database, or as an absolute value (all amounts shown as positive).

In particular, setting the Debit sign determines the relative sign for the Credit sign (which will have the opposite sign). The sign setting for Asset/Liability and Asset/Liability Increase and Asset/Liability Decrease balance sheet amounts is valid in reporting for all the related amounts.

Both in data entry and navigation, if a value with a different sign has been inserted on the individual account or FST item, the system inverts the sign based on the accounting classes associated with the account/FST item in question.

Note: the following accounting classes are available in CCH Tagetik: Revenue, Cost, Asset, Liability, Asset increase, Asset decrease, Liability increase, Liability decrease.

Details of signs

The sign attributed to the various accounting classes determines the sign with which the amount, if inserted from a data entry form, is saved on the database. When, at the account or FST item level, the sign inserted is the opposite of the sign defined on the accounting class in general settings, to save on the database the system recalculates the amount to obtain the sign indicated in the class settings.

A positive or negative value can be attributed to the Debit sign. The behaviour of the accounting classes, depending on the sign, is described below.

Debit sign	Description
Positive	On the application database, revenue and liability values are saved with a negative sign, while cost and asset values are saved with a positive sign. Therefore, if the signs of the values entered on this type of account are consistent with the signs specified above, the system will not change the sign.
Negative	On the application database, revenue and liability values are saved with a positive sign, while cost and asset values are saved with a negative sign. Therefore, if the signs of the values entered on this type of account are consistent with the signs specified above, the system will not change the sign.

Example: to create a balance sheet FST in which every line needs to have a positive sign, the signs of the accounting classes Liability and Liability (Decrease) must be set to positive in general settings. At the specific FST item level, it is then necessary to set the liability sign class for all liability accounting items.

Override the sign class on the account from FST item

When it is not necessary to change the sign on the individual accounts, or when a single logic is used for the FST items and the accounts related to them, the Override Sign for class on the Account by FST item option in the FST settings allows the accounts related to an FST item to inherit the sign class set on the same item (see Financial statement templates).

Note: In the case of dynamic matrices, in the presence of an account with a sign class inherited from an FST item and a dimension with "Insert children" selection type, the system will also apply the sign change to the generated subtotals.

IMPORTANT: If the FST item contains a Formula, it does not inherit the sign from a hierarchical parent; the sign is derived from:

• the Class, if set on the FST item containing the formula;
• the calculation expression, i.e. the way in which the operators (+, -, ×, ÷) combine members that already have their own sign, including any reverse sign (sign inversion by convention) and aggregation signs (the sign contribution in hierarchical totals), according to the basic rules of arithmetic.
• any overridden rules at the report level

Override the sign in the Matrix Wizard

In reporting, the class settings given on the tables are visible in the dimensions tree in the matrix creation step, both for FSTs and for accounts.

In the matrix definition step it is possible to manually insert change sign settings for the sign that the system proposes as the result of attributing a certain sign class.

Based on the sign changes, the system shows the filter with specific colours.

If...	Then...
the class-sign combination present in configuration on the debit account entails a sign change	the filter is shown in orange.
the sign changes due to a manual override	the filter is shown in red.
due to the overridden sign change, the filter returns back to the sign that it had before the class was applied	the filter is shown in black.

For more details, see Sign change.