A set of financial statements is a written record that conveys the business activities and financial performance of a company. A set of financial statements are used by:

As such, these statements are often independently reviewed or audited (depending on local legislative requirements). A complete set of Financial Statements includes 4 statements:

Syft has a Financial Statements tool that allows you to build a full set of high-quality Financial Statements easily and efficiently. Better yet, once the initial setup is complete, the statements can be easily rolled-forward to the following financial year.

Syft’s Financial Statements tool is designed to create high-quality, compliant financial statements that are highly customizable and striking in appearance. Our tool allows preparers and reviewers to interact with Syft seamlessly.

Once you are in Syft, you will see the sub-tab added under the "Financials" tab on your Syft dashboard called "Fin. Statements." Within this sub-tab, you will find:

These two components make up the financial statements tool on Syft. To create a new financial statement, click the “Add financial statement” button within the "Compile" sub-tab.

The "Setup" page will prompt you to name your financial statement and assign a period, which will most likely be a full financial year but can also be monthly, quarterly or the last 12 months. The period end date is important as it designates what information will be populated in your statements and disclosures. Click "Next" once you are happy with your selections.

The "Entity details" page lets you fill in your company details. The "Stakeholders" page is where you can select the relevant stakeholders for the entity. The "Report" page allows you to select the statements that will populate your financial statements. Typically, you will choose all 4 statements. You must decide whether you want the Statement of Cash Flows to use the direct or indirect method.

You can then give your Financial Statements a theme, drawing from Syft’s library of beautiful and professional themes. Adding a theme adds an element of customization to your Financial Statements that show the care taken to put the statements together.

Now that you have your financial statement, a summarized version of it will appear alongside any other financial statements you've created within the "Compile" sub-tab. In this view, you will be able to:

Once you have created your set of financial statements, click "Open." When you open the Financial Statement, you'll see that there are a five top tabs:

The "Ordering" top tab is used to order your financial statements, starting with the assurances and specific statements right through to the notes. You can drag and drop a section to re-order them simply. Just so you know – uploaded documents will also appear here so that you can place the documents in the desired place within your financial statements.

Refresh your preview to view any recent changes you have made by clicking "Refresh preview." Click on the arrow icon to navigate to a specific report. Also, you'll be able to view your disclosures within the preview. Upon download, all notes and disclosures will appear within the "Notes to the financial statement" section.

Within the "Commentary" top tab, you can view and edit the text templates added to your financial statement. Add a new commentary text section by clicking the + icon.

You can select from pre-built text options or add a custom commentary report with formatted text, tables, and headings. This section uses our AI commentary feature. Examples include the audit or review report, company information, or shareholder information, as you see fit.

Your accounting policies can also be added in this section. You can choose a default template or transcribe your current accounting policies into this section. As you draft your assurances and policies, you will see a preview on the right-hand side of the page. You can edit the names of the policies by clicking on the pencil icon alongside the title of the assurance or policy (in the image above, the title is "General Information").

Navigate to the "Financials" top tab and click on the statement you want to view or edit (either the Profit & Loss, Balance Sheet, or Cash Flow Indirect statement).

Click on the Build ( 🔨 ) icon to switch to the statement layout, where you can configure the rows to include what you need. You can also change the statement layout by clicking "Assign layout."

Add a note and assign a disclosure to reference in your note by clicking the + icon within the "Notes" column. You can also add a note that will not appear in the notes column by toggling on "Add as an unlinked note." Additionally, edit any column by clicking the ellipses icon and reorder the columns by clicking "Reorder."

Note that any groups expanded in the layout will automatically be collapsed in the financial statements. This ensures that the financial statements contain only a summarised view.

Your balance sheet and profit and loss will be pre-populated based on the layout you have selected. The layout can be modified within the Build view or within "Layouts" on Syft. Your cash flow statement and statement of changes in equity cannot be modified and are based on the categories you have set up within the layout used to draft the financial statements.

You can change the names of the statements by navigating to the statement in question, clicking the pencil icon, typing a new name, and pressing Enter.

You may want to upload certain PDFs to include in your annual financial statements, such as a governance report, director’s report, or remuneration report. This is where you can do so.

Navigate to the "Upload documents" top tab and click the "Upload document" button to retrieve files from your PC. If you would like to share the PDFs across all financial statements, toggle on the option to share within the pop-up. Once you are happy, click on "Upload." You can toggle on "Include" next to the uploaded document, which will include this document in the financial statement export.