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  • About Us
    • Nick Setchell – RealTime CEO
    • Vistage & TEC WorkshopsNick Setchell has been working with Vistage, the world’s largest CEO organization, since 2001.
    • NewsSee what’s happening with RealTime CEO.
    • Economic Update Report
    • Contact UsReach out to us. If you’re interested in booking Nick to give a keynote address or workshop at your conference, please include the date and location.
  • Concepts
    • Fiscal Focus Financial Statement AnalysisUnlock the hidden numbers in your P&L and balance sheet to see how you’re performing in 11 vital metrics.
    • Should We? / Can We?View, in real time, the actual financial impact of the hundreds of business decisions your team makes every month.
    • 24 Month Rolling ForecastingBlend your trailing twelve months with a rolling 12-month forecast to get a complete financial picture of your business.
    • J Curve ManagementTrack the number of investments you’re undertaking, the 3 phases of each, and the 5 rules for managing them.
    • Return on Operations – ROOView your return on operations percentage — your ROO % — the most powerful number to measure business success.
    • CEO Performance AnalysisBenchmark your performance as a private-company CEO against others in your industry.
  • Resource Center
  • Blog
  • Login
  • SUBSCRIBE

Explanation of Tags

The tags create a mapping routine from your accounting system to RealTime CEO. They determine whether accounts are operational or not, and in which calculations they are used on the Dashboard and other screens.  The following is an explanation of the tags and how they should be applied.

General Rules:

  • Tags are attached to the account name (this can include an account number) and therefore you cannot have duplicate account names in your CSV files. See How to load and check Monthly Data and CSV file format for loading data
  • The initial tagging routine is set up during the Onboarding Wizard and these tags remain for future data loads.
  • If an account name changes in your accounting system after data has already been loaded into RTC, the newly named account will not have a tag.  The old account will still be tagged and remains on the Monthly Data screen, but when you load another month’s files, a tag will need to be applied to the new account.  You can then Merge the old and new accounts on the Monthly Data screen to add them together.  See How to Merge accounts
  • Some accounts are tagged via a sub-total and some via each detailed account.  An example of tagging a sub-total rather than each individual account is the Total Bank.  If a sub-total is tagged, all the accounts within that sub-total are included and any new accounts within that sub-total do not need tagging.
  • Not all accounts have to be tagged although we recommend tagging everything whether via sub-totals or detailed accounts. There are some exceptions to this: The Other Income/Expense section cannot all be tagged because there is no Header tag and no Other tag.  Gross Profit is never tagged.
  • Tags only show data from the time they are tagged – i.e. they do not change prior months.

Header Tags 

These identify the total of each section and are only used once per section. You will find a header tag in the following sections: Revenue, Direct Costs, Indirect Costs, Profit, Assets, Liabilities, and Equity.

Sub-Tags

Sub-tags define the accounts (either detailed or sub-totals) in the section above the Header tags. These are necessary as RTC requires certain information to perform the Dashboard and other calculations.

Optional Tags

These are voluntary options for additional detail you may want to include in your data, but we suggest you use them, therefore tagging everything where possible (whether via sub-totals or detailed accounts).

Income Statement Tags  

SECTION TAG USE
Revenue (Blue) Revenue Applied to core operational revenue accounts.
Interest Revenue Applied to Interest Revenue accounts within the Revenue section, not the Other Income/Expense (Miscellaneous) section.
Non Operational Applied to any non-business related Revenue in the Revenue section, to remove it from operational calculations.
Direct Costs (Pink) Materials Applied to any material accounts. For some service industries, this can be applied to sub-contractors or other major costs that may not be physical materials, but you want to use it for the Raw Material Multiple calculation.
Wages Applied to any direct wages accounts including wages and salaries, bonuses, contractors, superannuation, 401K – any amounts paid TO the employee either now or in retirement (not taxes or insurances).
Interest Expense Applied to any Interest Expense accounts within the direct costs section, not the Other Income/Expense section.
Non Operational Applied to any non-business related direct costs to remove them from operational calculations.
Other Applied to any other operational accounts that do not fit the above tags for this section.
Indirect Costs (Orange) Wages Applied to any indirect wages accounts including wages and salaries, bonuses, contractors, superannuation, 401K – any amounts paid TO the employee either now or in retirement (not taxes or insurances).
Interest Expense Applied to any Interest Expense accounts within the indirect costs section, not the Other Income/Expense section.
Depreciation Applied to Depreciation and Amortization accounts in the indirect costs section, not the Other Income/Expense section.
Non Operational Applied to any non-business related indirect costs to remove them from operational calculations.
Other Applied to any other operational accounts that do not fit the above tags for this section.
Profit (Green) Net Profit Applied to the Net Operating Profit Line (before tax and dividends).
Misc (Purple) Interest Revenue Applied to Interest Revenue accounts within the Other Income/Expense section, not the core Revenue section.
Interest Expense Applied to any Interest Expense accounts within the Other Income/Expense section, not the direct or indirect cost sections.
Depreciation Applied to Depreciation and Amortization accounts in the Other Income/Expense section, not the direct or indirect cost sections.
Wages Applied to any miscellaneous wages accounts including wages and salaries, bonuses, contractors, superannuation, 401K – any amounts paid TO the employee either now or in retirement (not taxes or insurances) within the Other Income/Expense section.
Non Operational Applied to any non-business related Other Income/Expenses to remove them from operational calculations.
Distributions (Yellow) Tax/Distributions Applied to any distribution accounts such as dividends or corporate taxes that appear below the Net Profit line.

Balance Sheet Tags

SECTION TAG USE
Assets (Blue) Bank Accounts and Cash Deposits Applied to either the Total Bank line, or each individual bank account, petty cash, and undeposited funds line. This is classified as a Funding Asset on the Operational Balance Sheet.
Trade Accounts Receivable Applied to the Accounts Receivable account(s). This is classified as an Operational Asset on the Operational Balance Sheet.
Inventory Applied to either the Total Inventory line or each individual inventory account.  This is classified as an Operational Asset on the Operational Balance Sheet.
Fixed Assets Applied to the Total Fixed assets line if there is one (including Goodwill, depreciation, and amortization), or to each individual Fixed Asset account.  This is classified as an Operational Asset on the Operational Balance Sheet.
Loans to Related Parties Applied to any asset loans to related parties such as loans to owners or employees. This is classified as a Funding Asset on the Operational Balance Sheet.
Non Operational Applied to any non-business related assets. e.g. Stocks/bonds, Prepaid Federal Income Tax. This is excluded from the Operational Balance Sheet.
Other Applied to any other operational accounts that do not fit the above tags for this section.  This is classified as an Operational Asset on the Operational Balance Sheet.
Liabilities (Orange) Interest Bearing Debt Applied to all institutional debt (whether interest-bearing or not) such as bank loans, leases, hire purchase loans, etc.  This is classified as a Funding Liability on the Operational Balance Sheet.
Trade Accounts Payable Applied to the Accounts Payable account(s). This is classified as an Operational Liability on the Operational Balance Sheet.
Federal Income Tax Payable Applied to any company tax on profit lines (usually called Tax Payable in Australia, or Federal Tax Payable in the US). This is not GST, VAT, or state taxes.  This is classified as a Funding Liability on the Operational Balance Sheet.
Deferred/Prepaid Revenue Applied to any Prepaid Revenue, or Revenue in Advance accounts. E.g. Billings in excess of costs.
Loans from Related Parties Applied to any liability loans from related parties such as loans from owners or employees, including Super/Long Service Leave/401K provisions, payroll liabilities, etc. This is classified as a Funding Liability on the Operational Balance Sheet.
Non Operational Applied to any non-business related liabilities. This is excluded from the Operational Balance Sheet.
Other Applied to any other operational accounts that do not fit the above tags for this section.  This is classified as an Operational Liability on the Operational Balance Sheet.
Equity (Green) Issued Capital/Stock Applied to any Issued Capital accounts.
Retained Earnings Applied to Retained Earnings, Current Year Earnings, Distribution/Dividend/Drawing accounts.
Other Applied to any other operational equity accounts that do not fit the above tags for this section.  e.g. Treasury Stock.

 



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