Note: We recently introduced Account Groupings for the Profit and Loss report, which gives you the option to create groups and sub-totals within the profit and loss. Spotlight Display Names are not applied in the new style profit and loss. If you prefer, you can add the old style page from the 'Add Page' option, however the new feature gives much more flexibility - find out more about this here.
When you work in the Customise Data tab, one of the options available is to change the Spotlight Display Name.
Note: If you can't see the Report Code and Spotlight Display Name columns, to view these click the 'Show details' link.
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How the Spotlight Display Name works
There are two main uses for the Spotlight Display Name:
Amend the name of a single account in Spotlight - You can use the Spotlight Display Name option to amend the name of an account in Spotlight, without the need to change it back in your accounting system. When you change the Spotlight Display Name, your new name for the account is automatically used on reports and on most charts.
Group accounts together on reports - If you give two or more accounts the same Spotlight Display Name, these accounts appear as a single line on your reports. This can be useful if you want to summarise a report for an organisation with many accounts, or if you're working in a group report and want to make sure that accounts from the different organisations appear as a single line.
Note: Some accounts have a default Spotlight Display Name. These accounts group together on the summary reports, but not on the detailed versions. If you manually enter a Spotlight Display Name, the accounts group together on both summary and detailed reports.
Default Display Names
When a report code is assigned to an account such as the initial import, or when a report code is changed via the customise data grid, Spotlight also gives the account a default display name based on the report code mapping.
The default display names are designed to display the account name when the Profit & Loss and Balance Sheet pages are set to use a Detailed format. Otherwise, when these pages are set to use Summary, the display name will be shown.
To change the Spotlight Display Name
In the Customise Data tab, find the accounts that you want to amend.
Click into the Spotlight Display Name column for the first account, then enter the name you want to use for the account on reports.
Repeat step 2 for any other accounts you want to change. If you give two or more accounts the same display name, the accounts will group together on reports. If you give the account a unique display name, it will be separated from any current grouping.
Note: If you believe you have used the same Spotlight Display Name but two separate lines appear on reports, check the Spotlight Display Name for additional spacing.
