Adding your own statement lines and wording
How to add your own statement lines and groups and reword row titles in Achekam, and what that does to notes, the cash flow and iXBRL tagging.
By Achekam · · 5 min read · For Accountants & audit firms in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya
Standard statement layouts are written for an average client, and few clients are average. A guesthouse wants "Accommodation income" and "Food and beverage income" rather than one revenue line. A professional practice wants work in progress shown on its own. An owner-managed company with a large loan to its director wants it separated from other receivables so nobody misses it.
The tempting fix, typing over the layout until it looks right, tends to break something else: a note that no longer agrees, a cash flow line that has lost its source, a tag that no longer matches. Achekam's approach is to let the firm add and rename lines while anchoring each one to the standard structure underneath. Here is how that works and what to check.
When the standard lines do not fit a client
Three situations come up again and again:
- More detail is needed. A single line hides something readers care about, such as revenue from two very different activities or a material loan to a related party.
- Different words are needed. The standard title is accurate but not the language the client or its sector uses; for a body corporate, "Trade and other receivables" may read better as "Levies and other amounts owed by members".
- A grouping is needed. Several lines belong together under a heading of their own, such as a block of operating costs the owner reviews as one.
Before adding anything, ask whether the presentation framework supports it. Additional line items, headings and subtotals are allowed where they help readers understand the entity's position and performance, but a subtotal must not mislead. The IFRS Foundation's page on IFRS 18 explains the new presentation and disclosure standard that replaces IAS 1 for annual periods beginning on or after 1 January 2027, worth reading if your clients report under full IFRS and you are revisiting their layouts anyway.
Custom lines that still total into a standard line
A firm can add its own statement lines and groups. The design choice that matters is that each custom line still totals into a standard line. "Accommodation income" and "Food and beverage income" both sit inside revenue; a "Loan to director" line sits inside a standard receivables or loans line.
Why that matters in practice:
- Notes stay consistent. Notes take their figures from the mapped trial balance. Because custom lines sit within a standard line, the note for that line still adds up to the statement.
- The cash flow keeps its logic. The current-year column of the cash flow statement is worked out from the change in balances, and splitting a line within revenue or receivables does not move balances between operating, investing and financing activities.
- The checks still work. The fixed checks run on a draft, such as double entry and note ties, operate on the same underlying structure.
A worked example in words: a client's revenue line holds sales of goods and income from a service contract. The firm adds two custom lines under revenue and moves the relevant accounts to each. The statement now shows both; the revenue total is unchanged; the revenue note still agrees to the statement; nothing has moved between cash flow categories.
Rewording row titles in the firm's house style
A firm can also change the wording of any row title, which is useful well beyond one client. Many practices have a house style, "Trade and other payables" against "Accounts payable and accruals" for instance, and want every set they issue to read the same way.
Two cautions. A new title must still describe what is in the line: renaming "Other income" as "Rental income" is fine only if rent is all it holds. And consistency across years matters more than elegance. If you rename a line this year, the comparative carries the same title, so readers compare like with like.
What later builds keep
Trial balances change late, and the draft is rebuilt when they do. Later builds keep the firm's custom lines, groups and row titles, and they keep any block of text a person edited. Figures, by contrast, are recalculated in code every time, which is the point: the structure is the firm's, the numbers are the trial balance's.
What a rebuild cannot know is whether your choices still make sense. If a new account arrives and lands in a standard line you have split, decide which custom line it belongs to. Looking at the mapping workbench after every late trial balance is a good habit, as described in moving an account to another statement line.
Effects on notes, the cash flow and iXBRL tags in South Africa
South African firms have one more reason to care about the standard line underneath. Achekam turns a set of statements or a trial balance into an iXBRL file, checks it with its own validation and packs it in a ZIP file with the validation report. Because each custom line totals into a standard line, the tags stay consistent even when the presentation has been tailored.
Be clear about the limit, though. Achekam does not file iXBRL with CIPC, and a production pack is refused until someone uploads and approves the official CIPC taxonomy package; with Achekam's built-in taxonomy, only TEST packs can be made. Tailoring lines changes nothing there.
For Nigerian and Kenyan firms, the iXBRL point does not apply in the same way, but the other benefits do: notes that agree, a cash flow that holds together and a layout that survives a rebuild. And wherever the client is, the policy wording the Studio supplies, based on IFRS for SMEs and labelled for review before issue, should be read again after a layout change, since a policy may name lines that have now been renamed.
Before you tailor a client's layout, run through this:
- Identify the standard line each new line belongs inside.
- Confirm the framework supports the extra line or subtotal.
- Use titles that describe the contents exactly.
- Give the comparatives the same titles.
- After any rebuild, check that new accounts landed in the right custom line.
- Read the related note to make sure its wording matches the new label.
Choosing between an analysis of expenses by nature and by function often drives the custom lines a firm needs; that decision is covered in presenting expenses by nature or by function.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
