What are Elements?
Elements are the fundamental building blocks of a Castaway project. Of the many Element Types, there are 12 elements you can set up yourself when Building your Forecast, 5 in the Profit and Loss and 7 in the Balance Sheet:
| Profit and Loss |
| S Sales |
| C Costs |
| W Wages |
| I Inventory (COGS) |
| P Provisions |
| Balance Sheet |
| B Bank Account |
| D Debtors |
| FA Fixed Asset |
| I Investment |
| L Loans Payable |
| O Other Asset / Liability |
| C Capital |
Element Settings
Element settings in Castaway are used for two purposes, firstly to tailor your chart of accounts and more commonly to apply specific calculation methods to each line in your model. Every element in your model can have its own unique settings applied to help shape your model.
Tailoring your Chart of Accounts:
- Used for adding separate debtors or creditors lines into your COA
- Used for connecting Accruals and Prepayments to your sales and expenses
- Used for positioning assets and liabilities in either current or non-current sections of the balance sheet
Calculation methods:
- Revenue and Expense methods
- Invoice methods
- Cashflow methods
- GST / VAT
- Income tax
A simple model may require minimal changes to the default element settings whereas some models will have extensive changes that result in more accurate forecasting or a closer replication of the forecast to how that business operates.