When building a file in Castaway, one the most critical stages of your forecast’s lifecycle comes at the start of your journey. Building your CoA sets the tone for your model and impacts reporting, usability and the effectiveness of your model.
The quickest way to build your COA in Castaway, integrations, is also the most effective.
Why we Recommend Building via Integrations?
- Timesaving, spend less time typing in your names as the integration source will bring in your account names
- Control and design, much easier to consolidate accounts in Castaway and to organise and arrange your COA using sections and subsections
- Much better audit trail compared to using a manual setup
- Better workflow for getting actuals data into the system
- Much easier to resolve out of balances that arise during the importing of actuals
Considerations for Building via Integrations:
- Should the Castaway COA match your accounting system?
- Should some accounts be consolidated to a single line in Castaway? (many to one mapping)
- If a direct integration isn't possible (MYOB, Xero or Quickbooks) an Excel Integration Template is available
- Should the COA be arranged with Sections and Sub-sections to enhance reporting and useability
- Are we aware of any accounts that have Partner Relationships or if Castaway has an Inbuilt Element
Building via integrations will save you time in your setup and influence the appearance of your reports. It minimises manual entry and results in your model being ready for first reviews, post import of actuals.
For the full build process, linked to all the relevant supporting articles, see: Process: Building your Forecast
Next Steps
- Overview: Planning
- Process: Building your Forecast
- Data Integration: Xero
- Data Integration: Excel and Actuals Templates
- Data Integration: MYOB
- Data Integration: Quickbooks Online (QBO)