Custom Graphing: The Account Selection Screen

The Account Selection screen is a necessary evil in the creation of custom graphs. Here's a quick overview.

Graph Title: Ok, this one is obvious. It's the title on the graph.

Formula: This is where you type in account codes from the 5300 form credit unions report to NCUA as well as many "formula shortcuts" (eg. "assets", "loans", "shares". More on these shortly). I keep a print out of the 5300 on my desk, earmarked and highlighted. Don't have one? You can go to the help menu on Peer and print one out (including instructions). OR, you can use the binoculars, or "Formula Wizard". (I'll get to that at the end...I'm tackling the easy stuff in this post.)

Titles to Use: This is what will show on the legend or chart labels. If you just type in a simple account code like a703, Peer will automatically fill in a label for you (in this case "Total 1st Mortgage Loans Outstanding"). I usually retype them in shorter formats.

Format Type: This helps you format the output. Peer usually gets the format correct, but if not, you can change it yourself.

Arrows: Major upgrade from Peer 1--you can easily rearrange the items on your list using these arrows. Simply put your cursor on the item you want to move, and click up or down until it's in the right place.

Delete: Obvious--you can delete a row. Simply put your cursor on the item you want to delete.

Insert: By default, there is only space 15 items. You can add more by clicking Insert. It adds another row to the bottom.


These radio buttons dictate what comparisons will be shown on your table or graph. The output depends on the type of chart you selected, but in general: if you just want to see your primary & comparisons, leave the top option selected. If you want to look at the individual credit unions that comprise your peer group comparisons, go ahead and add the second button. If you don't want to see the Peer Group averages, uncheck the top option and only select the bottom one. This will remove the Peer Group averages from the display.

Binoculars/Formula Wizard: A bit of history: In Peer 1, rather than show a set of binoculars as the icon, it was a magic wand...thus the name "Formula Wizard". It really needs a new name like "Account Look-up Tool." In any case, this deserves a post of its own. Click here.

The "Formula Wizard"

Most long-time Peer users are familiar with the phrase "Formula Wizard" to describe the tool that allows you to find accounts when building custom graphs or peer groups. In Peer 1, the icon used to a be a little magic wand (I'll bet many of you never even realized that...it took me 2 years to figure it out).The icon for Peer 2's Formula Wizard (FW) is a set of binoculars so now we need a new name for it. Ideas?

Admission: the new FW isn't as comprehensive in some ways as Peer 1 (yes, we've heard from those of you who liked the Simple mode in Peer 1) but it's better in other ways. Bear with the software team as they balance the need to make something very complicated user friendly and comprehensive at the same time.

So, what is the Formula Wizard (FW)? The FW is designed to give Peer users quick access to the most commonly used account codes on the 5300, as well as dozens (hundreds?) of formulas and shortcuts to make your analysis easier. Ok, so how does it work? When you click on the binoculars, you are presented with this screen:

As you can see, it's organized like the 5300 itself. I'll discuss the Loan section in some detail (already highlighted in the above image), and you can extrapolate from there for the Other Assets, Liabilities and Income/Expense sections. At the bottom of this post, I'll cover Ratios & Scoring, Contacts & My Formula(s) (Typo....programmers, please fix!).

As you can see above, when you highlight the main Loan folder, there is a list general loan formulas: loan growth, average loan balance, etc. To drill down into specific areas of the Loan portfolio, highlight the sub-sections. Here is an example from the Real Estate section. (Note, if you're familiar with Schedule A, you know that there are multiple "704" codes...704a, 704b, etc. we've combined them into a704 so you don't have to type them all in. )
If you got to the FW from the custom graphing page, just double click on any account to add it to the Account Selection screen. You'll see it added to the list on the bottom right (where a703 is listed).

Ratios & Scoring: This section contains our world-famous ROM ranking, as well as NCUA's Financial Performance Ratios (FPR), shortcuts for the PCA calculations and some of our favorite productivity & efficiency ratios.

Contacts, Services & Partners: This section contains 2 types of proprietary, non-5300 data that Callahan & Associates collects, as well as information from the CUSO and IT schedules of the 5300. The proprietary data includes 9 personnel titles (ranging from CEO to CLO to CMO) and a dozen supplier relationships (what company the credit union uses for the data processing or home banking platforms for example...new field including mobile banking and RDC will be coming in the next data cycle).

My Formulas: Here is where you can create your own shortcuts. For example, there are 10 accounts that make-up "Equity" and no shortcut (yes, I've added it to the request list). In the meantime, you can add it to your own shortcuts under My Formulas. Now, going forward, all you ever have to type is "Equity" rather than a940+a931+a668+a658+a658a+
a996+a945+a945a+a945b+a602 (Whew!).
One cautionary note: if you create your own formulas or custom graphs, be sure to check all formulas each time NCUA releases new accounts. In the above Equity example, I was helping a client convert their Peer 1 custom displays and we found out they had never updated their formula for equity and were missing accounts added in the last year.

Our analysts review all the accounts before we release each quarter to make sure the same shortcuts reflect any changes in the call report. So, if you use our built-in formulas, we take care of that for you. For example, "Mutual Funds & Common Trusts" were grouped together under a743c until 1Q09. Now they are, respectively, a743d and a743e.