CLUSTER MASTER Whatever the talking sequence of the digits of the account number is and whatever accounts groupings are used over: departments, functions, cost centers or projects, a financial controller would still need to sum accounts not being grouped by any of the above criteria. Using some complicated Excel formulas is often a solution for this problem. Such a solution shows weaknesses in situations when a new account number is inserted in the chart of accounts and also causes difficulties to trace wrong sums. Using the Cluster Master an accountant could freely group any random sequence of account numbers and build with it a new cluster account which always holds the sum of the accounts it's build of. A cluster account could be defined as a range of accounts or wild carded or may even contain other cluster accounts. All definitions are tolerant on inserting new accounts in the chart of accounts. The clustering hierarchy on top of the chart of accounts with its actual balances, budget and forecast figures could be used in both reporting and budgeting.

The values hold by the cluster accounts could be retrieved with simple Excel formulas. To keep up to date balances on the cluster level with the actuals from the accounting package, whatever the accounting package is, the user needs to feed the Cluster Master with the latest Summarized Trial Balance reports.