Rule of Thumb | Analytical Accounting Account Access

It is well known that the General Ledger in Dynamics GP has something called "Account Level Security" in which the users of the systems are granted access per account. For instance, the AR Accountant could have limited access to only receivables accounts, it is not widely used though it might be highly important in specific cases. 

On the other hand, Analytical Accounting provides a similar feature which is called "Account Access" in which each Dimension Code could have access to specific GL Accounts. Lets take the following example in order to illustrate how Account Access works in the analytical accounting module of Dynamics GP. 

Suppose that we have a transaction dimension for Projects, under which several dimension codes are configured to manage:

• Project A 
• Project B

Usually, all expenses accounts are assigned to the dimension "Project" in order to capture every expense in every project, and report it accordingly. In this essence, any account which main segment starts with (6****) is assigned to the transaction dimension code. 

Lets take thing too far, suppose that there is a critical business requirement which addresses the fact that project A expenses are limited to specific sub-set of accounts under the expenses category, in other words, not all expenses accounts are allowed to be distributed on (Project A). For instance, there is no hospitality, transportation, internet or accomodation expenses. In such cases, the Account Access feature of the analytical accounting module provides an added value, by limiting the account access for Project A on specific accounts as per the requirements above. 

In order to setup account access, go to Cards > Financial > Analytical Accounting > Account Access

You need to fill out two things, the required transaction dimension and dimension code. Additionally, click on "Select Accounts" under account access, and then choose the range of accounts which you need to grant access for this specific dimension code. 

                 Account Access Setup

One the account access is configured for the Analytical Accounting, restrictions will be applied on every single entry which is required to have AA details. When an account that is not assigned to a specific dimension is distributed, the system will throw a warning message preventing the transaction from posting as illustrated below:

Error Message: 

 "This account does not have access to Transaction Dimension Code Project A"

Account Access Error in Analytical Accounting

Best Regards, 

Mahmoud M. AlSaadi