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

Rule of Thumb | Keeping track of the Actual Ship Date of Shipments

When entering a receiving transaction, managing dates is an important point that shall be well managed in especially as part of vendor evaluation. Therefore, regardless of the document date which is recorded on the receiving transaction, you can still keep track of the "Actual Ship Date", which can mostly be used for reporting purposes.

In the following example (regardless of the fact that there are two types of receiving which are, shipment and shipment/invoice), a distribution company received a shipment at the 1st of March, while the document date is 15,3. In this essence, both dates are important and shall be kept.

On the Receiving Transaction Entry window, there are two dates that we will shed a light upon:

 

Receiving Transaction Entry

Document Date:
As commonly known, this field is the receipt date, by which the journal entry posting date is determined (according to the posting setup). This date determines the cost layer received date on the inventory module as well.

Actual Ship Date
On the other hand, it is still important to keep track of other piece of details, which is the Actual Ship Date regardless of the document date. This can be used as part of the vendor evaluation process.

Click on the expansion arrow, next to the document date field, and it will open the "Receiving Date Entry" window, in which there is a field for the actual ship date.

Actual Ship Date

Actual versus Promised Ship Date
 
It is important to mention that there are many other date fields on the Purchase Order entry level, which can determine lots of other associated details such as: Requisition Date, Promised Ship Date, Promised Date ...etc. Comparing the promised ship date, that is filled on the purchase order level, with the Actual Ship Date recorded on the receiving transaction level can provide valuable information for vendor evaluation.

Best Regards, 

Mahmoud M. AlSaadi

Rule of Thumb | Closing Fiscal Period per Transaction Type

I am starting the new year with a new exciting old feature which; as I humbly believe, is not commonly known among the Dynamics GP community users. This is related to closing or opening fiscal periods per transaction type, so that transaction entry is well controlled.

For example, as a distribution company, you may want to close the financial period for cash receipts, while leaving the sales entry transaction open until all invoices are delivered and recorded for this specific period. I am sure there are a lot of Dynamics GP users who may keep on opening and closing the whole period for the Sales Module until all transactions is recorded, which leads to losing control over the fiscal periods.

Here is the scenario, Go to Microsoft Dynamics GP > Tools > Setup > Company > Fiscal Period

Fiscal Period

As shown above, the check boxes are used to either close or open the whole period for a specific module, including (Financial, Sales, Purchasing, Inventory, Payroll and Project).

Although, you can still click on the Mass Close button (I understand that the name is quite misleading), and mass close fiscal periods window. 

Mass Close Fiscal Period - and Per Transaction Type

As shown above, you can choose a specific transaction (Origin), and close it or leave it open in terms of the fiscal period transaction entry. Such function provides further powerful capabilities over fiscal period control, and is mostly useful when applied in complex environment with a lot of business policies and procedures that are applied in this area.

In this essence, you are able to close January for any bank reconciliation transactions, while leaving the financial journal entry window open for corrective journals. 

Best Regards,
Mahmoud M. AlSaadi