Solution ID: 200782056 Date Last Revised: 11/23/04 Title: Flexible Accounting for Distribution Abstract: Flexible accounting was created to provide users greater flexibility in how they recorded the accounting information associated with their sales. Flexible accounting can be used on the Manufacturing, Cost Accounting, Distribution and Financial applications of EnterpriseOne. This paper will address Flexible Accounting for Distribution (Sales and Purchasing processes). Table of Contents Background Requirements Enabling Flexible Accounting Establishing Program/Table Relationships Establishing Flexible Accounts Example Inventory Applications and Flex Accounting Background Flexible accounting was created to provide users greater flexibility in how they recorded the accounting information associated with their sales. No longer were they required to account for items that were sold from within one branch plant. They could now define the branch plant value based on a combination of fields. They could create a branch plant record that included information on the sold to address number (ex. 4242), an address number category code (ex. SOU), and an item category code (ex. ACC). This allowed them to be very specific in their accounting of who, where and what was being sold. In the past, the only way that we could pass this information to the general ledger was thru the subledger field and only one part could be captured.
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Solution ID: 200782056 Date Last Revised: 11/23/04
Title: Flexible Accounting for DistributionAbstract: Flexible accounting was created to provide users greater flexibility in how they recorded the accounting information associated with their sales. Flexible accounting can be used on the Manufacturing, Cost Accounting, Distribution and Financial applications of EnterpriseOne. This paper will address Flexible Accounting for Distribution (Sales and Purchasing processes).
Table of Contents BackgroundRequirements Enabling Flexible Accounting Establishing Program/Table Relationships Establishing Flexible Accounts Example Inventory Applications and Flex Accounting
BackgroundFlexible accounting was created to provide users greater flexibility in how they recorded the accounting information associated with their sales. No longer were they required to account for items that were sold from within one branch plant. They could now define the branch plant value based on a combination of fields. They could create a branch plant record that included information on the sold to address number (ex. 4242), an address number category code (ex. SOU), and an item category code (ex. ACC). This allowed them to be very specific in their accounting of who, where and what was being sold. In the past, the only way that we could pass this information to the general ledger was thru the subledger field and only one part could be captured.
Flexible accounting can be used on the Manufacturing, Cost Accounting, Distribution and Financial applications of EnterpriseOne. This paper will address Flexible Accounting for Distribution (Sales and Purchasing processes). The Sales system uses Flexible Accounting during the Sales Update (P42800). Purchasing uses Flexible Accounting during Purchase Receipts (P4312) and Match Voucher to Open Receipts (P4314).
The following information details the setup that is required for Flexible Accounting to function correctly.
Please note: Setting up the account structure is a business decision that is made during the implementation and planning stage. The cost/benefit analysis should be made at that time. Though it is possible to change the accounting process from standard accounting to
Flexible accounting in mid-stream (or vice versa) in mid-stream, this is not a process that is easily accomplished.
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Requirements There are basically three requirements or steps that need to be performed to activate Flexible Accounting. Flexible Accounting needs to be enabled, the AAIs that are to be flexed need to be identified, and then the actual Flexible account process needs to be defined.
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Enabling Flexible Accounting There are two steps that need to be performed to enable Flexible accounting. The first is to define the Rule Set Up Method. The second step is to define the tables associated with the program to be flexed. From menu G1631 the Enable Functionality by Application option is used to define the Rule and establish the relationship of programs to tables.
Establishing the Rule
The following form shows how the Rule Method needs to be set up. If the Rule Method is not in the table (SM type of functionality is not listed for the application you are setting up), then the rule needs to be added. Click Add; enter SM in the Type of Functionality field and then tab. The Setup Method and Application Name fields will appear. Now enter an A and the relevant Application Name respectively (i.e. R42800, P4312 or P4314). This will establish the method that the system uses to create the Flexible Accounting.
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Establishing Program/Table Relationships The second step is to associate the program that is utilizing Flexible accounting with the tables that will be accessed. If the relationship has not already been defined, then you will need to add them. Use the following form to associate a table with the program:
The following is a list of the tables that will be accessed by Sales Update (R42800). Notice that the last line on the form is the Rule (SM).
Following is a list of tables that will be accessed for the Purchasing process (Receipts and Voucher Match).
Note: Though it would appear that the user is able to add additional tables to the Enable Functionality form, as of B733.2, Flexible Accounting will only read the above tables.
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Determining the AAIs to be FlexedFor Sales Order Processing, only the following AAIs can be flexed:
Sales: 4220, 4230, 4240, 4250 and 4245
Note: AAI 4245 is invoked if bypassing accounts receivable by setting processing option #2 on the Update tab of Sales Update (R42800) to a '1'.
Advanced Pricing: 4270 and 4280
For Purchasing, with the advent of Product Costing, all AAIs can be flexed.
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Establishing Flexible Accounts
The principal behind Flexible Accounting is that the user is able to combine various fields from various files to create an individual component of an account. The parts of the account that can be ‘flexed’ are the business unit, the subsidiary and the subledger fields. (The object account cannot be ‘flexed’.) An example of a potential Flexible account business unit would be the combination an address book number and a category code from the item (SRP4) that is being sold/purchased. No longer will the branch/plant value be a unique 12-character field that is stored in the F0006. It will now be a combination of the three category codes.
There are rules for breaking out the branch plant and the subsidiary fields. The branch plant field can be broken into as many as 6 segments with a total of 12 characters. The subsidiary can be broken into up to 4 segments with a maximum of 8 characters.
In addition, you must use a consistent account structure for all companies and all business units in your organization. This is necessary for multi-company consolidations and automated inter-company settlements. If you are making use of Flexible accounting on the financials side of the system, you must define the distribution business units and subsidiary with the same number of characters that the financials flexible accounting uses.
As Flexible accounting can demand quite a bit of space in the financials tables, it is not unusual for a client to track Flexible account related information for only a select group of customers and/or items. (To do this, a separate version of the sales (R42800) or purchasing (P4312 and/or P4314) related programs would need to be created.)
To set up Flexible accounting, you follow the steps listed below:
The first step is to identify which AAI table number is to be flexed and what the Flexible definition is to be. The following form illustrates the example of defining the branch plant value using an address book number and an item category code. Note that this setup is specific to the 4230 (Revenue) AAI. If any additional AAI table is to be used, it too, will need to be set up. The branch plant field now has the capability of being eleven characters long (assuming that the user has an address book number that is 8 characters long and the category code uses all 3 characters). The Data Type field is only used to determine which address book record we are using (option is sold to, ship to or parent address number).
The second step is to define in the branch/plant, the valid combination of values that that could occur as are a result of the Flexible.
Notice that there are various combinations available but for our revenue account we will be using 4242ACC (You also need to confirm that all of the relevant accounts have been added to the chart of accounts.)
The third step is to verify that the appropriate chart of account information has been established for the flexed branch/plant value.
The fourth step is to set up the DMAAIs correctly. When using standard accounting, the user can enter a valid branch/plant value that is to be used with an object account. As this would defeat the purpose of Flexible accounting, the field that is being flexed, either the branch plant or the subsidiary field, is left blank. In our example we have the DMAAI set up with 50000 Company, LM Document Type, IN30 GL Class, "Blank" in the Business Unit, and 5020 as the object account. The Blank in the Business Unit will allow the Flexible Accounting Field to be populated as the account number (AN8SRP1 from the F4211/F4102).
Last, to activate the entire Flexible accounting setup, set the processing options behind Sales Update (R42800), Purchase Order Receipts (P4312) or Voucher Match (P0411/P4314) to validate/create the Flexible accounting entries. Note: If using Landed Cost and Flexible Accounting, make sure that the processing options is set for Landed Cost Selection (P43291).
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ExampleThe following is an example of an order that will use Flexible accounting at time of Sales Update (R42800). Notice that the order is created using Branch Plant 50000 in both the header and the detail.
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Inventory Applications and Flex Accounting Flex accounting is only partially supported within the Inventory Programs: Issues (P4112), Transfers (P4113), Adjustments (P4114) and Reclassification (P4116).
There is no processing option to turn on or off flex accounting. Basically, if the 4122 or 4124 are setup in the flex accounting tables, they will be used.
To make Flex Accounting work with the Inventory Programs, setup SM and FA for XT4111Z1 in the Enable Functionality by Application (P16902) off menu G1631 as follows:
Inventory Issue (P4112)
Processing option 1 and 2 on the Process tab controls whether or not a manual account can be entered for the transaction. Manually entered accounts will be used in place of the 4124 AAI. Flex accounting will not be used for that account. Flex accounting can be setup by object, this setup works fine for the 4122 and 4124 AAIs, but will have no affect for manually entered accounts.
