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Accounting dimensions are like tags, or data, that you can add to each transaction so that they can be grouped for analysis purposes. E.g. Customer Group, Business Group, Cost Centre, Product Region. Each accounting dimension and its values are user-defined. 


You can set reference data, or default values, for customers, suppliers, company contacts, product, expense item and production resource accounting dimensions. These can be added to or edited at the transaction level depending on the accounting dimension settings. Select which accounting dimensions should be tracked for each account from the chart of accounts. The Accounting Dimension Summary report can be used to track totals


Prerequisites

  • Account must not be integrated with Xero or QBO
  • Users will need the following permissions:
    • Settings: Your Company - General Settings to enable/disable accounting dimensions.
    • Settings: Financial - Charts of Accounts and Mapping to assign accounting dimensions to accounts. 
    • Reports: Financials to access the accounting dimension summary report.
    • For access to Reference Data:
      • Sale: Customer (Customer)
      • Purchase: Supplier (Supplier)
      • Settings: Your Company - Contact Information (Company Contact)
      • Inventory: Products & Families (Product)
      • Financial: Expense Claims - List & Tasks (Expense Claim)
      • Production: Capacity Planner (Production Resource)
    • Financials: Accounting Dimensions - Settings to edit accounting dimensions, edit reference data, and add accounting dimensions to accounts. 
    • Financials: Accounting Dimensions - Transactions tab to view and edit the Accounting Dimensions tab at the transaction level, including Edit Accounting Dimensions, Transactions, and Final values.


Table of Contents


Enable accounting dimensions

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Accounting dimensions must be enabled from DEAR General Settings. Accounting dimensions are disabled by default. 


Go to Settings General Settings Financial Settings and slide the toggle to enable Accounting Dimensions. This will enable the Accounting Dimensions page in your organisation's Reference Books. Once enabled, accounting dimensions will be automatically applied to new transactions. Accounting dimensions will not be applied to previous transactions automatically, but can be added by going to the transaction directly provided the transaction takes place in open accounting period. 


You can then choose your Reference data priority from between:

  • Cannot overwrite Reference Data: Accounting dimensions for transactions are taken from dimensions specified on the Customer, Product, Supplier, etc(?) pages (see Set reference data (default values)). Accounting dimensions can be changed at the transaction level only if the reference data dimension is empty. 
  • Can overwrite Reference Data: Accounting dimensions for transactions are taken from the prefill accounting dimensions table on the task (Sale, Purchase, etc) itself. All accounting dimensions can be changed at the transaction level.



Define accounting dimensions

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Next, you can define which accounting dimensions you want to track in your organisation's reference data. Go to Settings → Reference Books → Financials → Accounting Dimensions. You can specify up to 10 accounting dimensions. Master data, which consists of Customer, Supplier, Product, Company Contact, Expense Item, and Production Resource (Advanced Manufacturing subscription users only), are automatically trackable as accounting dimensions. 


Enter a Name and pick a Type for each accounting dimension from the dropdown list. Available types are:

  • List: Only values from the list can be selected for this accounting dimension. Enter values separated by commas or semi-colons into the Values field. 
  • Text: Free-form text attribute with a max length of 256 symbols. 
  • Checkbox: True or false value displayed in the form of a checkbox. 


Use the Active checkbox to select which accounting dimensions will be shown 

 

Save the the accounting dimensions to begin assigning them to transactions. 


Edit or delete accounting dimensions

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It is not possible to delete an accounting dimension once it has been used. Accounting dimensions can be edited - edited accounting dimensions and values will be applied to new tasks going forward. No changes will be applied retroactively. Reference data will contain the previous accounting dimensions and values until they are manually updated.


Assign accounting dimensions to accounts

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Next, we can go to the Chart of Accounts to specify which accounting dimensions are tracked for each account. Go to Settings → Reference Books → Financials → Chart of Accounts. Users will need the Settings - Financial – Chart of Accounts & Mapping permission to assign accounting dimensions to accounts. 


Click the account you want to track accounting dimensions for, then select the Accounting Dimensions tab. You will be able to select master data to track (some master data is tracked automatically for certain accounts), and then select accounting dimensions to track for that account using the checkbox. 


Save your changes to finish. 



Set reference data (default values) 

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Reference data, or default values, will be used to autofill the accounting dimensions for sales, purchase, etc, transactions. If Reference data priority mode (set in Settings → General Settings → Financial Settings) is set to Cannot overwrite Reference Data, these cannot be overwritten at the transaction level unless the accounting dimension is left blank. If priority mode is set to Can overwrite Reference Data, the user can overwrite reference data accounting dimensions at the transaction level. 


Accounting dimensions must be enabled for these tabs to appear. 


In some cases, the same transaction may have multiple conflicting values for reference data, e.g. values for supplier and product. If Reference data priority mode is set to Can overwrite reference data, values at the transaction level (see View and Edit accounting dimensions) will take priority. The order of priority of reference data depends on the transaction in question, as shown below:

  • Sale orders: Customer reference data is prioritised over Product reference data.
  • Purchase orders: Supplier reference data is prioritised over Product reference data. 
  • Production orders: Product reference data is prioritised over Production resource reference data. 
  • Expense claims: Company contact reference data is prioritised over Expense item reference data.


Customer

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Go to Sale → Customers → [select customer], then select the Accounting Dimensions tab, to set reference data for customers. Dimensions can be left blank if not necessary to classify a customer. Save your changes to continue. 


Users will need the Sale - Customers List & Editing permission to edit customer reference data. 


Supplier

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Go to Purchase → Suppliers → [select supplier], then select the Accounting Dimensions tab, to set reference data for suppliers. Dimensions can be left blank if not necessary to classify a supplier. Save your changes to continue. 


Users will need the Purchase - Suppliers List & Editing permission to edit customer reference data. 


Company Contact

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Go to Settings → Reference Books → Your Company → Company Contacts, then select the Accounting Dimensions field of the table. 


This will open a pop-up window where you can fill in the reference data.  Dimensions can be left blank if not necessary to classify a company contact. Save your changes to continue. 



Users will need the Settings - Your Company – Contact Information permission to edit company contact reference data. 


Product

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Go to Inventory → Products → [select product], then select the Accounting Dimensions tab, to set reference data for products. Dimensions can be left blank if not necessary to classify a product. Save your changes to continue. 


Users will need the Inventory - Products & Families permission to edit product reference data. 


Expense Item

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Go to Settings → Reference Books → Financials → Expense Items, then select the Accounting Dimensions field of the table. 


This will open a pop-up window where you can fill in the reference data.  Dimensions can be left blank if not necessary to classify an expense item. Save your changes to continue.


Users will need the Sale - Customers List & Editing permission to edit customer reference data. 


Production Resource

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Users will need subscription to the Advanced Manufacturing module to access production resources. See Getting Started with the Advanced Manufacturing module for more information. 


Go to Production → Settings → Resources → [select resource], then select the Accounting Dimensions tab, to set reference data for resources. Dimensions can be left blank if not necessary to classify a resource.


Users will need the Production - Capacity Planner permission to edit customer reference data. 



View and edit accounting dimensions for a transaction

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Accounting dimensions can be tracked for transactions related to:

  • Sale orders
  • Purchase orders
  • Inventory tasks
    • Stock transfers
    • Stock take
    • Stock adjustment
    • Inventory write-off
  • Assembly/Disassembly tasks
  • Production orders
  • Expense claims
  • Money operations
  • Financial manual journals


Transaction accounting dimensions will be auto-filled using the Reference Data for the relevant product, customer, supplier, company contact, expense item or production resource.


When accounting dimensions are enabled, you will see an additional tab for the task: Financials


Here you will see three tabs. The first is Edit Accounting Dimensions


Your financial settings (Settings → General Settings → Financial Settings) will determine whether the auto-filled reference data can be overwritten or not. If Can overwrite reference data is selected, all accounting dimensions can be edited from this tab. If Cannot overwrite reference data is selected, only accounting dimensions without existing reference data can be edited from this tab. You will need to Save any changes before continuing. 


In some cases, the same transaction may have multiple conflicting values for reference data, e.g. values for supplier and product. If Reference data priority mode is set to Can overwrite reference data, values from this tab will always take priority. Otherwise, the order of priority of reference data depends on the transaction in question, as shown below:

  • Sale orders: Customer reference data (if applicable) is prioritised over Product reference data.
  • Purchase orders: Supplier reference data (if applicable) is prioritised over Product reference data.
  • Production orders: Product reference data (if applicable) is prioritised over Production resource reference data.
  • Expense claims: Company contact reference data (if applicable) is prioritised over Expense item reference data.


The second tab, Transactions, shows all authorised accounting transactions for that task, the debit and credit accounts, and the transaction amount.


The third tab, Final Accounting Dimensions Values, show the values that will be linked to the transaction and thus trackable in the accounting dimension summary report. This tab is the final summary of accounting dimensions for this transactions. It shows all dimensions from the reference table, any changes from the Edit Accounting Dimensions tab, and the transaction account and amount. 


Accounting Dimensions Summary Report

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View accounting dimension totals with the Accounting Dimensions Summary Report (Reports → Financial Reports → Accounting Dimensions Summary Report). Headings can be dragged and dropped in and out of the report, and rearranged, to show totals per accounting dimension. The values from the Final Accounting Dimensions Values of a transaction will be displayed here in this report.  


See Managing DEAR Reports for instructions for filtering and saving custom layouts. 




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