This may have implications but:

Currently, to use an account and segment code(s) (say cost centre and location) the database needs these accounts created prior to using them, which great if your COA is small or medium.

If the COA is large (10,000's), this requires a lot of work to create every permutation that MAY be used. This has a knock on effect of making GL Account look ups VERY slow (I dont care how beefy the system is) and generation of GL reports agonisingly slow.

When entering GL Journals, it would be great if either

Best Solution:
1. Segment codes were in a seperate field than the raw account number. And that the relationship between the raw account number and segment code was not predefined as discreet account numbers. Possibly have a loose "usability matrix", eg This account or range accounts are allowed to use an or a range of segement codes between x values.

Not as good solution:
2. Optional fields were presented as fields in the detail line, rather than open up OField lookup box, as this requires redundant key strokes which is EXTREMELY time consuming particuarly ilage volumuous environments.

Comments

  • Look to Sage X3 for an excellent example of Solution 1.
    However, it would need a major revisiting of coding functionality throughout Accpac. Dont hold your breath.

  • Taking the system as is, I would use the Create Accounts feature to set the accounts up, then set the unwanted accounts as "do not create" in the preview screen.

    Or, create them as "inactive", then use Period End Processing to clear the unused and inactive accounts from the entire ledger.

    I'm not convinced that I would want my staff creating "sort-of" accounts on fly. Sounds like chaos to me. I hope your reporting tools are intelligent enough to ask the question, "Now where did my users dump stuff they didn't know how to handle, or could be bothered to find out?"

  • I like Option 1 as well. This would not be a difficult solution to implement

  • An alternative suggestion:
    Allow users to refer to the expected GL account segments even though the combination doesn't exist yet. This could be controlled by a setup switch similar to "allow non-existent GL accounts" currently in company profile, but restrict it to only allow non-existent segments for existing account numbers.
    Build in a report "check unposted batches" which reports all non-existent GL accounts prior to posting GL batches so the finance department can create the account before posting, rather than waiting for an error batch. Add a switch in GL "require check report before posting batches".