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.
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 Flexed
For 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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Example
The 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.
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