Financial Entity File Maintenance

Application Overview

 

The Financial Entity File application enables you to define financial entities within the main G/L Account File.  These entities may then be reported upon individually by entering the entity's code when requested in other applications.

 

In this package, a financial entity is defined as a set of profit centers/departments, comprising the accounts on your G/L Account File that in turn encompasses those profit centers/departments.  You cannot run this application or define financial entities unless a specific G/L account number that has a profit center or department number associated with it is first delineated in Company Setup. You may enter up to 36 ranges of profit centers in defining any one financial entity.  (A "range" may consist of only a single profit center/department, if this is desired.)  You will then be able to specify this financial entity when printing the Trial Balance, the General Ledger Worksheet, or Financial Statements. In these cases, only the profit centers/departments that are used in defining the entity will be shown or reported on.

 

You can also define a profit center/department to be a part of several financial entities.  This definition can then be used to break your financial statements into several different levels (such as department, division, corporate) or split the company's financial profile into different pieces (such as West Coast/East Coast and consumer/wholesale in the Profit and Loss Statement).

 

Each unique portion of the company at the smallest level must be tracked by a profit center/department.  Then financial entities can be used to group these profit centers in any combination you desire.

 

If you were to define profit centers/departments by the states where you conduct business, there would be the possibility of 50 different profit centers/departments. To efficiently organize and analyze, you would want to categorize those 50 profit centers/departments into regions. Let's say the regions would be identified as:

 

            Northeast

            Atlantic

            Southeast

            Midwest

            Central

            Mountain

            Northwest

            Southwest

 

In the financial entity application you can easily define each region by those state profit centers/departments.  Further entities could be assembled to define divisions:

 

            East

            Central

            West

 

From one chart of accounts with 50 profit centers/departments, very comprehensive financial statements can be created which reflect a wide variety of reports that in turn display:

 

            the entire company

            multiple profit centers

            multiple departments

            50 different profit centers/departments.

 

Example 1

 

1. Entity Id EX1         2. Desc Multiple Profit Centers & All Dept

------------Profit Center  /  Department Ranges ------------

 

3. 12345-00000                      To 12345-ZZZZZ

4. 12346-00000                      To 12346-ZZZZZ

5. 12347-00000                      To 12347-ZZZZZ

 

1.  Range Statement

 

If both profit centers and departments are in use then the account's profit center and department must fall within the ranges defined for the entity.

 

Example 2

 

1. Entity Id EX2              2. Desc All PC's & One Department

------------Profit Center  /  Department Ranges ------------

 

3. 00000-12345                      To ZZZZZ-12345

4. 00000-12346                      To ZZZZZ-12346

5. 00000-12347                      To ZZZZZ-12347

 

 

2.  Range Statement

 

This shows all profit centers for departments 12345, 12346, and 12347.

 

Example 3

 

1. Entity Id EX3              2. Desc Entire Company

------------Profit Center  /  Department Ranges ------------

 

3. 00000-00000                      To ZZZZZ-ZZZZZ

 

3.  Range Statement

 

This entity is defined for all profit centers, all departments, as in the entire company.

 

Run Instructions

 

Select Financial Entity File from the pull down G/L Maintenance window.  The following screen will then be displayed:

          

Financial Entity File Maintenance Screen

 

The following options are available:

 

            *           Select the desired mode from the Financial Entity File menu bar

                        *           Select the desired function and enter the data requested on the screen in accordance with the Entry Field Descriptions

*           The List function provides the Entity ID., Description, Profit Center/Department range of all profit centers/departments currently in the G/L Account File that encompasses the entity

            *           Enter the data requested on the screen

                        *           To exit press the ESC or F10 key when the cursor is positioned for entry of the first field on the screen

 

To return to the menu bar, press the ESC or F10 key. To leave this application, press X for EXIT when positioned at the menu bar.

 

Entry Field Descriptions

 

Name	Type and Description
1.  Entity Id	5 alphanumeric characters.  This is the code by which the entity will be identified by other applications in the package.  It is recommended that you do not use a pure numeric ID, so as not to confuse an entity with a single profit center.   There is no need to create an entity that contains only one profit center since every appli­cation that allows you to enter a financial entity will also allow you to enter a single profit cen­ter, if desired.   However, entities must be used to select a single or range of departments.  Individual or ranges of departments are not requested on any other applications.  Using entities to control department reporting is efficient.   In the change or delete mode, press the F7 key to search for an entity.
2.  Desc	30 alphanumeric characters.  This is the description of the entity that will be printed on financial statements if the entity is selected.
Profit Center / Department  Ranges	The starting range is a standard profit center number in the standard profit center number format and department number in the standard department number format.   The ending range is the same as above.   If departments are in use, each entry must include both the profit center and department numbers.  You may enter as many ranges as you wish, up to 36 different ranges.   To enter less than 36 ranges, press the F10 key in the Starting Profit /Department field for the entry immediately after the last range you wish to enter.   To eliminate any particular range after it is entered, set both the start and the end of the range to zero or spaces.  Gaps may be left in the sequence of ranges that you enter, to allow entry of additional ranges at a later time.   The starting profit center/department of a range may be zero or spaces, but the ending profit center/department of the range may not be. Ranges may overlap, though there is nothing to be gained in doing this.  The end of a profit center or department range cannot be a entry lower than the beginning of the range.  The ranges do not have to be entered in ascending order, although it is recommended that you do this to make the definition easier to understand at a glance.

 

List

 

Name	Type and Description
Starting Entity	5 alphanumeric characters.  Enter the entity for the start of the range of entities you wish to print.  This entity need not be on file.  It will still be used as the start of the entity range.   Pressing RETURN defaults to All entities.
Ending Entity	5 alphanumeric characters.  Pressing RETURN defaults this entry to the same value as entered for the starting entity.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Financial Entity List