In order to keep a balance sheet in balance and reconcilable within dimensions as well as overall, we will be turning on the dimension flag (either as optional or mandatory) for some accounts for which it has not been turned on in the past (which has caused our trial balance to not reconcile to the company trial balance).

What should we be checking prior to turning these on? One question is will this cause some batch jobs to start hanging up if the session prompts for an (optional) dimension.

Does anyone have a quick checklist I can use to run through before I turn the switch?

Thanks

Stephen Ruger
sr@mylodestar.com
+1.215.785.6756

BAAN will not allow a dimension type on a ledger account to be changed from 'mandatory' to 'not used' or vice versa if transactions have already been made for the ledger account.
We have turned on optional dimensions and have had no problems. When I was looking at this I did find something in the knowledge base, it said not to use GTM to reset the dimension if you could could not do it in maintain chart of accounts because of a message, dimensions found for this ledger account because this would cause problems with the dimension\ledger history.

I think it did offer a work around by setting new accounts and defining the dimensions you want then linking the old ledger account as parent so the history would be ok.
I hope that makes sense the finance module has never been my strong point.

You need to test that the system is capable of generating a dimension via your integrations - options by integration elelent session. This is usually possible, although not for control accounts - ACP, ACR etc. If you're happy with a "catch-all" dimension, you shouldn't have too many problems.
For manual entries, of course, it's up to the user.

As stated before, all this is dependent on being able to change to mandatory or optional.

it was not on the knowledge base it was in case this what baan said

Dimensions are activated on ledger accounts with the status of either Not Used, Mandatory or Optional. When a dimension is originally activated as not used, it can only be changed to optional, not to mandatory. The reason as to why you can't change it to mandatory is because the ledger account has a balance in history.
Work around: A recommendations to create a new Chart of Accounts which mimics the other account but uses the other dimensions. These two accounts, having the sub-level 0, can be pointed to a parent witch will allow the full report capturing through the parent without losing the data integrity. Another option is to create a new chart of accounts and block the old one to prevent its use. Changing though the table is not recommended because this too results in data integrity loss.

Please confirm me if this is answering your problem or if you have any further queries do not hesitate in contacting me.

Many thanks
BaaN Support
BSE Finance Dublin