CLA’s Sage Intacct Spark #1: Dimension Groups and Custom Fields – A Match Made in Heaven
A custom field has many purposes. However, have you ever considered using it with a dimension group to create dynamic groups? These two easily play up each other’s strengths when used wisely. If you can create a dimension group that filters on the custom field, you’ll completely eliminate future maintenance. Now that is, well, a match made in heaven.
Imagine you’d like to group your departments for a certain report slightly differently. Let’s take a Statement of Functional Expense Report as an example. You know the group names you need. You also know which departments belong to each group. If you build a department group and simply choose which departments belong, the moment you add a new department you have to update those department groupings too. An endless cycle of maintenance.
Instead, set up a custom field on the department that designates it’s dimension group. This way, the reporting designation of that department is determined upon initial setup rather than found missing from the appropriate group some time after running reports.
Step 1: Custom Field
Add a custom pick list field on the department with the following options (more on setting up custom fields here):
- Program
- Management and General
- Fundraising
Step 2: Update Departments
Then, on each of your departments, assign a department group. (If you’re not keen on doing this one by one, check out the CLA Toolbox).
Step 3: Create Department Groups
Finally, create the department groups. (More on dimension groupings can be found here!)
Step 4: Build Your Financial Report
Build your report (to potentially include computations on the dimension group columns) and viola! A match made in heaven. You’ve just built a self-sustaining system.
Subscribe (top right of the page) to receive next week’s CLA Sage Intacct Spark (and the next 10) via email! Questions? Topic requests? Email or tweet us (@CLA_Intacct)!
Kathy Jastrzebski is a manager with CLA’s Intacct team. CLA is an Intacct Premier Partner with a partnership that spans over 20 years and more than 1,000 successful implementations. Kathy brings five years of accounting experience along with seven years of Sage Intacct implementation experience. Along with her accounting experience, she has a passion for leveraging technology to lead finance teams worldwide through system implementations with a mission of increasing department efficiency through business process improvements.