How Two Companies Handle Complicated GL Allocations in Microsoft Dynamics GP

We had two clients recently that needed to do very complicated General Ledger allocations in Microsoft Dynamics GP. While Microsoft Dynamics GP did not have this functionality in the core system, we were still able to find a solution for them.

It is good to keep in mind, when you are evaluating Microsoft Dynamics GP, that you may find you have some unique requirements that Microsoft Dynamics GP cannot handle “out of the box.”  There is no reason for this to be a deal breaker. There are hundreds of add-on tools for Microsoft Dynamics GP that can be used to perform almost anything you can think of.  Think of it like apps for your smartphone.

Let me explain the scenarios for the two companies with the complicated General Ledger allocations in Microsoft Dynamics GP.

One of our clients basically takes all of the corporate expenses, meaning any expenses that are related to corporate at the end of the month, and allocates them out to all their locations. They allocate all of the expenses, everything goes. However, they still need the ability to see what was actually posted to the corporate accounts.

In the core Dynamics GP system once you allocate something, you don’t have visibility of it anymore. It is gone and it leaves that account.  But we found a product called Advanced Allocations as an add-on solution for Microsoft Dynamics GP that allows you to create a different sort of allocation scenario.

Instead of allocating the expenses out of a corporate account it moves them into a contra (or offset) account.  Then you have the ability to still create the financial statement at month end that shows all the corporate expenses.  You net those out against these contra accounts and the net effect is zero.  We don’t have any corporate expenses anymore; they have all been allocated.

In the second scenario, a client needed their allocations to be held and placed only when they pull the trigger. In other words, they don’t want the allocations to be done until they actually run a process.

In the core Microsoft Dynamics GP as soon as you post the allocation it goes through, but with this add-on product you can wait until a certain point, such as month end, to post allocations. Think of it as “on demand” allocations.

The client also needed to be able to set up allocations in tiers to allow the accounts to be allocated in a certain order. The client might want to do the corporate expenses first and then the specific program expenses second because some of the accounts that are being allocated are used to do breakdown allocations in other accounts.  This product does tiered allocations as well.

If you have a complex scenario you want to accomplish in Microsoft Dynamics GP, in most cases “there is an app for that”. You just need to work with a Microsoft Dynamics GP partner that looks outside the box, at all the options, to find you the perfect solution.

If you are evaluating Microsoft Dynamics GP, contact CAL Business Solutions. sales@calszone.com or 860-485-0910x4.

By CAL Business Solutions, Connecticut Microsoft Dynamics GP Partner, www.calszone.com