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Analytical Accounting - How to "convert" to after using strictly the GL for many years?

I have a client who has 4 segments in their GL and their COA grows rapidly each time they have a new "project" We are looking to convert them to AA to help reduce the growth, and for other benefits such as budgets. What are the best practices for "converting" from GL to GL/AA after many years of data is already in the system? Has someone done this and can share resources and what worked/didn't work? I do plan on creating a new company, at least for testing purposes, for all of this.

We have done such conversion several times, specifically to consider analytical details such as cost center, project ...etc. For such conversion, you usually encounter one of two scenarios which are:

1- The dimension is not already configured as an "Account Segment"

Suppose that your account format includes two segments only (00000-000) (Main Account- Serial). If you want to add a new analytical information which is the "Cost Center", you can simply activate AA and create a new transaction dimension including all the existing cost centers in your company and assign it to the associated range of accounts accordingly. Your Chart of Account will not be affected at all, and such implementation is smooth and straight forward

2- The dimension is already configured as an "Account Segment"

Suppose that your account format includes three segments (00000-000-000) (Main Account- Cost Center-Serial). In this case, if you want to convert the cost center segment from an account segment to an analytical accounting dimension, your chart of account is prone to dramatic changes and modifications. To accomplish such changes you can either consider the "Account modifier in the PSTL" to modify your accounts accordingly to drop the cost center segment, and delete duplicated accounts, or create a new company with a clean setup and completely new chart of account.

In short, there is nothing difficult about activating the AA, it is only a matter of managing your COA correctly. For changing the COA, here is a good reference to consider:

Is it Possible to Change the Account Format for the Chart of Accounts in GP?

For analytical accounting versus GL Account segmentation comparison, here is a good reference to illustrate the pros and cons; Microsoft Dynamics GP Analytical Accounting Vs. Segments

Creating a test company to demonstrate such comparison for the accounting department is quite useful. In one implementation, I remember utilizing the AA to minimize the COA from 5000+ accounts to less than a thousand account

Please let us know if you need any further assistance,

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