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Dynamics 365 Community / Forums / Finance | Project Operations, Human Resources, ... / Has anyone created a C...
Finance | Project Operations, Human Resources, ...
Suggested Answer

Has anyone created a Cross-Company, detailed GL trial balance using Electronic Reporting?

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Posted on by Frank Hamelly | MVP... 46,625 Moderator

I've been told it's possible but before I spend hours learning how to use ER, I'd like to hear from the experts.

Thanks!

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  • Ryan Sandness MSFT Profile Picture
    Ryan Sandness MSFT on at

    I have not performed a detailed analysis of what current models are available. I'd suggest starting with looking to see what existing GER configurations exist.  For example, I see one named Trial balance with transactional detail (excel).version.1.3 in LCS that could be a good starting point. Even if a model sounds country specific, it may still contain the field you need.

    With that being said, I'm a strong proponent of Financial Reporting, and would be interested to hear what your requirements are that have led you to this solution over FR.

    Thanks

    Ryan

  • Suggested answer
    Ludwig Reinhard Profile Picture
    Ludwig Reinhard Microsoft Employee on at

    Hello Frank,

    Why would you like to use ER for that purpose?

    The financial reports give you the possibility to create that report.

    When doing that in ER you have to calculate totals, which is easy for P&L accounts that don't have a beginning balance.

    For BS accounts those balance calculations can get tricky because you would have to include previous year data.

    I noticed that in the recent versions, a new "electronic trial balance report model" has been made available that can be downloaded from the global repository.

    You can try and test with that one; have not done it myself but might be worth using this MS 'thing' rather than trying to create something from scratch.

    Best regards,

    Ludwig

  • Frank Hamelly | MVP, MCP, CSA Profile Picture
    Frank Hamelly | MVP... 46,625 Moderator on at

    Thank you Ryan and Ludwig for your responses.  The client ask is kind of unique.  They want a Consolidated GLTB, but want all the records exportable to a single Excel sheet.  That's why MR doesn't work in this scenario.  When you export from MR, it puts each company's results into a separate tab in the Excel file.  Also, they don't want the entire concatenated account string description exported, only the Main account name.  This screenshot shows the format they want to see the export in:

    pastedimage1618403208918v1.png

    Ludwig, as to why would I propose ER for this?  I'm just researching options, given that MR doesn't do the trick.  But I agree with you, ER would be a pretty complex report design.

    Bottom line, the client used Dynamics GP before implementing Dynamics F&O, and were spoiled by GP's SmartList and the fact that all their legal entities were contained in a single GP database.

    Ryan, if you can prove me wrong on my perceptions about MR not being up to the task, I'd be more than happy!  

  • Suggested answer
    Ryan Sandness MSFT Profile Picture
    Ryan Sandness MSFT on at

    Hi Frank,

    Thanks for the additional insight on the requirements. A single tab is no issue for FR, as you can either do a side by side example or use a parent node of a reporting tree to accomplish this. See the consolidation documentation here for more info.

    docs.microsoft.com/.../generating-consolidated-financial-statements

    Regarding the main account string, I believe it will print whatever you put on the row, at least for the financial level of the report. You also have the option to apply a dimension set in the report, so you can choose to only use the main account if you aren't interested in dimension details for this instance of the report.

    Thanks!

    Ryan

  • Frank Hamelly | MVP, MCP, CSA Profile Picture
    Frank Hamelly | MVP... 46,625 Moderator on at

    Thanks Ryan.  Side-by-side is not what they want, so that option is out.  The parent node option rolls the children up to the parent, but do you not then lose visibility as to which company the contributes to the summary value at the parent level?  They want to see a row in Excel for each account string, separately for each company, so they can then slice and dice further from that data set.

    You're right, the row definition description will print on the report, but then you have to maintain the row definition with each change in the COA, right?  It would be great if MR read the Account name directly from the Main account setup :)

  • Ryan Sandness MSFT Profile Picture
    Ryan Sandness MSFT on at

    With those requirements it is possible to accomplish, but it won't be great for maintenance. You can create a list and then have 3 lines for each account (assuming 3 companies) and then use the row restriction to filter to each level of the reporting tree.

    So yes it's possible, but I'd ask if it doesn't make more sense to use a single row format for all companies, apply a reporting tree and then drill down or change the tree filter to each company as necessary. Personally I would question spending all of this time to mimic exactly what they had versus using the capabilities in the new system without causing yourself a maintenance headache or hundreds of hours to build a new system to recreate the (old) wheel.

    But yes, there are options to get you most of the way there. Totally agree on dynamically reading the COA. There is an option that does this for the account/transaction level but nothing for the financial level.

    I'd also suggest looking at the Financial PowerBI workspace to see if the trial balance there may meet your need. I forget how it handles multi-company there. But it is all live data and gives the ability to filter by legal entity. You may be able to include company through personalization and give that a go as well.

    Thanks

    Ryan

  • Frank Hamelly | MVP, MCP, CSA Profile Picture
    Frank Hamelly | MVP... 46,625 Moderator on at

    Thanks Ryan for all the info.  We're going to investigate the Power BI option further.  I've spent a few hours familiarizing myself with Electronic Reporting and it looks way too complex to be readily adoptable by users.  We want to build on a platform that is more geared toward self-service, such as PBI.

    One concern about Power BI with a trial balance is how the beginning balances are calculated and associated performance.

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