Change main accounts in existing company

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Posted on by Michael agostini

Dear Microsoft Community

I have a situation where the client would like to change their chart of accounts from 6 characters to 5 characters. The environment they want to do this in a live D365 environment.

I did test making a change and got this message - see below. The change seemed to work fine and I traced back old transactions in the trial balance and they were updated to the new main account.

My question is has anyone does this for an entire COA and were there any issues that you came across.

I have not yet tested this for how it effects:

1) Fixed assets

2) Account structures

3) I am assuming Management Reporter will have to have to be updated to the new GL accounts

Thanks Michael Agostini

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Ramit Paul 22,797 Most Valuable Professional on at

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This is not at all a good approach unless you are in worst case scenario.

My personal advice is to create new main accounts and link with same COA, assuming you have considered the impact on account structure.

If you want to go for your approach, discuss this with MS engineering team, as they knows where it will impact and affect.

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Michael agostini on at

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Ramit,

This sounds like a personal preference on you part.

Regards,

M Agostini

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Ludwig Reinhard Microsoft Employee on at

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Hello Michael Agostini,

Personally, I would prefer not to touch the 'old' and existing accounts but to create new ones in the same chart of account.

That is the 'risk free' way of making such a change.

As an example, if you have an account number 12345, then you suspend using this account and create a new account with the number 1234 in the CoA that you already use.

The disadvantage here is that you have to adjust all of your posting profiles, account structure and reports.

Yet, apart from the additional work, there is no risk that something gets wrong.

Best regards,

Ludwig

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Sheela Ningappa on at

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Hi,

The best solution would be to create new COA and attach it to the Ledger.

Thanks,

Sheela

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Ludwig Reinhard Microsoft Employee on at

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Hi Sheela,

That's not possible. Once the first transaction is posted, the CoA cannot be changed anymore.

Best regards,

Ludwig

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Sheela Ningappa on at

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HI Ludwig,

I agree if the transactions are posted then we cannot change the COA. I thought its a new environment where they want to change the Main accounts.

Thanks,

Sheela

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Michael agostini on at

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Ludwig,

I am not sure what you are getting at. Once the first transaction is posted, the CoA cannot be changed anymore.

I believe these are my options:

Option 1

1) I could create a new COA wit the updated main accounts and attach it to the ledger. If I did this on the first day of the new fiscal year they would be good to go with a new chart but would NOT be able to see any transactions from the previous COA as this COA would not be attached to the company (via ledger). If I do this I need to do a full cutover and import the tail balance or trial balances.

Option 2

2) Create all new accounts in the same COA (I believe you suggested this Ludwig) and suspend the ones that we do not require. If we do this we have a COA full of these extra accounts for many years into the future. No one will like this.

Option 3:

Use the new functionality to charge the main account numbers. I am not sure why everyone is afraid of this option. Yes we need to update the account structures but the posting profiles appear to be automatically updated and they can be doubles checked. I can test it on fixed assets as well. What is the issue with this approach?

Thanks,

Michael Agostini

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Ludwig Reinhard Microsoft Employee on at

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Hello Michael,

No 1 should not work. If you already work with D365FO you are not able to change the COA that has been used in the past. The standard application does not allow you to change it.

No 2 is the option that nobody will like but the 'risk free' one

No 3 Your financial reports in the financial reporter will break if you do that. If you are lucky a data mart reset can fix that but I would check that out beforehand in a demo/test environment. Even if this works, I don't like that approach much even if it appears 'nice'. Also, please talk to your auditors about this approach and how they like this one.

Best regards,

Ludwig

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Michael agostini on at

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Ludwig,

Thanks for the suggestions. There is not much to break in MR and I will discuss the approach with the CFO. They have only been live for 6 months and we need to fix the COA. I will let you know how it goes. Thanks

Michael Agostini

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