Understanding Dimension Types and Analytical Dimensions in Enterprise Management (Part III)

2 minute read time.

This blog series (this is Part III) is designed to help you become more familiar and comfortable with Dimension Types and Analytical Dimensions in Enterprise Management. There is great information in the Online help center. Your business partners and Sage Professional Service consultants are your resources for setup design and strategy.

In Parts I and II, we reviewed setting up Dimensions Types and Analytic Dimensions. Now, we have them setup and ready to go on Journal Entry screens, for BP Customers, BP Suppliers, Products, Work Orders, Companies, Sites, etc. Let’s look next at making dimensions mandatory.

Why have mandatory dimension types?

Part of the process of creating Dimensions Types and Analytic Dimensions is deciding what part they are going to play in your reporting. Do we want to require them to be populated on all transactions or just in specific circumstances? Are they only to be used occasionally for special events or projects? Will they be key pieces of your daily expense analysis?
You establish mandatory dimensions to ensure consistent data reporting. It is easy to skip over a field if it isn’t required.

Where do I declare a dimension mandatory?

Mandatory dimensions are declared under Setup, Organizational structure, Companies on the Accounting tab. In the Dimensions types grid, select Yes for Mandatory.
When you set a mandatory dimension, it is on that company only. It cannot be set up for just a site.
Every general ledger account transaction with that dimension type will have to have a dimension value.

Is it OK to change dimensions types to mandatory after entering transactions?

You can change the dimension types to mandatory at any time. However, there are considerations:
- Everyone who does data entry will have a change in processes.
- You will have to set up dimensions, default dimensions, review imports, review transaction entry and posting to ensure that all transactions will have the mandatory dimension fields populated.
- You may not be able to post/validate transactions already in process because they didn’t have dimensions at the time of the change. Post all your existing transactions before switching on the mandatory dimension feature so you don’t run into this problem
I highly recommend trying this first in your test environment before switching,

Mandatory Dimension Miscellaneous Tips:

Once you turn on mandatory dimensions, you cannot enter or import Sales Orders without having dimensions populated. You will receive an error: "Mandatory dimension on dimension type XXX" where “XXX” is the dimension type. This occurs even if none of the GL accounts associated with sales are set up with dimensions types. Why? The analytical dimensions are always mandatory in sales orders because the GL account isn’t defined until you post the sales invoice, and not before.
Not all dimension types on a company must be set up as mandatory. It can be just one or all.
Be sure you are regularly checking Query management under Usage, Batch server, even if you aren’t using mandatory dimensions. Review the Log for tasks that have an Error Status The Log can be accessed my clicking the Action icon. An error could indicate you have a posting that failed because of missing mandatory dimensions.