From the Microsoft Dynamics GP blogs: Variable allocation accounts; Arrears tracking; Epic SQL troubleshooting; Financial dimensions in MR

A selection of the latest insight from the Dynamics GP blogs:

• Tips to Using Unit Accounts with Variable Allocation Accounts in Dynamics GP;
• Getting in Front of Arrears Tracking in Payroll;
• A Most EPIC Tale of Troubleshooting a Dynamics GP SQL Performance Issue;
• Management Reporter Link To Financial Dimension Range Problem

Tips for Using Unit Accounts with Variable Allocation Accounts in Dynamics GP

On the Boyer and Associates blog, Jack Boyer discussed in a previous post how companies can use Unit Accounts for statistical data to track a company's performance in Dynamics GP. 

Any non-financial or statistical data that is tracked and reported on could potentially be set up as a Unit Account.  He notes that in Dynamics GP, Unit Accounts can be used to breakdown or allocate costs at a more granular level, giving management a better picture of how various areas of the company are performing.

He says companies mainly want overhead expenses such as rent or utilities separated by department, location, project, or product.  All too often, the process for allocations is manual, with the calculation done Excel and manually entered into the general ledger. 

This manual process may be even more inefficient if the allocation entry is not recorded at the same time as the expense. To help, this process can be automated in Dynamics GP using data in Unit Accounts with Variance Allocation Accounts. For example, a company decides to allocate rent expense each month by department based on square footage.  At the beginning of the year, square footage for each department is determined ...