Divisions

Divisions are major functional or product-based segments of companies that can have their own budgets, goals and performance metrics. Unlike subsidiaries, divisions are not separate legal entities-they operate under the same corporate entity. Each division usually concentrates on a specific product line or service, market or geographical region.

Divisions are a critical Masterfile in Online Advantage primarily used to post transactions to the General Ledger. (A reminder that GL postings are made to the following levels: ACCOUNT/BRANCH/DIVISION). They are a mandatory Masterfile and at least one must be defined. In addition to GL Postings and Reporting, divisions can also be used in Sales and Inventory Reporting where Divisions are assigned to Customers and Product Groups.

Also please note that unlike Branches, Divisions are not tied to Inventory locations.

Each Division is defined by a Division code. These codes are used to validate the allocation of sales, purchases, expenses and inventory among various business units. Valid Branches may be allocated to each Division – to be used during manual General Ledger postings.

Divisions may be used to designate different areas of operation (e.g. Wholesale, Manufacturing, Fabrication, Retail, Service) because OA allows you to allocate a Division against each customer. Or they could be used to specify dealings in different types of products or services (e.g. Computer Sales, Consumables, Service, Spare Parts).

In addition to their normal use to designate different areas of operations or “departments”, such as “Wholesale” and “Retail”, Divisions may also be used to specify dealings in different types of products. This can be easily achieved because OA allows you to allocate a Division against each Product Group in the Inventory system. This allows for automatic GL Postings of “Sales”, “Cost of Sales”, “Stock On Hand” etc. for each Product range as required. Such a set-up would require the selection of Sales Postings by Product Division in the Accounting Formats. An example of this type of structure appears below:

Division Code	Short Form	Division Name
C	CP	Copper Products
A	AL	Aluminium Products
0	DEF	“Default” for un-allocatable transactions

Division codes can also be used to specify different types of services in the same way, as in the following example:

Division Code	Short Form	Division Name
1	IS	Installation Services
2	MS	Maintenance Services

Standard GL reporting allows you to report by Division against Budget and Last Year. However User formatted GL reporting enables you to create GL reports that provide a divisional analysis in one view for all divisions. An example of this type of User Formatted GL Reporting appears below:

	Copper Products	Aluminium Products	“Default” Unallocated
Sales
COGS
Gross Profit
Expenses
Profit

	Copper Products	Aluminium Products	“Default” Unallocated
Sales
COGS
Gross Profit
Expenses
Profit

When you set up your Division you should establish a “default” Division (for example, Division code “0”) to which you can allocate transactions of a type that cannot be properly assigned to a specific Division. If you have only one Division, you should set up that division as the “default”. All transactions will then be assigned to that division.

At least one division must be established. Each user can have a default division associated with their User Id. This user default is used to automatically select the division for the user where division entry is required in transactions. For system postings to General Ledger, you need to set up a default division in the system Control Pointers.

Note: The length of the Division code is pre-defined in the system setup as part of the Accounting Formats. As with any data entry, be mindful of the type and complexity of your Division codes as they are entered frequently throughout the system, in particular during any postings to the GL.

Examples

Divisions defining areas of operations:

• Manufacturing
• Distribution
• Service
• Admin

Divisions defining product usage:

• Consumables
• Sales
• Spare Parts
• Service

Example of Division in General Ledger posting:

Account	Branch	Division	Amount
Sales	NSW	Distribution	CR 100
Bank	NSW	Admin	DR 100

Minimum Requirements

• At least one division must be established on the system
• You do not need to assign users to a particular division
• A default division must be set in the General Ledger Control Pointers

Pre-requisites

Before setting up divisions the Accounting Format must be defined.

Changing Established Data

You can change the descriptive detail of a division at any time and add new divisions as needed.

There is no facility to transfer the division ‘code’ to a new code.

Panel Options

• Standard panel features
• Maintenance
• Views
  • Audit – lists data changes made over time to the division currently being viewed
  • Where used – lists the customers and products assigned to the division currently being viewed
• Reports
  • List Divisions