Purpose
This procedure is used to enter or modify the details of Branches used in the system. Branches usually represent specific cost centres of the business. For example, valid Branches could be geographical centres like Sydney, Newcastle, Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide, Hobart, Brisbane and Cairns. If this is too much detail, they might be set up to represent provinces or states like Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland, Tasmania, SA, WA etc. Alternatively they could be a separation by business unit such as Wholesale Sales, Retail Sales, Manufacturing, Service etc. although this type of structure is more often than not created using the Division settings.
What is important to remember is that most General Ledger functions can be performed at a Branch level including Profit and Loss and Balance Sheet Reporting. This means that branches are normally set up where accountability for the “financials” is an important measure and has been allocated to a person or management team.
Each branch is defined by a Branch code. These are used to validate the allocation of sales, purchases, expenses and inventory among various branches of your business. The branch code is also used as the leading character/s of the Warehouse Location code. When you set up your Branches, you should establish a “default” Branch (for example, Branch code “0”) to which you can allocate transactions of a type that cannot be properly assigned to a specific Branch. At least one branch must be established on the system. Each user can have a default branch associated with their User Id. This user default is used to ‘auto select’ the branch for the user where branch entry is required in transactions. For system postings to General Ledger, you need to set up a default branch in the system Control Pointers.
Note: The length of the Branch 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 branch codes as they are entered frequently throughout the system, in particular during any postings to the GL.
Data Input
Step 1 – Branch Code
Branch Code
Enter a new, unique branch code, that does not already exist on the system.
You may select an existing branch code for editing.
The number of characters for this code is defined in the Accounting Format procedure. You need to set up the Accounting Format before entering any branches.
For details on the use of “codes”, see The Role of “Codes” in Online Advantage
Return to the Top
Step 2 – Description
Short Name
Enter an abbreviated description for the branch. This appears on screens and reports where space is limited.
Branch Name
Enter the branch name.
For more details on descriptions, see The Role of “Names & Descriptions” in Online Advantage
Posting Allowed
Select whether postings can be made to this branch or not. If posting is not allowed, this signifies that no manual General Ledger posting is allowed where the General Ledger code contains this branch code. This prohibition can be overridden via the use of Valid Chart of Accounts.
Debtor Statement Branch
Select the debtor statement branch code. When printing statements or back order statements, this overrides the customer branch and the address details for the statement branch code are used. You might do this in a situaton where the branch “sales” are allocated to the selling/operational branches but the debt is collected from a central branch as part of a centralised AR and Credit Control structure.
Branch Email
If an email address is entered here it can be used to send the branch an Order Confirmation when an order is entered through the e-Commerce portals. The option to email the branch has to be enabled.
Document Prefix
If you want to prefix your system allocated document numbers (e.g. Sales Order Numbers, Purchase Order Numbers, Invoices etc.) with a meaningful branch based prefix, simply enter the desired prefix here. If there is no prefix held against a branch, a prefix may come from the User Details Document Prefix if it exists. When a branch is used for the document prefix the branch comes from the Stock Location. For example, if you create a sales order with stock to be issued from location NS where the branch is ‘N’ (NSW) then the Order Number allocated would be N1234. Please refer to Document Prefixes for further details on this.
Return to the Top
Step 3 – Division
Division
A list of valid Division codes can be entered here to nominate those divisions that can be used in conjunction with this Branch code during manual General Ledger postings.
Select the division code and click “Add” to include it into the list to prevent users posting to this Branch for any Division other than the ones that you have listed.
See related topic: Divisions
Return to the Top