Dimension Groups in Intacct
Learn how using Dimension Groups can help you create the best consolidated financials statements and reports.
Where can dimension groups be used?
Dimension groups that you define can be used for filtering in the following areas of Intacct:
- Financial reports
- Financial graphs
- General Ledger reports, such as the Journals report
- Dashboards (limited to components for performance cards, financial reports and graphs, and standard General Ledger reports)
Learn more about where dimension groups can and can’t be used
How are dimension groups used in financial reports?
In financial reports, dimension groups can be used in several ways:
- Filtering for multiple dimension members, or for members that meet certain criteria
- Controlling the order in which the members appear in report columns and rows
- As the basis for report structures
Dimension report structures enable dimensions to be used on the rows or columns of financial reports. The following example shows a simple location report structure named “South,” which contains a location group entitled “Southern offices.”
- Dimension groups are custom groupings that are meaningful to your company.
- Dimension report structures can contain one or more dimension groups.
- The dimension report structure is what enables you to add the dimension to a report.
When you add a dimension group, you’re given the option to create a dimension report structure automatically. Learn more about how dimension report structures are created from dimension groups.
Go into Reports > Setup > Dimension Groups
And then into the appropriate dimension
Click to add a new group
You will see you have several ways to slice and dice these.
Add or edit a group
- Display the dimension group list, and click Add to add a new group. If you’re editing an existing group, click Edit to the left of the group.
- Enter an ID and Name for the dimension group: When displayed elsewhere in Intacct, the dimension group shows the ID and name together (ID—Name), as in NAOPS–North America Operations. IDs can’t be changed after you’ve saved the group, but you can edit the name later.
- (Optional) Enter any description that will remind you of what this group includes or how it’s used.
- From the Group type drop-down menu, select the type of group you want to create and then define the group.
- Select Specific members to hand pick the locations, departments, customers, vendors, employees, items, projects, or classes to include.
- Select All members if you want to filter based on criteria of your choice. For example, you might define a “Direct Customers” group that includes all members but then filters the results to only customers where the Customer Type field is equal to “Direct.”
Learn more about determining what’s in the group.
- (Optional) Specify how dimension members are sorted when displayed in reports. The display order for members is controlled by how you define the group.
- Select the Dimension structure option to create a dimension structure automatically that enables the group to be used on the rows or columns of financial reports: You can later find your dimension structures by going to Reports > Setup tab > Dimensions and then the name of the dimension. If you don’t create a dimension structure for the group, you’ll be able to use the group only for filtering.
Determine what’s in the group
The group type and options that you select determine which members will be included in report data when you filter on this dimension group.
If you are creating financial reports that show dimensions in rows or columns, your selection will also determine the column headings and row headings that will appear, and the order in which they will be listed.
Select specific dimension members and set their order
When you select “specific members” of a dimension, you’re picking the individual locations, departments, customers, vendors, employees, items, projects, or classes that you want to include. For example, you might want to create an Employee group that contains certain employees.
- Set the Group type to Specific Members.
- Use the Members list to select the members to include. The sort order that you choose will be used in any reports that show dimensions in columns or rows.
In a multi-entity environment, how do I select entity-specific members?
Filter with field values
You can add filters that select dimension members based on the value of certain fields. For example, you might want to select customers of a certain type or vendors that have a payment priority of urgent.
- Select the field you want to filter on.
- Choose the operation and value you want to filter for.
The options you’ll see depend on the field you choose.
By default, if you add more than one filter, members are included only if they match all criteria. However, you can change this behavior using the Filter conditions drop-down menu.
Filter for projects, employees, locations, or departments managed by the current user
Dimension groups can automatically show managers just the information that’s relevant to them. For example, you can set up a Project dimension group called “My projects,” which dynamically filters for projects managed by the current user. Similarly, groups can be used to filter for employees, departments, or locations managed by the current user.
The current user is the user who is currently logged into Intacct.
Sample use case for project managers
When you set the filter to current user, you limit the user to see only the group – such as projects, employees, or locations – that is associated with the user. For example, if you set a filter where the field is “Project Manager” and the operator is “current user,” when the project manager runs the report, they’ll only see their own projects.
To create a group that filters for the current user:
- Create a new group of type Project, Employee, Department, or Location.
- Define the group as usual, giving it a name that users will recognize. For example—”My projects” or “My employees.”
- In the Filters section, select a field that is connected to an employee who is a user in Intacct.
- For Project dimension groups, you can select the Project Manager ID
- For Department, Location, or Employee dimension groups, you can select the Manager
Not all contact fields are connected to a user. For this reason, filtering for the current user is restricted to the Project Manager ID and Manager fields.
- Set the Operator to is current user.
Combine multiple filters
If you have multiple filters, the default behavior is to match only members that meet all of the criteria. However, you can change how this works using the Filter conditions drop-down menu.
If you want to select “one of” something, such as departments where the manager is either Jim, Sue, or Terri, create several filters and use the Any (OR) filter condition.
Create a group filter for active and inactive members
There are times when you want to include dimensions that are inactive in reports. To do this, create a dimension group that filters for both types of dimension member.
- Open or edit the dimension group for the dimension type, for example, departments, locations, or territories.
- In the filters section, create two filters:
- Status equals active
- Status equals inactive
- Make sure that the filter conditions is set to Any (OR).
- Save your changes.
You can use this group when you want to have both active and inactive members appear in a report.
Topic link: https://www-p02.intacct.com/ia/docs/en_US/help_action/Default.htm#cshid=Setting_up_dimension_groups
If you have any questions on how to set up Dimensional Groups in Sage Intacct, especially about the Construction edition, please contact us at ETHOSystems!
