Dimension defaulting in accounting distributions, Part 4 - Fixed dimensions and handling of empty dimension values
Handling of blank values for dimension attributes
The user can edit dimension values on distributions and default dimensions on documents. Dimension values can also be deleted. During creation of distribution lines the defaulting logic cannot distinguish if a dimension value is not provided by setup or has been deleted by the user. Therefore the defaulting logic handles deleted/blank values as not defaulted values and tries to default a value using the sequence as described in a previous blog entry – Basic defaulting sequence and priorities .
There can be a scenario when an attribute has been defaulted into the document line but has been deleted by the user. The defaulting logic doesn't know if a value is empty because it has been deleted intentionally by the user or simply has not been defaulted because of missing setup. Therefore the default logic always assumes the second case, i.e. that it has not been defaulted and will overwrite an empty value as soon as it finds a value going up the defaulting sequence.
The best way to "blank out" dimension attribute values is to use a dedicated dimension value like e.g. <BLANK> or <N/A> instead of just deleting a dimension attribute value.
Deleting a dimension default value has no impact on already created distributions
Deleting a dimension default value on the document line will not affect already generated distributions. Only if something on the document line requires a regeneration of distributions the default values will be used again to generate distributions and will reflect the now empty default value.
Assume a purchase order line where all dimension default values are set
The account distribution for the PO line will be created using these dimension default values
Deleting the dimension default value for ItemGroup will not be reflected in the already created accounting distributions. Only if new accounting distributions need to be created the dimension default values will be used again on the new accounting distributions.
For example adding a fixed asset on the PO line will determine a new main account. This will require the creation of new accounting distributions which will reflect the empty dimension default value.
Fixed dimensions
Default financial dimensions can be set for most master data entities like customer, vendor, items, etc. For main accounts default financial dimensions can be marked as fixed value. If a dimension value on a main account is marked as fixed it will always overwrite any other dimension value shown in accounting distributions during posting. If a default value is set to Fixed this is also noted to the user as shown in below image 003. If a dimension value is set to Not fixed the user can change the defaulted value and it will
not be replaced during posting.
Image – Setting a Fixed dimension default value for a main account