Managing General Ledger in
Microsoft Dynamics® AX 2012
The Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 General ledger module give you the ability to easily set up and
maintain your shared charts of accounts, account structures, shared currencies and exchange rates,
and shared fiscal calendars. You can override specific attributes for a main account per company and
override specific attributes for a financial dimension value per chart of accounts or per company.
Support has been provided for a flexible general journal entry where activity can be recorded against
any account type. These account types include vendors, customers, projects, bank accounts, and fixed
assets. The appropriate subledger is updated with these entries. General journals also provide the
ability to record activity directly to ledger accounts.
At period end, support is provided for allocating the balance from one ledger account to one or more
other ledger accounts based on flexible allocation rules. Period or year-end processing allows you to
create closing adjustments in multiple closing periods, close out your profit and loss type ledger
account balances, and bring forward your balance sheet ledger account balances. You can
consolidate the journal entry data at multiple levels with the ability to automatically eliminate
intercompany journal entries based on the definition of elimination rules.
Throughout the processes, a complete history is maintained. Reports, such as the trial balance and
the transaction list, can be generated, and up-to-date inquiries can be performed to track your
general ledger activities.
TAILORED ROLE CENTERS
Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 provides Role Centers for a variety of financial roles typically
found in organizations. The Accounting Manager Role Center, pictured at right, serves as
a home page for users assigned to this role. A Role Center provides insight into the work
that needs to be performed, tasks that need to be completed, several key performance
indicators, and one-click navigation to commonly used links and reports. Role Centers
enable you to be more efficient and facilitate more confident, timely decisions.
Role Center
FLEXIBLE CONFIGURATION OPTIONS FOR SETUP AND MAINTENANCE OF GENERAL
LEDGER
Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 provides a flexible setup of the general ledger for a legal
entity.
Create and maintain one or more fiscal calendars that can be shared across multiple
legal entities.
Manage the status of a fiscal calendar period at the legal-entity level.
Create and maintain currency exchange rates that can be shared across multiple legal
entities.
Ability to use different currency exchange rates for budgeting versus actuals in each
legal entity.
Create and maintain one or more charts of accounts that can be shared across
multiple legal entities.
Manage legal-entity–specific attributes for a main account.
Manage chart-of-accounts–specific and legal-entity–specific attributes for a financial
dimension value.
Flexible account structures determine the valid combinations of main account and
financial dimension values.
Integration of the account structures with the organization hierarchies provides
constraints between financial dimensions.
Multiple account structures for each chart of accounts are supported.
Support for one or more advanced rules for an account structure allows you to further
Account structures
constrain or enter additional financial dimensions for a specific ledger account.
Workflow can be set up for the review and approval of general journals, based on
company policy.
Flexible setup of accounting rules and period-end processing is supported.
FLEXIBLE JOURNAL ENTRY FOR ALL ACCOUNT TYPES
The general journal entry form provides flexibility in the type of account entries recorded
into Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012. When posting an amount to a non-ledger account from
the general journal entry form, the related subledger is also updated. For example, if you
are recording a customer payment directly into the general journal, the customer balance
in accounts receivable will be updated, the bank account balance will be updated, and the
general ledger will be updated.
General journal entry
The following account types can be entered into the general journal:
Ledger accounts
Customer accounts
Vendor accounts
Project accounts
Fixed asset accounts
Bank accounts
General journal entry records can be set up to automatically reverse on a specified date.
This provides support for the accrual of expenses, for example, in which the expense
period crosses multiple fiscal periods.
PERIOD-END ALLOCATION, ELIMINATION, AND CONSOLIDATION
As part of the period-end processes, many organizations allocate amounts, such as an
overhead expense, across different departments and cost centers and potentially across
legal entities. Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 supports the ability to create flexible rules that
can be used periodically to allocate the balances of a ledger account to one or more other
ledger accounts.
Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 supports one or more consolidation companies that provide
support for different levels of consolidated reporting across legal entities. Consolidation
companies can be included in the consolidation process to another consolidation
company. Consolidated financial reporting can be generated directly from a consolidation
company.
When related companies within an organization sell to or purchase from each other, all or
a portion of the expense and revenue must be eliminated when generating a consolidated
financial report. Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 supports the ability to create one or more
rules for generating elimination journal entries to “eliminate” the intercompany sales and
purchases. The elimination journal entries can be generated in separate elimination
companies or automatically generated with the consolidation process in a consolidation
company.
REPORTING AND INQUIRIES DETAILING THE ACTIVITY OF YOUR LEDGER ACCOUNTS
Various reports and inquiries are available to provide required information about your
general ledger activity:
Main account list page, which provides the list of main accounts and balances.
Trial balance list page and reports, which display the activity for the ledger accounts.
General ledger voucher inquiries.
Audit trail inquiries and reports.
Transaction reports, such as the dimension statement and balance list.
Journal reports.
Trial balance list page
Reconciliation reports providing differences between a subledger balances and the
summary ledger account balances in the general ledger.
Financial statements generated in Microsoft® Excel® based on flexible row and
column setup.
FLEXIBLE PARAMETERS FOR YEAR-END PROCESSING ROLLUPS
Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 provides for easy creation and maintenance of an unlimited
number of financial dimensions and the ability to determine which financial dimensions
are available for data entry with the association of one or more account structures to the
chart of accounts. This can provide a very detailed account of the activity in the general
ledger for a fiscal year. Because you may not want or need a very detailed balance sheet,
you have the flexibility to determine at which level the profit and loss accounts close out
to your equity accounts when bringing the balances forward to the next fiscal year. You
can choose to close the profit and loss accounts out to the same level of detail as entered
or roll up to a specific financial dimension level.
A closing sheet is also available if you need to record period-end adjustments into a
closing period. Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 supports multiple closing periods for a
specific fiscal period. This provides the ability with a closing sheet to record different
adjustments—such as internal audit adjustments versus external audit adjustments—into
different closing periods. These can be included in various general ledger inquiries and
reports, including the financial statements.
Financial statement
Microsoft Dynamics is a line of integrated, adaptable business management solutions that enables you and your people to make business decisions with greater confidence.
Microsoft Dynamics works like and with familiar Microsoft software, automating and streamlining financial, customer relationship and supply chain processes in a way that
helps you drive business success.
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