Accounting Dimension
Overview
Accounting Dimension – Business Overview
Accounting Dimension is used in Dafater to add meaningful business context to financial transactions. It allows organizations to analyze income, expenses, assets, and liabilities from multiple business perspectives beyond the basic chart of accounts.
Instead of only knowing what was spent or earned, Accounting Dimension helps you understand where, why, and for whom the transaction occurred.
Purpose in Business Operations
Accounting Dimension enables structured financial analysis by tagging transactions with business-relevant attributes such as: - Department - Branch or location - Project - Product line - Business unit
This ensures financial data supports better decision-making, performance tracking, and accountability across the organization.
Prerequisites and Setup Requirements
Before using Accounting Dimension, the business should:
- Clearly define which perspectives are important for financial tracking (for example, departments or projects)
- Ensure those business entities already exist in Dafater (such as departments, branches, or projects)
- Decide which financial transactions should require dimension tagging to maintain reporting discipline
- Align finance and operations teams on how dimensions will be used consistently
Proper planning at this stage prevents confusion and incomplete reporting later.
Typical Workflow and Business Fit
Define the Accounting Dimension
The finance team creates an Accounting Dimension to represent a key business perspective, such as “Department” or “Project”.Apply to Financial Transactions
Once active, the Accounting Dimension becomes available in accounting entries such as invoices, expenses, or journal entries.Capture Business Context
Users select the appropriate dimension value when recording transactions, linking financial data to real business activities.Analyze and Report
Management can then view financial results by dimension, enabling deeper insights and comparison across business segments.
This workflow embeds financial accountability directly into daily business operations.
Key Business Scenarios Where It Is Essential
Department-wise Profitability
Understand which departments are over or under budget.Project Cost Tracking
Monitor expenses and revenue for specific projects to control margins.Multi-Location Operations
Compare financial performance across branches or regions.Management Reporting
Generate internal reports for leadership without manual data segregation.Strategic Decision-Making
Identify high-performing and underperforming areas of the business.
Important Considerations for Users
- Use only relevant Accounting Dimensions to avoid overcomplicating data entry
- Apply dimensions consistently across all transactions for accurate reporting
- Train users on selecting the correct dimension values during daily work
- Review dimension usage periodically to ensure it still aligns with business structure
- Remember that good reporting depends on disciplined data entry
Summary
Accounting Dimension in Dafater transforms raw accounting data into meaningful business intelligence. When used correctly, it strengthens financial control, improves transparency, and supports smarter business decisions across the organization.
Basic Information
- Module: Accounts
- Document Type: Other
Fields
| Field Name | Label | Type | Required | Options | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| document_type | Reference Document Type | Link | ✓ | DocType | Reference document where this accounting dimension applies. |
| label | Dimension Name | Data | - | Business name used to identify this accounting dimension. | |
| fieldname | Fieldname | Data | - | Technical field identifier used within Dafater transactions. | |
| dimension_defaults | Dimension Defaults | Table | Accounting Dimension Detail | Default dimension values automatically applied during transaction entry. | |
| disabled | Disable | Check | - | Prevents this dimension from being used in Dafater. |
Child Tables
Dimension Defaults (Accounting Dimension Detail)
| Field Name | Label | Type | Required | Options | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| company | Company | Link | Company | Company this accounting dimension configuration applies to. | |
| reference_document | Reference Document | Link | DocType | Document type where this accounting dimension is applied. | |
| default_dimension | Default Dimension | Dynamic Link | reference_document | Default dimension value linked to selected reference document. | |
| mandatoryforbs | Mandatory For Balance Sheet | Check | - | Enforces dimension selection for all balance sheet entries. | |
| mandatoryforpl | Mandatory For Profit and Loss Account | Check | - | Enforces dimension selection for profit and loss entries. | |
| automaticallypostbalancingaccountingentry | Automatically post balancing accounting entry | Check | - | Automatically creates balancing entry when dimension causes imbalance. | |
| offsetting_account | Offsetting Account | Link | Account | Account used to post automatic balancing entries. |
Permissions
| Role | Read | Write | Create | Delete | Submit | Cancel |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| System Manager | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Accounts Manager | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |