Setting Up Automatic Accounting Instructions

This chapter provides an overview of automatic accounting instructions (AAIs), lists a prerequisite, and discusses how to set up AAIs.

Understanding AAIs

AAIs are rules that define the relationships between your day-to-day accounting functions and your chart of accounts. Each system that interacts with the JD Edwards EnterpriseOne General Accounting system has AAIs.

In the General Accounting system, for example, AAIs can be used to:

Determine how the post program creates journal entries for intercompany settlements and how the system distributes journal entries so that each company maintains a zero net balance.
Debit an AR trade account or credit an AP trade account when you post invoices or vouchers.

AAIs eliminate the need to know which offset account to update at the time of posting and to enter offsetting accounts manually.
Provide journal entries for many different kinds of transactions in the Sales Order Management and Procurement systems.
Identify accounts that post to fixed assets and equipment in the Fixed Assets system, and create asset master records, depreciation account records, and other transactions.

Each AAI is associated with a specific general ledger account that consists of a business unit, an object, and optionally, a subsidiary.

AAI Prefixes and Suffixes

AAI items with a common purpose have a similar prefix. Typically, the prefix is two or three characters. Each software system has its own rules for prefixes, so be sure that you understand the rules for the systems that you use.

To allow for flexibility, some AAIs use a suffix (characters that follow the item name or prefix) that can be from one to four characters. The length of the suffix is limited by the length of the prefix. An AAI, including the suffix, cannot be more than six characters. In many systems, a three-character suffix identifies the currency code of the accounts that make up the AAI.

In the General Accounting system:

The x suffix on a three-character AAI item, such as GLG1, GLG2, and GLG3, identifies general purpose accounts, beginning assets, and beginning liabilities, respectively, in your chart of accounts.
The xx suffix on a four-character AAI item identifies the beginning and end of account ranges for a particular transaction.

For example, GLRC01 and GLRC02 identify the beginning and end of a range of accounts to be reconciled.

In the JD Edwards EnterpriseOne Accounts Payable system:

The xx suffix identifies a range of accounts, with odd numbers being the beginning of a range (01, for example) and even numbers being the end of a range (02, for example).
The xxxx suffix identifies the general ledger offset accounts to use for particular transactions, such as PREP for prepayments or WHLD for withholding taxes payable.
The xxxx suffix (from one to four characters) that is attached to AAI item PB identifies alternate bank accounts.
The xxxx suffix identifies type of 1099 return, box number, and range of accounts to be used in the GL method of 1099 processing.

For example, for AAI item PXA101, A identifies the 1099-MISC form, 1 identifies box 1 on the form, and 01 is the beginning of an account range.

In the JD Edwards EnterpriseOne Accounts Receivable system:

The xx suffix identifies the expense account that is associated with a type of adjustment.

The xx suffix for a type of adjustment must match the reason code, for example, MW for minor write-offs or BD for bad debt.
The xxxx suffix identifies the AR offset account to which invoice and receipt amounts are posted.
The xxxx suffix (from one to four characters) identifies general ledger offset accounts to use for particular transactions, such as NOTE for notes receivable, EMP for employee accounts receivable, or UC for unapplied receipts.

Default AAIs

Systems that use AAIs use a combination of company number and AAI item to determine which account to use for a particular type of transaction. You can create AAIs for each unique combination of company and GL offset code that you anticipate using.

Your system includes default AAIs that are already assigned to company 00000. You can configure them for your company, business unit, or object account setup. If the system cannot find an AAI for a specific company, it uses the one for company 00000. You do not need to set up an AAI for any company that uses the default AAIs for company 00000.

Example: AAI Item PC

AAI item PC, used in the JD Edwards EnterpriseOne Accounts Payable system to identify an offset account for payable transactions, can use the default object account for company 00000, or it can use a full account structure of business unit.object.subsidiary. If you use the default, you can leave the business unit blank on the AAI and the system will:

Find an AAI that has the company number and use the business unit on the AAI for that company.

If no business unit exists on the AAI with the company number, the system will:
Locate the voucher, find its business unit, and attach that business unit to the object and subsidiary on the AAI for the company.

If no AAI for the company exists, the system will:
Locate the AAI for company 00000 and use the corresponding account.

If no business unit exists on the AAI for company 00000, the system will locate the voucher, find its business unit, and attach that business unit to the object and subsidiary on the AAI for company 00000.

Account Ranges

When the system validates account ranges for AAIs, it reads and sorts alphabetic characters before numeric characters. If you use alphabetic characters in object accounts, be sure to define complete AAI account ranges that include both alphabetic and numeric characters. An alphabetic character should begin each range. A subsidiary comprising the number 99999999 generally ends each range.

This example shows a range that includes all possible objects. AAI item CR01 represents the beginning of the range and AAI item CR02 represents the end of the range:

AAI	Company	Business Unit	Object	Subsidiary
CR01	00001	Blank	AAAA	Blank
CR02	00001	Blank	9999	999999999

The AAI item that begins the first range in a series should have a suffix of 01 (for example, CR01), and the AAI item that ends the range should have a suffix of 02 (for example, CR02).

Always use consecutive suffixes to define ranges. In the preceding example, CR03 would begin the second range and CR04 would end the second range. Do not bypass CR03 and CR04 and start the second range with CR05. If the system searches the AAIs for an account and finds a gap in the range numbering, it stops the search. Although AAI items with ranges must be consecutive, the object accounts that are associated with those AAIs can be in any order.

You can exclude specific account numbers from an AAI account range by defining two ranges. The easiest way to keep track of these exclusions is to set up ranges so that the first range ends before the excluded numbers and the second range begins after the excluded numbers.

Translated AAIs

Multinational businesses have the option to translate the descriptions of their AAIs. The descriptions work in conjunction with the language that is specified for each person who uses the system. For example, when a French-speaking user accesses an AAI that has a French translation, the description appears in French.

You cannot see the translated AAIs directly from the Automatic Accounting Instructions Master table (F0012), but you can see them on reports, online inquiries, and programs that access the text. Translation information is stored in the AAI Alternate Description Master table (F0012D).

Prerequisite

Before you complete the tasks in this section, you must set up your chart of accounts.

See Setting Up Accounts.

Setting Up AAIs

This section provides an overview of AAI setup and discusses how to:

Set up a single AAI item.
Set up an AAI item for multiple companies.
Translate AAI descriptions.
Set processing options for Automatic Accounting Instructions (P0012).

Understanding AAI Setup

Because the JD Edwards EnterpriseOne system already has AAIs in place for company 00000, you must verify that they are appropriate for your business needs. You can revise existing AAIs and set up additional AAIs as needed. For each AAI item, verify that a default AAI item exists for company 00000. For each company requiring specific instructions, verify that a company, business unit, and object account exist.

AAIs for the JD Edwards EnterpriseOne Accounts Receivable system have sequence numbers that begin with 3. Those for the JD Edwards EnterpriseOne Accounts Payable system have sequence numbers that begin with 4. Those for the JD Edwards EnterpriseOne General Accounting system have sequence numbers that begin with 1.

Forms Used to Set Up AAIs

Form Name	FormID	Navigation	Usage
Work With Automatic Accounting Instructions	W0012A	Accounts Receivable Setup (G03B41), Automatic Acctg Instructions Accounts Payable Setup (G0441), Automatic Acctg Instructions General Accounting System Setup (G0941), Automatic Acctg Instructions To print a list of AAIs, select One Line AAI Report or Full AAI Report from the Report menu on the Work With Automatic Accounting Instructions form.	Review a list of existing AAI items for a specific system.
Set Up Single AAI Item	W0012B	On the Work With Automatic Accounting Instructions form, click Add to set up an AAI item or select an AAI item to revise and click Select.	Set up a single AAI item. The Set Up Single AAI Item form displays detail for one AAI at a time.
Set Up Multiple AAI Items	W0012C	On the Work With Automatic Accounting Instructions form, select an AAI item, and then select Multiple AAIs from the Row menu.	Set up an AAI item that is used by multiple companies. The Set Up Multiple AAI Items form is useful for adding and changing AAIs because you can review multiple companies assigned to an AAI item at the same time.
Translate AAI Descriptions	W00123A	General Accounting System Setup (G0941), Translate AAIs On the Work with Companies form, select a company and complete one of these actions: Select Transl for Mult Co from the Form menu to translate AAIs for multiple companies. Select Translate AAI's from the Row menu to translate AAIs for a single company.	Translate descriptions for AAIs.
Review Expanded AAI Descriptions	W00123B	On the Translate AAI Descriptions form, select Expanded Desc from the Row menu.	Add up to four more lines of translated text for the AAI description.
Translate Business Unit Descriptions	W00065A	On the Translate AAI Descriptions form, select Translate BU from the Form menu.	Translate descriptions for business units.

Setting Up a Single AAI Item

Access the Set Up Single AAI Item form.

You can change the value in the Business Unit, Object Account, and Subsidiary fields if that portion of the account was originally defined as required or optional. You cannot change a value if that portion of the account was originally defined as not used unless you first change the Not Used option to Required or Optional. You should not change the Required, Optional, and Not Used options on AAI items that have been used for processing.

Item Number	Enter the hard-coded AAI item number that defines an account or range of accounts that is used for a particular function. For example, item GLG4 defines the retained earnings account, which is used for annual close purposes. During processing, programs use the item number and company number to find the correct account to debit or credit. Along with company, the AAI item number is the key to the AAI table.
Sequence No. (sequence number)	Enter the number that is used to organize the AAI items into a logical group for online viewing and reporting. The sequence numbers for AAIs determines the system. For JD Edwards EnterpriseOne Accounts Receivable, the sequence numbers begin with 3, for JD Edwards EnterpriseOne Accounts Payable, the sequence numbers begin with 4, and for General Accounting, they begin with 1.
Business Unit	Enter an alphanumeric code that identifies a separate entity within a business for which you want to track costs. A business unit might be a warehouse location, job, project, work center, branch, or plant. If you enter a business unit in this field, the system validates the object account and subsidiary against the Account Master table (F0901) when you click OK. If the object account and subsidiary do not exist in the F0901 table for the specified business unit, the system generates an error message. If you do not enter a business unit in this field, the system does not validate object account and subsidiary information against the F0901 table. The Business Unit field is optional for some AAI items. If a business unit is not entered for an AAI, the business unit of the invoice or voucher is used in conjunction with the object and subsidiary that is entered for the AAI.
Object Account	Enter the portion of a general ledger account that refers to the actual accounting activity such as expense, income, asset, or liability.
Subsidiary	Enter a subset of an object account. Subsidiary accounts include detailed records of the accounting activity for an object account. Depending on the operating system, use 99999999 or ZZZZZZZZZ to express the end of a range of subsidiary accounts for an AAI item that includes the end of a range of accounts. The Subsidiary field is optional for all AAIs.

Setting Up an AAI Item for Multiple Companies

Access the Set Up Multiple AAI Items form.

Translating AAI Descriptions

Access the Translate AAI Descriptions form.

Setting Processing Options for Automatic Accounting Instructions (P0012)

Processing options enable you to specify the default processing for programs.

Sequence No.

Sequence No. (sequence number)

Specify the sequence number that you want to automatically display when you access the Work With Automatic Accounting Instructions form from a specific menu, such as G03B41, G0441, or G0941.