1. Advanced Cost Accounting Implementation Guide
  2. Understanding Assignments

Understanding Assignments

The assignment feature is a major component of JD Edwards EnterpriseOne Advanced Cost Accounting. It is a flexible tool that enables you to allocate indirect costs, make projections based on assumptions, and try different "what-if" scenarios without changing the original data.

An assignment is the method by which the system reallocates indirect revenue and costs. With assignments, you can identify, capture, and allocate costs or revenue to items, cost objects, or the subledger fields. For example, you can allocate indirect costs to products, customers, and activities. This flexibility enables you to report costs by either an activity such as receiving, or to determine profitability by customer and product.

Although cost allocations are possible without JD Edwards EnterpriseOne Advanced Cost Accounting, using the system improves the accuracy of allocations. They are more meaningful and less arbitrary. Output is also improved by providing information at a product or customer level because these indirect costs can be applied to individual products or customers by using a relevant business driver.

For example, ABC Company has some generic shipping costs that cannot be attributed to specific customers. If an assignment were calculated based on the number of sales orders, customers would be assigned a prorated share of the shipping costs-the customer sales orders as the numerator, and the total sales orders as the denominator.

JD Edwards EnterpriseOne Advanced Cost Accounting provides a totally new set of features for assignments, expanding on both the flexibility and complexity provided by the current JD Edwards EnterpriseOne General Accounting allocations programs.

Several other major differences exist between the JD Edwards EnterpriseOne General Accounting allocations and the new advanced cost accounting assignments, including the following:

  • You can assign costs to the cost objects and item fields.

  • You can assign costs based on driver information.

  • You can select all account and business unit category codes, ranges, literal usage, and lists. Data selection is significantly improved.

  • You can run multitiered allocations in JD Edwards EnterpriseOne Advanced Cost Accounting.

  • In the assignment feature, no allocation entries are posted to the Account Balances table (F0902).