Example of One Chart of Accounts Structure with Many Instances

In Oracle General Ledger, the chart of accounts model is framed around the concept of a chart of accounts structure, for which one or more chart of accounts structure instances can be created.

Scenario

Your company, InFusion Corporation, is a multinational conglomerate that operates in the United States (US) and the United Kingdom (UK). InFusion has purchased an Oracle Cloud ERP solution including General Ledger and all of the Oracle Fusion Cloud subledgers. You are chairing a committee to discuss creation of a model for your global financial reporting structure including your charts of accounts for both your US and UK operations.

InFusion Corporation

InFusion Corporation has 400 plus employees and revenue of 120 million US dollars. Your product line includes all the components to build and maintain air quality monitoring systems for homes and businesses.

Chart of Accounts Model

The chart of accounts structure provides the general outline of the chart of accounts and determines the number of segments, the type, the length, and the label (qualifier) of each segment. This forms the foundation of the chart of accounts definition object.

For each chart of accounts structure, it is possible to associate one or more chart of accounts structure instances. Chart of accounts structure instances for the same structure share a common configuration with the same segments, in the same order, and the same characteristics. Using one chart of accounts structure with multiple instances simplifies your accounting and reporting.

At the chart of accounts structure instance level, each segment is associated with a value set that conforms to the characteristic of that segment. For example, you assign a value set with the same segment type and length to each segment. You are using hierarchies with your chart of accounts segments. Each structure instance segment is assigned a tree code to indicate the source of the hierarchy information for the associated value set. The same value set can be used multiple times within the same or across different chart of accounts instances within the same structure or in different structures. This functionality reduces your segment value creation and maintenance across your charts of accounts.

The collective assignment of value sets to each of the segments forms one chart of accounts instance. At the chart of accounts structure instance level, you can select to enable dynamic insertion. Dynamic insertion allows the creation of account combinations automatically the first time your users enter that new account combination. The alternative is to create them manually. By deciding to enable dynamic insertion, you save data entry time and prevent delays caused by the manual creation of new account combinations. Well-defined cross-validation rules help prevent the creation of inappropriate account combinations.

Perform deployment after a new chart of accounts structure and structure instances are defined or any of their modifiable attributes are updated. Deployment validates and regenerates the necessary objects to enable your charts of accounts and chart of accounts structure instances. By unifying and standardizing you organization's chart of accounts, you are positioned to take full advantage of future functionality in General Ledger.

In summary, you are recommending to your company to unify the organization's chart of accounts in a single chart of accounts structure based on chart of accounts commonalities across ledgers. You have also decided to use the chart of accounts structure instance construct to serve different accounting and reporting requirements by using value sets specific to each of your entities.