Integration mapping scheme features

This topic describes the main features of the LN integration mapping scheme.

Flexibility and consistency

The following features ensure the flexibility and consistency of the mapping scheme:

  • A large number of the attributes of logistic transactions are available for the mapping, for example, the business partner, the item group, the item, the warehouse, and the sales office.
  • The same transaction attributes are available for the ledger account mapping and the dimension mapping.
  • You can define the ledger mapping and dimension mapping of the element groups on decreasing priority levels. If LN cannot map a transaction based on the mapping with priority one, LN uses the mapping of priority two, and so on.
  • For each type of integration transaction, you define the mapping for the debit side and for the credit side in the same way.
  • Before the integration mapping scheme can become effective, LN checks the scheme’s consistency. You can only make a mapping scheme version active if no blocking errors occur.
  • New types of integration transactions can relatively easy be added to the mapping scheme. In this way, the mapping scheme is open to extensions of the standard LN software, customizations, and third-party applications.
Reconciliation support

The reconciliation process matches the financial transactions to the related logistic transaction data to check whether the financial postings are correct and complete and to correct any detected differences. The way in which the mapping scheme is set up also partly determines the extent to which reconciliation is possible.

The following features of the mapping scheme support extensive reconciliation:

  • Consistent mapping of debit and credit transactions on a ledger account.
  • Consistent use of the currency exchange rate type for the related debit and credit transactions on a ledger account.
  • Separation of currency results from the actual integration transactions
  • Improved handling of the rounding of quantities and the conversion of units.
  • Improved handling of amount rounding.
  • Preservation of the link between a financial transaction and the originating logistic transaction
Version control

LN performs version control of the mapping schemes. Multiple mapping scheme versions can exist simultaneously, however, only one integration mapping scheme version at a time is the active version used to map the integration transactions.

You cannot make changes to the active mapping scheme version. You can manually map individual backdated transactions according to a mapping scheme version that was previously active. For example, you can map backdated transactions according to the mapping scheme version that was effective at the transaction time.

If the mapping requirements in your company change, you can create a new version of the mapping scheme in advance and make the changes without affecting the current integration transactions.

The following components of an integration mapping scheme uniquely apply to a single mapping scheme code/version combination:

  • Element groups by integration document type
  • Mapping elements by element group
  • Ledger mapping and dimension mapping of the elements
  • Document numbering and compression options

LN can print a comparison report of the differences between two mapping scheme versions.

A revision text is attached to each mapping scheme version, which you can use to indicate the reason for the new version. If you make a new mapping scheme version active, previous versions are maintained.

The mapping scheme version is part of the integration transaction logging data, so that you can always check why a specific integration transaction was posted in a particular way.

Open for extensions

The integration mapping scheme is open, which means that new types of integration transactions generated by future extensions of Operations Management and integrated third-party applications can easily be added to the integration mapping scheme, without the need for data-model changes.

For this purpose, instead of user-defined codes, generic and unique codes are generated for the various components of the integration mapping scheme, based on predefined internal codes. For example, integration document types have codes such as 10001024 and 10072089, and mapping elements have codes such as 014505000000 and 014505495600. As a result, in various LN installations, the same integration document types and mapping elements have the same generated codes.

Mapping scheme components

The mapping scheme consists of the following components:

  • Integration document types
    Represent the various types of integration transactions
  • Mapping elements
    Logistic transaction details, such as the item, the project, and the warehouse, that you can use to distinguish similar integration transactions
  • Element groups
    A method to group mapping elements

The basic procedure to set up the integration mapping scheme consists of the following steps:

  1. Add integration document types to the mapping scheme.
  2. Create element groups and link element groups to the integration document types.
  3. Link mapping elements to the element groups.
  4. Define the ledger account mapping and/or dimension mapping for the mapping elements.

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