Interfaces of General Ledger with other Lawson applications

This section explains how the General Ledger application interfaces with other Lawson applications.

Allocations

Allocations sends journal entries to General Ledger for posting and reporting. Allocation entries actually move amounts and units from one General Ledger account to another.

The Allocations application uses General Ledger account balances to calculate allocations.

Attribute Matrix

You can associate attributes, which you define in Attribute Matrix, with accounting units and accounts in General Ledger. Attributes provide another dimension for your financial reporting.

General Ledger uses attributes and object types to assign values to accounting units for reporting, data inquiry, and dynamic account generation. You can use accounting unit lists or accounting unit views to view balances for groups of accounting units. In addition, General Ledger uses the transaction object type to assign additional values to transaction lines. These additional values can be used to create customized Transaction Writer reports.

Budgeting

Budgeting may use General Ledger balances when performing compute statements to derive budget figures. Actual amounts or units can be stored in budgets for inquiry.

See Using Lawson Business Intelligence to create data marts.

Use General Ledger to inquire on budget amounts stored in Budgeting. Use Report Writer or the Financials Data Mart to produce reports which compare actual to budgeted amounts. General Ledger calculates Current Year versus Last Year percentage differences on budget amounts.

Currency

A base currency is required for company setup in General Ledger. When a company uses multiple currencies, General Ledger uses currency codes, currency relationships, exchange rates, and translation rates defined in the Currency application. If currency processing is being used, then you must define currency translation gain and loss accounts in General Ledger.

Report Writer

Report Writer uses General Ledger balances to create customized reports using data dictionary names or compute statement formulas.

Strategic Ledger

General Ledger lets you assign user analysis values to journal entries. A user analysis field is a flexible, user-defined element that stores transaction information to measure profitability.

After you release the journal entry, General Ledger sends detail lines that include user analysis values to the Strategic Ledger application for analysis and reporting on organizational profitability.

Other subsystems

Lawson applications and non-Lawson systems interface transactions to General Ledger. Each Lawson application has several programs that interface transactions to General Ledger for posting. You define system controls that determine if an application must be closed before you can close General Ledger.

General Ledger acts as a repository for transactions that originate in other systems. These system entries are transferred to General Ledger, where they are posted to accounts. General Ledger uses those balances for reporting, inquiry, allocation, and budgeting.