Plan checklist for defining allocations

Before you define and process allocations, you can plan the allocation. You can use this list of considerations as a checklist when planning your allocation:

Decision Options
Determine the pool or basis for the allocation.
  • You can use an activity pool or general ledger pool. Use an activity pool to define the activity or activity list and account categories for the balances to allocate. Use a general ledger pool to define the company, accounting units, accounts, and subaccounts for the balances to allocate.
  • If you use a list to select activities for a pool, ensure that the list does not include both summary and posting activities to avoid overstating the pool balance.
  • You must use a compute statement with a general ledger pool to determine the balances.
  • Consider using an auto-reversing allocation if the cumulative basis for the allocation pool is life-to-date or year-to-date.
Determine whether the allocation is one sided or whether it must remain in balance.
  • To have a balance allocation, consider defining a single offset activity or account category for posting the offset transactions to have a balanced allocation transaction in activities.
  • You can create a balanced entry in General Ledger without creating a balanced entry in Project Accounting.
  • You are not required to balance unit allocations that you post to General Ledger, but you must balance the amount allocations that you post to General Ledger.

See Define list allocations.
Determine the activities and account categories to which you want to allocate.
  • You can only allocate to posting level activities.
  • To save time, you can post allocations to a list of activities.
Determine the type of driver to use for the allocation.

You can create allocations using any of these drivers:

  • Fixed percentages
  • Fixed factors
  • Dynamic factors
  • A mix of fixed percentages and factors
  • A compute statement
    Note: If you should use a different pool as the basis for each allocation line, consider using a computed allocation.
Determine the order in which allocations are processed.
  • If allocation transactions can contribute to pools you use in subsequent allocations, then you can create an allocation group and assign steps to each allocation in the group to determine the order in which allocations are calculated.
  • Consider the processes that you must complete before you perform allocations. For example, you must post depreciation to General Ledger before allocating depreciation costs to activities.