How Does General Ledger Setup Impact Subsystems?

Subsystem requirements and capabilities may affect the number of companies you create in General Ledger. Many Lawson applications interface with General Ledger, and require you to define a relationship between your general ledger company and another application specific company. For example, you define a relationship between your accounts payable company and your general ledger company.

As you define your general ledger company structure, you will want to consider the impact of your choices on future setup in other Lawson applications. The following table shows the relationship between a general ledger company and other companies you may define in interfaced Lawson applications.

General Guidelines

The following general guidelines summarize the relationship between general ledger companies and subsystem companies:

  • You can always have more general ledger companies than subsystem companies, since some companies are used only in General Ledger. Examples include translation companies, elimination companies, and consolidation companies. (The following table does not take these general ledger companies, which are used for reporting only, into consideration.)

  • Some subsystems include process levels, which allow you to report on multiple legal entities within a single general ledger company. General Ledger does not include process levels, but a process level in a subsystem typically relates to a summary accounting unit in General Ledger.

    GL Company Relationship to Considerations
    Asset Management Assets must be assigned to a specific general ledger company. Depreciation is posted to General Ledger based on the company, accounting unit, and account tied to the asset.
    Accounts Payable

    You must define one general ledger company for each accounts payable company you want to define.

    Accounts Payable includes an invoice company and a post company. Both must be defined as general ledger companies. To allow centralized processing, you can have one post company to multiple invoice companies. You can use a process level in Accounts Payable to designate a legal entity within a general ledger company. You can produce 1099s by process level.
    Accounts Receivable You must define one general ledger company for each accounts receivable company you want to define.
    Project Accounting Activity structures don't need to relate to a company. You can have multiple structures for a company or one structure for multiple companies. Transactions that start in Project Accounting and are posted to General Ledger, must be assigned to a company, accounting unit, and account.
    Lease Management You have one lease management company for each accounts payable company, which has a one-to-one correspondence to a general ledger company.
    Strategic Ledger You can limit a ledger to a specific company. If you specify a company for a ledger, you can analyze Strategic Ledger information in the data mart by company.
    Accounts Receivable, Billing, Franchise Management, Order Entry, and Sales Analysis You must have one general ledger company for each accounts receivable company. A process level can be used to designate a legal entity within a general ledger company. Tax reports can be produced by process level.
    Production Order Work orders in Production Order are not company specific.
    Purchase Order, Inventory, and Case Carts There is a one-to-one correspondence between a purchase order company, inventory control company, case carts company, and a general ledger company.
    Requisitions There is no requisitions company. Requisitions can be created and satisfied within one or more inventory control companies.
    Human Resources, Benefits, Payroll, Time Accrual, Tips, and Personnel Administration You can have a one-to one relationship between a general ledger company and a human resource company, or you can have multiple general ledger companies to one human resource company. You can use a process level in Human Resources to designate a legal entity within a general ledger company. You can produce W-2s by process level in Human Resources.