Dimension relationship is another interesting and crucial aspect of dimensions which Sage Intacct offers. You can setup a relationship between two dimensions to automate data entry and enforce the accuracy of data. Some of the benefits that dimension relationships provides;
- You can auto-populate dimension values
- You can filter dimension values
- You can cascade dimension values
To understand dimension relationship let’s take a business scenario.
Your company wants to allow only selective sales rep/account manager/employee assigned to each customer. When entering transactions (say sales invoice); only valid assigned employees should be available for selection.
The first step here is to identify the dimensions; in this case Customer and Employee. Then select the base dimension. Essentially Customer dimension is a base dimension here as based on which Employee values will be specified.
Let’s modify customer object.
- Edit the Customer object (Platform Services > Objects).
- Select Auto-fill related objects and Save.
Customer object
- Setup New Relationship on Customer object (Object Definition page)
- Select Employee as Related Object
New Relationship
- Select Relationship Type as Many Employees to Many Customers and Save.
Setup relationship
Now you will need an ability to provide employee lookup (related dimension) on the customer record. Here users must be able to select multiple employees for each customer.
- Modify Edit page of Customer object.
- Click the related field – Employee.
- Click Save.
After adding the lookup; you will notice Employee field with magnifier which will pull the Employee list. From this view; multiple employees can be selected and assigned to customer record.
Select employees
On transactions (sales invoice); you will notice employee lookup only show valid employees list as assigned on customer record.
Employee selection
So we accomplished the requirement to allow only valid employees as assigned on customer record to be available for selection while entering transactions (sales invoice). This will reduce the error on part of data entry clerk to assign only valid reps.
Relationships can be created between standard dimensions, user-defined dimensions and standard -user defined dimensions. In order to setup dimension relationship you also need to subscribe to Platform Services.