Is the new Business Central G/L Dimension Correction feature all that and a bag of chips?

If you are as ecstatic as I am to find out that Microsoft released the ability to Correct Dimensions on G/L Entries, then you probably can’t wait to find out if it’s really everything you thought it would be. If you haven’t had time to check into it yourself, don’t worry; I did some legwork for you by testing the functionality in a preview environment. Read on to see what I found.

Setup

You probably want to know first and foremost what additional setup is required on your part—I will tell you that there really is not much. The only setup is related to disallowing users to change values in dimension sets for specific dimension codes. You can select dimensions that cannot be corrected in Dimension Correction Settings. Selecting here will block users from adding/changing/removing dimension values for this dimension code.

Microsoft also mentions in the release notes that “Administrators can specify that corrections must respect closed accounting period.” I couldn’t find anything new in the system to control this, so it’s possible that control yet to be added. I talk more about this point at the end of this article.

Keep in mind that Permissions may also affect users’ access to this new feature.

Correct Dimensions on General Ledger Entries 

Now for the good part! How does the feature work? Is it easy? Will users change values by accident? I have all those answers for you right here.

There are a few different places in the system you can activate the dimension correction feature. I will illustrate its use through General Ledger Entries and the new options available in the Action Bar. Let me walk you through the steps.

1. Select the G/L entry you want to correct and navigate to the Correct Dimensions option in the Entry menu on the Action Bar.

1. Enter a description of the change and make the dimension change. You can use the Manage menu in the lines to assist with corrections. When you make a change, the corresponding line will appear in bold and very clearly reflect the change.

1. Validate Dimension Changes using the menu option. A window will open to view the scheduling parameters for the validation or allow the option to immediately run the validation. I chose the option to run immediately.
2. Run Dimension Changes using the menu option. A window identical to the validate change window will open. Again, I chose the option to run immediately.
   

View Dimension Corrections

As you work through the different steps to Validate and Run, you can see the different correction statuses for each line in History of Dimension Corrections page. The different statuses are based on how far along you are in the process and include Draft, Validated, In Process and Completed. If you want a list of all dimension corrections made in the system instead of changes only for a selected line, navigate to the Dimension Corrections page where you can see all changes along with a status. This provides a detailed audit trail for the corrections.

At the time I tested, changing a dimension value on a ledger entry did NOT change the dimension on a posted document (if that is where the ledger entry originated).

Undo Dimension Corrections

If you need to revert a dimension change, the steps are very similar to the original dimension change process. You first need to select Validate Undo Dimension Correction and then select Undo. Both of these actions will bring up the prompt to either schedule the task or run it immediately.

So, what do I think?

I think Microsoft successfully delivered on this feature overall, but there are a few missing pieces for me. Here are the pros and cons as I see it.

Pros:

1. It works! We have been waiting for this feature for years, and it allows us to do something we could never do before.
2. While some may consider this functionality “clunky,” I think Microsoft designed this well with different steps to validate and make the change. The user must be very intentional with and vigilant of the changes they are making.
3. I like that administrators can block dimensions from being changed in the Dimension Correction Setup.
4. The detailed History of Dimension Corrections page acts as a great audit log to track changes.

Cons:

1. There does not appear to be any control that is congruent with checking posting dates or accounting periods. For an entry with a posting date that is either disallowed for posting or in a closed accounting period, I was able to validate and run dimension changes without error. This is a huge gap that allows users to change dimension values after a period has been closed and reported on, and that is a huge no-no in the accounting world! It looks like Microsoft intended to provide some control over this, but as I mentioned earlier, I was unable to find where this can be defined.
2. The Dimension Correction Setup page is very limited in setup options. I think this page could be improved upon to be a little bit more robust. Other options on this page might include the ability to enable and disable this functionality, or the option to specify that dimension corrections must respect general ledger posting dates.

I am excited to start using this feature, even with the opportunities for improvement I noted. I hope you’re as excited as I was to discover this new enhancement, and even more excited to use it to save countless hours with corrections and reporting!

Goodbye dimension reclassification entries!