GL Impact / Tax Impact of Using Class, Department, Location Segments on the Line or the Header of the Transaction?

Use Segments in the Header, or use them on the Transaction Line?

How does this affect the GL Posting?

1. Not sure whether to use the header or transaction line Class, Department, and Location segments? Making reporting requirements should help in making this decision.

2. By reporting the P & L by location, adding this information to every transaction will allow you to report on this segment of information. The same holds true for Class, and Department.

3. This information can be set as mandatory globally, or can be specified by transaction form on whether the segment is mandatory.

Once the segments are enabled in your NetSuite setup, these segments are available on the transaction forms.

1 – Transactions using Header Segments

• Segments are enabled in NetSuite for departments, classes, and locations, a field for the segment shows in the header of the transaction form.
• Segments are selected in a transaction header, all lines on that transaction are associated with the selected segment.
• EXAMPLE – If ‘North office’ is the Location field on a sales order, all lines on that sales order are associated with the North office.

2 – Transactions using Per-Line Segments

• This is also a setting in the NetSuite Setup.
• If per-line segments are used instead of header segments, a segment field shows for each transaction line but does not show in the header.
• EXAMPLE – The location ‘North office’ can be on one line and location ‘South office’ can be on another line.
• Note that the items on each line are associated with individual locations, but there is no location for the entire transaction. For an invoice, line one has location ‘North office’ and line two has location ‘South office,’ but the Accounts Receivable line is associated with no location.

 Using Per-Line Segments and Header Segments

• With an invoice using the header and the line segment, in the example, line one is location ‘North office’, line two is location ‘South office’ and the header location can be set as ‘Corporate office.’
• The Accounts Receivable line has location ‘Corporate office.’
• This segmentation makes it easier to report legal entities or segments geographically and have separate balance sheets and income statements by the locations.

The settings for segments can be setup in Accounting Preferences

Setup / Accounting / Preferences / Accounting Preferences – role is Administrator:

• Mandatory:
  • Departments
  • Classes
  • Locations
• Allow
  • Per-Line Departments
  • Per-Line Classes
• Always Allow Per-Line Segments on Journal Entries

For only journal entries, this preference overrides any other Allow Per-Line preferences that have been set.

• Allow
  • Non-Balancing Segments on Journal Entries
  • Empty Segments on Journal Entries

Tax Information for GL Impact

• A class, department, or location at the header level, those same values are displayed at the tax line on the GL Impact page.
• When the transaction record displays no values for class, department, and location at the header level, the GL Impact page displays the class, department, and location of the last transaction line that has tax.
• With intercompany journal entries, the GL Impact page always uses the class, department, and location used by the subsidiary at the last transaction line that has tax.

To Customize a Form –

Open the transaction and click Customize/Customize form. Follow these steps to choose which segments appear and if they are mandatory.

1. Enter a name for the custom form, such as, ‘Your company Name’ Vendor Bill.
2. On the subtab Screen Fields / Main:
   • Show column – Check the box next to Class, Department, or Location to use the fields in the transaction header.
   • Mandatory column – Check this box next to Class, Department, or Location to make this field mandatory in the header.
3. On the subtab Screen Fields / Columns, check the box in the Show column next to Class, Department, or Location. This will allow you to use the fields on individual transaction lines.
4. Click Save.

The segment fields marked ‘show’ are available to use for this customized form.

For more information on this topic or others related to NetSuite, contact RSM at netsuite@rsmus.com or by phone at 855.437.7202.

Brenda Moore