Transferring and Posting Cost Entries

Article
03/21/2023

Before you define cost allocations, you must understand how cost entries come from the following sources:

Automatic transfer of general ledger entries.
Manual cost posting for pure cost entries, internal charges, and manual allocations.
Automatic allocation postings for actual costs.
Transfer of budget entries to actual.

Criteria for Transferring General Ledger Entries to Cost Entries

It is important to understand the criteria for transferring general ledger entries to cost entries. During the transfer, the Transfer GL Entries to CA batch job uses the following criteria to determine if and how the general ledger entries are transferred.

General ledger entries are transferred if:

The entries have dimension values corresponding to either a cost centre or a cost object.
The entries have dimension values that correspond to a cost centre and a cost object. For these entries, the cost centre takes precedence. This helps avoid a situation where a cost type appears in both a cost object and a cost centre and is therefore counted twice in the statistics.
The document number in the entries is empty, so it will appear with a document number of 0000 in the cost entries.
The entries are transferred to a cost type that allows for combined entries and these entries are transferred as a combined entry either monthly or daily.

General ledger entries are not transferred if:

The entries have dimension values that do not correspond to a cost centre or a cost object.
The entries have an amount of zero.
The entries have a general ledger account that has been deleted.
The entries have a general ledger account that is not of the type Income Statement.
The entries have a general ledger account that is not assigned a cost type.
The entries have a posting date before the Starting Date for G/L Transfer.
The entries have been posted with a closing date. These are typically entries that set back the balance of the income statement at the end of the year.

Transferring General Ledger Entries to Cost Entries

You can transfer general ledger entries to cost entries.

Before you run the process for transferring general ledger entries to cost entries, you must prepare the transfer to avoid manual correction posting.

To prepare the transfer

Choose the icon, enter Cost Accounting Setup, and then choose the related link.
On the Cost Accounting Setup page, verify that the Starting Date for G/L Transfer field is set to the correct value.
Choose the icon, enter Chart of Cost Types, and then choose the related link.
On the Cost Type Card page, verify that the G/L Account Range field is linked correctly for each cost type to take entries from the general ledger.
Choose the icon, enter Chart of Accounts, and then choose the related link.
For each relevant general ledger account, on the G/L Account Card page, verify that the Cost Type No. field is linked correctly to a cost type. For more information, see Setting Up Cost Accounting.
Verify that all relevant general ledger entries have dimension values that correspond to a cost centre and a cost object.

To transfer general ledger entries to cost entries

Choose the icon, enter Transfer GL Entries to CA, and then choose the related link.
Choose the Yes button to start the transfer. The process transfers all general ledger entries that have not already been transferred.

During the transfer, the process creates connections in the entries in the Cost Entry table and the Cost Register table. This makes it possible to trace the source of cost entries.

Automatic Transfer and Combined Entries

In cost accounting, you can transfer general ledger entries to a cost type by using a combined posting. You can specify if a cost type receives combined entries in the Combine Entries field in the cost type definition. The following table describes the different options.

Combine Entries	Description
None	Each general ledger entry is transferred individually to the corresponding cost type.
Day	General ledger entries with the same posting date are transferred as one entry to the corresponding cost type.
Month	All general ledger entries in the same calendar month are transferred as one entry to the corresponding cost type.

Important

If you have selected the Auto Transfer from G/L check box on the Cost Accounting Setup page, Business Central updates the cost accounting after every posting in the general ledger. Combined entries are not possible.

Results of Transferring General Ledger Entries to Cost Entries

During the transfer of general ledger entries to cost entries, Business Central creates connections in the entries in the G/L Entry table, the Cost Entry table, and the Cost Register table to make it possible to trace the connections between cost entries and general ledger entries.

General Ledger Entries

For each general ledger entry that is transferred to cost accounting, Business Central fills the cost Entry No. field.

Cost Entries

For each cost entry, Business Central saves the entry number of the corresponding general ledger entry in the G/L Entry No. field in the Cost Entry table.

For combined cost entries, Business Central saves the entry number of the last general ledger entry, which is the entry with the highest entry number.

The G/L Account field in the Cost Entry table contains the number of the general ledger account that the cost entry came from.

For single cost entries, Business Central transfers the posting text from the general ledger entry to the Description text field. For combined entries, the text field shows these entries are transferred as combined entries. For example, for a combined entry for the month of October in 2013, the text can be Combined Entries, October 2013.

Cost Register

In the Cost Register table, Business Central creates an entry with the source transfer from general ledger. The entry records the first and last entry numbers of the general ledger entries that are transferred, in addition to the first and last entry numbers of the cost entries that are created.