Accounts Payable multi-entity guidelines

Some Sage Intacct applications work differently in a multi-entity shared company. It can be helpful to prepare for these differences to ensure you work efficiently in the application.

AP approvals

AP approvals are configured at the top level and visible to entities. You can't change an approval configuration at the entity level.

You cannot approve entity-level bills at the top level.

AP configuration

You can edit some configuration settings within an entity.

For example, in Entity 1, the in Accounts Payable needs to always default to that entity’s .

  1. Slide in to the entity and go to Configure Accounts Payable.
  2. Scroll down to the Defaults section and select a default bank account in each entity.
  3. Save your changes.

Learn more about configuring AP.

AP transactions

An AP transaction at the top level has shared visibility, and can only access records for shared data (that is data lists created at the top level: for example, customers, vendors, chart of accounts) that were created at the top level.

Bills

You cannot pay a bill created at the entity level with an entity-private bank account from a different entity or from the top level. The entities do not have access to each other, so the inter-entity transaction will fail.

A bill that was created at the top level can use all bank accounts, whether they have shared visibility or entity-private visibility. However, if a bank account is entity-private, the account doesn't have access to the bill so it can't create an inter-entity transaction.

If you enter a bill at the entity level you should pay the bill at the entity level. The only way to access entity-level bills from the top level is to use “pay by entity.”

Learn more about bills.

Pay bills and approvals

Approvers can access approvals from the top level or from the entity. Access to approvals at the top level is helpful when an approver has payment approvals from multiple entities. If a bill is shared between entities, approving from the entity will only approve the part of the bill for that entity.

Discover helpful filter sets to create if you are paying bills in a multi-entity company.

Learn more about paying bills.

Printing checks

To print the entity address on blank check stock, print checks at the entity level. There are three places that a check might get its address: at the top level, which is the default company address, at the entity level, and at an override.

Learn more about printing checks.

Reclassification

Transactions originating from Purchasing cannot be reclassified.

You cannot reclassify top level transactions.

Vendors

Learn more about setting up vendors.

Top level

A top level transaction has access to vendor records created at the top level only. A transaction created at the entity level only has access to vendor records created at the entity level.

Best practice is to set up vendors at the top level and allow them to be used by all entities, or restrict them by entity or department.

Entity level

A bill created at the entity level cannot be paid with an entity-private bank account from a different entity. Similarly, an invoice created at the entity level cannot receive payment into an entity-private bank account from a different entity.

To restrict specific vendors to a particular entity, create the vendors at the entity level.

You can restrict vendors to specific entities and locations, and remove them again at any time. Entity restrictions can be enabled in Company > Admin > Subscriptions > Multi-Entity Management > Configure.

Multi-base currency guidelines

Learn about multi-base currency guidelines.

For subscription information

Contact your Sage Intacct account representative.