Set up dimension count

You have flexibility to automate posting count changes from dimension groups for any dimension, such as customers, employees, suppliers, and items, to a statistical account using dimension count rules. Use it to automate counts for things like:

  • Customer retention rate
  • Customer count by type
  • mployee attrition reports

Automate dimension count changes

Dimension count rules automatically post a journal transaction and update the count to a statistical journal based on the dimension groups you specify, anytime you create a dimension member record, such as customer or item, that matches the rule.

To make sure that counts are always current, dimension count posts a transaction based on the system date when the dimension member record is saved or deleted.

A dimension must be enabled in order for dimension counts to work. For example, to use the Locations dimension count, the Location dimension must be active. If you don't see a particular dimension count, verify that the dimension is enabled in Dimension settings.

Set up the dimension count

Setting up dimension count is a multi-step process and requires admin privileges.

1. Create a statistical account

Each dimension count must be posted to a separate statistical account.

For example, you might create a statistical account for customers located in New York. Based on the rule you define for the dimension group, the count of New York customers is tracked automatically. When a new customer from New York is added, the statistical account is incremented by 1. When a New York customer is made inactive (meaning that they are no longer a customer), the statistical account is decremented by 1.

For multi-entity companies: Only top-level statistical accounts are available. You can't select statistical accounts that are private to subsidiary entities.

Refer to Statistical accounts to learn more.

2. Configure dimension groups

A dimension group is a name for a particular set of members in a dimension, or a set of members that meet certain criteria. For example, you can create customer groups for customers located in a particular state or customers with the greatest open balance. A dimension group lets you define the rule for updating dimension count.

For each count to automate, create an appropriate dimension group. There's a separate dimension group list for each type of dimension, and access is controlled by your permissions. Some dimension groups, such as customers, suppliers, and items can be accessed from multiple menus.

For multi-entity companies: Only top level dimension groups are available. You can't select dimension groups that are private to subsidiary entities.

For example, if you want to be able to show only how many of your customers are in New York, create a customer group that includes only customers whose main address is in New York.

If you spell out the state or territory name in the Customer record, set the value to New York. You could also add a second filter to include the customer if the value for the State or territory equals NY. In this case, you would set the filter conditions to Any (OR). Any customer whose record showed the state or territory as NY or New York would be included in the group.

To learn how to create dimension groups, refer to Dimension groups overview.

  1. Go to General Ledger > Setup > Configuration. Configure the General Ledger.
  2. Locate Dimension count in the Advanced GL section.
  3. Place a check mark in the Enable dimension count checkbox.

4. Create dimension count rules

Dimension count rules are the foundation of automating statistical account counts.These rules allow the finer granularity necessary for insight and analysis.

Create at least 1 dimension count rule. Each row in General Ledger Setup > Dimension count is a separate rule that creates a statistical journal entry when the rule values are met.

There's no functional limit to the number of dimension count rules that you can create, so you can automate the process for everything that matches the corporate requirements.

To learn about creating rules, refer to dimension count rules.

5. Select the statistical journal

Select or create the statistical journal into which transactions are posted when a dimension count rule is matched. This can be a new statistical journal or an existing one. One statistical journal is used for all dimension count transactions. This journal helps you organize dimension counts for your audit trail, to understand how the counts are updated.

For multi-entity companies: Only top-level statistical journals are available. You can't select statistical journals that are private to subsidiary entities.

Establish a base count

When you enable dimension count, only new updates are included in statistical account updates. The existing dimension objects aren’t included, even if they would match the dimension count criteria.

Enter a manual journal entry to the statistical account to establish a beginning balance as a starting point.

To learn how to enter a manual journal entry, refer to Statistical journal entries.

Best practice: If you've already set up a dimension count rule, don't disable the dimension. Disabling the dimension can cause unexpected behavior.