Re: Cost Centers Accounts Screen

[Jacopo Cappellato <ja...@hotwaxmedia.com>]

Vikas,

could you please reply to these notes?

Thank you,

Jacopo

On Jun 2, 2012, at 11:01 AM, Pierre Smits wrote:

> While Vikas does a great job explaining why there is a need for cost
> centers, he doesn't address the issue of why the change should be
> implemented.
> 
> Before the commit following functionalities were available:
> 
>   1. Create cost
> centers<https://demo-trunk.ofbiz.apache.org:8443/accounting/control/FindGlAccountCategory>
>   2. Get per cost center an overview of related GL Accounts and add new
>   ones<https://demo-trunk.ofbiz.apache.org:8443/accounting/control/EditGlAccountCategoryMember?glAccountCategoryId=9301>
>   3. Have one entry form where the administrator of a company, subsidiary
>   or department could add, edit and delete associated GL for all cost centers
>   available based on all GL Accounts available to said entity. Having this
>   form the administrator only had to enter a percentage number for the
>   appropriate cost center and when clicking the submit button the association
>   (or mapping) between cost center and GL Account was created or modified.
> 
> After the commit the functionality of item 3 is reduced to only showing the
> accounts for which a mapping has been created. If an administrator needs to
> add a new mapping he/she than has to go to functionality 2 to create it,
> and repeat that step over and over until all associations are created.
> 
> In a sense this reduction of functionality means a reduction of user
> experience. Having been a financial controller for many years in various
> SMEs and having worked with all kinds of administrators I know that ease of
> use of functionalities is something that is always highly appreciated.
> 
> If Vikas wanted to provide an overview of only associated GL Accounts to
> all cost centers, he should have added a new
> functionality in stead of diminishing the existing one. Actually, having
> one that is read-only (and/or exportable/printable) would make sense.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Pierre
> 
> 
> 2012/6/1 Vikas Mayur <vi...@gmail.com>
> 
>> Pierre, I really don't know whether it was intentional to show all the
>> accounts of the organization because I don't see any such discussion in the
>> past except couple of jira issues. Perhaps the author of the code could
>> throw some light.
>> 
>> Jacopo, I support the idea of just showing only the accounts related to
>> the cost centers based on the following use case / theory. Let me know if
>> you think otherwise.
>> 
>> Cost centers are part of the organization (could be division/department)
>> which adds to the cost of an organization. Lets say the organization have
>> three divisions namely Sales & Marketing, Customer Service & Operations
>> where each division have a certain number of employees for its operation.
>> Suppose, the organization gives health insurance to each employee which is
>> an expense account. To know the cost (% of total expense) of health
>> insurance by each division, the organization will setup three cost centers,
>> one for each division. This would basically means that the health insurance
>> account is now also associated to each cost center with an amount
>> percentage of the total expense. There could be other accounts where the
>> organization would like to know the expenses by each division / cost center
>> and such accounts can also be associated to these cost centers.
>> 
>> Now, if there are any other accounts since all the accounts won't be just
>> for expenses then why we would be needing those accounts on cost center?
>> If, the organization need some of them at some point of time they can be
>> added to cost centers in similar manner.
>> 
>> PS - I don't find any other way to know whether the cost center belongs to
>> parent organization or any other internal organization except by looking at
>> the gl account(s) of the organization which is/are associated to the cost
>> centers via GlAccountCategoryMember entity. I believe we just setup cost
>> centers through GlAccountCategory (with type COST CENTER) and the gl
>> accounts associated to cost centers will denote which organization(s) are
>> related to the cost centers. We perhaps need to simplify the service that
>> generates the data for cost centers screen, it contains lot of iteration
>> code to build a data in such a simple form.
>> 
>> Regards
>> Vikas
>> 
>> On May 31, 2012, at 7:46 PM, Jacopo Cappellato wrote:
>> 
>>> Vikas, Pierre,
>>> 
>>> it would be useful if you both could provide a simple use case of the
>> screen to highlight why you think it should work in that way; then we could
>> take a more informed decision.
>>> 
>>> Jacopo
>>> 
>>> On May 31, 2012, at 10:05 AM, Pierre Smits wrote:
>>> 
>>>> Please don't.
>>>> 
>>>> Showing all accounts of the parent organisations was intentional, so
>>>> changes could be effected in one overview/screen/form.
>>>> 
>>>> 2012/5/29 Vikas Mayur <vi...@gmail.com>
>>>> 
>>>>> Ok, I'll work on a fix since all the gl accounts assigned to the parent
>>>>> organization 'Company' are showing up in the cost centers screen while
>> the
>>>>> only accounts associated to cost centers should show up.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Thanks
>>>>> Vikas
>>>>> 
>>>>> On May 29, 2012, at 2:57 PM, Pierre Smits wrote:
>>>>> 
>>>>>> Vikas,
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> New cost centers can be added through the 'GL Account Category' menu
>>>>> item.
>>>>>> See:
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>> https://demo-trunk.ofbiz.apache.org:8443/accounting/control/FindGlAccountCategory
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> If you then go to 'Cost Centers', you'll see newly added cost centers
>> (if
>>>>>> any), plus an overview of all assigned gl accounts. As a means to
>> easily
>>>>>> manage percentual aspects of costs related to cost centers. As such it
>>>>>> makes sense.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> If you want an overview per cost center, you'll have to go back to the
>>>>> 'GL
>>>>>> Account Category' menu item, select the cost center of choice and go
>> to
>>>>> the
>>>>>> 'GL Account Category Member' overview. See:
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> vhttps://
>>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>> demo-trunk.ofbiz.apache.org:8443/accounting/control/EditGlAccountCategoryMember?glAccountCategoryId=9301
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Regards,
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Pierre
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> 2012/5/29 Vikas Mayur <vi...@gmail.com>
>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> In OFBiz demo data there are three cost centers namely cost center
>> 1, 2
>>>>> &
>>>>>>> 3. The GlAccountCategoryMember associate GL Accounts to a particular
>>>>> cost
>>>>>>> center. At the moment only three GL Accounts are added to these cost
>>>>>>> centers. When you go to Accounting > Global Gl Settings > Cost
>> Centers
>>>>>>> screen it shows all the accounts that are related to the organization
>>>>> party
>>>>>>> Id while it should only show the accounts related to cost centers?
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> Regards
>>>>>>> Vikas
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>> 
>> 
>>