Commitment accounting

Dynamics Ax should really have this functionality as Microsoft targets Dynamics Ax at companies of a size that typically create or have a form of commitment accounting for at least part of their purchases.

In implementations that I have done / participated in we have often been called upon to create a commitment accounting process, whereby the customer would be able to budget for purchases, and see the budget, the commited amounts as well as the engaged and realised amounts.

We have often resolved this by creating special standard budgets that are posted / created when certain actions occur at purchase order line level when creating a purchase order, or when it is posted.

Example, we have a budget for the year that states we want to buy 100,000 worth of new machinery during the year. The manager of the production plant in Finsbury wants to buy 1 new planer and 10 new test units. He creates a corresponding entry in the commitment budget once the purchase is approved.

Then he creates the purchase order, which once it is confirmed by the supplier creates entries in an engagment budget he could only buy the planer at 3750 for now.

So we have 100 K in the main Budget 10 K in the Commitment budget and 3,750 in the Engaged budget.

Etc.

As you can see if we use the budgets properly and attach some budget creations to certain processes we can almost have a commitment accounting module in the system for free :-).

Of course it is limited and mostly deals with purchases, and has very little in the nature of forced workflows etc but nevertheless as a quick and simple solution until we get a fully fledged one it will do.

/Sven