What is an Intersect Definition?

An intersect definition defines the storage of balances within the FinancialForce general ledgerClosed Central repository for all your business transactions. Each transaction is posted to a general ledger account..

You can choose to either store balances for all combinations of general ledger accountClosed The general ledger will normally include general ledger accounts (GLAs) for items such as income, expenses, assets, liabilities, and reserves., entityClosed Collective term for the following predefined dimensions within your chart of accounts: account, product, bank account, and tax code. and analysis dimensionsClosed Custom objects that allow you to analyze the activity in your business in additional ways, such as by cost center, project, employee, or any other business entity important to you. that have been used on your transaction line items (the full accounting codeClosed A combination of up to six elements: a general ledger account, a single entity and up to four analysis dimensions, as recorded on a specific transaction line item.), or alternatively any other combination of the six elementsClosed The elements of a full accounting code consist of a general ledger account, an entity, and up to four analysis dimensions..

Tip:

We recommend that as a minimum you create a full accounting code intersect definition and one for general ledger account only.

The Intersect Definitions tab displays a home page that lets you quickly create and locate your intersect definitions. You can also sort and filter your intersect definitions using standard and custom list viewsClosed Give you instant access to specific sets of data. In addition to using existing views, you can create custom list views for the items most relevant to you.. In addition, this tab lets you view and edit detailed information on each intersect definition.

For example, if an intersect definition is setup with dimensions 1, 2 and 3 selected, all 3 dimensions must be populated (as a minimum) on the posted document in order for the reporting balance record to be created.

The Intersect Definition object is an organization-level objectClosed Custom object that exists across all companies in an organization (org)..

An example intersect definition

For example, posting a sales invoice with one product and one tax code will create a transaction with one account line and two analysis lines, one containing a product and another containing a tax code.

Intersect Definition Name Cost Center Analysis
Full Accounting Code  
General Ledger Account (GLA)
EntityClosed (Account, Product, Bank Account or Tax Code)
Dimension 1 (Region)
Dimension 2 (Manufacturer)  
Dimension 3  
Dimension 4  

The example intersect definition would cause the following balances to be created, and could be used to report on account balances by region.

  • GLA + Account + Dimension1
  • GLA + Product + Dimension1
  • GLA+ TaxCode + Dimension1

The following examples illustrate the effect on your balances of using full accounting code intersect definition compared to one based on GLA/Dim 1.

Intersect definition with full accounting code

Company GLA Dim 1 Dim 2 Dim 3 Dim 4 Entity Type Year Period Home Value
Merlin Tech Inc. 1200 - AR Chicago Consumer Sales   Widgets Actual 2013 1 100.00
Merlin Tech Inc. 1200 - AR Chicago Consumer Sales   Widgets Actual 2013 2 1500.00
Merlin Tech Inc. 1200 - AR Chicago Manufacturing Consulting EUR Widgets Actual 2014 5 1500.00
Merlin Tech Inc. 1200 - AR Chicago Manufacturing Consulting GBP Widgets Actual 2014 5 550.00
Merlin Tech Inc. 1200 - AR Chicago Consumer Sales   Widgets Budget 2013 1 600.00
Merlin Tech Inc. 1200 - AR Chicago Manufacturing Consulting EUR Widgets Budget 2014 5 3250.00
Merlin Tech Inc. 1200 - AR Chicago Manufacturing Consulting GBP Widgets Budget 2014 5 2000.00