Using Proportional Allocations to Allocate Costs and Revenues

This topic explains how to allocate costs and revenues using proportional values. Allocation Examples are also available to help you understand how to create a proportional allocation.

See Using Fixed Allocations to Allocate Costs and Revenues for information on allocating using fixed values, or Using Statistical Allocations to Allocate Costs and Revenues for information on allocating using statistical values.

A proportional allocation is a type of allocation that enables you to use a set of proportional values, based on general ledger and dimension balances, to calculate the distribution percentage.

There is a clickable progress bar at the top of each page. This bar enables you to navigate within the allocation process by clicking on a point on the bar. It also illustrates what steps are complete and what still needs to be done: the icon indicates a completed step and the icon indicates an incomplete step. You cannot use the progress bar to jump forward in the allocation process, unless you have already completed some of the details on that page.

A collapsible progress side panel is also available and summarizes the current status of the allocation. To show or hide the side panel, click the arrow.

Tip:

We recommend that you maximize the Allocation pages, as this makes it easier to see the details in the Preview pane.

Retrieving the Source Data

Note: Proportional Allocation is only available in single-company mode. You cannot retrieve source data from more than one company.

The Retrieve Source page enables you to specify the source data for your allocation:

  1. Check that you have the required company selected.
  2. Click the Allocations tab.
  3. Click New on the Allocations home page.
  4. On the Retrieve Source page, select a time period and its associated values. For example, if you select "Soft Date", you must select the relevant soft date value, such as "Last N Months". If you select "Current Period", only transactions up to the current date are selected.

    Note:

    We recommend that you select transactions by period, not by date range, so that the data aligns with your accounting period.

  5. [Optional] Select a general ledger accountClosed The general ledger will normally include general ledger accounts (GLAs) for items such as income, expenses, assets, liabilities, and reserves. from the list.
  6. [Optional] Add more GLAs in the same way. To select all the GLAs in a range, click and select "From-To". To select multiple GLAs, click and select "Multi-select".
  7. Select up to four 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.. You can select from a list or type a name to search. Your administrator may have hidden unused dimensions.
  8. [Optional] When you have provided or exceeded the minimum retrieval criteria, click Preview to retrieve and view a summary of the source data. You must have entered at least one time period and either a GLA or one or more analysis dimensions.
  9. [Optional] On the summary list, you can expand each entry to view the individual transaction line items. You can use standard sort and search features to navigate around.
  10. [Optional] Click Show More if there are more transaction line items to view.
  11. Click Next to continue.

Setting the Allocation Method

The Allocation Method page enables you to specify the type of allocation you want to perform:

  1. For Method of Allocation select "Proportional". This means that you are going to use a set of proportional values as the basis of your allocation.
  2. Click Next to continue.

Retrieving the Basis

  1. Select the GLAs and dimensions you want to allocate to.
  2. [Optional] Set up a filter for the data in the preview pane:
    1. Click Show Filter.
    2. Click Add Filter.
    3. Select a field from the picklist, then select an operator and enter a value. The fields available are derived from Distribution Fields.
    4. Repeat for each field you want to filter by.
  3. [Optional] Click Preview to view the data in the Preview pane. If required, you can use the Search field to find specific entries in the filtered data.
  4. Click Next to continue.

Configuring the Allocation

The Proportional Basis Configuration page enables you to specify the proportional values you want to use as the basis for your allocation.

  1. Select the GLAs and Dimensions that you want to group this allocation by. You must select at least one GLA or one Dimension. If required, add more GLAs or Dimensions.
  2. [Optional] Click Preview to view the data in the Preview pane.
  3. Click Next to continue.

Entering the Distribution Details

The Proportional Distribution page enables you to specify where you want to allocate the source data to and the corresponding percentages or values:

  1. Do one of the following:
    • Select Copy GLAs if you want to allocate to the GLAs retrieved in your source data. By default "Source" is selected.
    • Select Allocate to GLAs and click in the field to select the GLAs you want to allocate to.
  2. [Optional] Click Preview to view the distribution.
  3. Click Next to continue.

Entering the Details

The Details page enables you to specify how you want to post the allocations:

  1. [Optional] Type a description to display on the resulting journal or transactions. If you leave this field blank, a description is automatically generated based on the posting date or period you enter, such as "Allocation 2019/005".
  2. Specify whether you want to create journals or transactions.
  3. Enter the journal or transaction posting date and period.
  4. Click on the Preview heading to expand the Preview section.
  5. [Optional] Click next to Source to view details of the source data for this allocation.
  6. [Optional] Click next to Distribution to view details of the transactions to create for this allocation.
  7. Click Create.
Note: Allocation journals have a type of "Manual" and a status of "In Progress". You will need to post the journals manually via the Journals tab.

Once an allocation transaction has been created successfully, you can view it from the Allocations list view or go on to create a new allocation.

The allocation transaction line items have a process status of "Not Processed" and a matching status of "Not Matchable". If you create an allocation transaction in error, you can reverse it. See Reversing an Allocation Transaction for more information.

Viewing an Allocation

To view details of an allocation:

  1. Click the Allocations tab.
  2. From the Allocations list view, click the allocation.

You can access logs created by the allocation process from the Allocation Detail page. See Allocation Detail Fields for more information about the fields on this page.