Allocations enable you to split costs and revenue from selected general ledger accounts and dimensions and distribute them to other general ledger accounts and dimensions. You can do this within a single company or across multiple companies.
For fixed allocations, you can specify the allocation split either as a percentage or as a specific amount.
For example, you can use allocations to distribute marketing costs equally between multiple cost centers. If the marketing costs are $5,000 in a particular month, the allocation is split as follows:
| Cost Center | Percentage |
Allocation ($) |
|---|---|---|
| A | 25 | 1,250 |
| B | 25 | 1,250 |
| C | 25 | 1,250 |
| D | 25 | 1,250 |
See Using Fixed Allocations to Allocate Costs and Revenues for more information on fixed allocations.
For variable allocations, you can use variable sets of statistical values as the basis for your allocation, such as headcount or square footage of office space.
For example, you can split head office IT costs across multiple departments using the headcount in each department. If the IT costs are $20,000 in a particular month, the allocation is split as follows, based on the headcount:
| Department | Headcount |
Allocation ($) |
|---|---|---|
| Marketing | 5 | 3571.43 |
| Sales | 7 | 5000.00 |
| HR | 12 | 8571.43 |
| Finance | 4 | 2857.14 |
See Using Statistical Allocations to Allocate Costs and Revenues for more information on variable allocations that are based on a set of statistical values.
You can also use Allocations to eliminate intercompany transactions, like this:
In this example, the elimination is posted to company Merlin Eliminations, GLA Elimination Adjustments, Period 10.
Allocation templates allow you to reuse the details you have entered during the allocation process, such as the filter structure of the source data, allocation rules used, and distribution details. This means that there is no need to enter the details each month and the Allocation Scheduler can run them automatically for you. Dates, periods, and specific amounts are not stored in the template.
You can save the details you have entered as a template at the start or at the end of the allocation process. Although this makes it possible to save an incomplete allocation template, these templates are excluded from processing by the Allocation Scheduler. For a template to be available for use, all the mandatory fields must be completed on each of the pages.
See Creating an Allocation Schedule and Managing Allocation Templates for more information.
It is not possible to delete an allocation transaction. If you have created an allocation transaction in error, you must reverse it. See Reversing an Allocation Transaction for information on how to do this.
This will create a transaction of equal value, but with the opposite sign. The reversing transaction line items have the process status of "Not Processed" and a matching status of "Not Matchable". This is the same as the original allocation transaction line items.
You should note the following restrictions:
Depending on the volume of data being processed, when you run an allocation it might run immediately (synchronously) or it might run as a batch job (asynchronously).
The Document Line Volume Settings custom setting is a protected setting, so you must contact FinancialForce Customer Support to adjust these values.
When the allocation process runs in batch, you (the person who starts the process) are notified by email when the process completes. Any errors that occur are recorded in logs which you can access from the Allocation Detail page.
Related Concepts
About the Allocation Scheduler
Related Tasks
Using Fixed Allocations to Allocate Costs and Revenues
Using Statistical Allocations to Allocate Costs and Revenues
Reversing an Allocation Transaction
Creating an Allocation Schedule
Maintaining Allocation Schedules
Reference