Typically in Business Central, overwriting dimensions in journals lead to errors. When that happens, you will need to correct it by reversing the journal or creating a credit memo for the document, which can be time consuming and prone to even more errors.
Having the correct dimensions are crucial for business stakeholders as these are used to analyze the financial health of the business. With Dimension Correction in Dynamics 365 Business Central 2021 release wave 1, you can now correct dimensions for general ledger (G/L) entries to ensure your financial reports is providing you with accurate insights without having to make notes of temporary data entry mistakes. For one or more G/L entries, you can now change the dimension values, add dimensions, or remove them. It can also trace a history of the corrections that you have done and can undo corrections in case you also make a mistake in the corrections itself.
How to run the Dimension Correction
There are four ways to run Dimension Correction.
1. General Ledger Entries. You can change the dimensions for single entry or for a set of entries just by selecting the entries.
2. G/L Register. You can change the dimension per batch posting in this option. It will use “From Entry No.”, “To Entry No.” as a filter for General Ledger Entries.
3. Posted General Journal. This uses "Document No." and "Posting Date" as filters for General Ledger Entries.
4. Search the Dimension Corrections.
Dimension Correction Screen
When you click on "Correct Dimensions” or run “Dimension Corrections” manually you see this screen “Draft Dimension Correction”.
If you run this from Way 1 – Way 3, it will come already prefilled with the Dimensions from the General Ledger Entry or set of entries, like this:
At the Selected Ledger Entries tab, you see the selected G/L Entries for the dimension that you want to change.
If you run Dimension Correction using Search, you will see a blank "Draft Dimension Correction". In this case, you have several options how to get G/L Entries:
1. Manual Selection. You can manually select in the G/L Entries by just choosing them.
2. Dimension Value. This can be useful if you want to change the dimension value Sales to Admin for all G/L
entries. So you find all G/L Entries with the Dimension Sales.
3. Custom Filter. Here you have all freedom of choice, how to filter your G/L Entries for the dimension corrections.
4. Add related entries. This requires at least 1 G/L Entry already to be selected, and then it adds all other G/L Entries with the same “Transaction No”.
How to change Dimension Values
When we create a Dimension Correction, the Status is initially DRAFT. This means the G/L Entries Dimension is NOT yet updated.
You can add here a new line with the new “Dimension Code” or change the “New Dimension Value Code” for the existing dimension or remove a dimension or do it all in one. Once you are done in the Dimension change to move forward you have two option to go thru:
Click the Validate dimension change then click RUN.
Click RUN.
Validate change
This will check if it’s possible to make the dimension changes you specified. It will check the following:
Check that Dimension Correction Setup. Here you can specify the Dimensions, that cannot be changed using the “Dimension Correction Tool”.
Check Dimension Combinations. This will check the New Dimension Values in respect to the Dimension Combinations Setup.
Once the validation run successfully you can see it in the Validation status. Then you can now use the Run action button. This will Apply changes to the General Ledger Entry Dimensions.
The Run button will be executed as a Job. The user will have to choose, how he wants to apply changes: running the job immediately or schedule it. It is recommended to run the schedule if you have hundreds of this that you want to correct this is to avoid the table locking during posting of other transactions.
But there in our example it's just a few entries so we can use run the job immediately.
When the Job was executed, you will see the status change to COMPLETED.
If we check the dimensions for G/L Entries, we will see the changes in the Dimension values.
Before Dimension Correction
After Dimension Correction
How to trace the correction
There are two ways to view or trace your correction.
1. General Ledger Entries. By selecting the History of Dimension Corrections, you will see all the dimension corrections that you’ve done for the selected entries.
2. Search the Dimension Corrections. From the Dimension Corrections list you will see all the Dimension corrections that you’ve done even the ongoing dimension corrections are listed here.
How to Undo a Correction
In the dimension correction page just click the UNDO. This will be executed as a Job. The user will have to choose, how he wants to apply changes: running the job immediately or schedule it. It is recommended to run the schedule if you have hundreds of this that you want to correct this is to avoid the table locking during posting of other transactions.
But there in our example it’s just a few entries so we can use run the job immediately.
When the Job was executed, you will see the status change to UNDO COMPLETED.
When you check the G/L Entries, it will change the dimension to its original value.
You can create many Dimensions correction in a single entry. However, if you wanted to get back to the original dimension value you have to undo first the recent dimension correction one by one until you have undone all the Dimension corrections that you’ve done.
How to Update the Analysis Views
From the Dimension Correction page, you can easily update you’re Analysis Views by click the Update Analysis Views button. This will be executed as a Job. The user will have to choose, how he wants to apply changes: running the job immediately or schedule it. It is recommended to run the schedule if you have hundreds of this that you want to correct this is to avoid the table locking during posting of other transactions.
But there in our example it’s just a few entries so we can use run the job immediately.
When the Job was executed, you will see the Update Analysis View change to COMPLETED.
Conclusion
While the Dimension Correction feature only updates general ledger entries, we think it's still a cool feature to have with the mere fact that it's extremely helpful with creating accurate financial reports.
Bear in mind, you must decide when to start using the corrections because when you first create it, it will automatically result in discrepancies between the dimensions in finance and sub-ledgers. The sooner you decide on what corrections to use, the less manual corrections you'll need to do in the future.
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