Defining Organizational Hierarchies
A hierarchy is an ordered series of related objects. You can relate hierarchy with “pyramid” - where each step of the pyramid is subordinate to the one above it. One can use drill up or down to perform multi-dimensional analysis with a hierarchy. Multi-dimensional analysis uses dimension objects organized in a meaningful order and allows users to observe data from various viewpoints.
Meaning of Hierarchies
A hierarchy is an ordered series of related objects. You can relate hierarchy with “pyramid” - where each step of the pyramid is subordinate to the one above it. One can use drill up or down to perform multi-dimensional analysis with a hierarchy. Multi-dimensional analysis uses dimension objects organized in a meaningful order and allows users to observe data from various viewpoints. These hierarchies need to be mapped to systems to ensure they are capturing the relevant business process information at relevant nodes to provide meaningful information for internal and external reporting.
Example
The account hierarchy allows you to map complex organizational structures of a business partner (for example, buying group, co-operative or chain of retail outlets). When you create a hierarchy structure, you form groups of business partners (for example, for purchasing groups). You can use them for statistical purposes and for marketing and accounting and other meaningful analyses.
Organizational hierarchies
Organizational hierarchies represent the relationships between the units/segments that make up your business.
Larger organizations may require some hierarchies that are based on business units and other hierarchies that are based on shared services, such as human resources and IT. They need to create cost centers in shared service departments and position them under business units, so that the costs of shared services are appropriately allocated. Now we will explore some examples of reporting needs arising out of these different hierarchies and dimensions. Any how they add complexity at transactional level to record relevant information appropriately.
Some areas where we need to deal with dimensions/hierarchies are:
Legal Structure
- Legal Entities
- Subsidiaries
- Tax Entities
- Statutory Entities
Operational Structure
- Business Units/Management Entity
- Divisions/Departments
- Business Functions
- Business Support Functions
- Organization Support Functions
- Cost Centers
- Profit Centers
- Business Employee Hierarchy
- Business Area /Project Area/ Controlling Area/ Product Lines/Service Lines
- Countries/Geography/Locations
- Accounts/Sub Accounts
Importance of Hierarchies
Defining organizational hierarchies enable to view and report on your business from different perspectives. You set up a hierarchy of legal entities for tax, legal, regulatory or statutory reporting. Various Legal entities can enter into legal contracts and are required to prepare statements that report on their performance. While performing business activities we need to capture and classify transactions at legal entity level to be able to identify transactions that belong to a specific legal entity. Therefore, there exists a need to define boundary at legal entity level to enable data classification, consolidation, security and reporting at these entity levels.
Example
A large corporate may create a central mailroom to receive all invoices from its vendors for which it need to make payment. These invoices are raised on separate legal entities within the same corporate group, but mailed to a central processing center for accounting and payment. The shared service resource who is working on these invoices must specify in the Accounting System the different legal entities to ensure proper treatment of these transactions. The payments should be issued from the respective bank accounts belonging to the legal entity on which the invoice has been raised.
You can create a hierarchy for purchasing function to control purchasing policies, rules, and business processes.
Related Links
You May Also Like
-
GL - Different Type of Journals
Two basic types of journals exist: general and special. In this article, the learner will understand the meaning of journalizing and the steps required to create a journal entry. This article will also discuss the types of journals and will help you understand general journals & special journals. In the end, we will explain the impact of automated ERPs on the Journalizing Process.
-
Although technically a general ledger appears to be fairly simple compared to other processes, in large organizations, the general ledger has to provide many functionalities and it becomes considerably large and complex. Modern business organizations are complex, run multiple products and service lines, leveraging a large number of registered legal entities, and have varied reporting needs.
-
A subsidiary is a company that is completely or partly owned by another corporation that owns more than half of the subsidiary's stock, and which normally acts as a holding corporation which at least partly or wholly controls the activities and policies of the daughter corporation.
-
Five Core General Ledger Accounts
Typically, the accounts of the general ledger are sorted into five categories within a chart of accounts. Double-entry accounting uses five and only five account types to record all the transactions that can possibly be recorded in any accounting system. These five accounts are the basis for any accounting system, whether it is a manual or an automated accounting system. These five categories are assets, liabilities, owner's equity, revenue, and expenses.
-
An account inquiry is a review of any type of financial account, whether it be a depository account or a credit account. In this tutorial, you learn what we mean by drill through functionality in the context of the general ledger system. We will explain the concept of drill-down and how it enables users to perform account and transaction inquiry at a granular level and the benefits of using this functionality.
-
Divisional Organizational Structures
The divisional structure or product structure consists of self-contained divisions. A division is a collection of functions which produce a product. It also utilizes a plan to compete and operate as a separate business or profit center. Divisional structure is based on external or internal parameters like product /customer segment/ geographical location etc.
-
In this article, we will explain the general Ledger journal processing flow from entering journals to running the final financial reports. Understand the generic general ledger process flow as it happens in automated ERP systems. The accounting cycle explains the flow of converting raw accounting data to financial information whereas general ledger process flow explains how journals flow in the system.
-
Internally, an organization can be structured in many different ways, depending on their objectives. The internal structure of an organization will determine the modes in which it operates and performs. Organizational structure allows the expressed allocation of responsibilities for different functions and processes to different entities such as the branch, department, workgroup and individual.
-
Introduction to Legal Entities Concept
Modern business organizations operate globally and leverage a large number of registered legal entities, and operate through complex matrix relationships. To stay competitive in the current global business environment, they must often develop highly diverse and complex organizational structures that cross international borders. Learn more about Legal Entities and their importance for businesses.
-
Learn the typical accounting cycle that takes place in an automated accounting system. We will understand the perquisites for commencing the accounting cycle and the series of steps required to record transactions and convert them into financial reports. This accounting cycle is the standard repetitive process that is undertaken to record and report accounting.
