Substitution Expressions

Substitution Expressions are also known as wild cards and can be used as part of a General Ledger account number, where expenses are costed at different levels. For example, some expenses may be costed on a state by state level, and other expenses by business units within each state.

Substitution expressions can be used only if the General Ledger costing account number includes components which can be found within the Preceda Payroll Costing structure, such as business units and/or departments.

 

Four departments are established, each identified by a number from 1 to 4. Each account is made unique by a character identifying the individual department.

Department Number G/L Account Number
1 21578123
2 21578223
3 21578323
4 21578423

 The sixth character in each of the above account numbers identifies a department, from 1 to 4. Instead of setting up separate General Ledger Parameters for each department and account number, an asterisk can be used to signify a substitution expression and a D to indicate that the Department number is to be used.

21578*D23

 

When General Ledger posting transactions are generated by the G/L Update PTD function, Preceda inserts the relevant department number, taken from the Employee Costing window or from a Time Entry Override, in the sixth character position of the General Ledger account number.

Valid substitution expressions are:

Values Description
1 Level 1
2 Level 2
3 Level 3
4 Level 4
5 Level 5
A Account Number
D Department
C1 Labour Cost Code 1
C2 Labour Cost Code 2

If substitution expressions are used, the following rules must be considered:

  • When establishing the posting table records, leave the relevant selection field blank.

Example

 If using *D, specify a Department Code as part of the substitution string.

  • Ensure that each employee has a relevant costing centre specified in the employee costing window.

Example

If using *D, a Department Code must be defined for each employee.

Alternative Substitution

Part of a Level Code, Department Code or Account code can be included in the General Ledger Account number. This is done by entering a 4-character string.

 

To include characters 2 to 5 of the Department Code in the General Ledger account number, the entered string would be:

Characters Values Description
1st character % This indicates to the system that the next three characters of this code are to define the part of a Level Code, Department Code or Account code for inclusion in the General Ledger Account Number.
2nd character D

This character identifies the Reference Table record which is to be used for the extraction of characters:

D - Department Code

A - Account Code

1 to 5 - Level Codes 1 to 5
3rd character 2 This character indicates the start position for the code to be extracted from the specified Preceda records. Valid values are 1 to 9.
4th character 4 The last character indicates the number of characters to be extracted from the specified Preceda records. Valid values are 1 to 9.

 

To only substitute the 10th character of the General Ledger Account number, Labour Costing codes 1 and 2, use the following: %A10, %C110 or %C210.