Re: Financial Accounting System (Questions)4

Infinite Visions is MS SQL Server based, not i (unfortunately).

The "filtering" concept is what worked well in CIMS. Different filters were applied for budgeting, A/P, P/R etc. So, you could have access to a different set of accounts based on what function you were performing. There was also a concept of "control account" where you could budget at a lower level of detail but expense at a higher level. For example, you could have a high school "equipment" budget, but expense at a department level. The control accounts were created with filters attached so that all accounts associated with the control account were automatically selected. Viewing a control account would select the associated accounts and their totals.

I was a Payroll/Human resource manager when I was a user of CIMS so my CIMS finance experience is limited. I have found copies of the CIMS FMS User Guide on the web. It could probably help explain the concepts it uses. Turning that into code however might be a *bit* more of a challenge :-)

Pete


Nathan Andelin wrote:

Thanks for the feedback, Pete. I do have access to CIMS, and would like to support user defined account structures. But I want to steer clear of using the CIMS database itself to avoid any possible intellectual-property conflicts. Can you tell me if Infinite Visions is IBM i based?

So far, I allow up to 10 account "entity" segments. And entity segments can be up to 10 characters each. That offers quite a bit of flexibility. But it doesn't necessarily solve the problem of organizations that seem to want to budget one way, but record financial activity another. That may seem more like a policy problem than a technical problem, but it seems that the "powers that be" often look for technical solutions to policy problems. They organize their departments in hierarchical fashion, and give managers responsibility over operational aspects of business, but want to do financial accounting under a different structure. Wierd.

Nathan.