Costpoint Online Help

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How to Specify the Pool Base and Allocation Accounts

First, use the Default Accounts tab of the Manage Cost Pools screen to set up the default accounts for the pool.

These include the debit and credit allocation accounts, and the cost and receivable variance accounts.

As you select your base accounts, the variance account and allocation columns are automatically populated with these default accounts. You can modify them as needed. You can set up the pool base using the Manage Base Creation Setups screen and Create Pool Links screen. In these screens, you can establish wildcards that can be used to set up and maintain your pool bases. See the screen documentation for more information.

Next, go to the Pool Base subtask of the Manage Cost Pools screen. Select the base account/organization combinations from the selection list on the left-hand table window and entered in the Account and Organization columns. You can use a base account/organization only once in a pool base; however, you can use a base account/organization in many different pools as a base account/organization.

If you have entered a default Allocation Account, it is brought in automatically for you for every Base Account selected. You can modify this account. An Allocation Account/Organization combination is required for each Base Account/Organization. You can use the same Allocation Account for more than one Base Account or different Allocation Accounts can be used. An Allocation Account/Organization combination can be an Allocation Account for only one pool and cannot be used as an Allocation Account in more than one pool, although in that one pool, it can be and is used many times.

Warning: If you are using hours-based pools, do not put any allocation accounts in the pool base. This makes your rates compute incorrectly.

Example:

Base Account Allocation Account
0801        D/L 0591 Fringe on Labor
0802        O/H LABOR 0591 Fringe on Labor
0803        G/A LABOR 0591 Fringe on Labor

In this scenario, you cannot use 0591 as part of the cost portion of the Overhead pool (Fringe on O/H Labor) or the G/A pool (Fringe on G/A Labor) as you should, because it contains the fringe for ALL labor. In order to properly set up the base for the fringe pool, do the following:

Base Account Allocation Account
0801        D/L 0591 Fringe on Labor
0802        O/H Labor 0592 Fringe on O/H Labor
0803        G/A Labor 0593 Fringe on G/A Labor

This allows you to use 0592 as part of the cost portion of your Overhead pool and 0593 as part of the cost portion of your G/A pool, which is appropriate. Note that this is only an example; if you use different organization numbers with the same account, you accomplish the same thing.

Using the same allocation Account for an entire pool may be more appropriate in a G/A pool, which does not get included in any other pool.

The Cost and Receivable Variance Accounts and Organizations are used to post the variance between actual and target rates for the pool. For this posting, you must specify separate accounts for the debit and credit - the Cost Variance and the Receivable Variance. Although Cost and Receivable Variance Account/Organization combinations are not required, the account/organization combinations specified here should include accounts specifically set up for that purpose if you plan to post variances. As with the Allocation Account, the account specified for a given variance can be the same account for the whole pool, or can be a different account for each Base Account. Variance accounts/organization combinations can be used by only one pool, although in that one pool, they can be used many times.

Note: Any accounts that you enter on the Default Accounts tab of the Manage Cost Pools screen must have the Project Required check box on the Manage Accounts screen cleared. An exception to this occurs with "automatic service centers" when the allocation account is used as a direct cost to the project. In such a case, the allocation account is a Project Required account. Also remember that the level of organization must be the most detailed level for either the division, if you are setting up a divisional pool, or for the entire company, if you are setting up a company-wide pool.