About Consolidating Transactions
Use the G/L Consolidate Posted Transactions screen to reduce detail in reports by consolidating (combining) details in the accounts for which you do not need a permanent record of every transaction.
If you have some accounts that you consolidate regularly because they accumulate detail that you do not need, you should consider using the option to consolidate those accounts during posting.
Note: When you consolidate posted transactions, you lose the ability to drill down to the original transaction in the source ledger, and you also lose any optional fields posted with the transaction.
About Source Journals and Consolidation
If you consolidate details, either during posting or at period end using the Consolidate Posted Transactions screen, the source journal cannot print the batch number with the consolidated details.
The journal also cannot print the posting sequence number of consolidated transactions.
To include consolidated transactions on a source journal, when you print the source journal, you must specify a blank as the starting batch or posting sequence number on the Ranges tab of the Source Journal Report screen.
Effects of Consolidation
When General Ledger consolidates a group of transactions, the individual details are erased and cannot be listed on source journals or on the Posted Transactions Listing.
Consolidation removes the posting entry numbers and batch entry numbers associated with details:
- The new posting sequence number is 0.
- The batch number and entry number on reports is CNSLD.
- The description and reference fields are set to CONSOLIDATED.
To determine how a transaction was consolidated, check its description and posting sequence number.
- A transaction created by the Consolidate Posted Transactions screen has the description "CONSOLIDATED" and has a posting sequence number of 0. The batch number is 000000.
- A transaction consolidated during posting has the description "CONSOLIDATED POSTING" and it has a posting sequence number.
Consolidating during Posting
General Ledger also lets you consolidate transactions during batch posting.
Use the Post To Account In Consolidated option on the Detail tab of the G/L Chart of Accounts screen to identify the accounts you want to consolidate when you post batches.
- The batch number and entry number used on reports is CNSLD.
- The description and reference fields are set to CONSOLIDATED POSTING.
Recovering Disk Space after Consolidation
Consolidation does not reduce the disk space taken up by transactions. Instead, it frees up space within the existing file, so the file will not continue to grow.
If you need to free up space occupied by transactions, you must:
- Consolidate posted transactions.
- Use the database utilities for your database to reduce the file size.
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