Sometimes it may be necessary to add the same account groupings to several reports. For example, you may need to enter a series of payroll accounts that make up the Salary Expense line of both an income statement and a departmental expense report.

Dimension sets allow you to maintain groupings of dimensions (account segments) for use on reports. When designing your row definition, you can reference the account set rather than the individual accounts. This also simplifies maintenance, since you can update the dimension set with new accounts and automatically update the rows referencing the dimension set.

To access dimension sets, open a row definition and go to Edit | Manage Dimension Sets.

From the Dimension drop-down list, you can select which segment you want to use in your dimension set—in this case, we select “Account.” Then click “New.”

Enter a set name, which will be used to select the set on your row definition, and a Set Description. In the bottom section, specify the accounts to be included in the set. Notice you can specify ranges, individual accounts and wildcards. You can also choose, in the Operator column, whether you want to add or subtract the account. Click “OK” to save the dimension set.

To use a dimenstion set on a report, simple click the lookup button in the Link to Financial Dimensions column on the row definition. Then click the lookup button for the appropriate dimension (the one you used to set up your dimension set earlier—in this case “Account”) in the Dimensions window.

In the Account window, select the Dimension Set radio button and use the lookup button to select your dimension set. There is also a shortcut in this window to Edit | Manage Dimension Sets. Click “OK” to select the dimension set for use on the row.

The Link to Financial Dimensions column now displays the use of the dimension set. This process can be completed on different row definitions so they all use the same dimension set. If you need to make a change to the dimension set, e.g., add an account or remove an account, you can go to Edit | Manage Dimension Sets to do so. You don’t have to change the row definitions individually, as they will automatically receive the updates you make to the dimension set.

For questions about dimension sets, or assistance with creating dimension sets to be used on your Management Reporter reports, contact BKD’s Dynamics GP Support Center at gpsupport@bkd.com.