Photo by Nhia Moua on Unsplash

Preface: Master Data of Enterprise System — Directory, Asset Catalog, General Ledger

Pre notion of parts of speech is obligatory to make sense out of sentences. And in any language, the nouns and their classifiers are the first to recognize before dealing with the actions and their definers.

In the same way, the terms (nouns) and their classifiers of an enterprise are the first things to organize properly before dealing with its functions. World wide terms and their classifiers in any enterprises that are responsible to law of a land by legal frameworks are more or less similar and standardized to handshake with one another seamlessly. If one can see the abstract form of an enterprise and recognize the generic terms and their classifiers, one can talk or even guide with or within any enterprise more confidently as soon as one can identify the variances of those terms.

In many scriptures, this is a common statement,

At first God taught Adam the names.

Where one can find all the names and their classifiers in an enterprise system that one must know to make better decisions?

Let’s first see what is a business enterprise with pronouns instead of nouns.

An enterprise is {something} that undertakes activity which involves {something} that results into {something}

Let’s replace pronouns with common nouns

An enterprise is an {entity} that undertakes activity which involves {entities & assets} that results into {profit}.

So let’s list those common nouns:

• Entity — Referred as a legal entity, those are bounded by the law of the land. This can be a human or a company of humans which is often referred to as ‘Party’. And this party can be classified based on its hundreds of variances e.g. customer, vendor, internal organization, employee, consultant.

Directory listing different entities

And in an enterprise, the solution that provides all sorts of manageability of this information is called ‘Directory’. And this directory is the mother of any enterprise solution. And Microsoft who realizes it the best provides the top directory in the market named ‘Active Directory’. And most of the fortune 500 companies use that and depend on that high. And each and every enterprise solution of Azure Cloud is based on AD.

• Asset — Assets that are sellable we call them ‘Finished Products’ if they are used to assemble or produce a finished product we call them ‘Raw Materials’. Assets which require to store we keep their inventory. Assets that help to produce finished products often we call them equipment and if they have durability and require maintenance, we call them fixed assets. All these assets can be tangible or intangible but all have similar properties like name, price, brand, unit, etc.

Asset Properties

An asset can be classified in hundreds of ways and each classification has a meaning for the enterprise. Industry often refers to this cataloging as ‘Product Master Data’ and some call it ‘Asset Catalog’ and in any ERP this product master data is the compulsory component and the top one is, which can cover all the classifications seamlessly.

• Profit — Let alone profit, it becomes very hard for enterprises to realize their revenue in terms of work in progress and debts. Even it can become worse if the ledgers and their breakdowns are not properly classified following accounting standards. So the names of the ledgers and their classifications are the baseline to understand the profit.

Chart of Accounts

And these names are in a classified way called ‘Chart of Accounts’ or tree of General Ledgers. And this is the mother of any financial solution. Whatever we call it, it is a catalog of ledgers that are affected by the undertaken activities. And the best financial solution for any enterprise is the one that can offer best practices of classification of these ledgers and the operations that happen on the chart.

Now as we know the names of the books that hold the anatomy of an enterprise, we will drive in detail each book and its standards and best practices in a generic approach.

For the sake of making it a quick read, I prefer to approach it part by part. And planning to work on the breakdown Directory and discuss detail on AD/LDAP and their usages in the next part. Till then have a nice time.

Please remember to put your remarks in comments, discourses are always better to reach a profound understanding.

###

Disclaimer: The views reflected in this article are the views of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of any past or present employer of the author.