Last Updated on November 10, 2023 by maximosecrets

Financial transaction records have attributes for both the debit and credit GL accounts, the fields GLDEBITACCT and GLCREDITACCT. In Work Order Tracking application, the financial transactions occur on the Actuals tab, under the Labor, Materials, Service and Tool sub tabs. The table names happen to be LABTRANS, MATUSETRANS, SERVRECTRANS and TOOLTRANS respectively.

This is the first in a series of pages that examines the financial processes for work orders and would be applicable to Work Order Tracking, Quick Reporting and Labor Reporting applications. They demonstrate, using examples and screenshots, how the two GL account fields are derived. A summary is provided at the end of each page.

This series will include:

1. GL Defaulting on a Work Order, Labor and on Work Order Actual Labor, the LABTRANS record
2. GL Defaulting on Work Order Actual Materials, the MATUSETRANS record
3. GL Defaulting on Work Order Actual Tools, the TOOLTRANS record

Work Order Actual Services (SERVRECTRANS) are entered in the Receiving and Invoices applications and this is where they will be covered.

This page will examine:

• GL defaulting on a Work Order record
• Labor and Chart of Accounts actions
• GL defaulting on a Labor Craft Rates record
• GL defaulting on a Work Order Actual Labor record
• Summary – Work Order Actual Labor (LABTRANS)

GL defaulting on a Work Order record

The debit side of the labor, material, service and tool transactions on a work order are derived partly from the GL account on the work order record (GLACCOUNT) which itself is defaulted from the GL accounts on the PM, asset or location. An attribute called GLACCOUNT is often a field used in defaulting. 

One objective when setting up a Maximo system where GL validation is switched on, will be to ensure that both the debit and credit accounts are defaulted, with minimum or no need for an end user to intervene in filling any missing GL component value from these GL accounts. It is preferable for end users to avoid the use of the GL Account Navigator, as this can easily be a source of incorrect use of GL account codes, which could mean that commitments and actuals are entered against the wrong budgets.

GL defaulting on a work order starts with the Operating LocationA location with a location type of OPERATING. More.

The GL Account field will normally be partially filled on all locationsA physical place where assets exist and where work can be performed. More. In the example above 6220-300-??? provides a value for the first two GL components (Cost Center and Activity) but a value has not been specified for the third component – Resource.

When a work order is created and references the location then the work order’s GL account will be defaulted from the location.

But there is also a GL Account on the Assets application, hidden in out of the box Maximo. Any GL component values that the asset’s GL has will override those that come from the operating location when the GL account is defaulted on the work order. From the standard MAXDEMO database this can be demonstrated by creating a work order against location OFF301 and asset A7800, you will need to display the GL account on the Assets application, to verify its value.

The work order GLACCOUNT is derived from the combination of the GLACCOUNT on its primary Location and Asset with any GL account components on the asset taking priority over the same position coming from the location.

Account	Number
Asset GL Account	6100-200-300
Location GL Account	6220-300-???
Work order GL Account	6100-200-300

If you want some of the GL account components to be derived from the location and others to be derived from the asset then make sure the asset’s GL is partial on the components not provided by the location, unless that is what you intend. A couple more examples will illustrate this.

Account	Number
Asset GL Account	????-200-300
Location GL Account	6220-???-???
Work order GL Account	6220-200-300

Account	Number
Asset GL Account	????-200-300
Location GL Account	6220-300-???
Work order GL Account	6220-200-300

In both examples the first component, cost center is derived from the operating location because the asset’s GL is partial and has no value for this, the first segment. In both examples the asset’s GL segment values are used because they take priority over anything provided by the location’s GL account.

If you have partially added a GL account to your work order before entering a location or asset which themselves have a partial or full GL account, what would happen?

You will receive a message saying that the location and asset’s combined GL does not align with that on the work order, so what would you like to do.

Well, answering Yes and accepting the location/asset GL will result in 6100-200-300, the GL account has come entirely from the asset which has this GL account, but answering No will ignore the location/asset GL entirely and you will end up with 6000-100-??? You don’t get the 300 for the resource component (3^rd segment) being added to the GL account on the work order.

There is also a GL account attribute on the PM record, found in the section called Resource Information. If we create a PM and reference location OFF301 it does not default the GL account onto the PM record from the location, you need to fill this in yourself. 

On the PM we will enter the same GL account for the work order example above 6000-100-???, a partial GL. When a work order is generated from the PM, it defaults first the PM’s GL account to the work order, but as the work order is being created from a PM it does not ask whether the GL account should be overridden or not, it assumes you have set up your GL defaulting correctly, therefore it enters OFF301 for the location and as there is only a single asset at that location you also get the work order referencing asset A7800 with its GL, the result is as follows:

Account	Number
PM GL Account	6000-100-???
Asset GL Account	6100-200-300
Location GL Account	6220-300-???
Work order GL Account	6000-100-300

In this case, the PM GL takes priority over any GL component codes it has, and the other ones are filled in from the asset or the location, with the asset GL taking priority. 

The rule to remember here is that the PM GL account, is considered before the Asset GL account, and the asset GL account is considered before the location GL account – the priority order is PM, Asset, Location. 

There is no default GL Account on a work type or job plan. This is a great pity as budgeting is often performed by type of work. Consequently, adding custom code to support GL defaulting from either work type or job plan (or sometimes classification) is not uncommon.

Labor and Chart of Account actions 

Labor can be both internal and external. 

There is nothing on the LABOR object/table to indicate that it is external labor. The indication is on the LABORCRAFTRATE object/table, the Crafts table window on the Crafts tab. External labor is a record where there is a vendor code (VENDOR).

There are three GL account fields on the LABORCRAFTRATE object/table:

• GLACCOUNT – Debit side GL account for actual labor
• CONTROLACCOUNT – Credit side GL account for actual labor on work orders and tickets
• DEFAULTTICKETGLACC – Debit side GL account for actual labor on tickets

These fields are defaulted from three actions that you will find in the Chart of Accounts application. 

Chart of Accounts – Resource Codes

The Resource Codes action on the Chart of Accounts application is used for defaulting GL component codes onto the actual labor, material, service and tool records on a work order. This is known as Resource Accounting, allowing analysis to be performed at the resource level.

The Resource Codes dialog allows you to enter a partial GL account for internal and external labor, internal and external tools, and at the commodity group level for both materials and services. Normally, resource accounting is performed on one component of the GL account, but multiple components could be used. Resource codes are merged with other GL default codes on the debit side of a financial transaction.

Resource Accounting can also be performed for individual labor and the particular craft they provide. This field is not displayed as standard, but it can be added on the Crafts application in the Associated Labor tab, the field is called GLACCOUNT in the LABORCRAFTRATE object. As this is the same table used for external labor it could also be exposed in the Labor Rate Contracts application in the Associated Labor tab, if it makes sense to do resource accounting for external labor contracts.

Chart of Accounts – External Labor Control Accounts

The external labor control accounts is used on the credit side of financial transactions, as a default account code used by a vendor who is performing work for your company and completing time in Maximo. It is an accrual account, meaning we are recording the expected expense that will at some future time be paid for when an invoice is received.

The values entered here are used as a default on the Labor application, Crafts tab when new labor craft rates are entered (LABORCRAFTRATE.CONTROLACCOUNT). If these vendor specific control accounts are left blank after outside labor records have been created, then this field will be null in the Maximo database. If you are going to use External Labor Control Accounts, then add the Control Account field to the Crafts table window on the Labor application.

Chart of Accounts – Organization Default Accounts

The following organization default accounts are used on the credit side of financial transactions:

• The Global Rotating Suspense Account is used to hold the accumulated cost of repairs for rotating equipment.
• The Global Ticket Account is used when a service request is created and no other account is available
• The Tool Control Account is used when a transaction involves a tool and no other account is available.

GL defaulting on the Labor Craft Rates record 

I have added the three GL fields on the LABORCRAFTRATE object/table to the Crafts Details section. The lookup should be set to GLNAVIGATOR to get the GL Navigator dialog.

Fred is a new internal Labor record.

• The GL Account is defaulted from that entered in the Chart of Accounts – Resource Codes for the Internal attribute in the Labor Resource Codes section. It is a partial GL account.
• There is no accrual Control Account derived for FRED (not yet)
• The Default Ticket GL Account comes from Chart of Accounts – OrganizationA structural element of a Maximo database which is used for data sharing and is often aligned to a legal entity of an organisation. More Default Accounts for the Global Ticket GL Account attribute.

Internal Labor Control Accounts

I have now added a work location of NEEDHAM to FRED.

Navigating through to the work location of NEEDHAM there is an Internal Labor Account of 6810-700-300.

Now on the Crafts table window for FRED you can see that the Control Account has been derived from his work location’s Internal Labor Account.

External Labor Control Accounts

AJE is an external Labor record working for vendor CMC.

• The GL Account is defaulted from that entered in the Chart of Accounts – Resource Codes for the External attribute in the Labor Resource Codes section. It is a partial GL account.
• The Control Account is defaulted from that entered in the Chart of Accounts – External Labor Control Accounts for vendor CMC – Changeover Management Company.
• The Default Ticket GL Account comes from Chart of Accounts – Organization Default Accounts for the Global Ticket GL Account attribute.

Note. All three GL Account fields can be modified on the Labor – Crafts table window.

GL defaulting on a Work Order Actual Labor record

Example 1 – We will now see what happens if we post actual labor transactions to a work order. We will do this for Fred and AJE.

The work order is for location OFF301 which has a single asset of A7800. The derived GL Account is 6100-200-300.

Our actual labor record for FRED shows a GL Debit Account derived from the work order’s GL Account 6100-200-300. The partial GL Account of FRED ????-???-300 has no effect, but we will see later that it does take priority. The GL Credit Account of 6810-700-300 has come from Fred’s Control Account which was itself derived from Fred’s work location’s (NEEDHAM) Internal Labor Account.

Our actual labor record for AJE shows a GL Debit Account derived from the work order’s GL Account 6100-200-300, but with the resource code for external labor ????-???-350 being merged with the work order’s GL Account to form 6100-200-350. The GL Credit Account of 6810-700-600 has come from AJE’s Labor Control Account which was itself derived from the External Labor Control Account for AJE’s vendor record.

Example 2 – We will now prove that the values are being derived from the Labor GL Account and Control Account. 

I have changed FRED’s GL Account to ????-???-610 and the Control Account to 6810-700-SUP.

On the Work Order’s Actual Labor the GL Debit Account has applied the partial GL Account from the Labor record. The GL Credit Account has also been derived from the Labor record that we just modified.

Summary – Work Order Actual Labor (LABTRANS)

The GL account codes on work order actual labor (LABTRANS) entered either through Work Order Tracking, Quick Reporting or Labor Reporting applications can be defaulted both on the debit (blue) and credit side (mauve). While the diagram may look complicated it isn’t as bad as you might think.

On the debit side (GLDEBITACCT):

• The GLACCOUNT on the Labor Craft Rate record is merged with that from the work order’s GLACCOUNT, with elements from Labor Craft Rate record taking priority.
• The Labor Craft Rate’s GLACCOUNT is defaulted from the Internal or External Labor Resource Code that you find in Chart of Accounts application and action Resource Codes.
• The Work Order’s GLACCOUNT is itself merged from the GLACCOUNT fields on PM, Asset, Location in that priority order.

On the credit side (GLCREDITACCT):

• The CONTROLACCOUNT on the Labor Craft Rate record is used but this is defaulted from two sources depending on whether it is internal or external (has a vendor).
• For internal, the labor’s work location is used to derive the control account from the location record’s Internal Labor Account (INTLABREC).
• For external, the vendor has an accrual account defined in Chart of Accounts application using the External Labor Control Accounts action.

On the Labor application in the Crafts table window the GLACCOUNT and CONTROLACCOUNT fields are normally hidden, but if displayed they are modifiable.