Last Updated on November 10, 2023 by maximosecrets

This is the third and last in a series of pages that examines the financial processes for work orders and would be applicable to Work Order Tracking and Quick Reporting applications. This page focuses on Work Order Actual Tools, specifically the transactions that create TOOLTRANS records.

This series has included:

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 Tools and on Work Order Actual Tools, the TOOLTRANS record

Each page demonstrates, using examples and screenshots, how the two GL account fields, the debit GL account and the credit GL account, GLDEBITACCT and GLCREDITACCT respectively, are derived. A summary is provided at the end of each page.

This page will examine:

• GL defaulting on a Tools record
• Tool/Organization defaults
• GL defaulting on a Work Order – Actual Tool record
• Summary – Work Order Actual Tool (TOOLTRANS)

GL defaulting on a Tools record

On the Tools application main tab, tools can be marked as “Outside?” which when checked indicates it is an external tool, the default is unchecked, an internal tool. You can only set this field prior to saving the record, afterwards it becomes read-only.

There are no GL fields on the main table supporting the Tools application, the TOOLITEM object/table. The GL fields will be found by looking at the details section of the action Tool / Organization Details, the ITEMORGINFO object/table:

• GLACCOUNT – Debit side GL account for actual tool on work orders   
• CONTROLACC – Credit side GL account for actual tool on work orders

The picture shows an external tool for a WELDER. You can tell it is external because the Outside Vendor field is enterable.

Looking at the same dialog but for an internal tool, DUMP TRUCK, we can see that there is a different value for both the GLACCOUNT and the CONTROLACC. The control account is shown as a blank field.

These fields are defaulted from two actions that you will find in the Chart of Accounts application. However, both the GL Account and the Control Account can be modified to be specific to the tool and organization.

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.

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.

Tool / Organization defaults

Internal Tools

As a reminder DUMP TRUCK was our example of an internal tool and it had a:

• GL Account of ????-???-400 this was derived from the Chart of Accounts and action Resource Codes and the internal tool resource code
• Control Account, which was blank, this is derived from the Chart of Accounts and action Organization Default Accounts, the Tool Control Account.

To illustrate the second bullet.

I have now added a Tool Control Account of 6800-900-000.

For a brand-new tool item, where “Outside?” is left unchecked, you can see that the credit side Control Account has been derived from the Tool Control Account that I entered in the Organization Default Accounts dialog in Chart of Accounts application.

External Tools

As a reminder WELDER was our example of an external tool and it had a:

• GL Account of ????-???-450 this was derived from the Chart of Accounts and action Resource Codes and the external tool resource code
• Control Account, which was set to 6630-880-600, this was entered directly rather than being derived.

The Control Account can be derived from the primary vendor of the tool.

To illustrate the defaulting of the credit account for external tools I have added a Tool Control Account of 6800-910-600 to company KENWORTH.

In the Tools application I have created a brand-new external tool called MOBCRANE and in the Tool / Organization Details action for organization EAGLENA you can see the Control Account is blank. In the Outside Vendor field, I am about to select KENWORTH as our vendor.

With KENWORTH selected as the Outside Vendor the Control Account is now defaulted to that entered in the Tool Control Account field from the company record, 6800-910-600.

GL defaulting on a Work Order – Actual Tool record

Example 1 – We will now see what happens if we post actual tool transactions to a work order. We will do this first for DUMP TRUCK our internal tool.

We will use the same work order as we had in the first two parts of this series, when we focused on actual labor and actual materials, the tools we will use do not make sense to a Standard Desktop computer (asset A7800). As a reminder, the work order is for location OFF301 which has a single asset of A7800. The derived work order GL Account is 6100-200-300.

Our actual tool record for DUMP TRUCK shows a GL Debit Account derived from the work order’s GL Account 6100-200-300. The partial GL Account for Internal Tools ????-???-400 has been applied, this was derived from Chart of Accounts application and the Resource Codes action. This has resulted in a GL Debit Account of 6100-200-400. The GL Credit Account is showing null because there was no value given for the Tool Control Account in Chart of Accounts and the action Organization Default Accounts.

Our actual tool record for WELDER shows a GL Debit Account derived from the work order’s GL Account 6100-200-300. The partial GL Account for External Tools ????-???-450 has been applied, this was derived from Chart of Accounts application and the Resource Codes action. This has resulted in a GL Debit Account of 6100-200-450. The GL Credit Account is showing 6630-880-600 and is derived from the Tool / Organization Details for the tool and organization.

Example 2 – We will now see what happens if we post actual tool transactions to a work order using the two new tools we created. They are now at ACTIVE status. We will do this first for FORKLIFT, our internal tool.

The actual tool record for FORKLIFT shows a GL Debit Account derived from the work order’s GL Account 6100-200-300. The partial GL Account on the Tool / Organization Details has been used, this defaulted from the partial GL Account for Internal Tools ????-???-400, that is shown in Chart of Accounts application and the Resource Codes action. This has resulted in a GL Debit Account of 6100-200-400. The GL Credit Account is showing 6800-900-000 which is coming from the Control Account on the Tool / Organization Details which itself was derived from the Tool Control Account in Chart of Accounts and the action Organization Default Accounts.

The new external tool record for MOBCRANE shows a GL Debit Account derived from the work order’s GL Account 6100-200-300. The partial GL Account for External Tools ????-???-450 has been applied, this was derived from Chart of Accounts application and the Resource Codes action. This has resulted in a GL Debit Account of 6100-200-450. The GL Credit Account is showing 6800-910-600 and is derived from the Control Account on the Tool / Organization Details for the tool and organization which itself was derived from the Tool Control Account for the outside vendor of the tool.

Summary – Work Order Actual Tool (TOOLTRANS)

The GL account codes on work order tool actuals entered either through Work Order Tracking or Quick 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, and easier to understand if you review the first page of this series for the defaulting of actual labor.

On the debit side (GLDEBITACCT):

• The GLACCOUNT on the Tool / Organization Details record is merged with that from the work order’s GLACCOUNT, with elements from Tool / Organization Details record taking priority.
• The Tool / Organization Detail’s GLACCOUNT is defaulted from the Internal or External Tool 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, LocationA physical place where assets exist and where work can be performed. More in that priority order.

On the credit side (GLCREDITACCT):

• The CONTROLACC on the Tool / Organization Details record is used but this is defaulted from two sources depending on whether it is internal or external (OUTSIDE=1).
• For internal, the Tool Control Account from the Organization Default Accounts in Chart of Accounts application is used.
• For external, if the outside vendor has a Tool Control Account this is used.

On the Tools application in the Tool / OrganizationsA structural element of a Maximo database which is used for data sharing and is often aligned to a legal entity of an organisation. More Details dialog both the GLACCOUNT and CONTROLACC fields are modifiable, which could make them specific to the tool.