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Segmented Keys

Form ID: (CS202000)

You use this form to configure the segmented keys that Acumatica ERP uses for specific system objects created by users, such as general ledger accounts and subaccounts, customer and vendor accounts, warehouses, and locations. A segmented key is a template that holds the structure of identifiers for a certain type of records; it is used when a user creates an identifier for a new record of the type. During initial system setup, for each segmented key, you define the following:

  • The number of segments the key has
  • The length of each segment
  • The type of each segment
  • The list of values for each segment
Users then create object identifiers by selecting values for each segment of the segmented key. Also, users can create new segmented keys for use in a specific module.

You can change the structure of the segmented key after the identifiers were created. For more information, see Changes to the Structure of Segmented Keys.

In This Topic [Hide/Show]

Back to TopForm Toolbar

The form toolbar includes only standard buttons. For the list of standard buttons, see Form Toolbar and More Menu.

Back to TopSummary Area

In this area, you can select a segmented key and view or edit its settings.

Element Description
Segmented Key ID The identifier of the segmented key. Select the key from the list of available keys, which can include the following:
  • ACCGROUP: Used for the identifiers of account groups in project management.
  • ACCOUNT: Used for the identifiers of general ledger accounts. For details, see Account Identification.
  • BIZACCT: Used for the identifiers of business accounts; this segmented key is the parent key of the COMPANY, BRANCH, VENDOR, CUSTOMER, and EMPLOYEE segmented keys. For more information, see Business Account Identifiers.
  • BRANCH: Used for the identifiers of branches; this segmented key inherits its structure from the BIZACCT key. For details, see Business Account Identifiers.
  • CASHACCOUNT: Used for the identifiers of branch-specific cash accounts.
  • COMPANY: Used for the identifiers of companies; this segmented key inherits its structure from the BIZACCT key. For details, see Business Account Identifiers.
  • CONTRACT: Used for the identifiers of contracts; this segmented key inherits its structure from the PROJECT key.
  • CONTRACTITEM: Used for the identifiers of contract items.
  • COSTCODE: Used for the identifiers of cost codes. By default, the key has one segment of four numeric symbols. The key is available if the Cost Code feature is enabled on the Enable/Disable Features (CS100000) form. For more information, see Cost Codes: Configuration Prerequisites.
  • CUSTOMER: Used for customer identifiers; this segmented key inherits its structure from the BIZACCT key. For details, see Business Account Identifiers.
  • EMPLOYEE: Used for the identifiers of company employees; this segmented key inherits its structure from the BIZACCT key. For more information, see Business Account Identifiers.
  • INITEMCLASS: Used for the identifiers of item classes.
  • INLOCATION: Used for the identifiers of warehouse locations.
  • INSITE: Used for the identifiers of warehouses.
  • INSUBITEM: Used for the subitem codes (that is, identifiers) of inventory items. For details, see Inventory Subitems.
  • INVENTORY: Used for the inventory IDs of stock and non-stock items. For more information, see Inventory Subitems.
  • LOCATION: Used for the identifiers of customer and vendor locations.
  • MLISTCD: Used for the identifiers of mailing lists.
  • PROJECT: Used for the identifiers of projects and project templates; this segmented key is the parent key for the CONTRACT and TMCONTRACT keys.
  • PROTASK: Used for the identifiers of project tasks.
  • SALESPER: Used for salesperson IDs.
  • SUBACCOUNT: Used for the identifiers of General Ledger subaccounts.
  • TMCONTRACT: Used for contract templates; this segmented key inherits its structure from the PROJECT key.
  • TMPROJECT: Used for project templates; this segmented key inherits its structure from the PROJECT key.
  • VENDOR: Used for vendor identifiers; this segmented key inherits its structure from the BIZACCT key. For more information, see Business Account Identifiers.
 The list of available segmented keys depends on the features enabled for the system on the Enable/Disable Features (CS100000) form.
Parent The key that the selected segmented key inherits settings from (for example, BIZACCT is the parent key for CUSTOMER). If a parent segmented key is displayed in this box, you can make only the following changes in the settings of the segmented key:
  • Specifying different sets of values for validated segments
  • Specifying different prefixes for the auto-numbering sequences
Lookup Mode The mode the system uses to look up object identifiers when a user is typing the identifier in a box on a data entry form that holds the identifier described by this segmented key. The mode you select affects the availability and the state of the Allow Adding New Values On the Fly check box and the way the segment validation works (this validation is regulated by the Validate check box in the table with the list of segments). You can select either of the following modes:
  • By Segment: All Avail. Segment Values: In this mode, a user enters an identifier segment by segment. While typing a segment value, the user can press F3 to open the list of the segment values (as specified on the Segment Values (CS203000) form) and select a value from this list.
    • If you select this mode, the Allow Adding New Values On the Fly check box becomes selected and unavailable for the segmented key. If the Validate check box is cleared for the segment whose value a user is typing while entering an identifier, the user can enter a new segment value. The system automatically saves this value to the list of segment values and creates a new segmented key value. If the Validate check box is selected for the segment whose value the user is typing, the user cannot enter a new segment value.
  • By Segment: Child Segment Values: In this mode, a user enters an identifier segment by segment. While typing a segment value, the user can press F3 to open the list of the segment values that have been specified on the object management form (such as the Item Classes (IN201000) form). This list is filtered by the value of the previous segment or segments. When the user is typing segment values, the system lists existing object identifiers. This mode is displayed for only the segmented keys that support the hierarchical structure of segments: INITEMCLASS. For details on hierarchy in item class identifiers, see Item Classes for Stock Items: General Information.
    • With this mode selected, the Allow Adding New Values On the Fly check box is cleared by default but is available for editing.
    We recommend that you clear the Validate check box for all segments of a key that supports the hierarchical structure of segments, because this check box controls the validation of segment values based on the values added to the Segment Values form.
  • By Segmented Key: In this mode, a user enters the entire identifier. When the user is typing the identifier on the data entry form, the system displays the list of existing identifiers. The user can select one of the existing values from the list.
    • When you select this mode, the Allow Adding New Values On the Fly check box is cleared and unavailable for the segmented key. That is, a user cannot enter a new value of either the segments or the identifier on the fly.
    If you select the Validate check box for one segment or multiple segments of the segmented key, the system makes sure the segment values are among those that are specified on the Segment Values form after a user saves the changes made on the data entry form.
 Multiple segments are usually used in identifiers of general ledger subaccounts and inventory items, therefore we recommend that you specify the By Segment: All Avail. Segment Values mode for only the INSUBITEM and SUBACCOUNT keys.
Allow Adding New Values On the Fly A check box that indicates (if selected) that users can enter new values of the segmented key on data entry forms. If you clear the check box, users can specify the segmented key values on data entry forms only by typing or selecting the existing values of the segmented key and its segments.
The availability of the check box depends on the lookup mode. For details, see the description of the Lookup Mode box in this topic.
Specific Module The functional area, by its abbreviation, where the user-defined segmented key will be used.
Numbering ID An optional numbering sequence that is used for the segment that has the auto-numbering option selected (read more in the Auto-Number table column description below). The segment length should be equal to the number of characters used in the selected numbering sequence.
Description A detailed description of the segmented key.
Max Length The maximum total length of the key. This box appears after you select a key.
Length The total length of the key. The length is automatically calculated as the sum of the lengths of all segments.
Segments The number of segments defined for the key. The system automatically updates this value once you add a segment.

Back to TopTable

You can use the table to configure segments for the selected key. Segments can be numeric, alphabetic, or alphanumeric, and they can have different lengths. For each segment (table line), you can create a list of possible values, or for one segment in the key, you can select an auto-numbering option. For auto-numbering, a numbering sequence must be specified.

For information on configuring segmented keys that inherit their structure from parent keys, see Segmented Identifiers.

Segment values are used when a user creates identifiers for objects (such as subaccounts). If the segment validation option (Validate) is turned on for the segment, the user must select one of the predefined values for the segment. For a one-segment key, segment validation cannot be turned off.

If the validation option is turned off, the system validates only the number of characters (Length) and the type of the string (Edit Mask) for a segment; hence, new identifiers may contain segment values that are not in the list of possible segment values.

Table Toolbar

The table toolbar includes standard buttons and buttons that are specific to this table. For the list of standard buttons, see Table Toolbar. The table-specific buttons are listed below.

Custom Action Description
View Segment Opens the Segment Values (CS203000) form for the selected segment.

Table Columns

Column Description
Segment ID The system-generated number representing the order of the segment in the segmented key.
Description The user-defined segment description.
Override A check box that indicates (if selected) that the segment value overrides the value inherited from the parent. This column is available for only the segmented keys that have a parent (such as CONTRACT, CUSTOMER, and EMPLOYEE).
Length The maximum length of the segment.
Make sure that the total length of all segments does not exceed the maximum length, which is specified in the Max Length box in the Summary area.
Align The segment value alignment in the segment, which is one of the following options: Left or Right.
Edit Mask The type of characters allowed for the segment values. The following types may be used:
  • Alpha: Allows the input of only Latin letters, such as A and z
  • Numeric: Allows the input of only digits
  • Alphanumeric: Allows the input of Latin letters and digits
  • Unicode: Allows the input of any symbols, including any language symbols and special characters (such as % or _)
    		•  The underscore symbol (_) is one of the SQL wildcard characters. If you search for an entity by its identifier that contain this symbol, the system considers underscore as the wildcard character (a substitute for any single character) and returns corresponding results.
Case Conversion An option that reflects whether the case of alphabetic characters will remain as it was typed by the user (No Change), be automatically converted to uppercase (Uppercase), or be automatically converted to lowercase (Lowercase).
Validate A check box that indicates (if selected) that validation of segment values is turned on. With this check box selected, a user can add an active value to each particular segment only by selecting the value from the list of available ones.
If you select the check box, users will not be able to add new segment values when they are typing the segmented key value on a data entry form, even if the Allow Adding New Values On the Fly check box is selected for the segmented key.
Users open the list of segment values by pointing to the segment and pressing F3. The segment validation works on data entry forms (while a user is entering an object identifier) and on forms that can be used to manage objects (while a user is entering an identifier for a new object, for example, a subaccount identifier on the Subaccounts (GL203000) form). The way the system performs validation depends on the mode selected in the Lookup Mode box.
  • If you need to include a subaccount segment value in some restriction group on the Restriction Groups by Sub Segment (GL104040) form, the segment must have the Validate check box selected on the current form.
  • If your company performs consolidation of general ledger, we recommend that you select this check box if the length of the subaccount segment in the consolidating company (shown in the Number of Characters column) differs from the length of the subaccount segment to be mapped (shown in the Length box).
Include in Cost A check box that indicates (if selected) that the segment is included in cost calculation.
This column is displayed for only the INSUBITEM key.
For more details, see Inventory Subitems.
Auto-Number A check box that indicates (if selected) that the numbering sequence selected in the Numbering ID box will be used to generate values for this segment in identifiers. If the Auto-Number option is selected for the segment, select the Unicode option in the Edit Mask column.
The auto-numbering option can be applied to only one segment in a key. We recommend that if you need to use auto-numbering for specific identifiers, you configure the appropriate segmented key as a single-segmented key.
If the auto-numbering option is selected for the single segment of the segmented key, the numbering sequence assigned to the segment may be defined with Start Number and End Number that have fewer characters than the segment length.
Separator The character that will be used as the segment separator when the object identifier is displayed. This separator doesn’t affect the identifier length. The character specified here must be different from the one specified in Prompt Character for the segment.
Prompt Character
The character that will used for displaying this segment at input prompts. You can use different symbols for each segment, but it must be different from the value used as separator for each segment. The default column value is _ (underscore), and the column is hidden by default. If you want to use the underscore symbol as the segment separator, change the default value of this box to another symbol.
We do not recommend changing a prompt character after you have started entering identifiers. If you change the prompt character to a character that has been used in some of the existing identifiers, you will not be able to view, edit, or find entities whose identifiers contain the new prompt character.
Consol. Order The number that represents the order of this string among other strings in the parent company’s subaccount; this column is displayed for only the SUBACCOUNT key.
This column is available only if the General Ledger Consolidation feature is enabled on the Enable/Disable Features (CS100000) form.
For more details, see GL Consolidation Configuration: General Information, GL Consolidation: General Information, and GL Consolidation: Subaccount Mapping.
Number of Characters The length (in characters) of the string in the parent’s subaccount to which the segment value is mapped; this column is displayed for only the SUBACCOUNT key.
This setting is used only if the company is a consolidation unit for the parent company. This column is available only if the General Ledger Consolidation feature is enabled on the Enable/Disable Features (CS100000) form.
If the number of characters is set to 0, then this segment will be skipped when the consolidation data is imported.

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