Entities

Sentai uses the concept of "entity" to refer to and manage different divisions or areas of accounting responsibility
Corporations with more than one branch often run into difficulty accessing information required for accounting and reporting purposes.  Sales and financial statistics can be difficult to obtain when the central pool of information of a business does not have figures easily segregated and readily at hand.  Sentai has designed a method of organizing locations, profit centers, and product information using entities that permits management to access corporate information quickly and efficiently.

The "control" entity is the top level of company, the owner of all entities below it
Corporations are often made up of divisions and locations which are classified as separate units for accounting purposes.  Companies with locations in different geographic areas can uniquely identify each business unit by defining entity-IDs.  A separate alpha-numeric entity-ID is created for each management defined subdivision of a company including branches, profit or cost centers, locations, and product lines.  Sentai posts transactions to each entity based on the set of rules defined by the customer. 

Accounting responsibility can be defined to roll up or down the entity hierarchy
The entity structure of a company is further classified by defining which Sentai modules an entity has accounting responsibility for and which modules are the responsibilities of a higher accounting entity.  Integrity of the balance sheet is enforced at the highest level of accounting responsibility defined.  Although transactions can be posted to entities below the highest level, the area of responsibility qualifies which entities can create balance sheets.

Rollup points define the method of designating the highest level of accounting responsibility within the module for each entity.  The rollup field for each module of an entity identifies whether the entity is to do its own accounting for that module or whether an entity above it in the hierarchy structure is responsible.  For example, in a sales order transaction, if a branch entity is set up with a rollup pointing to the control entity, each time a transaction is created for the branch entity, the "cost of sale" and "revenue" is recorded at the branch level but the "inventory asset" and "accounts receivable" are labeled with the control entity.  The accounting distribution would be as follows:

All entities share a single chart of accounts 
Entities eliminate the need for 10 and 12 digit account codes.  All Sentai accounting transactions (created in any transaction function within any Sentai module) are distributed to both a General Ledger account code and a specific entity-ID.  This combination of GL-code and entity defines how monetary amounts are transferred to the general ledger from the sub-modules. The GL-code "1000", Petty Cash, may have transactions made to it by any division (entity) within the company structure. Thus, only one G/L code for "petty cash" is required. Therefore, each division of a company would not need its own "petty cash" account.

Add new divisions or locations in one step
The corollary of this is that new divisions, locations, profit centers, and even new companies can be added to the database without having to add another chart of accounts.  Simply add the new entity, designate A/R and A/P roll up points, and voila - you have added a new division to your company.

Income Statements for each warehouse, truck or salesperson  
Entities can give you powerful decision-making information.  Once a location, warehouse, delivery truck, or sales person has been designated an entity, Profit and Loss statements are available at the push of a button.

Incredibly powerful reporting flexibility built-in
Entities allow for very flexible financial, inventory, and sales reporting.  The use of entities and Can-do expressions allows for consolidations and eliminations at the most granular level.  The combination of entity and can-do statements will allow you to ask for virtually any thinkable set of data. 

In conclusion, entities, reporting entities, and report pieces help decision-makers to obtain information and reports that aid in marketing, accounting, and financial planning.  With the flexibility of Can-do searches, companies can obtain information with a few commands that traditionally involved difficult and time-consuming coding and setup procedures.