The CGI Advantage transaction model is typically a hierarchy of two or more related data components that are processed and accepted together. A transaction is used to capture data from much like a spreadsheet and the transaction components represent the various worksheet tabs. An example of a transaction is a Payment Request- Commodity Based (PRC). It consists of the following main tabs: Header, Vendor, Commodity, and Accounting along with a Summary tab that pulls the most salient information together in one presentation.
Not all transaction components are required and some are conditionally required. Most transactions support a one-to-many relationship between components as the hierarchy moves to the right. Often referred to as a parent – child relationship, the parent (for example, commodity line) can have many children (for example, accounting lines). However, a child (for example, commodity line) can have only one parent (for example, vendor).
A description of the basic components follows:
Header - Specifies general information that relates to the overall transaction or form. Header fields come in three basic forms. First, is a field defined one time that applied to the entire transaction. Second, are summary fields that add up records at a child component. Third, is a field that serves to default to one or more child components, possibly with the ability to be overridden at that child level for an exception.
Vendor/Customer - Specifies vendor and/or customer information associated with the transaction. In some cases, multiple vendors or customers are associated with a single transaction. For example, the Cash Receipt transaction can record groups of payments received and processed periodically throughout the day from several customers. In other cases, such as when purchasing goods from a vendor, only a single vendor is associated with the Purchase Order transaction. Unlike the header, a transaction may not have a Vendor/Customer component.
Commodity Line – Commodity codes are a common way of capturing specific information about a service or good purchased or paid for that also extends into inventory and fixed asset tracking. A large number of transactions have a component that captures this type of information. Each transaction that captures commodity information allows for multiple lines of commodity information.
Accounting Line – When a transaction has the capability of recording an accounting event, the majority of information in that accounting event is captured on an accounting line, including an event type to indicate the accounting event, an amount, and chart of accounts. Each transaction that can record an accounting event allows for multiple accounting lines.
Posting Line - Specifies the system-generated journal posting(s) for each accounting line. There can be multiple posting lines for a single accounting line. This type of line is displayed in one of two ways, depending on system configuration: as a tab along with all other transaction components or as a window opened from the record menu choice of Related Action then Posting.