I had a chance to speak with Tony and we are aligned that this was not meant to translate the Entity hierarchy into multiple currencies in the same way the translation/consolidation engine does. There are ways to make it work, but it is not always the answer. This needs to be thought about in Design, the pros/cons considered and discussed with the customer. Here is a little write-up to summarize the key points around this property:
Limitations:
This was not meant to translate the Entity hierarchy into multiple currencies in the same way the translation/consolidation engine does
This does simple math – translates base/parent Entities on the fly using standard FX rates
Overrides are not considered
It is not the consolidated total of its children
(i.e., if there are two base Entities with an auto translation currency of CAD and the parent has no auto translation currency, you cannot view the parent in CAD). The parent also must have an auto translation currency on it and translates on the fly, independently of the base Entities.
Things to consider:
Rule modifications
rules which happen in translated currencies must be opened up to run on parent Entities
Inputs (overrides)
users will need to input overrides into the auto translation currencies
Performance
consolidation times will be impacted and depends largely on the rules, how many currencies, Entities, etc.
Benefits:
User experience
the user always can pick the Entity and change the currency, rather than select different Entities
Maintenance
creating separate hierarchies for parent Entities in different currencies increases maintenance
Best practices:
Only assign auto translation to Entities which are required to translate to an alternate currency
If the parent Entity has the currency you want to translate to, the auto translation currency should not be applied
(i.e., I have a parent Entity of AUD with a direct parent of USD, a USD auto translation currency should not be applied to the AUD entity).
Parent Entities required in a different currency should be assigned those of its children, when applicable
eliminations will also not work properly on any member which is not standard translation (Overrides, BegBal, FX, etc). In order to get the eliminations correct on these members, custom eliminations would be needed.
