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IMOS offers many ways of organizing your business, both financially and operationally. When considering how to organize your business, IMOS offers you tools that will directly affect your Security configurations and your Financials and Operations reporting. How you structure these tools is ultimately up to your internal business organization, but keep in mind the following when making those decisions.

Master Data Options

IMOS offers four key master data options for classifying a business, and each offers its own advantages.

Data Element	Description	Examples
Company	A Company in IMOS refers specifically to a business entity that maintains its own Profit and Loss. Company is the strongest master data identifier in IMOS and is included in many Security and reporting options.	Small shipping businesses may only need one Company Larger ship owners or operators may choose to use a Company per vessel desk (e.g., Handymax, Panamax, etc.) Commodity traders may use one Company as the trade house and a second Company as the freight desk
Line of Business	Line of Business is a master data element most typically used for financial reporting reasons, but also available operationally. LOB is most useful because it can be locked as a requirement before posting to a ledger account.	LOB to designate different office locations: Singapore, Hong Kong, New York, London LOB to designate cost center: Time Charter, Owned Vessels, Operation Costs
Department	Department is another financials-oriented field. It is less commonly used than LOB, but is available throughout Financials and can even be a requirement for posting to a ledger.
Trade Area	Trade Area is an Operations-wide field and has direct impact on the Trading and Risk module as a useful reporting pivot. It is also available operationally and can be populated in Financials but is not a requirement. Trade Area is most often specific to the different business routes operated by your business.	Atlantic, Pacific, Worldwide, Crosstrade ECAU-CHINA, WCAU-CHINA, AUS-CJK

Impact on Built-in Reports

One of the most straightforward uses of these four classifiers is in reporting. This chart highlights where in IMOS you can use them to filter the most popular IMOS built-in reports. An X designates that the filter is available.

Report	Area	Company	LOB	Dept	Trade Area
Voyage P&L Summary	Operations	X	X	X	X
Voyage Accruals Summary	Operations				X
Vessel Position Report	Operations	X			X
Bunker ROB Accruals	Operations
Cargoes Loaded/Discharged	Operations
On Hire/Off Hire Summary	Operations				X
Account Analysis	Financials	X
Trial Balance	Financials	X
Income Statement	Financials	X
Balance Sheet	Financials	X
Accounts Payable/Receivable	Financials	X
Cashflow Reports	Financials	X
P&L Comparison Report	Trading	X			X
Portfolio Report	Trading				X

Availability on Forms

It is impossible to report using one of the classifiers if they are not entered; therefore, it is important to ensure that necessary data is classified correctly wherever appropriate. This chart highlights which pieces of IMOS data can be classified using which classifiers.

Form/Data Object	Company	LOB	Dept	Trade Area
Cargo/VC In	X	X	X	X
FFA/Bunker Swap	X	X	X	X
Voyage Estimate	X			X
Voyage Manager	X	X	X	X
Time Charter In/Out	X		X	X

Default Company on Forms

A Time Charter contract might have Company Code (Short Name) A, and the vessel might have Company Code B. When the Time Charter contract is fixed and scheduled with the vessel, the Voyage Manager will have Company Code B, as it defaults to the Code from the vessel. The Company Code might be changed in the Voyage Manager to C. For invoices and posting, the default Company Code used on the Transaction Data Entry when posting TC items should be A, and for other voyage items it should be B, the Company Code of the voyage.

Recognizing Financial Data

IMOS has a fairly strict split between Operations data and Financial data. As a result of this logical split, it is important that all necessary data classifiers be added before moving information out of Operations and into Financials. The process of moving information from Operations into Financials is called posting.

Posting a Transaction

IMOS can require the following fields to be populated before posting a transaction, via the Chart of Accounts:

Company
LOB
Dept

LOB via Business Rules

The Line of Business (LOB) data classifier is typically considered of higher importance to Financials users, not Operations users. Because of this hierarchy, an Operations user may not be aware of the correct LOB when operating in IMOS, but will still need to create invoices for posting. The IMOS Business Rules table is able to back-apply the LOB to any transaction line item. Simply filling in the LOB field in the Business Rules table will apply that LOB to any line item that matches the specific Business Rule.

Company and Subcompany

IMOS Companies are the most common mechanism for separating different profit centers within IMOS. However, there are times when it still may be necessary to combine profit center data in one of the reports. When this is the case, it is necessary to configure parent Companies and Subcompanies correctly.

Companies

Companies are created using the Address Book in the Data Center. You must set the counterparty type as W (Company Info).

Subcompanies

Subcompanies are also W-type Companies in the Address Book. A Subcompany may be entered on a contract in lieu of a Company. When reporting on a primary Company, it will pull in all data assigned to it and to its Subcompanies. For Financial reports, it is also possible only to report on Subcompanies. In many cases, IMOS will create default Subcompanies of Vessels.

To make a Company a Subcompany, in Company Information, enter the primary Company in the Company Name field and then enter Subcompanies into the table below.

Notes on Implementing

It is very difficult to provide a single recommendation for how to implement these different classifiers. Instead, here are some tips and tricks for reviewing each:

Forcing Hierarchy

IMOS offers a configuration flag to enforce hierarchy: CFGUseCompanyLobTradeAreaHierarchy

When enabled, LOB records can be assigned to a Company, and Trade Area records can be assigned to an LOB. When selecting the LOB on a contract, the options will be limited to those associated with the Company assigned on the contract. Likewise, when selecting a Trade Area, the options will be limited to those associated with the LOB assigned on the contract.

After enabling the configuration flag, the following configuration must be done:

In Trade Areas, set the Parent LOB field per Trade Area
In Lines of Business, set the Parent Company per LOB

Here is an example of two Companies, each with two LOBs and an assortment of Trade Areas. In this example, the Companies are different regional desks that operate from different offices and focus on specific Trade Areas.

Company

The most strict reporting element for Financials reports
Easily made mandatory on most data entry forms
Considered a profit center by IMOS
An invoice is issued from a single Company
All users of IMOS should understand how Companies are set up

Line of Business

Less available for built-in reporting filters
Able to require LOB before posting a transaction
Business Rules functionality allows for Financials to back-fill LOB into transactions before posting
Operations users do not need to understand LOB

Department

Less available for built-in reporting filters
Able to require Dept before posting a transaction
More likely Operations users should understand Departments

Trade Area

Cannot require Trade Area before posting
Available on all major Operations forms
Commonly used as a reporting element in the Trading module
Operations users should understand Trade Areas
Trade Area can be renamed when using the following flags together: CFGTradeAreaHeader, CFGTradeAreaPrompt, CFGTradeAreaText

Configuration Flags Grid

Implementing these classifiers across the whole system requires multiple configuration flags. This table breaks down which flags affect which field per form.

Form/Data Object	Company	LOB	Dept	Trade Area
Cargo/VC In	CFGStrictValidationOnContract CFGClearCompanyLobOnCopy CFGDefaultCompanyFromVessel CFGDefaultCompanyOnCargoImport CFGVerifyMatchingCompany	CFGClearCompanyLobOnCopy CFGDefaultLobOnCargoImport CFGEnableOpsLOB CFGVerifyMatchingLOB		CFGDefaultTradeAreaOnCargoImport CFGStrictValidationOnContract CFGSyncCargoTradeAreaOnVoyageChange CFGSyncVoyageTradeAreaOnCargoChange CFGSyncCargoTradeAreaOnVoyageSave CFGSyncVoyageTradeAreaOnCargoSave
FFA/Bunker Swap	CFGStrictValidationOnContract			CFGStrictValidationOnContract
Voyage Estimate	CFGClearCompanyLobOnCopy CFGDefaultCompanyOnTciSelect	CFGClearCompanyLobOnCopy CFGEnableOpsLOB		CFGEnableFixtimatorTradeArea
Voyage Manager	CFGAssignDefaultCompanyOnVoyage CFGVerifyMatchingCompany	CFGEnableOpsLOB CFGVerifyMatchingLOB		CFGFixtureTradeAreaRequired CFGSyncCargoTradeAreaOnVoyageChange CFGSyncVoyageTradeAreaOnCargoChange CFGSyncCargoTradeAreaOnVoyageSave CFGSyncVoyageTradeAreaOnCargoSave
Time Charter In/Out	CFGClearCompanyLobOnCopy CFGDefaultCompanyFromVessel CFGVerifyMatchingCompany	CFGClearCompanyLobOnCopy CFGDefaultLobOnTciSelect CFGEnableOpsLOB CFGVerifyMatchingLOB		CFGRequireTradeAreaOnTC
Posting	CFGActEnableGLValidation	CFGActDisableLOB CFGActBankChargeLOB CFGActOtherChargeLOB CFGActEnableGLValidation	CFGActEnableGLValidation CFGActBankChargeDept CFGActOtherChargeDept
Reporting		CFGReportFilterByLOB