Dealer Financial Analysis (DFA)

DFA is a John Deere analytical tool which allows dealers to regularly (monthly or quarterly) upload their trial balance data into the John Deere DFA Tool via DTF to generate several individual standard financial reports for them (Balance sheet, P/L at dealership and departmental level, financial KPIs).
As the database contains data of all John Deere dealers in a given market where DFA is implemented, the reports provide dealers with valuable aggregated benchmarks. The latter allow dealers to compare their financial performance with average John Deere dealer performance in a given market or for a comparable (e.g., size- or business-wise) subgroup of dealers (comparative reports).
The interface allows users to create a dedicated DFA Account Schedule in John Deere DBS to produce a file with a dealer trial balance which can be consequently uploaded into John Deere DFA tool.
A dealer trial balance generally does not have the same structure as the one requested by John Deere DFA. For this reason, it is necessary to map dealer accounts to John Deere trial balance accounts. This can be performed by using John Deere DBS account schedules.

DFA Interface setup

To set up a specific Account Schedule, the DFA FastTab was added to the John Deere Setup page.

Account schedules

The default John Deere DBS setup provided by TRASER Software GmbH includes a template for DFA account schedules:

This template is available when selecting the DFA entry on the Account Schedules page and clicking on the HOME > Edit button. It already shows the required DFA account structure as well as preliminary settings to facilitate mapping of DFA and internal dealer accounts:

• The Row No. field contains the unique DFA trial balance account number.
• The Description field reflects the unique name of the DFA trial balance account.
• The Totalling Type field,
  • for DFA account lines, is fixed to the Posting Accounts value which allows to calculation of totals from Posting Accounts out of dealer chart of accounts.
  • for DFA subtotals (in bold font: set up only for informational purpose!), is fixed to the Formula value which allows calculation of totals based on above lines referring to DFA accounts.
• The Totalling field is the main container for the mapping input. DFA accounts can be mapped here to specific dealer account(s) or combinations of accounts. By using the characters | (equals and) and … (equals all accounts within the range) between accounts in the Totalling field, amounts on the respective accounts are aggregated.
• Dimension-related fields (Profit Center Code Totalling, Brand Code Totalling, in the example above) enable to total only those transactions on the accounts defined in the Totalling field which hold a specific dimension value.
  • Dimension columns are not available in DFA account schedules, and they are not part of default setup as their requirement depends on the structure of account dealer charts. It is possible to include up to 4 dimensions, which should be relevant for account mapping, in the DFA account schedule (see Dimension selection).
  • To fill a dimension field relevant for a DFA account, users need to select specific value(s) for a given dimension from the corresponding drop-down menu.
• The Row Type field is set up with the Balance at Date value to show the account balances at the end of the reporting period.
• All required checkboxes for the DFA download/upload file are already selected in the Relevant for DFA export column.
• To create a DFA export file, open the Account Schedules page and select the DFA entry.
• Click on HOME > Overview to see the Acc. Schedule Overview - DFA page where the list of all DFA account schedules and their balances is shown.

• In the General and Dimension Filters sections, select the values valid for your DFA export. In case of questions, contact your John Deere representative.
• When all settings are done, click on the ACTIONS > Create DFA Export File button to create a DFA export file and send it to John Deere via DTF.

The export will calculate all balances within the account schedule and export the data in the format predefined by John Deere, so that the export file can be directly evaluated aver transmission via DTF.

Dimension selection

To define dimensions which should be taken into consideration for mapping:

• Open the Account Schedule Names table, and in the line corresponding to the defined DFA account schedule, in the Analysis View Name drop-down menu, select the Advanced value.
• The Analysis View Card opens.
• Select up to 4 relevant dimensions in the Dimensions section.
• To be able to choose the needed dimensions, they should be already set up, and the postings of G/L accounts should all have this dimension stamped on them.
• As soon as dimension selection is done, the Choose Columns button in the DFA account schedule will allow to make the respective dimension totalling fields visible.