Author: Neeraj Agarwal is a Sr. Principal Product Manager at Anaplan.
Hello Anaplan Community!
If you've ever had to manually offset a deferred tax asset balance against a deferred tax liability balance and then redo that math by hand for every account pair, at every entity, at every close — you already know we're talking about Account Netting.
With FCR 2608.1, this long-standing feature moves from a strict two-account, single-account tool to something that can handle multiple accounts and parent-level tags in one rule. Let's unpack the concept, how the calculation actually runs, and what's changed.
🗝️ The Core Concept
Account Netting takes two or more related accounts — say, Deferred Tax Assets (DTA) and Deferred Tax Liabilities (DTL) — and nets them down to a single balance. Instead of reporting two full-value accounts side by side, the system compares them and posts only the difference to whichever side is larger, showing that residual as an asset/expense or a liability/income depending on whether the net balance is a debit or a credit account.
The logic isn't limited to true DTA/DTL pairs, either. Organizations commonly reuse the same mechanism to reclassify a negative cash position into an overdraft account, or to collapse any other pair of related balances into one net figure for reporting.
How the netting process works
Netting doesn't happen once at the top of the org chart, it works its way up the Entity hierarchy, level by level:
- At each leaf entity, the system compares the tagged accounts and reclassifies the net balance, recording the adjustment in a dedicated Netting Audit member so the original detail stays traceable.
- At each parent level, the system aggregates the already-netted leaf balances and nets them again, using an Elimination Entity to true up the consolidated total, so parent-level netting always accounts for what was already resolved lower down, rather than double-counting it.
- Any dimension not explicitly named in the rule — Intercompany, Cost Center, Product, and so on — defaults to its standard reporting/input member pairing.
Note: Netting at Parent should only be enabled if all the netted entities are within the same country/tax jurisdiction for DTA & DTL Netting.
🆕 What's new in 2608.1: Netting for multiple accounts
Historically, the netting engine could only compare one account against another. With this release, a single netting rule can reference multiple accounts — leaf level or parent level — grouped under one #tag, or even several comma-separated tags, so cumulative sums across several accounts get netted and reclassified together.
This flexibility applies specifically to the “Tag Account 1 (Greater than)” and “Tag Account 2 (or 0)” columns of the netting rule.
Netting example
Picture a simple two-entity, one-parent structure. Entity A carries $50 in Deferred Tax Assets (DTA) and $20 in Deferred Tax Liabilities (DTL). Entity B carries $40 in DTL and no DTA. Roll them up, and the parent has $50 in DTA against $60 in DTL — a $10 net DTL position overall.
- Reverse details — Entity A's $50 DTA and $20 DTL are both zeroed out, and the $30 net is posted to its DTA target (DTA was the larger side locally). Entity B's $40 DTL zeroes out and posts to its DTL target. At the parent, an Elimination Entity reverses the overlap between the two targets, leaving the true consolidated net DTL of $10.
- Net details — Only the smaller side at Entity A — its $20 DTL — gets reversed and reclassified into the DTA target, while its larger $50 DTA balance is left exactly as booked. Entity B's DTL, being the only account present, needs no adjustment on its own. The parent-level Elimination Entity then works with what's left unmatched to land on the same $10 net DTL position.
Both methods converge on the same consolidated answer, they just take different paths, and leave different intermediate details behind.
No manual trigger is required for any of this, as long as the tags and settings are configured correctly, netting runs automatically as part of the standard Run Netting or Run All workflow.
🙋 Common questions (FAQ)
Do I have to choose Reverse Details or Net Details?
No. Leaving the Account Netting setting blank keeps the legacy behavior of netting a single account pair. You only need to pick a method if you want multi-account or parent-account netting.
Can I net more than two accounts at once?
Yes, as of 2608.1. Tag multiple leaf or parent accounts under a single #tag, or list several tags separated by commas, in the “Tag Account 1 (Greater than)” and “Tag Account 2 (or 0)” columns.
Does netting run automatically, or do I need a separate process?
It runs automatically as part of the regular Run Netting or Run All workflow — no extra step required once the rule and settings are in place.
What's the practical difference between the two methods?
Reverse Details fully resets both sides of the relationship before posting the net; Net Details only resets the smaller side, leaving the larger side's original balance intact. Both land on the same final figures.
Where do I set this up?
Apply the calculation method under Maintain > Settings > Account Netting, then build or edit rules under Maintain > Account Netting in the Calculation card.
Want to dig deeper? The full configuration guide is available on Anapedia, and other FCR blogs can be found here.
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