Dataset Guide

This page gives the mental model for the dataset: what is in it, how the table families fit together, which paths matter most, and how operational activity reaches GLEntry.

Use Schema Reference when you need field-level lookup. Use Company Story and Process Flows when you need the business narrative first.

What the Dataset Is

Charles River Accounting Dataset models one integrated business: Charles River Home Furnishings, Inc..

It connects:

• business processes
• operational source documents
• planning and support layers
• subledger logic
• posted GLEntry records

The dataset supports a clean move from business activity to source documents and from source documents to ledger impact.

What the Dataset Contains

The current implementation contains 73 tables across eight areas:

Area	What it covers	Count
Accounting core	Chart of accounts, journals, and posted ledger detail	3
Order-to-cash	Customers, commercial pricing, goods orders, service engagements, approved service billing, shipments, invoices, cash, returns, credits, and refunds	22
Procure-to-pay	Requisitions, purchase orders, receipts, supplier invoices, and disbursements	9
Manufacturing	BOMs, routings, work centers, work orders, issues, completions, and close	14
Payroll and time	Shifts, rosters, absences, overtime approvals, punches, approved daily time, payroll, and remittances	14
Master data	Item, warehouse, and employee records	3
Organizational planning	Cost centers, budget summary, and budget detail	3
Demand planning and MRP	Forecasting, inventory policy, recommendations, MRP, and rough-cut capacity	5

Most classes use these ready-to-use files:

• CharlesRiver.sqlite
• CharlesRiver.xlsx
• CharlesRiver_csv.zip

Download them from Downloads or use the copies already shared for your course.

How the Data Is Organized

Students usually understand the model fastest when they read it in layers:

Layer	What belongs here	What it adds
Business master data	Customer, Supplier, Item, Employee, Warehouse, CostCenter	Defines who, what, and where
Planning and setup	BOMs, routings, shifts, rosters, forecasts, inventory policies	Explains what should happen before execution starts
Execution documents	Orders, service engagements, approved service time, shipments, receipts, invoices, work orders, labor records, payroll records	Shows what actually happened
Ledger and control	JournalEntry, GLEntry, budgets, remittances	Shows the accounting effect and reporting layer

Many document families also use a header-line pattern:

Header table	Line table	Meaning
SalesOrder	SalesOrderLine	One customer order can contain many goods lines or service lines
Shipment	ShipmentLine	One shipment can contain many shipped lines
SalesInvoice	SalesInvoiceLine	One invoice can contain many shipment-based lines or service-billing lines
PurchaseOrder	PurchaseOrderLine	One PO can contain many ordered lines
GoodsReceipt	GoodsReceiptLine	One receipt can contain many received lines
PurchaseInvoice	PurchaseInvoiceLine	One supplier invoice can contain many billed lines
MaterialIssue	MaterialIssueLine	One material issue can contain many component lines
ProductionCompletion	ProductionCompletionLine	One production completion can contain one or more completion lines
PayrollRegister	PayrollRegisterLine	One payroll register can contain many earnings and deduction lines

The Most Important Keys

You do not need every key on day one. Start with the keys that anchor document chains:

Key	Use it to connect
CustomerID	Customer to orders, invoices, receipts, returns, credits, and refunds
SalesOrderID	Sales order header to goods fulfillment and service-billing branches
SalesOrderLineID	Order lines to shipment lines, service engagements, and invoice lines
ServiceEngagementID	One service engagement across staffing, approved time, and billing
ServiceEngagementAssignmentID	One employee assignment across approved service-time rows
ServiceBillingLineID	One billed-hours record back to its engagement and invoice line
ShipmentLineID	Shipped lines to billed lines and returned lines
SupplierID	Supplier to purchase orders, invoices, and payments
PurchaseOrderID	Purchase order header to receipts and invoices
POLineID	Purchase order lines to receipt lines and invoice lines
GoodsReceiptLineID	Inventory receipt lines to supplier invoice lines
AccrualJournalEntryID	Accrued service invoice lines back to the original accrual journal
WorkOrderID	Work-order activity across issue, completion, close, and direct labor
WorkOrderOperationID	Operation-level schedules and labor to one work-order operation
EmployeeShiftRosterID	Planned roster rows to absences, overtime approvals, punches, and approved daily time
TimeClockEntryID	Approved daily time to labor entries and attendance exceptions
PayrollPeriodID	Labor entries, payroll registers, and liability remittances to a pay period
PayrollRegisterID	Payroll header to line detail and net-pay settlement
SupplyPlanRecommendationID	Planning recommendations to requisitions, work orders, MRP rows, and rough-cut capacity rows
ItemID	Product-level analysis across sales, purchasing, manufacturing, and planning
AccountID	GLEntry, Budget, and BudgetLine to the chart of accounts
CostCenterID	Operating activity, labor, budgets, and reporting by organization unit

For exact field-level lookup, go to Schema Reference.

Core Navigation Paths

These are the fastest ways to move through the model.

O2C path

The customer-demand flow splits into a goods path and a design-services path.

Goods path:

Customer -> SalesOrder -> SalesOrderLine -> Shipment -> ShipmentLine -> SalesInvoice -> SalesInvoiceLine

Design-services path:

Customer -> SalesOrder -> SalesOrderLine -> ServiceEngagement -> ServiceEngagementAssignment -> ServiceTimeEntry -> ServiceBillingLine -> SalesInvoiceLine

Cash settlement is tracked through:

CashReceipt -> CashReceiptApplication -> SalesInvoice

Returns branch from the billed shipment path:

SalesInvoiceLine -> SalesReturn -> SalesReturnLine -> CreditMemo -> CreditMemoLine -> CustomerRefund

Commercial pricing is resolved before shipment and billing through:

Customer -> PriceList -> PriceListLine -> SalesOrderLine <- PromotionProgram and PriceOverrideApproval

P2P path

Supplier -> PurchaseRequisition -> PurchaseOrder -> PurchaseOrderLine -> GoodsReceipt -> GoodsReceiptLine -> PurchaseInvoice -> PurchaseInvoiceLine -> DisbursementPayment

The accrued-service branch is:

JournalEntry (Accrual) -> PurchaseInvoiceLine.AccrualJournalEntryID -> PurchaseInvoice -> DisbursementPayment

Manufacturing path

Item -> BillOfMaterial -> BillOfMaterialLine -> WorkOrder -> WorkOrderOperation -> WorkOrderOperationSchedule -> MaterialIssue -> MaterialIssueLine -> ProductionCompletion -> ProductionCompletionLine -> WorkOrderClose

Manufacturing also depends on:

• P2P for raw materials and packaging
• time and payroll for labor support
• O2C for finished-goods demand and shipment

Demand-planning path

Item -> InventoryPolicy -> DemandForecast -> SupplyPlanRecommendation -> MaterialRequirementPlan -> PurchaseRequisition or WorkOrder

Capacity tieout is tracked through:

SupplyPlanRecommendation -> RoughCutCapacityPlan -> WorkCenterCalendar

Payroll and time path

ShiftDefinition -> EmployeeShiftAssignment -> EmployeeShiftRoster -> TimeClockPunch -> TimeClockEntry -> LaborTimeEntry -> PayrollPeriod -> PayrollRegister -> PayrollRegisterLine -> PayrollPayment

Liability clearance is tracked through:

PayrollPeriod -> PayrollLiabilityRemittance

Ledger path

GLEntry -> Account

Then use:

• SourceDocumentType
• SourceDocumentID
• SourceLineID
• VoucherType
• VoucherNumber

to move back to the originating event.

How Operational Activity Reaches the Ledger

The most important mental rule is simple: planning and setup tables usually stay outside the posting flow, while execution and finance events often reach the ledger.

Type of activity	Usually posts to GL?	Examples
Master data and planning	No	Item, Employee, Budget, BudgetLine, BOMs, routings, forecasts, inventory policies
Operational commitments	No	SalesOrder, PurchaseRequisition, PurchaseOrder, WorkOrder
Operational execution with accounting effect	Yes	Shipment, SalesInvoice, GoodsReceipt, MaterialIssue, ProductionCompletion, PayrollRegister
Settlements and clearances	Yes	CashReceipt, CashReceiptApplication, DisbursementPayment, PayrollPayment, PayrollLiabilityRemittance, CustomerRefund
Finance-controlled entries	Yes	JournalEntry, WorkOrderClose, accruals, reclasses, year-end close

Use GLEntry Posting Reference when you want the exact posting rules behind one event.

How to Start Navigating by Topic

Financial accounting

Start with:

• GLEntry
• Account
• ServiceBillingLine
• SalesInvoice
• CashReceiptApplication
• PurchaseInvoice
• DisbursementPayment
• PayrollRegister
• WorkOrderClose

Managerial accounting

Start with:

• Item
• PriceList
• PriceListLine
• PromotionProgram
• PriceOverrideApproval
• ServiceEngagement
• ServiceTimeEntry
• Budget
• BudgetLine
• CostCenter
• BillOfMaterial
• WorkOrder
• MaterialIssueLine
• ProductionCompletionLine
• LaborTimeEntry
• DemandForecast
• SupplyPlanRecommendation

Auditing and controls

Start with:

• O2C chain tables
• design-services tables
• P2P chain tables
• manufacturing chain tables
• payroll and time chain tables
• GLEntry
• the transaction chains in Process Flows

Practical Starting Tips

• CashReceiptApplication is the authoritative invoice-settlement link in O2C.
• ServiceBillingLine is the authoritative hours-to-invoice bridge for design-service billing.
• For P2P traceability, start with PurchaseOrderLine.RequisitionID, PurchaseInvoiceLine.GoodsReceiptLineID, and PurchaseInvoiceLine.AccrualJournalEntryID.
• For manufacturing, start from WorkOrderID and then move outward to issues, completions, close, and labor.
• For time and attendance, start from EmployeeShiftRosterID, TimeClockEntryID, or ShiftDefinitionID.
• For payroll, start from PayrollPeriodID or PayrollRegisterID and then move back to LaborTimeEntry and TimeClockEntry.
• For raw multi-year income-statement analysis, exclude the year-end close entry types.

Glossary

Term	Plain-language meaning
O2C	Order-to-cash. The sales cycle from customer order through billing, cash application, and possible return activity.
P2P	Procure-to-pay. The purchasing cycle from requisition through supplier payment.
BOM	Bill of material. The standard list of components required to make a manufactured item.
WIP	Work in process. Inventory value that has been issued into production but not yet completed into finished goods.
GL	General ledger. The accounting table used for reporting and control-account reconciliation.
GRNI	Goods received not invoiced. A liability recorded when inventory is received before the supplier invoice is approved.
Control account	A GL account such as AR, AP, inventory, GRNI, customer deposits, WIP, or manufacturing clearing that summarizes detailed activity.
Manufacturing variance	The difference between actual and standard manufacturing cost that is closed from work orders.
Contribution margin	Revenue less variable product cost. In this dataset, fixed overhead is excluded from contribution-margin analysis.

Next Steps

• Read Schema Reference for table-level lookup and high-value fields.
• Read Process Flows for the business-cycle reading path.
• Read GLEntry Posting Reference when you need event-to-ledger rules.
• Read Analyze the Data when you are ready to move into the analysis layer.