Hi Prakash,
In Dynamics NAV there are no limitations in the number of Dimensions you can setup. The only technical limitation is the number of “Shortcut Dimensions” that you can setup without programming. But Tony is correct. You can program this easily by copying the code done for the other Shortcut Dimensions. Without this code change you can still use as many dimensions as you like, you just need to do it from the menu (ex. Line->Dimensions).
But when that has been said, then I would really recommend that you get out your “business process consultant” skills and start analysing the customers business and reporting requirements to see why 20 dimensions are needed.
Unless this is a very small customer with a minimum of transactions, then I would never recommend anyone to have more than the standard 8 dimensions. The problem is that the way Dynamics NAV is programmed to support Dimensions is going to slowy kill the performance of your customers solution.
Just do a small calculation. If you avarrage Invoice has 5 lines. Then every time you post an invoice it will generate:
6-10 g/l entry lines depending on your costing pricinple (+ dimensions x 20)
5 item ledger entries + 5 item value entries (+ dimension x 20)
1 customer ledger entry (+ dimensions x 20)
sales tax/vat ledger entries
That means that you might have more than 400 database updates for every invoice you create.
I have had many customers who, when we started out the project had arround 20 dimensions. I have also had customers who had 20 dimensions or more when we went live. But I have still not had one customer who had 20 dimensions 1 year after go-live, without big complains about performance.
So you better make this clear to you customer before you start, and if you don’t have the overview of the customers financial reporting requirements (or you don’t understand them), then get someone on this project who understands it and can talk to the customer about it.