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Year-End: Year-end Simulation

X3 offers two choices for closing a year: Year End Simulation, which creates opening balances without formally closing the previous year, and Fiscal Year Closing, which formally closes a fiscal year. In this post we’re going to walk through a year-end simulation.

A year end simulation is similar to closing a fiscal year in that it calculates the closing balances of a given fiscal year, which then become the opening balances of the next. The difference is that a year end simulation does not create journal entries, and it does not close the year. Because of this, year end simulation is useful for confirming that closing balances are correct, it and can also be used to open a new fiscal year without closing the previous.

To perform a year end simulation, navigate to Financials > Utilities > Closing > Year end simulation

By default, the simulation will run for the current year(It assumes you are running this function in the year you need to calculate opening balances) and for all companies. If you don’t wish to run this for all companies, uncheck the ‘All companies’ box and define a company in the ‘Company’ field. You will also have to define the fiscal year in the ‘Fiscal year’ field.

Click OK to run the simulation!

When the simulation is complete, X3 will have populated the opening balances and generated a log file. The log file may contain errors that need addressed and will detail the balance of each account which can be used to confirm it’s correct.

If corrections need to me made they can since the year has not been formally closed. The simulation can be run as many times as needed.

Check back next time when we’ll walk through closing a fiscal year!

What’s New in SEI V9: Finance UDM Pt. 3

Last time we walked through how to publish your account mappings and build/load the Accounts cube. Now you are ready to tackle the report blueprint!

The report blueprint is just as it sounds; a blueprint from which to build your financials. In this step we will define account groupings and signs(+/-).

Begin by navigating to the ‘Report Builder’ process.

Expand this process and double click to open the ‘Report Blueprint’.

In this report, you will see groups defined in the first column. There are default groups which you can utilize or create your own. To create your own, we will utilize the info pages.

Right click on the Report Builder process and choose ‘View Info Pages’

Here we are going to utilize the ‘Create New Report’ section. Enter a report code and choose a language. Depending on your database, choose the SQL Server only option or the ORACLE only option.

Open the Report Blueprint to see your new report code. In this report you will define the account groupings. For example, our first level (Level 01) is the general account name: Assets.

Our Assets account can then be divided into Current Assets and Fixed Assets (Level 02).

You may stop here, or maybe you need to get more granular. In Level 03 you can see we break up Current Assets into Cash, Accounts Receivables, Inventory and Other Current Assets. The Fixed Assets definition stops at Level 02.

So now we have our levels defined, next step is to associate the account groups. These groups come from the Account Mapping report. A group will be placed in either the ‘Keep Sign’ or ‘Reverse Sign’ column.

In our example, the account groups for Current and Fixed Assets are in the ‘Keep Sign’ column. The previous steps will be repeated for you other account groupings.

After everything is mapped here, we must save the data and publish the report as we did for the Account Mapping report.

To do this, click on the save disk, ‘Save Data’ then ‘Save’.

Close the report. Right click on the Report Builder Process and choose ‘View Info Pages’. Fill in the Report field with your report code and click the update button that matches your database (SQL or ORACLE).

Now you are ready to begin creating your Financial reports!

What’s New in SEI V9: Finance UDM Pt. 2

In the last blog, we looked at how to set up account mapping. Today we’ll take a look at how to create report blueprints. Report blueprints are important because they are they foundation to your financial reports. Here is where we will define account groupings and account signs(+/-). For each financial report, a blueprint will need to be defined.

Let’s take a step back however and revisit the account mapping. We’ve saved our data from the report, but there is one more step to take. We have to publish the data to make it accessible for use in your financial reports.

Think of it like publishing a novel. You work and make progress, saving the ‘data’. When your novel is complete and you are ready to share it with the world, you go and publish the finished version. This is the same in SEI.

So to publish our account mappings, navigate to Universal Data Model > Finance > Configuration > Report Account Mapping

Right click on this process to view it’s options. Find ‘View Info Pages’.

There are a few options on this page. We will be concerned with the section labeled ‘Publish Account Grouping’.

Here you will enter your chart of accounts for which you wish to publish the mappings.

Next, to publish the mappings, click either ‘Update (SQL Server Only)’ or ‘Update(ORACLE Only) depending on your database. Look for the success message in the bottom of your screen.

If the publishing step is successful, you are ready to refresh the associated cube! To do this step, you must have administrator access. Navigate to the admin menu by clicking the wrench icon in the top right.

Now find ‘OLAP Manager’ and click to open.

In the search bar in the top right, type ‘accounts’ and find THE ‘UDM Accounts’ cube.

From the menu on the right, choose the tools icon.

On this menu, keep the action as ‘Build, choose the environment, then check the ‘UDM Accounts’ cube from the list. Click Confirm.

When this process is complete (Check the ‘Last Build Structure Date’) Complete the previous step again but instead of the action ‘Build’, choose ‘Load All’.

When this step is complete (Check the ‘Last Job Run Date’ and ‘Status’ Columns) you are ready to begin the report blueprint! Check back for a walkthrough on how to complete this step next time.

What’s New in SEI V9- Finance UDM Pt. 1

The UDM is a powerful feature that allows a user to create consolidated reports that use multiple data sources. This means, you can create a comprehensive report with details from sales, inventory, CRM, etc!

In a previous blog(Financials on the Web), I showed you what was possible to create using the UDM. In this post, and the following, I will break down the steps to create your financials on the web.

While there are various out of the box reports, it is advantageous to configure the cube to what you need and create your own reports.

Start by mapping your accounts. Navigate to the Universal Data Model folder > Finance > Configuration > Report Account Mapping > Account Setup

Double click to open this view and begin mapping your accounts. Default accounts have been defined but you may define your own. Start by entering the group/account name, i.e., WIP_Inv. Then enter in the account description, i.e. WIP Inventory, and the account numbers associated. If there are accounts to be excluded, those can be defined as well

When defining accounts, here are a few ways to list them. If you want to include every account that begins with a ‘2’, type 2*

If you’d like to define a range of accounts, type the beginning account and ending account to include, separated by a ‘:’

You can also simply define each account number separated by a comma

These rules also apply for accounts to exclude.

As you are making changes, be sure to save your work! Under worksheet properties, auto save can be toggled on so that changes are saved to the view as they are made.

Otherwise, changes will appear highlighted in green and you must manually save the view.

If manually saving, two steps must be taken. The first is ‘Save Data’ then ‘Save’. If ‘Save Data’ is not first clicked, your data entered will not be saved.

Defining your account set up is the first step to take in utilizing the Finance UDM, whether you are going to use the standard reports, or create your own.

Check back to see the next step!