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Setting up Group reporting

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The Group reporting functionality provides cross company analysis, allowing corporate entities a global view of sales, etc., for each of their legal entities.

What this document contains:

The following two companies are referred to within the Group reporting setup:

  • Originating company = the company that sends the balances.
  • Corporate company (also referred to as the reporting company) = the company that receives the balances.

When BIW transactions are transferred from each originating company to the corporate company, the information goes through a consolidation process (a merge) including, e.g., currency translation, period mapping, key value conversion, key mapping, key value validation, etc.

The Group reporting functionality is fully integrated with other functionality for balance analysis. This means that all balance transactions, received in the corporate company, can be analysed in, e.g., DC1 Analyser, DC1 Report Writer and the Balance enquiry.

The group reporting facility will allow you to:

  • Set up a hierarchy of companies.
  • Decide balance types to be sent to the corporate company.
  • Convert your Chart of accounts into the format for the corporate company.
  • Convert your system currency amounts, using exchange rates, into the system currency for the corporate company.
  • Convert your company accounting periods into the corporate company accounting periods.
  • Drill-down from On-line reports in the corporate company to the originating company.

Prerequisites
Both the originating company (sending company) and the corporate company (receiving company) must exist in the same DC1 system environment.

The originating/corporate companies cannot be a consolidation corporate company. However, the originating company can be an originating company both for group reporting and consolidation.

A Chart of account must exist in the corporate company for balance types with accounts as statistic key. In addition, an exchange rate must exist if system currency differs between companies. All other key values do not have to exist in their associated tables in the corporate company.

Drill-down from On-line reports only works one level down in the hierarchy (because conversion can be performed on each level).

Setting up the corporate company

The corporate company (receiving company) must be an existing company in DC1.

Program Description
Work with companies The following field applies:

    Group reporting
    Set to YES to define this company as a corporate company, making it possible to receive balances from other companies.
Work with chart of accounts For main accounts, select the Add or Change option and scroll once. The following field applies:

    Consolidation type
    Note: This field only exists on main accounts. The entries in this field are used in both the Company consolidation routine and the Group reporting routine. For Group reporting, enter 1 for normal exchange rate or 2 for exception exchange rate. If you leave the field blank, then the normal exchange rate will be used.
Work with data queue routines For the balances to be updated the following routines must exist:

Routine Description
BIWRCV Receives and converts/consolidates the balances.
BIWSND Updates balances and send them to next company in the hierarchy.
Note: If you want to stop the update from other companies, you can end the BIWRCV routine.
Work with exchange rates If the system currency differs between the originating company and the corporate company, you must enter exchange rate(s) for the conversion. The exchange rate’s time level, time and level depends on the setup of consolidation types in Work with company hierarchy.

Setting up the originating company

The originating company (sending company) must be an existing company in DC1.

Program/Panel To do
Work with system/custom balance types Select the applicable menu item (System balance types and/or Custom balance types). The following fields apply:

    Active
    Only active balance types can be sent to a corporate company. The balance type must also be active in the corporate company.
    Consolidation type
    The entries in this field are used in the Group reporting routine. For all system balance types the default is 1 for normal exchange rate.
    Note: This value can be overridden by the value on main accounts in the corporate company (see Work with chart of accounts above).
    Amount in sys cur
    The entry in this field is used in the Group reporting routine. It indicates if conversion of currency should be done or not. Only balance types with amount in system currency are converted between companies. All system balance types are defaulted with the correct value.
Work with company hierarchy This program is accessed from the Work with company hierarchy menu item when you are in the originating company. Define the corporate (reporting) company information for the originating company.
Company hierarchy maintenance Enter the following information:

    Corporate company
    Enter the company code into which the originating company should be sending balances. Only companies defined as a corporate company (see Work with companies above) can be entered.
    Note: This panel is only shown the first time you select the corporate company code.

Click OK.
Account/summary id part relationship Enter the following information:

    To fixed account no
    Mandatory entry. Enter a fixed account number. Fixed account numbers belong to the corporate company. When a balance from the originating company is entered on a main account in the corporate company which requires that other account parts are filled in, and these account parts are not used in the originating company, these fixed account numbers will be inserted.
    Note: If you do not enter anything in a field for an account part that exists in the corporate company, then the system will automatically insert blanks.
    From account part
    Enter the originating company’s account part connected to the corporate account part to which the balances are to be transferred. For example, if the main account part is account part 4 in the originating company but account part 1 in the corporate company, you enter 4 here. Leave the fields blank for the corporate account parts that are not used in the originating company, or for those that are not to be transferred
    From sum id part
    Enter the originating company summary id part against the corporate account part to which the balances are to be transferred. Leave the fields blank for the corporate account parts that are not used in the originating company, or for those that are not to be transferred.

Click OK.
Currency translation settings Enter the following information:

    Consolidation type 1
    Enter the period code for DAY, WEEK, MONTH or YEAR, and the level code for HIGH, MEDIUM or LOW and the period for the consolidation type 1 (normal) exchange rate from the corporate company. The rate to be used is defined on balance type/main account level in the corporate company in Consolidation type.
    Consolidation type 2
    Enter the period code for DAY, WEEK, MONTH or YEAR, and the level code for HIGH, MEDIUM or LOW and the period for the consolidation type 2 (exception) exchange rate from the corporate company. The rate to be used is defined on balance type/main account level in the corporate company in Consolidation type.
    Budget
    Enter the period code for DAY, WEEK, MONTH or YEAR, and the level code for HIGH, MEDIUM or LOW and the period for the budget exchange rate from the corporate company.

Click OK.
Accounting period relationship On this panel you convert the accounting periods of the originating company to the accounting periods of the corporate company. Note: Period conversion is always carried out within one fiscal year. This means that both companies, originating and reporting, must have the same set-up of the fiscal year, either calendar fiscal year or non-calendar fiscal year.

Enter the following information:

    Copy period X to
    For each existing accounting period in the originating company, you enter the accounting period number in the corporate company into which the balances are to be transferred. For example, if the originating company uses months as periods, but the corporate company uses quarters, you would connect periods 1, 2 and 3 in the originating company with period 1 in the corporate company.

Click OK.
Budget number selection and relationship On this panel you decide which budgets to copy from the originating company to the corporate company. Enter the following information:

    Budget selection X
    Enter the originating company’s budget numbers to copy to the corporate company’s budget numbers. You can complete any or all fields, and in any order, but you must enter a number in both fields for every selection. For example, the originating company’s budget number 1 can be copied to the corporate company’s budget number 2.

Click OK.
Balance type selection On this panel you decide which balance types to send from the originating company to the corporate company. Mark each selected balance type. Click OK. Click OK again to verify selection.

Work with reporting conversions

Program/Panel To do
Account/Sum id part conversions maint, header This panel can only be accessed if you are working in an originating company. Only account parts which have been set up for conversion in the relationship file can be selected. This panel displays the relationship between the account parts in the corporate company and the account parts or summary id parts in the originating company that have been set up in your system.

Select the account parts.
Account/Sum id part conversions maint, detail The first detail panel displays the relationship between the account part numbers/summary part ID’s in the originating company and the account part numbers in the corporate company.

    From account part
    This field is shown when you are converting account parts and can be used for positioning the table/listing. If you enter the code for an existing record, the entry panel with detailed information for that record will be accessed.
    From summary id part
    This field is shown when you are converting summary id parts.

Select the record you want to maintain.
Account/Sum id part conversions maint, detail On the second detail panel you establish the relationship between the account part numbers/summary part id’s in the originating company and the account part numbers in the corporate company. Caution: As you can also convert balance accounts into trade accounts, and vice versa, you must be careful when creating the entries in this table, so that you do not become confused with the account types.

Note: Two field names can be valid for the following fields. They are either From account part or From summary id part.

    From account part
    This field is shown when you are converting account parts. It displays the account part number to which the account number in the originating company belongs. This field is defaulted from the system and cannot be changed.
    To account part
    This field is defaulted from the system, with the correct account part number and name from the corporate company, and cannot be changed.
    From account number
    This field is shown when you are converting account parts. Enter the account number from the originating company which will be converted to the account number you enter in To account number below.

Tip: You can also enter a mask. For example, __4_ means that only the accounts which have a 4 in the third position should be converted to the number below. You must complete the positions that you do not use with underscore characters. If there are several masks that match an account number, the system chooses the mask with the smallest number of underscore characters. If there are more than one with this number, the system chooses the one with a character (not underscore) in the position furthest to the left.

    To account number
    Enter the account number for the corporate company to which the account number you entered in the field above will be converted.

Tip: You can also enter an account mask.

Work with data queue routines

For the balances to be updated the following routine must exist:

Routine Description
BIWSND Updates balances and sends them to the next company in the hierarchy.

Error handling

The following error scenarios and the corresponding solutions are described:

Scenario 1: Balances not updated in originating company

If balances are not updated in the originating company, then check the following:

  1. That data queue routine BIWSND is active (see Work with data queue routines). If not, start the routine. If only the administration job is active then a rebuild is on-going and you have to wait until it is finished.
  2. That the balance types are active in the originating company (see Work with system/custom balance types), if not you must activate the balance type(s) and also select them to be sent to the corporate company. You have to rebuild balances from transactions in the originating company to update both the originating company and the corporate company.

Scenario 2: Balances not received in corporate company

If balances are not received in the corporate company, then check the following:

  1. That data queue routine BIWRCV is active (see Work with data queue routines). If not start the routine. If only the administration job is active, then a rebuild is on-going and you have to wait until it is finished.
  2. That the balance types are active in the corporate company (see Work with system/custom balance types). If not, then you must activate the balance type(s). You have to rebuild balances from transactions in the originating company to update the corporate company.
  3. That the balance types are selected to be sent to this company (see Work with company hierarchy). If not, then you must select the balance types and rebuild balances from transactions in the originating company.

Scenario 3: Balances in error log file

If balances are received, but not updated in the group corporate company, then check the error log file (Work with BIW transactions in error). If there are errors they can be corrected by either:

  1. Entering/changing entries in the associated tables in the corporate company.

    2. or

  2. Changing conversion rule in the originating company. Caution: Since this solution will only affect the current and future transactions you should also perform a rebuild.

After the errors have been solved you have to delete the errors in the error log file to re-start the update of the balances. Note: Errors of type Warning are always updated. They are just information messages.

Scenario 4: Balances not updated in corporate company

If balances are still not updated in the corporate company, then check the following:

  1. That data queue routine BIWSND is active (see Work with data queue routines). If not, start the routine. If only the administration job is active, then a rebuild is on-going and you have to wait until it is finished.
  2. That no errors exist in the error log file (Work with BIW transactions in error).

Routines supported by Group reporting

The following routines are supported:

Routine Description
Build historic balances/budgets In this program you can move old balances from an originating company into a newly created corporate company. Click OK to start updating. Caution: You should only run this once for each originating company.
Update break level texts Break level texts are used in the corporate company to display description and validate key values that do not exist in their associated tables. When a key value does not exist a warning message is displayed in the error log file and a record is created in the break level text table with the key value.

In this program you can update break level texts (descriptions) for those break level text key values that do not have a text (description). Click OK to start updating.
Rebuild balances from transactions This routine is fully integrated with the Group reporting routine, e.g., a rebuild in an originating company also rebuilds balances for that company in the corporate company.
Clear balances/budgets manually This routine is fully integrated with the Group reporting routine, e.g., a clearance in an originating company also clears balances for that company in the corporate company.
Rebuild summary identities This routine is not integrated with the Group reporting routine, e.g., a rebuild in an originating company will only rebuild that company’s summary identities. A rebuild in a corporate company will rebuild ALL companies’ summary identities in the corporate company. This is because the corporate company can have a different setup of summary identity. This means that the original summary identity is not used and that it will always complement summary identities in the corporate company except for budgets entered on a specific summary identity.
Budgets All budget routines are fully integrated with the Group reporting routine, except historic budgets, e.g., budgets already entered in the originating company when starting the Group reporting routine.

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