In the previous part I provided an overview of Journals in FCCS and went through in detail the workflow process. In this post I am going to start to look at the options for loading journals and begin with the import functionality in the simplified interface, this should provide a good insight before moving on to the different load methods available in Data Management.
To load a journal through the simplified interface only requires the scenario, year and period to be set; then import can be selected from the action menu.
In order to import a journal, you will first need to create a journal file which needs to follow a specified format. I found the documentation around the format for the journal file to be slightly confusing and to get a better understanding it helps by exporting an existing journal.
I am going to use the same journal I provided as an example in the previous post.
An export can be initiated from the action menu, the journals you want to export can be filtered from the job details page.
The journal file is generated by default with a “jlf” extension.
Opening the file provides a clearer picture to the required format.
The file is split into sections and a line starting with an exclamation point (!) indicates the beginning of a new section in the journal file.
The “VERSION” section is optional so can be ignored, I found that it only ever exported a version of 1 when apparently it should be the version of FCCS, for example 18.12
“GROUP” defines a group. It is possible to create new groups and have multiple groups in a journal file which I will cover shortly. Including this section is optional.
“DIMENSION_ORDER” is the dimension order of the line items in the journal.
“POV” is the combination of scenario, year and period.
“JOURNAL” defines the label of the journal, the group, the status and the type.
The status can be (W)orking, (S)ubmitted, (A)pproved, (P)osted
The status can be any of the above when exporting but for importing journals there are strict rules.
“If the Journal Workflow is enabled, you can only import Working journals. If the Journal Workflow is disabled, you can import Working and Posted journals.”
The type can be (R)egular or (A)uto-reversing. If this is not included in the file the default will be regular.
“DESC” assigns a description and the remaining rows in the file are the line items of the journal in the specified dimension order, these include (C)redit and (D)ebit.
It is possible to use either member names or aliases in the file.
The file does not need to include the blank lines to successfully import.
The following table highlights the different actions that occur when importing a journal:
As I mentioned it is possible to create new groups when importing a journal file though only an administrator can do this.
To create new groups, include the “GROUP” section name in the file.
If I import the file as an administrator, the groups are created.
If I try the same process with a non-administrator, the import job is submitted.
Personally, I find this an annoyance when importing journals, if there are any problems with importing the journal you will not know until you go to the jobs section.
Selecting the “Import Journal” job will display the error which confirms a non-administrator cannot create groups.
If you want to create multiple journals and assign them to different journal groups, then this can easily be done in the file.
Each journal is split by the “JOURNAL” section. Once this file has been imported it will create two new journals assigned to different groups and are against the POV specified in the file.
Now let’s try and break some of the rules for journals to see what happens. You can only import journals with a working or posted (workflow not enabled) status.
The above journal file has a status of submitted, if this file is imported and the job status checked, it shows as an error.
The import failed as expected because only working and posted journals are allowed. This is a standard error message, if workflow is enabled it will still show the same error even though posted status is not allowed.
Now to try and import a file that contains a member that the user importing the journal does not have write access to.
That validates the rule “Any user with the User role and above can import journals, but only if they have write access to all the dimension members in the journal.”
How about posting a journal to an unopened period?
The status is set to “P” for Post and no journal workflow is enabled.
An error is generated stating the journal cannot be posted because the period is not open. The journal is still created but with a working status.
Now it is highly unlikely users would want to create journals in a text editor, Excel is probably going to be the preferred choice.
You could create an Excel-based journal template which includes drop-down lists, validations and provides a much more user-friendly experience.
You can then use formulas to create correctly formatted lines for the journal file.
These rows can then be copied to a file ready to be imported.
You could get a little more sophisticated by adding some VBA code to generate the file automatically.
Once the file has been created, it can be imported in FCCS.
So what are the other options for importing journals? Well this leads me on to Data Management, and in the next part I will go through the available methods in detail.
To load a journal through the simplified interface only requires the scenario, year and period to be set; then import can be selected from the action menu.
In order to import a journal, you will first need to create a journal file which needs to follow a specified format. I found the documentation around the format for the journal file to be slightly confusing and to get a better understanding it helps by exporting an existing journal.
I am going to use the same journal I provided as an example in the previous post.
An export can be initiated from the action menu, the journals you want to export can be filtered from the job details page.
The journal file is generated by default with a “jlf” extension.
Opening the file provides a clearer picture to the required format.
The file is split into sections and a line starting with an exclamation point (!) indicates the beginning of a new section in the journal file.
The “VERSION” section is optional so can be ignored, I found that it only ever exported a version of 1 when apparently it should be the version of FCCS, for example 18.12
“GROUP” defines a group. It is possible to create new groups and have multiple groups in a journal file which I will cover shortly. Including this section is optional.
“DIMENSION_ORDER” is the dimension order of the line items in the journal.
“POV” is the combination of scenario, year and period.
“JOURNAL” defines the label of the journal, the group, the status and the type.
The status can be (W)orking, (S)ubmitted, (A)pproved, (P)osted
The status can be any of the above when exporting but for importing journals there are strict rules.
“If the Journal Workflow is enabled, you can only import Working journals. If the Journal Workflow is disabled, you can import Working and Posted journals.”
The type can be (R)egular or (A)uto-reversing. If this is not included in the file the default will be regular.
“DESC” assigns a description and the remaining rows in the file are the line items of the journal in the specified dimension order, these include (C)redit and (D)ebit.
It is possible to use either member names or aliases in the file.
The file does not need to include the blank lines to successfully import.
The following table highlights the different actions that occur when importing a journal:
As I mentioned it is possible to create new groups when importing a journal file though only an administrator can do this.
To create new groups, include the “GROUP” section name in the file.
If I import the file as an administrator, the groups are created.
If I try the same process with a non-administrator, the import job is submitted.
Personally, I find this an annoyance when importing journals, if there are any problems with importing the journal you will not know until you go to the jobs section.
Selecting the “Import Journal” job will display the error which confirms a non-administrator cannot create groups.
If you want to create multiple journals and assign them to different journal groups, then this can easily be done in the file.
Each journal is split by the “JOURNAL” section. Once this file has been imported it will create two new journals assigned to different groups and are against the POV specified in the file.
Now let’s try and break some of the rules for journals to see what happens. You can only import journals with a working or posted (workflow not enabled) status.
The above journal file has a status of submitted, if this file is imported and the job status checked, it shows as an error.
The import failed as expected because only working and posted journals are allowed. This is a standard error message, if workflow is enabled it will still show the same error even though posted status is not allowed.
Now to try and import a file that contains a member that the user importing the journal does not have write access to.
That validates the rule “Any user with the User role and above can import journals, but only if they have write access to all the dimension members in the journal.”
How about posting a journal to an unopened period?
The status is set to “P” for Post and no journal workflow is enabled.
An error is generated stating the journal cannot be posted because the period is not open. The journal is still created but with a working status.
Now it is highly unlikely users would want to create journals in a text editor, Excel is probably going to be the preferred choice.
You could create an Excel-based journal template which includes drop-down lists, validations and provides a much more user-friendly experience.
You can then use formulas to create correctly formatted lines for the journal file.
These rows can then be copied to a file ready to be imported.
You could get a little more sophisticated by adding some VBA code to generate the file automatically.
Once the file has been created, it can be imported in FCCS.
So what are the other options for importing journals? Well this leads me on to Data Management, and in the next part I will go through the available methods in detail.
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