Automating the Chart of Accounts

Any CoA load configuration that you have created using the "Bulk load" feature described before will appear in the automation tab of the CoA maintenance together with additional information such as the last execution time and user and the result of the load. You can expand each item to see all details that have been specified as part of the bulk load and change them if necessary directly from here (alternatively you can always be guided through step by step be using the bulk load feature for the respective configuration again).

Additional steps can be created in the automation step as well by using the create button from the toolbar and in the new row selecting a name and a type for the step. Apart from the load types explained before there is also the option of running technical maintenance processes, most importantly in this context (some other options will be elaborated on in the planning setup chapter):

• Backup or recovery of dimension

• Set account flags for operative dimension: Equivalent of running the set flags process

• Run sync of a dimension: to synchronise the dimension after update.

Executing single step

Open the action menu (kebab menu on the right-hand side) and click "Execute" to execute a single step of the automation. After the process has finished you will see any messages in the row of the step.

Executing multiple/all steps

In order to automate a CoA build the system allows for the execution of multiple steps in a row. The switch icon for each item in the automation list allows you to deactivate the steps that should be excluded from the automation. You can furthermore change the order that the steps should be executed in by using drag-and-drop. Especially when executing multiple steps the order and the settings of each update step are crucial for the expected result. A typical example for automatically updating the CoA dimension would be:

1. Take a backup of the target dimension (FIN OCoA)

2. Load the Balance Sheet structure that originally came from an Excel-File whilst using the unwind option for the Reporting Rollups.

3. Load list of GL accounts from ERP system including a mapping to their direct parent that resides in the balance sheet structure loaded in the previous step. This step should use the "Add elements only" option because the unwinding has already taken place in the previous step.

4. Re-load the cash flow structure with "Add elements only" option.

5. Update flags for the operative dimension.

6. Sync the dimension.

This feature allows you to highly automate your ApliqoFPM system.