Introducing the PeopleSoft Currency Conversion Utility

This chapter provides an overview of the PeopleSoft Currency Conversion Utility and discusses:

Note. Because the Currency Conversion Utility conversion processes are very complex and deal with the conversion of extremely important financial data throughout your system, PeopleSoft strongly recommends that you contact PeopleSoft Global Services (PGS) for assistance in using the Currency Conversion Utility.

Click to jump to parent topicOverview of the PeopleSoft Currency Conversion Utility

The PeopleSoft Currency Conversion Utility is a generic, table-driven, rules-based PeopleSoft Application Engine application. PeopleSoft Application Engine is a PeopleTool designed to develop programs that perform high-volume, background processing against data.

The Currency Conversion Utility is designed to select specific records or groups of records within a PeopleSoft database and convert the currency and currency-related data within those records from one base currency to another based on specific rules and processes. The various programs associated with the Currency Conversion Utility are invoked by way of standard run control processes.

The Currency Conversion Utility runs conversion rules that specify which records in a database may be converted together. Selection specifications within the conversion rules are used by the Currency Conversion Utility to generate SQL "where" clauses that will be stored within Application Engine tables as SQL segments containing SQL statements. The Currency Conversion Utility engine uses these SQL statements to execute conversion rules based on the values of the selection components defined in the process groups.

The Currency Conversion Utility uses a physical State record, keyed by process instance, to define the fields used to pass values from one SQL statement to another. The Currency Conversion Utility includes an Application Engine State record—EO_CURRENCY_AET—to define the State record fields for both conversion rules and exception processes.

For each record being converted, the Currency Conversion Utility requires four Application Engine temporary tables to perform processing-related tasks during conversion.

Although the Currency Conversion Utility and its conversion processes meet Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) requirements for participating countries to convert to the euro, the PeopleSoft Currency Conversion Utility is not euro-specific. Throughout this book, we use examples that convert currencies of EMU-participating countries to the euro, but you can use the Currency Conversion Utility to convert your base operating currency or currencies to any currency.

Warning! This PeopleBook provides an overview of the PeopleSoft Currency Conversion Utility. It is not a comprehensive implementation guide to using the Currency Conversion Utility to convert your base operating currency and currency-related data. Because the Currency Conversion Utility conversion processes are very complex and deal with the conversion of extremely important financial data throughout your system, PeopleSoft strongly recommends that you contact PeopleSoft Global Services (PGS) for assistance in using the Currency Conversion Utility.

Click to jump to parent topicDescribing PeopleSoft Currency Conversion Utility Components

This section discusses the main components of the PeopleSoft Currency Conversion Utility.

Process Groups

The PeopleSoft Currency Conversion Utility converts base currency data in process groups, which are sets of rules, each with a set of records. These process groups represent logical groupings of records within the same PeopleSoft database that all need to be converted at the same time, or use the same selection criteria. The sets of records in process groups are formed based on criteria that may include book, business unit, and currency code.

Process groups use selection component fields to select the records to be converted. These selection components serve as the run control parameters for converting data. You can modify these selection components to meet your organization's specific business conversion requirements.

Conversion Rules

The PeopleSoft Currency Conversion Utility uses conversion rules to convert selected records containing currency and currency-related amount fields within the database. Conversion rules with the same record selection criteria may be grouped into conversion process groups.

The conversion rules within each process group can be called in a specific sequence when the process group is run. Running these rules in the specified order maintains data integrity during the conversion process by ensuring the proper dependencies between fields (for example, amounts on header and detail line records) are maintained. Conversion rules can also contain reconciliation and adjustment options to keep converted data amounts balanced.

Exception Processes

Product-specific exception processes involve converting database fields that cannot be converted by the Currency Conversion Utility, such as flags and indicators, or which involve other conversion processes not included within the logic of the utility. These exception processes can be called by the Currency Conversion Utility at specified exit points during the conversion process.

Note. The four database field types that can be converted without exception processing are currency, amount, rate multiplier, and rate divisor.

The PeopleSoft Currency Conversion Utility allows calls to PeopleSoft Application Engine exception processes written to convert or update data that falls outside of routine processing. These calls may be done as a part of, or in some cases in place of, a process group or a conversion rule, using sequencing information defined within that group or rule. PeopleSoft products that require exception processes for the Currency Conversion Utility may prepare them using the PeopleSoft Application Engine.

Click to jump to parent topicTracking Field Value Changes in Your Currency Conversion

The Currency Conversion Utility has the ability to track "before" and "after" images of every field defined on a conversion rule. The fields for which the Currency Conversion Utility will maintain an audit trail are limited to fields that have been identified as conversion fields on a conversion rule. The four field types tracked are:

Note. The Currency Conversion Utility includes an option to bypass a detailed audit.