Performing Summary Reconciliations

Understanding the Design of Summary and Child Reconciliations

Summary reconciliations are designed to be completed after all child reconciliations are completed, and all final child balances & transactions have been loaded for the Period. Therefore, summary reconciliations cannot be submitted by the Preparer until all child reconciliations are completed.

Summary reconciliations have their own workflow and transactions can be added directly to the Summary reconciliations. Summary transactions originally sourced from their child reconciliations can be edited, deleted, etc. so we highly recommend there are no changes to the child reconciliations after the Summary reconciliation is started and definitely not after it’s completed.

Note:

In the case of an accidental load of transactions to the child account after the Summary reconciliation was complete, you need to update the child reconciliations and re-complete them. If desired, you can request to reopen the Summary reconciliation if you would like to re-complete it as well. We do not reopen and replace the data because the Summary reconciliation is its own reconciliation and we cannot assume we should replace what’s there with child reconciliation transactions.

Balances are treated differently since balances are not manually added by the user to the Child or Summary reconciliation. Therefore, we reopen the Summary reconciliation in that instance since we are not replacing user loaded items.

Key Differences Between a Summary and Regular Reconciliation

The process for preparing a summary reconciliation is similar to the process for preparing a regular reconciliation except for these key differences:

• Generate All and Generate Updated Option
• Balance Summary Configuration
• Updated Attribute on Transactions
• Summary Profile Attribute
• Copy of Transactions from Prior Month

Generate All and Generate Updated Options

Summary reconciliations are intended to summarize the content of one or more child reconciliations. However, the summary reconciliation preparer must control when this update occurs to avoid cases where the content of the reconciliation changes unexpectedly, for example, after the reconciliation is reviewed or is submitted for review. To provide this update control to the summary reconciliation preparer, the following options are on the Balance Summary section of the reconciliation:

• Generate All: Causes the child transaction details and balances to be imported into the summary reconciliation.

• Generate Updated: Imports only the child transaction details and balances from the child that were updated since the last time the summary reconciliation was updated.

Note:

No comments or attachments from the reconciliation are copied. Comments or attachments on the transactions are copied.

Balances will also be imported automatically during the balance load, so typically the latest balances are already imported into the summary reconciliation, unless balances are allowed to be manually added/edited on the child reconciliations.

Balance Summary Configuration

In a regular reconciliation, the columns in the Balance Summary table are used to display the balances in various currencies and currency buckets.

Summary reconciliations:

• Are always prepared in a single currency and a single currency bucket. Therefore, the columns are instead used to display the balances from each child reconciliation included in the summary reconciliation.

• A total column is provided, which sums the values from all child reconciliations.

• The Child Reconciliation Account ID is displayed as a hyperlink in the column heading. When you click this hyperlink, a dialog box containing the child reconciliation opens. Because the summary reconciliation is created from content originated in the child reconciliation, an implicit review role is granted to the summary reconciliation preparer, enabling that user to reject the child reconciliation (so it can be corrected), but only if the child reconciliation was closed.

  In other words, the usual review process must be completed for the child reconciliation before a summary reconciliation preparer could initiate a rejection.

• If the child accounts in a summary reconciliation are modified, you must rerun the data load for the source system and subsystem balances to be updated correctly in the balance columns of the views.

  Note:

  The old source system and sub system balances appear in the balance columns in the views until the data load is run again.

The Balance Summary table includes the following additional rows for summary reconciliations:

• Child Reconciliation Account ID: The child reconciliation account ID is displayed as a hyperlink in the column heading.

• Status: Identifies the status of the child reconciliation (Pending, Open, Closed, or Missing).

  Note:

  Summary reconciliation preparers cannot submit the reconciliation for review until all child reconciliations are closed. The Total column does not contain a status value.

• Updated: If the child reconciliation preparer made changes to the child reconciliation since the last time a preparer generated the summary reconciliation, then the word Updated appears. The Total column also includes the word Updated if one or more child reconciliations have been updated.

Updated Attribute on Transactions

Summary reconciliation preparers may edit transactions in the summary reconciliation that were sourced from child reconciliations. However, if an edit occurs, the transaction is marked as Modified in the summary reconciliation. The Modified flag is visible on the Transaction Detail panel as well as in a column on the Transaction List View.

Note that this is different from the Modified flag in the Summary tab the states that one or more transactions of the child have changed since the last time the summary reconciliation was generated.

Summary Profile Attribute

To distinguish summary profiles and reconciliations from regular profiles and reconciliations, there is a filter and column attribute titled Summary Profile. If the value is Yes, then the profile or reconciliation is a summary profile or reconciliation.

Copy of Transactions from Prior Month

In a summary reconciliation, you cannot use a Copy Transactions format rule to copy transactions from a prior reconciliation into the current one.