Terms and Functionality

General Ledger provides the GL Cash Flow Application Engine process and its associated functionality for use in the preparation of the cash flow statement using either the direct or indirect method.

This table lists functionality, concepts, and assumptions that are important in understanding and preparing the cash flow statement using the GL Cash Flow process:

Term or Functionality	Description
Ledger Set	Ledger sets enable you to associate different ledgers to individual business units to be used in various processes, including the GL cash flow process. See Ledger Set Page.
ChartField Value Set	ChartField value sets define a combination of ChartField values on one or more ChartFields, based on a list of values, a range of values, or a tree. See Application Fundamentals: Defining and Using ChartField Value Sets.
Data Source	Data source definitions determine the table or tables and fields from which balances are retrieved. You can add filters for added selection criteria to refine the data set to be used.
Element	Elements provide the means to define the details of the calculation of the amount for a line on the cash flow worksheet. Each line on the statement can have one element. Element definitions consist of data source definitions and additional filters and ChartField value sets used for selection criteria. There are three basic categories of elements and four element types: Detail elements are not derived from aggregations of other elements and are classified as either Activities or Balance Variation element types. Derived elements are combinations of one or more other elements and require the Derived from other Elements type. Manual elements are not calculated by the cash flow process and require the Manual Entry type. You manually calculate the amounts outside the system and manually enter these amounts on the worksheet. Note: There is a one-to-one relationship between lines and elements. A line can have only one element, but the element for a line can be formulated from other lines and their elements. The element determines the nature of a line to the degree that the line and the element might be referred to as one and the same thing in discussing the GL Cash Flow Statement process.
Transition Grid	The cash flow process creates output, one row for each element for the transition grid. If multiple business units are to be processed, one element for each business unit is created by the process. The transition grid is display only and contains the data rows pulled from the defined sources as per the element definitions at the element level as opposed to the source level data. The transition grid enables you to review balances for the various elements at a granular level and shows what makes up the cash flow line items. PeopleTools functionality enables you to download this information to Microsoft Excel to fulfill the hard copy requirement for cash flow statement audit reporting.
Cash Flow Worksheet	The delivered cash flow statements are examples and models for your cash flow statement. You must enter the lines that will ultimately be presented on your cash flow statement. The worksheet enables you to maintain the aggregation of these lines. The basic structures for the direct and indirect methods are delivered. You can add lines to these basic structures at multiple levels, delete, and modify line description and determine their relative levels. There are basically three types of lines on the worksheet: Label lines—that are simply labels and carry no amounts. Detail element lines—carry amounts from a single element. Derived element lines—that carry amounts that are aggregates of other elements. At the line item detail level the cash flow process supports only the Detail, Derived and Label type elements. Worksheet line items can make use of only one element to present the line amount. The cash flow process looks up the Worksheet, Element, and Data Source definitions to calculate the amount for a worksheet line item. The cash flow statement can be generated using the Worksheet component, either with the Print Page function, or you can down load the results to Microsoft Excel for further manipulation.
Circular Reference	A line on the worksheet cannot be a part of its own calculation.

The cash flow process makes use of a worksheet template in which you define the lines required for your cash flow statement using the element definitions to specify the data and calculations behind the cash flow statement lines and using data source definitions to identify the source of cash flow data, such as transaction or ledger tables.

You create the cash flow worksheet in the format of the desired end result, which is your cash flow statement itself. You can add lines at multiple levels, delete or modify line descriptions, and determine the relative level for a line in the worksheet hierarchy.

Each line on the cash flow statement can be simply a label or use an element or a group of line items that you define for the cash flow statement for your particular organization. For example, a line labeled Receipts from Customers can have a definition for the line that includes details such as, its data source, if the line itself is derived from a combination of other elements, and its calculation sequence. When you add or modify lines and elements, you define the sequence for utilizing them as well as the calculations involved. You can also define summary lines for totals and subtotals. You can identify a line with a manual element to be used for information that you want to enter manually because it is not to be automatically generated from underlying transaction or ledger tables.

You also define the data sources to be utilized for data collection. For example, the data source for the Receipts from Customers line might include a calculation using sales and the change in the accounts receivable balance for the year-to-date period that is being reported as determined from information derived from the ledger table.

As a further example, receipts from the sale of plant and equipment can be derived from the asset management accounting entry tables rather than ledgers because the fixed asset accounts contain both sales and payments for assets as separate amounts in PeopleSoft Asset Management.

Data sources are available based on existing PeopleSoft products and supported functionality. You can add additional data sources; however, PeopleSoft recommends use of the ledger, asset management, and treasury transaction tables. The use of transaction tables in other General Ledger feeder systems, such as payables and receivables, can cause performance problems as their volume grows throughout the reporting period.

After specifying the scope and timeline for the cash flow statement, you can run the cash flow statement process to pull data from the defined data sources and create a transition grid according to your element definitions. The cash flow statement process populates the transition grid at the element level, which is then summarized into the worksheet.

With the appropriate setup you can run the process to pull data from a consolidated position and using ledger sets and related functionality you can also accommodate multicurrency translations to produce a consolidated cash flow statement involving multinational divisions.

You can produce the cash flow statement by downloading the worksheet to MicroSoft Excel by executing the print command from the browser.

Also, using the Printable Options utility you can print statement details from the worksheet definition and see the statement from the perspective of the worksheet lines that shows the details as to how each line item has been defined and which elements the line item references.