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Resource Center Oracle Financial Consolidation and Close Enterprise Journals

Oracle Financial Consolidation and Close Enterprise Journals

Journals are integral to any organization's month-end financial close process. The data must often be adjusted after loading it to the base-level entities in the consolidation system. Oracle Financial Consolidation and Close (FCC) simplifies these adjustments with its journals feature.

Prior to July 2021, there was only one Journals module available in FCC. In the July 2021 update, the Journals module was renamed to Consolidation Journals and Oracle introduced Enterprise Journals which provides users with a streamlined centralized way to manage manual journal entries across the Oracle Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) cloud platform.

During the month-end close process, one key question is, how can topside journals be posted to FCC and pushed back to the source ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system? Typically, this can be achieved using multiple spreadsheets and templates to post journal entries to General Ledgers manually.

Oracle Financial Consolidation and Close Enterprise Journals

These General Ledgers may reside in multiple ERP systems - which is where Enterprise Journals come into the picture. Enterprise Journals automate the manual journal entry collection and posting process and can be posted directly to any Oracle or non-Oracle ERP systems. While not offered in the EPM Standard Cloud Service, Enterprise Journals is delivered in the EPM Enterprise Cloud Service within the FCC business process. 

The following images and screenshots show how Enterprise Journals work.

Key Features:

  • Single point of entry for all manual journals – Enterprise Journals are configurable and customizable for any target application, whether on-premises or in the cloud.

  • Standard templates based on the GL system being used

Administrators create the templates available for use:

Users create journals based on the templates which determine the layout as well as the target for where the journals are posted:

  • Efficient Workflow Process – Enterprise Journals provide an efficient workflow process to automate the process of journal approvals. The journals submission process follows the Create > Validate > Submit > Approve/Reject > Post/Unpost actions, with administrators provisioning the journals. After the administrator opens the journal period, the preparer creates the journal, posts comments, answers mandatory questions, validates, and then submits data for approval. Admins can set multiple levels of approvals, and journals are ready to post once the last approver approves the journal.

  • Comprehensive Dashboards – Dashboards provide the ability to visualize the status of journals, both in-process and unposted journals, and for ad hoc analysis of the status of journals. These dashboards also allow the financial controllers or admins to view the compliance of the journal process in the close cycle.

  • Excel flexibility – Instead of using the application interface, journal preparers and approvers can view and work with Enterprise Journals in Excel via the Smart View extension. Tasks, e.g., create journals, approve/reject journals, post journals, and more, can be completed using Smart View.

Integration with your ERP system

If the target ERP system for the Enterprise Journals is Oracle ERP, then a prebuilt connector is available for direct integration to post to the GL (General Ledger). Additionally, a set of direct APIs (application programming interfaces) are available to post to other non-oracle ERP systems. A file-based journal publishing option for the target ERP system is also available.

How to Set up Enterprise Journals:

Enterprise Journals can be set up using one of two methods:

  1. During the application creation process, select the Enterprise Journals feature.

OR

  1. After application creation, select Home > Application > Configuration > Enable features, then select Enterprise Journals.

How to create and manage Enterprise Journals:

To learn more about creating Enterprise Journals, the submission process, and available options, see the detailed documentation from Oracle (links below in References).

References:

Unlock your organization's potential and streamline your financial close and consolidation process with Oracle's subscription-based reporting solution. To learn more about Enterprise Journals, Oracle EPM Enterprise Cloud Services, and how Oracle products can help transform your organization's operations, request a consultation with one of Accelalpha's experts. We will work to understand your organization's needs and goals, guide you through your options, and create a customized Oracle Cloud roadmap that will drive results and improve processes. 

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