Central Journal Input

Parent adjustment workflows can post journals to entities that belong to already-certified base workflows. When a central journal input post occurs to an entity owned by a certified base workflow, the system will:

  • Temporarily un-certifiy the impacted base workflow (and its ancestors) to In Process status

  • Allow the journal to post to the appropriate adjustment workflow unit (including Level 2 and Level 3 channel-based units)

  • Attempt to re-certify impacted workflows after posting

All certification changes are logged in the workflow audit trail.

NOTE: The parent workflow must be a journal input workflow, and the base workflow must be a central input journal.

Central journal input is controlled by a new property in the controlling corporate workflow profile called, Perform Central Workflow Processing, and is located in the Data Quality section of the Adj property grid. It applies to level 2 workflow units (standard workflow units) and level 3 workflow units (user-defined channel-based workflow units). It supports both tree-structured workflows and named dependent workflows that are assigned to review levels.

Central Journal Input Usage

The following procedure walks you through central journal input setup.

  1. Enable central journal input on the controlling corporate workflow:

    1. Open the controlling Corporate Adjustment workflow profile.

    2. In the Adj member Data Quality section, locate Perform Central Workflow Processing and set to True. This applies to scenarios where the corporate workflow should post entries assigned to certified base workflows.

    3. If you deploy via XML, make sure that XML and metadata templates are updated.

  2. Configure central journal input:

    1. On the base input adjustment workflow where journals are received centrally, make sure Central Journal Input is assigned.

    2. For level 3 workflow channels, confirm that data intersections and UD members are configured as required. For example, UD1 values such as UsedByBaseWF versus UsedByExecutingCentral.

  3. Run the base workflow as usual. Base entities complete their required tasks (Import, Forms, and Adjustments). Base workflows complete (Lock, Confirm, and Certify).

  4. Post a corporate adjustment using central journal input:

    1. From the HQ/Parent central journal input workflow, Create a New Journal and Post a Journal a journal to an entity whose base workflow is already certified. When you are posting, the system will:

      • Identify the impacted base workflow and ancestors (including named dependent workflows assigned to review levels)

      • Set their certification status to In Process, which removes the implicit certification lock for the impacted units

      • Post the journal to the appropriate workflow unit and data intersection

Re-Certification Behavior

After posting, the system re-certifies the impacted workflows. Certification changes are written to the Workflow Audit Log, which include quick certify actions and certification profile question-based certification actions.

For corporate adjustments that reset the process task on child workflows, process tasks must be completed on the child workflows before re-certification can be completed.

For scenarios where automating cube processing would take an extended amount of time, base workflows remain un-certified. In these instances, you must manually process and re-certify.

Security and Access

Security ensures that when you are posting journals and triggering overrides, you have the proper rights to post journals to the central journal input and that you have the proper rights to un-certify and certify workflows.

All actions respect entity, scenario, data cell access, and workflow security by managing data application permissions.

To ensure security and control, only authorized users can trigger overrides. Locked workflows remain protected and posting fails with clear messages when locks or additional steps prevent re-certification.

Benefits of Central Journal Input

Central journal input adjustments can be made after base workflows are certified, without forcing administrators to manually un-certify and re-certify entire workflow trees. Additionally:

  • Audit risk in Actuals is reduced by maintaining full audit trails of certification status changes, quick certify and certification profile question actions, and journal postings that impact certified workflows.

  • Base workflow responsibility and timing is preserved. Base entities can complete, lock, and certify while allowing corporate-level adjustments on frozen data.

  • Complex workflow designs are supported including multi-period processing, named dependent workflows, level 2 and 3 workflow units

  • Manual administration work and errors are minimized by automating the temporary un-certification process of impacted workflows, and by automating attempted re-certification after corporate posting.