Account Reconciliation Cloud (ARC) is a tool that assists in streamlining a company's reconciliation process by executing standardization and operational efficiencies using centralized repository of account reconciliations across all the COA segments.
Account Reconciliation is not complete until you have a mechanism to track the performance and accuracy of the Reconciliations you are performing.
ARC provides 21 Out-of-box (OOB) reports which mostly meets customers' needs to track their account reconciliation process. These OOB reports include reports like Balance by Account Type, Balance by Organization Unit, Reconciliation Status, Late and Rejected Reconciliations along with trend and performance analysis reports. Additionally, reports on profile and reconciliation Audit Trail are also available OOB for users to keep a track of actions which are being taken on each reconciliation or profile on a monthly basis.
Out of the 21 OOB reports, based on our customer requirements, the most commonly used are mentioned below:
ü Balance by Account Type: This report displays reconciled, unreconciled and unexplained balances by account type along with percentage change in balance from prior period balance
ü Late Reconciliations: Report shows currently late reconciliations for any user (Preparer/Reviewer)
ü Open Reconciliations Aging Analysis: Report explains the aging of reconciliations that are not closed yet
ü Reconciliation Trend Analysis: This report gives a line chart showing the value of any selected reconciliation balance attribute such as source balance, sub-system balance etc. over a range of 12 periods
ü Rejected Reconciliation: This report lists out all the reconciliations which are rejected by any reviewer
ü Users with Late Reconciliations: Displays user-wise count of late reconciliations
To give boost to reporting capabilities ARC has included key pre-delivered Dashboards for performance monitoring and compliance. Overview dashboard provide capability to check status of reconciliations by different matrices like Format, Risk-rating, Account Type, Organizational Unit etc. Compliance dashboard helps users monitor performance of timely reconciliations as per company policies.
Though most of the reporting requirements can be fulfilled by OOB reports, ARC gives flexibility to administrators to create custom reports for any specific reporting requirements of the company. Custom reports can either be built from scratch or on top of the OOB reports by using the query and tweaking it as per the specific requirements. Some of the examples of complex reports we have built for our clients are:
Ø Tracking of Reconciliations Summary
This report gives a summarized view of account balances from all reconciliations based on the status of reconciliations i.e. with preparer, with different levels of reviewer and already closed
Ø Yearly trend of account balances and their month-on-month variances
This report gives yearly account data along with their MoM variances (both absolute and %age)
Brief steps to generate custom reports
Step 1: Navigate to Application à Report Configuration
Step 2: Select Queries, click on (+) sign and select Reconciliation Compliance
Step 3: Provide relevant Name and description, select type as Report Query. Now either copy-paste query from OOB report and modify it as per your need or click on Generate Query to create a query from scratch
Step 4: Select the 'Query Type' from the dropdown and click on 'Next'
Step 5: Select required columns and then click on '>' sign to move to the right-hand side, then click Next
Step 6: Add filter definition by clicking on create condition
Step 7: Define conditions then click on OK
Any filter criteria where 'Parameter' checkbox is checked, user will have to input the value for that while running the report. For ex. If Period is a parameter filter, then user will choose period value while running the report
Step 8: Once query is built, validate it
Step 9: After validating it, click on Generate Sample XML, an xml file gets generated. Click on Save and Close
Step 10: Now an .rtf template needs to be generated to define report format. For generating an .rtf template, install a BI Publisher plug-in (Oracle BI Publisher Template Builder) for MS Word. Once installed, check it in the MS Word next to 'Developer' tab on the top
ü Upload the XML file generated in Step 9
ü Once loaded successfully, go to 'Table Wizard' under Bi Publisher tab and generate the form fields
ü Once the form field table is generated, change the table headers as per the requirement and format individual form fields by just double clicking on them
ü Once done with all the formatting, 'Save As' this document in .rtf format. Now the rtf template is ready to use
Step 11: Navigate to Application à Report Configuration. Click on 'Reports' tab, then click on (+) sign and choose 'Reconciliation Compliance'
Step 12: Provide relevant Name, description and select query just generated
Step 13: Browse the .rtf template generated in Step 10. Select an appropriate Report group and Output Format
Step 14: Select the parameters needed for the report
Step 15: Provide Access by clicking on Add (+) button, select Application Module as Reconciliation Compliance and role from drop down
Step 16: Click on Save and Close.
Step 17: Now go to Reports card, generate the newly created report. Verify the output.