Viewing Balance Validation Results and Documenting Resolutions

After running the validation check, Max now has results ready for review. He will use the View Balance Validation Results application to access the validation results.

The list will display the data, indicating if it has passed or failed the validation rules, and show the root causes for any failures. If corrections are made to the data from a failed validation, a revalidation can be run to analyze the new data. In addition, new validations can be run from this view. Running a New Validation will be the same as described in Execute an Individual Validation Run lesson.

On the initial Validation Results display, you’ll see that all Validation Groups that have been executed. Basic data such as Entity, Ledger, Currency (Type), and Fiscal Year Period can also be seen. It will also display the validation result, the log, and the ratio of failed vs total rules that are in the group.

You can filter the results to specific groups that you are interested in using the filter section at the top of the screen.

The overall result statuses can be:

• Success – the data passed all validation rules in the group or only failed those rules with control level set as Information. Remember that the control level determines a rule fails to pass is acceptable in the validation result. The control level can be set as Error, Warning, or Information
• Success with Warnings – the data passed all rules with control level Error but failed at least one rule with the Warning level
• Failed – the data failed at least one rule that has control level Error
• Technical Error – the validation ran into a technical issue and couldn’t be completed. Check the log for further information

The result also comes with the failed vs total ratio, result percentage and a stacked bar chart which provides insights into the numbers of rule-specific results. For Basic Rules, the results of the lowest group-by fields are counted. For Compound Rules, only the final rule-level results are counted.

In summary, this is a process that will highlight validation rule adherence, flagging any fails and providing a visual representation of the success rate via a stacked bar chart. Let’s see what the process of viewing validation run results may look like in a real scenario.

Max has seen the overall results for the Balance Validation but he’s curious about finding out more information. He now wants to see more detail as to which rules have passed or failed and the specific data that was analyzed.

You can see the validation group detail by choosing the navigation button at the end of the desired line. This will show the rules that have been validated in the executed Validation Rule Group.

In the Validation Result header area, you can see the parameters that were used to validate the rules in the group as well as the overall result as explained in the previous section. In the Standard default view, rows with rule-level result Success are hidden. You can choose to display them using the Result Filter.

You can see when the last date and time this balance validation instance was executed in the Last Run field. If you Revalidate this instance, this field will be updated with the current date and time that it was executed.

The Commenting Status is also displayed. This is determined by the Comments Required setting of the rules in the group. There are 4 statuses that can be displayed:

• Commented – The validation result has comments for all rules that require comments
• Partially Commented – The validation result has comments for part of the rules that require comments
• Missing – The validation result has no comments for any of the rules that require comments
• Not Required – The validation result has no rules that require comments

The commenting status does not have any effect on the validation results.

The Result Details table breaks down the overall result of a group into rule-level results. The Results are listed in the hierarchy as they placed in the Balance Validation Group.

The four possible results that may be displayed are Failed, Warning, Information, and Success. As stated before, Success results are hidden by default but can be made visible in the Result Filter field

The results displayed are determined differently depending on whether it’s a Rule Group, Group Hierarchy Node or a Rule. The following table describes how each result is calculated.

In a validation rule, defining a sum-type operand uses the Amount in Balance Transaction Currency setting. This means the data is first grouped by the currency then by the grouping fields defined in the rule.

To better understand the rule-level results and provide more information, additional columns are displayed.

• Exception – This column will be discussed at the end of this lesson
• Left Value – The value calculated using the left formula in the respective validation rule
• Operator – The comparison operator defined in the rule to compare the left and right values
• Right Value – The value calculated using the right formula in the respective validation rule
• Difference – The absolute difference between the left and right values
• Difference (%) – The difference percentage calculated with the formula [(Left Value – Right Value)/Left Value]
• Tolerance – The amount within which the difference between the Left and Right values that is ignored and both sides are considered equal. This is defined in Basic Rules.
• Tolerance (%) – The tolerance percentage as defined in Basic Rules. In the validation execution, the system compares the calculated Difference (%) with the specified Tolerance (%)
  • If in the rule definition, Tolerance value and Tolerance (%) have an OR relationship, and in a validation, the calculated Difference value doesn’t exceed the Tolerance value, the system skips comparing Difference (%) and Tolerance (%) to avoid a Divided by 0 error as the calculation involved division.
• Comments – Shows the number of existing comments. Adding comments can further explain the results or can request follow-up activities for the person responsible. If no comments have been added, the column show the Add (+) icon or Missing. Remember, if the comments column states Missing, then the rule definition states that comments are mandatory. Comments can be added at the Rule Group level, but has no effect on the Commenting Status listed.
• Reference Links – The web links added in the rule definition providing additional information.

By choosing Switch to Tolerance Currency, you can convert the displayed Left and Right values to the currency of tolerance if you have explicitly defined this in the rule. The system uses the M (Standard translation at average rate) Type exchange rate.

To drill-down even deeper into the data, for each rule level or group-by field level, you can choose the Details icon at the end of the row.

For a Basic Rule or any of the Group-By fields, the detail page displays the amounts of all operands in the rule formula. You can click the amounts on the Left or Right value to display the formula details, the actual amounts, and then choose to navigate to either Account Details or Journal Entry Line Items. The Journal Entry Line Items starts the Display Line Items in the General Ledger application. The user would need to have access to that application to use this link. The Account Details screen displays the amounts aggregated by G/L Account. The filter fields that were used to define the amount are displayed as columns. It’s also possible to navigate to the Display Line Items in the General Ledger application from this screen.

For a Compound Rule, the detail page displays the Details of the formula displaying the included Basic Rules. Additionally, each Basic Rule is displayed as noted above.

You can export the overall result table or any detail table to a spreadsheet.

As with any process, exception can occur in the Balance Validation run. There are five possible exception that can arise. The following table describes the exception, how it affects the Rule-Level Result, the Reason the exception occurred, and the possible Solution.

• The Balance Validation Result can convey various statuses such as Success, Success with Warnings, Failed, and Technical Error.
• The overall Balance Validation Result status indicates whether the data has passed or failed based on the validation rules, and includes indicators for rule-level results and any technical issues that may have occurred during the run.
• Exceptions can occur during the validation run. Knowing what to look for and how to resolve these exceptions is an essential part of managing your validation processes effectively.
• It's possible to export the overall result table or any detail table to a spreadsheet for offline analysis or reporting needs.