Configuring Group Reporting Validation and Substitution Rules

At ABC Corporation, you’re creating group-level accounting adjustments. You need a way to ensure that the segment field is always populated because it's needed for reporting. To make the segment field required, you'll create a substitution rule.

Group reporting substitution and validation rules are maintained in the Manage Substitution / Validation Rules - Group Journal Entries app.

When you create a new rule, select the GR Journal Entry Item business context and select Substitution Rule.

In the following Configure a Substitution Rule image, if Segment is empty for Consolidation Version U00, then Segment 1000_B will be substituted.

When you create the precondition, you can select from fields in group reporting that are consolidation and accounting related. You can also select the concatenate or substring function.

When you create the precondition, you can select operators such as:

• = Equal To
• != Not Equal To
• Greater Than
• Between

When you create the substitution, you can select from accounting-related fields in group reporting.

Substitution types include:

• Clear Value: Clears any existing value for the target field.
• Substitute with Constant: Fills in the target field a constant value.
• Substitute with Field / Function: Fills in the target field or replaces its existing value with the value from the source field or source function.
• Table Lookup: Looks in a custom business object for a source field or source function and uses its value to fill in the target field.

Overwrite: Select the checkbox if you want to overwrite any existing value of the target field with the value you specified in the source. If you want to keep any existing value of the target field, leave the checkbox unselected.

You can display the resulting script and logical operators as you create your rule.

Relationships between conditions are as follows:

• Filters for different fields or functions have an AND logic between each other.
• Filters for a same field or function have an OR logic between each other. There’s an exception: Filters using a negative operator, such as Not equal to, have an AND logic with the filters that use positive operators.

You can use the Analyze feature to:

1. Monitor the use of the rule by viewing the messages.
2. View the Execution Sequence of the rules.

When importing group journal entries, substitution rules are carried out during posting. You can view the import log to see what substitution rules were triggered.

You need a way to ensure that the profit center isn’t empty for income statement postings because it’s needed for group reports. If a profit center isn’t provided, you'll receive an error. To make sure that the profit center field is populated, you need to create a validation rule.

In the following Validation Rule image, if Profit Center is empty for Consolidation Version U00 and FinancialStatementItemTypeEXP and INC, then you’ll receive an error.

• Error: An error occurs and prevents you from completing the posting until they correct the erroneous entry.
• Warning: A warning occurs but doesn't prevent you from completing the posting.

When you create the substitution, you can select from consolidation and accounting-related fields in group reporting.

Validation operators include:

• = Equal To
• != Not Equal To
• Greater Than
• Between

You can display the resulting script and logical operators as you create your rule.

When importing group journal entries, validation rules are checked. If the validation check results in an error, the import is blocked.