Supplemental Data
“Supplemental Data” means accounting supplemental records. The detailed information utmost required for accounting but is outside the scope of typical accounting, like postings in general ledger, etc. Data sitting in these records is typically additional required information which helps management and analysts perform their jobs.
Using the right systems for supplemental data collection and management can gain greater control and visibility into additional information, in comparison to using manual and spreadsheet-based financial processes.
Supplementary Information May Include:
• Accounting information
• Non-accounting information
Accounting Information
• An example of supplementary information is an expanded table containing the details for line items in the financials.
• Supplementary information system is valuable for any company, allowing them to provide important additional information—such as “roll forward” reports, debt roll forwards, fixed asset roll forwards, and equity roll forwards, which are necessary to support financial statements.
Non-Accounting Information
• An employee in charge of accounts receivable might keep a supplementary record with notes about customer demeanor, personality, and ability to pay future invoices. This extra information helps the employee perform their job by giving additional warnings about controls or customers which might need additional attention.
Methods to Collect Supplemental Data
There can be two methods to collect supplemental data. Supplemental data can be collected in single source system where master data is stored or in separate systems.
Collection of Data in Single Source System
Supplemental data can be stored in single source system where master data is stored
For example: In any ERP system (e.g., PeopleSoft or JD Edwards, etc.) or any of Oracle EPM Cloud Close suites.
Oracle EPM Cloud Close suite (Financial Consolidation and Close Cloud services (FCCS), Account reconciliation Cloud services (ARCS) and Tax Reporting Cloud services (TRCS) supports Consolidated data as well Supplemental data into a single system.
Benefits of Collecting Supplemental Data in Single Source System like SDM of FCCS
● It provides greater flexibility for reporting purposes
● Cost effective solution
● Administrator needs to maintain a single system
● Improved performance
Collection of Data in Separate Systems
Supplemental data can be stored in a separate system than the master source system. It can be MS Excel/File system/Database tables, etc.
Impacts of Maintaining Data in Multiple Systems
1. Collecting data in multiple systems can impact reporting capabilities.
2. System administrator will have to maintain multiple different systems.
3. When the master source system does not support inbuilt supplemental data collection and system admin still have to store supplemental data into master system, the size of master system will increase which might impact performance.
Supplemental Data Manager: An Untapped Gem of Close Consolidation
Oracle EPM cloud close consolidation suite (FCCS, ARCS and TRCS) have an inbuilt supplemental data collection tool named “Supplemental Data Manager” (SDM).
EPM cloud close consolidation suite supports consolidation, account reconciliation, and tax reporting for controllership users. Not only this, using SDM functionality of Oracle Cloud, supplemental data can be stored in EPM.
Summary/aggregated data will be available in FCCS/ARCS/TRCS whereas additional/detailed supporting information will be stored in SDM.
Supplemental Data in Financial Consolidation and Close Cloud Services (FCCS)
Oracle Financial Consolidation and Close Cloud Service (FCCS) is a suite of:
Oracle Supplemental Data Manager (SDM) is a platform that can be used to centralize the collection of financial, textual, and other unstructured data. It helps organizations to streamline the supplemental data collection process and introduces visibility as well as efficiency into the process.
SDM Provides a Robust Ad Hoc Data Collection Process That Supports:
• Defining the data definition process and associated data forms for data collection
• Provides a complete security mechanism on data
• Supports the ability to create calculation formula and validation criteria
• Control and monitor the data collection workflow
Examples of Use of SDM
How to Enable Supplemental Data Manager in FCCS
To collect supplemental data within FCCS, supplemental data collection module needs to be enabled while creating FCCS application. As shown in below screenshot of “Enable Features” while creating FCCS application, FCCS provides below options –
1. Enable both “Consolidation” and “Supplemental Data Collection” option to store both consolidated and supplemental data
2. Enable “Consolidation” option to store consolidated data only
3. Enable “Supplemental Data Collection” option to store supplemental data only
Note – If an FCCS application has been created without enabling the SDM, it can be enabled later as well.
Collection of Supplemental Data in FCCS – Investment Details
An organization makes a couple of investments. For each investment, the company needs to store additional information as well. Detailed information of investments will be collected as supplemental data whereas Invested amount will be part of the company's Financial Statements.
FCCS the Game Changer
Based on requirements – FCCS will keep only the aggregated invested amount for financial statements, whereas other detailed information will be kept in S DM.
Detailed Investment information to be collected can be divided into 4 different sections –
1. General Information
2. Investment Information
3. Investment Details
4. Investment Value
Steps to Set Up SDM in FCCS
Below are the eight steps to set up Supplemental Data Manager in FCCS.
Step 1 - Study Existing Process
Study the existing user input templates to:
● Identify all attributes/parameters for which data needs to be collected?
● Is there any need to create an additional dimension or attribute?
● Any validation logic required?
● Any calculation required?
● How SDM Input Form will be organized?
● User/Team details who will input data into SDM Forms?
● How to set up the Workflow process?
● Security setup details required?
Step 2 - Create the Additional Dimension/Attributes to Record Information
In addition to FCCS inbuilt dimensions, additional dimensions can be created to store supplemental information. Each Dimension can have further members under it. Metadata will be loaded for these members.
For example, In following screenshot “Account” is a FCCS seeded dimension, whereas “Moodys Ratings” is a custom dimension to store additional information.
Below two custom dimensions will be created to store investment details.
1. ‘Moodys Rating’
2. ‘SP Rating’
Following are the members and properties for each dimension.
Step 3 - Define the Data Set
• A data set consists of all attributes, required to record data.
• Under Data Set, new Attributes can be created.
• It consists of Attributes from dimensions (FCCS seeded dimension or custom dimension) and Attributes created in the data set.
• Once the Data Set has been defined, it will be used to create SDM Forms.
As shown in below screenshot – add all Attributes under the “Investment Details”.
Step 4 - Create Form Template
Form Template is created based on ‘Data Set’ and is a reusable component. To Create a Form Template:
• Define the layout of user input forms.
• Define mapping between FCCS and SDM and using that data will flow from SDM to FCCS.
• Define instructions to be followed by the user while entering data.
• Define the Workflow process.
• Define the security setup.
• Define the Users/Team who will be responsible to input data in SDM form for specific Entity.
Create New Section under Form Template
As per requirement, there will be four sections to collect Investment details:
Under each section, there are three tabs:
1. Columns
2. Group By
3. Mapping
Columns Tab
Choose the attributes which need to be added under the ‘Investment detail’ section from “Data Set” “Investment Details”.
• Select the checkbox “Included” for all items required in “Investment Value” section out of the entire Attributes of Data Set “Investment Details”.
• Select the checkbox “View only” if any column needs to be marked as view only.
• For all columns where ‘Data Type’ is Number, you can define the ‘Total Validation POV’.
• For example - If aggregated investment amount is available in FCCS and using SDM, detailed information is getting submitted, SDM Data can be validated against the data stored in FCCS.
• A mapping needs to be defined between FCCS and SDM members for ‘Total Validation POV’.
Group By Tab
● In “Group By” page – it will show only those columns which were selected as “Included” in “Column tab”.
● Select the “Included” check box for which data needs to be sent to FCCS.
● Select the “Group By” check box against which data needs to be aggregated in SDM and sent to FCCS.
● Select the “Included” check box for which data needs to be sent to FCCS.
● Select the “Group By” check box against which data needs to be aggregated in SDM and sent to FCCS.
For example – In screenshot – SDM will aggregate data against “Investment ID” for “Current Value”, “Book value”, “Unrealized Loss”, “Market Value” and “Fair Value” columns and send from SDM to FCCS.
Mapping Tab
In Mapping Tab, mapping between SDM and FCCS is defined.
To define mapping, click on POV - it will open a new window to select the specific member from each FCCS dimension.
As shown in the above screenshot - we can see the specific member from FCCS dimension.
As a result of this mapping - Value of “Book Value” entered by user will map to, “Investment Details” account of FCCS.
Click OK.
Click on “Save Button” to complete all tasks related to Section Tab and return to “Form Template”.
Once Section has been defined, the next import task under ‘Form Template’ is to define the workflow process for SDM forms. Go to the ‘Workflow’ tab.
Workflow Tab
Define the workflow process of SDM input form. Below are different available options.
● There can be multiple approval levels.
● Once, SDM form will be in Posted status – Data will be moved from SDM to FCCS.
● Based on the selected workflow option, preparer, approver, and integrator need to be defined.
● Post deployment of template, preparer, approver, and integrator who has been defined in Workflow, will be able to perform specific tasks in SDM Input form for Entities that has been defined in Workflow.
Step 5 - Open the Period for Data Collection
To start supplemental data collection process:
• Make sure the period is open for the month in which data is to be loaded.
Step 6 - Deployment the Form Template
Once the form template has been created, the next step is to deploy the template.
Step 7 - Data Submission to Input for Using workflow
Once SDM forms have been deployed, it will undergo the workflow process.
It will have three stages below:
1. Preparer
2. Approver
3. Integrator
Preparer Related Task
Once the SDM form has been assigned to the preparer, the preparer needs to enter the data and submit data to approver for approval.
For our example, there are four different tabs under “Investment details” where the preparer needs to enter data.
Enter the details and click the ‘Save’ button. Similar to this, the preparer need to enter details in all four forms.
Once all data has been entered into four different forms, the preparer needs to “Submit” control from “Preparer” to “Approver” stage.
Approver Related Task
• Once the preparer will submit the data, control will move to “Approver”.
• Approver has the option to “Approve” or “Reject” this data.
• On Rejection – control will go back to the preparer.
• On Approval – control will move to next level (i.e., Integrator).
• Once approver clicks the ‘Approve’ button, control will move to the integrator.
Integrator Related Task
• Once control moves to the integrator, the integrator can post or reject it.
• Once it has been posted, data will be moved from SDM to FCCS.
Viewing Data in FCCS
• As “Book Value” was mapped with the “Investment details” member in FCCS.
At the below member combination, data can be seen in FCCS.
• SDM data will be loaded on the “Supplemental Data” member from the “Data Source” dimension in FCCS.
Drill through from FCCS to SDM
• FCCS will hold summary data and detail data will be available in SDM.
• To see detailed data from FCCS, the drill-through option can be used.
• It is supported via Smart View and FCCS Web Forms.
• In Web Form - right click on the data cell for account “Investment Details”-> ‘C_101” and select Drill Through.
• On the next window, all four input forms will appear.
The screen of SDM below will appear where we can see all four input forms.
Step 8 - Close the Data Collection Period
Once Supplemental data has been posted, close the data collection period.
Powerful SDM Features Provided by FCCS
With the implementation of FCCS, any organization can have a centralized system to store financial data as well as the supplemental data.
Supplemental Data Manager Security
SDM provides a robust security model. While defining the SDM “Form template”, Admin needs to set up the SDM workflow.
Admin needs to define who will be the preparer, approver, and integrator for each entity for which SDM data need to be loaded.
Post deployment of Template – Only preparer, approver, and integrator who has been defined in Workflow will be able to perform specific tasks in SDM Input form for that particular Entity.
SDM allows users to define Teams instead of individual preparer, approver, and integrator. Teams specifically for supplemental data, for example, for working on supplemental data forms
can be created. You can then determine which users or teams can claim a form, and from Access, you can assign teams for workflow stages.
Based on assigned access – multiple users can enter data to their respective assigned SDM Input form at same time.
For SDM Input form – only specific users who have given access “Form Template” under “Access Tab” can view the data.
Based on dimension level security defined in FCCS, users will be able to see data for specific members in FCCS.
Data Flow from Supplemental Data Manager to FCCS
Once data has been approved and posted by the integrator, data will be moved from SDM to FCCS application.
At below combinations, data will be available in FCCS:
● “Supplemental Data” member from “Data Source” dimension
● Year, period, scenario, and entity will be picked from SDM input form.
● For other dimensions, data will be available on member-defined in the mapping session.
Data will be available on the same combination which has been defined under the “Mapping” section. For example, as per the screenshot below, data will be available on “Investment Details” Account.
Supplemental Data Management Dashboard
FCCS provides inbuilt Dashboard to monitor the progress on SDM input forms. You can monitor the business process and supplemental data information using below types of dashboards.
1. Task
2. Compliance
3. Financial dashboards
Benefit of Supplemental Data Management
A Single Interface
Both consolidated and supplemental data can be stored from a single interface of Oracle EPM Financial Consolidation and Close services (FCCS).
Flexible Reporting Capabilities
As both consolidated data and supplemental data is available at the same interface, it provides great flexibility to report both types of data.
Summary/aggregated data will be available in FCCS whereas additional/detailed supporting information will be stored in SDM.
FCCS allows drill through from FCCS to SDM to see detail-level information.
Cost Effective Solution
Storing both consolidated data and supplemental data into a single interface is a cost effective solution for any organization. Administrator needs to maintain a single system. FCCS supports SaaS architecture.
Improved Performance
Instead of maintaining information in multiple sources for consolidated data and supplemental data, having a single source reduced the end to end consolidation cycle time and improved performance.
Security
FCCS/SDM provides a robust security model. For the SDM input form, only specific users who have been assigned any task (preparer, approver, and integrator) or given access “Form Template” under “Access Tab” can view the data.
Based on dimension level security defined in FCCS, users will be able to see data for specific members in FCCS.
Easy User Interface
FCCS provides great flexibility to load supplementary data into SDM input form. Users can use Smart View (Excel), load data file (.CSV format), and use a web interface.
FCCS provides different types of Dashboards to see the status of SDM input forms.
SDM Workflow
Using workflow, it can easily track the status of any task. The administrator or power user sends email alerts to assigned users for their related data forms.
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