Author: Grégory Ponce is a Senior Principal Product Manager at Anaplan.
Ever wondered what really happens when you click "Run ALL" in Anaplan's Financial Consolidation and Reporting (FCR) solution? It’s more than just a single action; it’s a precisely orchestrated sequence of procedures that work together to transform raw financial data into fully consolidated results.
Whether you're a seasoned FCR expert or new to the solution, understanding this end-to-end process is key to mastering your consolidation. Let's pull back the curtain and explore each phase of the journey.
Phase 1: Data preparation and opening balances
Before any calculations begin, the system meticulously prepares the data. This initial phase ensures that your starting point is accurate and complete.
- Unallocated differences: Handles unallocated differences from manual journal entries to ensure everything balances.
- Integration: Gathers data from specified DataViews and moves it into the consolidation stream.
- Copy opening: automatically carries forward closing balances from the prior year to become the opening balances for the current year.
- Reverse audit: Maintains clean audit trails by automatically reversing manual journal entries into a designated audit member, keeping your source data pristine.
Phase 2: Core calculations and currency conversion
With the data prepared, the engine moves on to the heavy lifting: calculations and currency translation. This is where the raw numbers begin to take shape.
- CYNI: Calculates Net Income from your Profit & Loss accounts and reflects it on the balance sheet.
- YTD <> Periodic: Intelligently calculates Year-to-Date (YTD) from Periodic data, or vice-versa, depending on your scenario's configuration.
- Calculation: Executes your configured business rules, such as those for generating the Cash Flow statement.
- Variation: Computes the net movement between the closing balance and the sum of all other accounting flows.
- Conversion: Translates local currency data into your required consolidation and reporting currencies. This is performed before consolidation to standardize amounts. A subsequent step can also handle the balance sheet Net Income conversion.
Phase 3: Consolidation and final adjustments
This is the heart of the process, where the system performs the actual consolidation and applies the final, critical adjustments.
- Consolidation: Runs the core consolidation calculations, applying your defined rules to eliminate intercompany transactions and consolidate based on ownership structures. A subsequent step can also be performed to ensure the newly calculated balance sheet Net Income is consolidated correctly.
- Netting: Executes netting based on rules defined in the system. This occurs post-consolidation to offset reciprocal balances.
- Variation first: Determines the variation for the first year of consolidation by calculating the difference between opening and closing balances. The flow must use a specific system name rather than being scoped as a generic variation.
- Calculation (in-rule): Within the consolidation rules, this calculation handles Group/Minority share allocation for IFRS adjustments that must be reallocated to the ultimate parent company.
- YTD <> Periodic: Recomputes Periodic from calculated YTD (or vice versa) according to the Scenario’s setting, post-consolidation.
- Multi-dimensional calculations: Finalizes the process with any multi-pass or extended calculation sets you have defined for more complex requirements.
Pro tips for a smooth run
To ensure the "Run ALL" process executes flawlessly every time, keep these best practices in mind:
Validate scenario settings
Before you run, always check if your scenario is set to Periodic or YTD. This simple check prevents unexpected results in your YTD/Periodic calculations and ensures your data aligns with your reporting needs.
Check your FX rates
Confirm that your currency exchange rates and currency mappings are up to date. Accurate rates are essential for a precise Conversion step and reliable consolidated outputs.
Segregate audit members
In your audit dimension hierarchy, never place a reversal audit member in the same branch as its source audit member. This prevents circular calculations and ensures the integrity of your audit trail.
Reconcile after netting
Once the process completes, take a moment to check your intercompany balances. This helps confirm that the Netting step performed as expected and that eliminations are correctly reconciled.
Align DataView and integration logic
Be mindful that changing DataView collection settings without aligning your Integration logic can inadvertently exclude critical data from the consolidation. Always ensure they are in sync.
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