Your Record to Report - Period Close & Reconciliation Data Template

The Activity Name describes a step in the record-to-report workflow, such as 'Source Data Imported' or 'Reconciliation Submitted for Review'. These activities are the building blocks of the process map and are timestamped to show the sequence of events.

Analyzing activities is fundamental to process mining. It helps visualize the process flow, identify the sequence of tasks, discover deviations from the standard procedure, and measure the frequency and duration of each step. This is crucial for pinpointing bottlenecks, rework loops, and opportunities for automation.

This attribute forms the core of the process map, enabling the visualization and analysis of the sequence of steps in the closing cycle.

This is typically captured in the audit trail, task management, or workflow logs within Workiva, associated with specific close or reconciliation tasks.

The Event Timestamp marks the point in time that an activity occurred. It is essential for sequencing events correctly and calculating the duration between them. A complete event log will have a timestamp for every activity, from 'Period Close Initiated' to 'Period Close Completed'.

This timestamp is the foundation for all time-based analysis in process mining. It is used to calculate cycle times, waiting times, and processing times, which are critical for dashboards like 'Period Close End-to-End Cycle Time' and 'Reconciliation Bottleneck Analysis'. Accurate timestamps are non-negotiable for a meaningful process analysis.

It provides the chronological order of events, which is essential for calculating all time-based metrics like cycle times and identifying process delays.

Found in event logs, audit trails, or transaction records within Workiva, corresponding to the creation or completion time of a task.

The Financial Period is the primary case identifier that groups all activities related to closing the books for a specific time frame. For example, '2024-Q1' or '2024-03' would represent a single case.

In process mining, analyzing by Financial Period allows for a comprehensive view of the entire record-to-report cycle. It enables the comparison of closing processes across different periods to identify trends, measure cycle time improvements, and pinpoint recurring bottlenecks. By treating each period as a case, organizations can analyze process variants and conformance to standard procedures over time.

It is the essential case identifier that frames the analysis, allowing for the end-to-end measurement and comparison of each period close cycle.

This is typically derived from the reporting period context within Workiva's financial reporting or close management modules. Consult Workiva documentation for specific field names.

This attribute records when the dataset was last updated from the source system. It is a metadata field applied to the entire dataset during each refresh.

Displaying the Last Data Update timestamp in a dashboard is a best practice that informs users about the freshness of the data they are analyzing. It helps manage expectations about the currency of the insights and is crucial for operational monitoring.

Informs users about the timeliness of the data, ensuring they understand the context of the analysis and when the information was last refreshed.

This is generated and stored by the data pipeline or ETL tool at the time of data extraction.

This attribute identifies the application or platform that generated the data. For this analysis, it will primarily be 'Workiva', but it can also be used to distinguish data that may have been imported from other systems like an ERP.

In a multi-system landscape, knowing the source system is key to understanding data lineage and assessing data quality. It helps in root cause analysis when data inconsistencies are found and provides context about how an activity was performed.

It provides crucial context about data origin, which is important for data validation and understanding the technological landscape of the process.

This value is typically set during the data extraction and transformation process to label the origin of the records.

The Company Code represents a specific legal entity within the organization. Financial closing processes are often performed separately for each company code before consolidation.

This attribute is crucial for filtering and comparing processes across different legal entities. It supports the 'Reconciliation Status and Ageing' dashboard by allowing analysis to be drilled down to a specific company. It helps identify if certain entities consistently face delays or have higher rates of adjustments, pointing to entity-specific process or data issues.

It enables comparison of close process efficiency and compliance across different legal entities within the organization.

Associated with financial data, accounts, and transactions within Workiva, likely inherited from the source ERP system.

This attribute indicates the business unit or department, such as 'Corporate Accounting' or 'Internal Audit', associated with the user or the activity itself. It allows for a higher-level aggregation of process data.

Analyzing the process by Department is essential for the 'Period Close Workload Distribution' dashboard and for comparing process performance across different parts of the organization. It helps identify systemic issues within a department, compare efficiency between teams, and understand how inter-department handoffs impact overall cycle times.

It allows for process analysis to be segmented by business area, helping to compare performance and identify department-specific issues.

This information may be stored as part of the user's profile in Workiva or associated with the task's metadata.

This attribute specifies the GL account involved in a reconciliation or journal entry. It provides a granular level of detail for analyzing the close process.

Analyzing by GL Account is essential for the 'Reconciliation Bottleneck Analysis' and 'Reconciliation Status and Ageing' dashboards. It helps identify which specific accounts are most problematic, taking the longest to reconcile or requiring the most adjustments. This insight allows teams to focus their improvement efforts on the highest-impact areas, such as complex accounts or those with poor data quality.

It provides a granular view into reconciliation performance, helping to identify problematic accounts that cause delays or require frequent adjustments.

This will be a key field in any reconciliation or journal entry data within Workiva.

This attribute groups GL accounts into logical categories for higher-level analysis. Examples include 'Cash', 'Fixed Assets', 'Accruals', and 'Intercompany'. This classification helps in understanding process performance for different types of reconciliations.

For the 'Reconciliation Bottleneck Analysis', filtering by Reconciliation Category is crucial. It helps determine if delays are concentrated in specific areas, for instance, if intercompany reconciliations consistently take longer than bank reconciliations. This insight guides targeted process improvements tailored to the specific challenges of each category.

It allows for the aggregation and comparison of reconciliation performance across different types of accounts, revealing category-specific bottlenecks.

This may be part of the Chart of Accounts master data, which could be managed in Workiva or inherited from an ERP.

This attribute tracks the state of a reconciliation as it moves through its workflow, for example, 'Open', 'In Progress', 'Pending Approval', or 'Approved'. It provides a snapshot of the current progress of reconciliation activities.

This is the key attribute for the 'Reconciliation Status and Ageing' dashboard. It allows managers to monitor open and in-progress items, identify stalled reconciliations, and prioritize work to ensure deadlines are met. Tracking status changes over time also helps to highlight bottlenecks where items wait for long periods before moving to the next state.

It enables real-time monitoring of reconciliation progress, helping to identify and address stalled items to keep the close on track.

This is a core attribute within Workiva's reconciliation or close management modules.

This attribute identifies the individual accountable for a specific task in the period close process, such as the person who prepared a reconciliation or the manager who approved it. It is fundamental for analyzing workload and performance.

The Responsible User is critical for the 'Period Close Workload Distribution' dashboard. It helps managers understand how tasks are distributed among team members, identify potential burnout risks, and ensure balanced resource allocation. It can also be used to pinpoint training needs if specific users are consistently involved in rework loops or process deviations.

This enables analysis of workload distribution, user performance, and resource allocation, which is key to managing team efficiency.

Typically found in Workiva's task management or workflow logs, often labeled as 'Assigned To', 'Owner', or 'Completed By'.

This is a calculated metric that measures the processing time for a single activity. It is typically derived by subtracting the start timestamp of an activity from the start timestamp of the subsequent activity.

Activity Duration is a fundamental metric in process mining, used directly in the 'Reconciliation Bottleneck Analysis' and 'Review and Approval Cycle Times' dashboards. It helps pinpoint which specific steps in the process consume the most time, allowing for focused optimization efforts. It is the basis for calculating many KPIs, including average cycle times.

It quantifies the processing time of individual steps, making it possible to identify and analyze the most time-consuming activities and bottlenecks.

This is not a source system field. It is calculated during process mining data transformation using event timestamps.

This attribute records the financial amount of an adjustment. It can be used to understand the materiality of changes being made during the close process.

Analyzing the Adjustment Amount helps to prioritize the investigation of post-reconciliation adjustments. High-value adjustments may indicate significant issues in underlying data or processes, warranting immediate attention. This attribute supports the 'Manual Adjustment Ratio' KPI by allowing for a value-based, rather than purely volume-based, analysis of adjustments.

It helps quantify the financial impact of adjustments, allowing teams to prioritize investigations based on materiality.

This would be a standard field in any journal entry data table within Workiva or a connected ERP.

This boolean attribute distinguishes between tasks executed automatically by the system, such as data imports or system-generated reports, and those performed manually by a user.

This attribute is critical for identifying opportunities to increase automation. By analyzing the ratio of manual to automated tasks and their associated processing times, organizations can build a business case for automating repetitive, time-consuming steps. It also helps in accurately measuring the efficiency of human-led activities versus system-driven ones.

Distinguishes between human and system activities, which is key for identifying automation opportunities and measuring the impact of existing automation.

This can be derived from the user ID associated with an activity (e.g., a 'system' or 'bot' user) or from a specific flag on the activity type itself.

This attribute provides a unique ID for each journal entry posted during the close process, particularly for adjustments made after reconciliations. It allows for tracing specific adjustments back to their source activities.

Tracking the Journal Entry ID is important for the 'Post-Reconciliation Adjustment Trends' dashboard. It helps to quantify the volume of manual adjustments and provides a way to investigate specific entries that were made late in the process. This traceability is key to understanding the root causes of adjustments and improving initial data quality.

It provides a unique reference for each financial adjustment, enabling detailed analysis of the volume, timing, and reasons for manual entries.

This would be a key field in any journal entry data within Workiva or the source ERP.

This calculated metric represents the end-to-end duration of the entire period close case. It is calculated as the time difference between the first activity ('Period Close Initiated') and the last activity ('Period Close Completed') for a given Financial Period.

This attribute is the primary measure for the 'Period Close End-to-End Cycle Time' dashboard and the corresponding KPI. Tracking this over time allows leadership to see the impact of process improvements and to compare closing efficiency across different business units or timeframes. It is one of the most important high-level indicators of process performance.

This is a key performance indicator that measures the overall efficiency and speed of the entire period close process from start to finish.

This is calculated at the case level in the process mining tool by subtracting the earliest start time from the latest end time for each case.

This boolean flag is derived by analyzing the sequence of events. For a given account and financial period, if a 'Adjusting Journal Entry Posted' activity occurs after a 'Reconciliation Reviewed and Approved' activity, this flag is set to true. Otherwise, it is false.

This attribute is crucial for the 'Post-Reconciliation Adjustment Trends' dashboard and the 'Post-Reconciliation Adjustment Rate' KPI. A high number of these events indicates a lack of control, poor data quality from upstream systems, or a breakdown in the process, as it generates significant rework and increases compliance risk.

It specifically identifies high-risk adjustments made after approvals, helping to measure process control and data quality issues.

This is not a source field. It is derived using logic within the process mining tool by comparing timestamps of related activities.

When an item is rejected, the reviewer typically provides a reason. This attribute captures that text or code, explaining why the item did not meet approval criteria, such as 'Incorrect supporting documentation' or 'Calculation error'.

Analyzing rejection reasons helps identify common sources of errors and rework. By categorizing and counting these reasons, management can pinpoint areas needing process improvement, better training for preparers, or clearer instructions. This data is valuable for reducing rework loops and improving the first-time approval rate.

It provides direct insight into the root causes of rework and quality issues, guiding targeted training and process improvement efforts.

This information is likely captured in a comment field or a predefined list when a user executes a 'Reject' action in a Workiva workflow.

The Target Completion Date is the internal or external deadline by which the period close process must be finalized. It serves as a benchmark against which actual performance is measured.

This date is essential for calculating the 'On-Time Period Close Rate' KPI. By comparing the actual completion timestamp of the 'Period Close Completed' activity with this target date, the analysis can determine if the close was on time, early, or late. This is a critical measure of process reliability and adherence to financial reporting timelines.

It serves as the baseline for measuring on-time performance, a key indicator of the reliability and predictability of the close process.

This date is likely set within the close management or planning module of Workiva for each financial period.