0907 Ledger Translation

• Problem:

Since the new settlement system comes together with a new ledger system, we start to turn off the old ledger system when the settlement system is in place. The majority of journal postings are automatically generated during the settlement life cycle of a trade, e.g. a trade booked, or a trade settled. Nevertheless, manual postings from user are still very important for two reasons: a) for day-to-day account error write-off and b) as a back-up methods if the automatic posting goes wrong.

The replacement strategy is to keep the two ledger system running in parallel for a period. This strategy allows users from different locations reconcile the postings and positions, and shift to the new system after confidence are built up.

One difficult issue here is that during parallel running, users have to produce two copies of manual journals, one for the old system, the other for the new. The second copy of journal in a different format is an extra burden for the users who are already 120% choked up by their daily operation. The situation becomes extremely nasty when the users found them totally not familiar with the code of accounts in the new ledger system - the work load was doubled.

• Solution:

We come up with a ledger translation tool in Excel. The tool basically do two things:

1. Take the manual journal in the old format, check a rule based dictionary, and update the journal with a new posting code for the new system.

2. Format the old format into a new format that can be fed into the new ledger system.

The process is described by the following work flow.

• Work-flow to upload manual journal, before and after

• Excel program user case:

• Screen-shot: the main page of the application, from where, user clicks various buttons to operate.

• Screen-shot: the input voucher

• Screen-shot: the output file for uploading

NOTE, the program is company asset, so code will not be revealed.