Working with data
Subledgers
A debtors or creditors ledger usually arrives as its own export from its own system. Import it as a subledger, say which general-ledger accounts it is meant to explain, and the same matching engine compares the two.
You say what a dataset is
On the import screen every dataset declares its role: general ledger or supporting subledger. VLDTION never infers this. A file called debtors.csv is not a debtors ledger because of its name, and a product that guessed would be guessing about which figure supports which.
| Subledger | Typically supports |
|---|---|
| Accounts receivable | The debtors control account |
| Accounts payable | The creditors control account |
| VAT support | The VAT control account |
| Other supporting records | Whatever the practice configures |
One engine, three callers
The bank reconciliation compares a statement against a ledger. The control-account reconciliation compares a control account against records inside the same ledger. The subledger reconciliation compares a ledger against a separately imported dataset. All three run on the same matcher, in the same passes, producing the same kind of factual match signals. There is no second, weaker algorithm anywhere in the product.
What it refuses, before reading anything
- Two datasets belonging to different clients.
- Two datasets belonging to different engagements, a reconciliation compares one period of one client's books.
- The same dataset on both sides.
- A supporting dataset that was never identified as a subledger.
- A dataset chosen as the general ledger that was imported as a subledger.
Checked before the button, not after
What it reports
| Rule | What it reports |
|---|---|
| CTRL-001 | The control balance and the subledger total do not agree, beyond materiality |
| CTRL-002 | A supporting entry with no control-account posting |
| CTRL-003 | A control-account posting with nothing behind it |
| CTRL-004 | The two do not cover the same dates |
| CTRL-005 | A duplicated supporting entry |
| CTRL-006 | The two are stated in different currencies, and no rate reconciles them |
Every one is development assurance: the control objective is ordinary professional practice, and the algorithm is VLDTION’s own. A rule that says a supporting entry has no control posting does not say anybody did anything wrong. A control account posted in monthly totals produces that for every invoice, and is perfectly proper.
What the run records
- Both datasets, by identifier, and both fingerprints.
- The client, the engagement and the control accounts in scope.
- The matching, currency and subledger methodology versions.
- Both balances, the difference, and the matched and unmatched counts on each side.
- Every exception with its evidence.
Re-importing either file changes its fingerprint, which changes the run identity. So a working paper can never quietly describe data that has since been replaced.