This document presents the principles and parameters that can optimize both the flow generation processing and the closing processing whose time is mainly used by flow generation.

Reminder

Principles of flow generation

 The record creation in the flow table is carried out:

  • Upon activation of the flow management by account or by fiscal statement item, at context setup level: an initial flow for the fiscal year is created for each asset and each plan concerned. As these flows only contain initial information, their statuses are Not generated.
     
  • Upon creating an asset, when the CALAUTVAL - Automatic calculation on validation parameter (AAS Chapter, CLC groups) is set to Yes.
     
  • During the unit calculation of an asset.
     
  • Upon period or fiscal year closing. Flows are created or updated for the closed period or fiscal year with the Definitive status, which indicates that these flows can no longer be modified. 
    When closing a fiscal year, the flows are also initialized for the next FY for each plan concerned, and for each asset of the company (performed in the same way as for flow activation above-mentioned). Their status is set to Not generated. 
     
  • During the generation process of the provisional flows. These flows can only be generated for contexts that have been subject to an actual calculation.
     
    This process is used to generate the flows of all assets of the selected companies, after a new fiscal year opens. This processing can be leveled over the whole first period; it is particularly useful as the processing time of the first closing is no longer jeopardized.
    Flows are created or updated with the Provisional status, which indicates that the recorded information is relevant but not definitive as the closing is not completed yet.

    This processing can be restarted at any time. In order to optimize processing times, it only applies to the new assets and to those that were subjected to a business action impacting flows (since de last generation).

Functions concerned

Indicator of flows to generate: FLGCNXFLX

One of these principle aims at reduce the processing time which is mainly due to the forward-looking emphasis of the flow generation. For example, at the beginning of a 12-month FY, the flow generation requires the creation or update of 13 records (12 for periods and 1 for the FY).

This principle consists in the absence of flow generation for an asset when no action has affected its flows since the last generation: new assets or modified assets only are processed.
It relies on an indicator dimensioned according to the context of the financial asset: FLGCNXFLX
It specifies whether flows of a context must be regenerated or not.

This indicator is included in financial assets table FXDASSETS. This is a 11-character alphanumerical field ; the character of n rank specifies whether flow of context n are to be generated:
 
- Value "1": flows are not to be generated
- Value "2": flows are to be generated
- Value "3": flows are not managed on the context

These elements are included in local menu 3189.

Updating indicator
  • Rank n of FLGCNXFLX is set to: 1 - Generated flows:
     
    - For the provisional flow generation of context n.
    -For periodic closing of context n.
     
  • Rank n of FLGCNXFLX is set to: 2 - Flows to generate:
     
    - If context n is calculated (for any business action, when an asset is recalculated, its flows must be updated).
    - If the account posting of the asset has been changed.
    - If the asset has been subject to a financial organization transfer.
    - If the context has been subject to a FY closing.
    - If a flow management has been added.
    - If a context is redefined or if the management of its plans flows has been modified.
     
  • Rank n of FLGCNXFLX is set to: 3 - Not managed flows:
     
    - If a context does not manage flows any longer.

SEEINFO When a business action requires a new calculation, the indicator is not modified by the action, but it will be by the calculation program. Actually as long as the asset is not recalculated, flows still correspond to depreciations. Flow generation is only required when the asset has been recalculated.

Viewing asset's flow generation status

The Generated flows indicator, displayed as a color patch, is displayed with the details of the depreciation plan; it specifies the flow status for the context of the selected plan:

FAS_FLXM_01.jpg : Flows are generated and the asset is calculated
 

FAS_FLXM_02.jpg : Flows are generated but at least one plan of the context must be recalculated (in this case, the flows will have to be generated after the calculation)
 

FAS_FLXM_03.jpg : Flows revisions are not managed. The flows of this asset context will be generated during the next generation of the provisional flows or closing.

SEEINFO When no plan for the context.manages the flows, this indicator is not displayed.

Forcing flow generation

This indicator can be ignored during the Provisional flow generation, if the option Force flow generation is selected; in this case, all flows for the selected assets will be generated.

Parameters used to distribute the operating weight

Intermediate updates (commit) of the database

In order to avoid the formation in the database of a too large space for the storage of pending updates, it is possible to force this update (commit) every n asset, during the provisional flow generation.

The setup of this number of assets is common with the calculation. This is the dimension activity code BPC - No of assets per commit. Its default value is 2000. This basic value may be adapted to various environments.

This value is specified in the log file created at the end of the flow generation processing.

Maximum processing time for flow generation

The processing load for flow generation may be distributed over several days through thanks to:

  • the regular execution of this processing, through the implementation of a recurring task, via the FASFLOW standard batch task.
     
  • the specification of a maximum processing time. This value, expressed in minutes, is entered in parameter NBMINFLX - Max number of minutes for flow generation. Once this time has passed, the database is updated with all the modifications carried out and the processing is completed.
    SEEINFO The closing processing does not take into account this parameter.

The maximum time dedecated to this processing is specified in the log file created at the end of the flow generation processing.