The Bliss of Global e-Docs

Before being introduced to the Kuali Financial System, I'd never worked on a financial application that provided a global change feature. When I saw global e-docs in KFS for the first time and realized what a time saver they are, I felt like saying, "Where have you been all my life?" This functionality remains one of the things I like best about the KFS, so if you're unfamiliar with global e-docs, I'm happy to have this chance to introduce you.

Briefly, a global electronic document (global e-doc) in KFS allows a user to assign identical values to multiple records by submitting a single form. While many institutions use technical scripts to update mass entries in tables, global e-docs have a huge advantage over scripts in that they create an audit trail on the changes made.

The global document for each different type of record has some unique capabilities. Let's start with the Account Global document. This e-doc is used to assign identical attributes to multiple accounts on a single document. You can use it to change a range, multiple random, or all account codes. Here are some examples of ways you might use the Account Global e-doc:

• Change the organization codes on a series of accounts because departments have been restructured.
• Change the Fiscal Officer because of a change in positions.
• When turning on sufficient funds checking, change the Account Sufficient Funds code from 'Consolidation' to 'Level' for all or a number of accounts. Or when turning off Sufficient Funds checking for a series of account, change the Account Sufficient Funds code to 'None.'
• Enter an expiration date and a continuation COA and continuation account for a number of accounts.

The Global Account Maintenance tab on the Account Global e-doc contains the fields you can modify. None of the fields on this tab are required, so you need to complete only the fields that you want to update on the selected accounts.

The Edit List of Accounts tab is where you specify the accounts you want to change. You can populate the accounts on this tab in either of two ways. One is by manually entering or selecting one account code at a time from the normal Account lookup. The other is by using a special multiple value lookup on the tab. It's called the Look Up/Add Multiple Account Lines. You must select at least one account on this tab.

This post is getting pretty long, so I'll save info on the other global e-docs for future posts. Thanks for reading.

Susan Konzem
Kuali Financial Systems Consultant
rSmart