A colleague recently asked if I'd like to write about aspects of OneStream that I find interesting. As you can imagine, this took me a moment to think about, with all the different features and functionality we have!
One of the key features that I find attractive is the humble Certification Question.
"Why?", I hear you asking. It does not appear of any key significance. It does not have the mysterious allure of Calculation Rules, or the shining popularity of a Cube View; when building a Workflow, it can be included or left out just as easily. Why would anyone bother to blog about it? The reason is: it gives a human face to the process of collecting data into accounts.
Before going into its benefits, let's look at where it lives.
Certification Rules can be found within the Application tab, in the Workflow section, organised in the usual Groups and Profiles. They can be included in a Base Input or Review profile. Even when Certification is required, the alternative of a Quick Certify is provided; this way, long certification questions may not always have to be considered, depending on user need and previous set up with their consultant.
What is so attractive about this feature?
Basically, it provides for some human touch alongside other more-automated systems like Confirmation Rules.
Firstly, it allows all stakeholders involved in the data-gathering to ask about the process, including both internal and external audiences. This gives all data users, under the organisation’s guidance, an ability to voice their concerns over specific areas and items related to its quality.
These could be for statutory reasons, sustainability or management accounting, industry risk, or a change in procedure. The flexibility over what is asked and who is asking is endless and dependant on the organisation, since questions are crafted within the process as free text.
Secondly, concerns regarding the management of risk are a topical issue, giving stakeholders the opportunity to ask questions which can ensure a greater degree of confidence in the data and stronger corporate governance. Risk levels are set by the administrator, and range from Unknown to High, again showing the amount of flexibility available.
Thirdly, the ability to reorder questions allows issues to be prioritized. The frequency can also be tweaked, meaning that different questions can be asked on a quarterly or yearly basis, for processes such as stocktakes; or they can be set per period, and deactivated at specifice times to support busier or quieter periods of seasonal change. The risks and the way that data is handled may differ, depending on volume or absence of key staff - for example, over summer holidays. There is even a Member Filter option, to grant absolute control over specific times.
These questions sustain the checks and rigour taken when inputting the data into the system.
Can stakeholders find out the answers to these questions?
Of course, OneStream ships standard Application Reports that can be produced for Certification check list, status, and detail, showing comments, risk levels, Time, and Scenario.
What is the specific benefit of including Certifications into a Workflow ?
Most stakeholders that query the data wish they had been there at the point it was being processed; however this is not possible on most occasions, and therefore, in my experience, responses to queries might end up being assembled like a jigsaw after the fact.
Having the ability to ask the reviewer who signs off the data, for example at consolidation time, to check or agree with a range of data, or giving detail of the transactions, allows for the most accurate response to be given, by reminding reviewers to be cognisant of this as they sign off Stage imports.
What I love about this process is that it is blended into the workflow, so beautifully that it sits in harmony with more automated processes such as Confirmation, with little or no friction.
Do we _have_ to use Certification questions?
Absolutely not! We can handle Certify steps with a Quick Certify, which retains process configuation for the overall review without tying the reviewer into excessively-detailed or irrelevant questions. In fact, we don't need to have certification on the workflow at all! As in most things related to OneStream, the product can be just as precise as administrators want it to be.
