Profiles, formats, and what a reconciliation actually is
Four objects run the whole module: the profile that defines an account, the format that defines the method, the reconciliation that lives one period, and the risk rating that decides who looks hard. Get the profile-versus-reconciliation distinction right and the rest of ARCS reads cleanly.
Note: ARCS is Oracle's cloud module for account reconciliations: each period, every account in scope gets a reconciliation that a preparer completes and a reviewer approves. The four objects on this page are how the system decides which accounts, which method, and who.
One question this page answers: why did the fix you made to a profile change nothing in the open period? The whole module is mapped on the Account Reconciliation index.
◆ The four objects, profile, format, reconciliation, risk rating, and which one owns which decision.
| Object | What it is, and what it decides |
|---|---|
| Profile | The account's standing definition: who prepares, who reviews, how often, the risk rating, the format, the auto-reconciliation method. Profiles live outside any period. At period start, createReconciliations copies them in, and each copy is that month's reconciliation. Change a profile today; last month's copy keeps the properties it was born with. |
| Format | The method and the screen. Account Analysis itemizes what a balance is made of; Balance Comparison proves two systems agree; Variance Analysis explains movement between periods. The format also carries the required attributes and whether Unexplained Difference must reach zero before the preparer can submit. |
| Reconciliation | The period instance. It moves through exactly four resting statuses: Pending, Open with Preparer, Open with Reviewer, Closed. A rejection is an event, not a status; per Oracle's workflow doc, the rejected reconciliation returns to the preparer and reads Open with Preparer again. Report on rejections as counted events, the way the Compliance Dashboard does, or your status totals will not foot. |
| Risk rating | The sort key for attention. High risk earns more reviewer levels and earlier due dates; low risk earns an auto-reconciliation method and no human touch when it qualifies. |
◆ What freezes when, the documented field lockdown by status, and the one moment a wrong format can still be fixed.
Status also decides what can still be edited, and the lockdown is documented field by field in Updating Reconciliations. The pattern to remember: identity fields, Account ID, Active, Format, Normal Balance, freeze the moment the reconciliation exists. Auto-reconciliation and age limits freeze once it is open. Reviewer levels freeze only at Closed. A reconciliation points to a snapshot of its format, not to the format itself, so per Oracle's own restriction list the only fix for a wrong format is: delete the reconciliation, change the profile, copy it into the period again.
| Frozen at | Fields |
|---|---|
| Pending | Account ID, Active, Format, Normal Balance |
| Open with Preparer | the above, plus Auto-Reconciliation, Maximum Age Limits, preparer frequency and start date |
| Closed | the above, plus Reviewer Levels; comments can no longer be deleted |
The slow version of the same trap is a chart-of-accounts rename. When the ERP renames or renumbers accounts, the ARCS profile has to follow. A live Customer Connect thread asks the question with no good in-app answer: how does the new profile keep the old one's history, prior reconciliations, attachments, comments? In the application, mostly it does not. In the owned model, history is keyed in your warehouse and survives the rename.
◆ One Tuesday in close week, the sixty-entity group, 412 reconciliations, and why the six rejections are invisible in the status totals.
The sixty-entity group carries 412 profiles into the June period. At open, the auto-reconciliation methods clear 118 of them without a human: zero-balance accounts, and balance comparisons inside tolerance. By Tuesday evening of day three, 268 are Closed, 96 sit with preparers, 45 with reviewers, and 3 have not reached their start date. Six rejections have happened this period, and all six live inside the 96, reading Open with Preparer, which is exactly why the rejection count and the status count are different questions. The numbers foot: 268 + 96 + 45 + 3 = 412. Reading them off a dashboard is the status report page; getting them out nightly is the status export page.
The problem: A format fix edits the original and changes nothing, because instances point at snapshots.
What we build: The object inventory exports nightly, with snapshots flagged against their source formats.
What you get: Format changes are planned with a list in hand, not discovered one reconciliation at a time.
- profile
- The standing definition of an account. Copied into each period.
- format
- Method plus screen: Account Analysis, Balance Comparison, or Variance Analysis.
- reconciliation
- The period instance. Pending, Open with Preparer, Open with Reviewer, Closed.
- auto-reconciliation
- Rules that close qualifying reconciliations at period open, no human touch.