Setting Up Translations

Set up Translations to load data that needs to be translated. For example, if your organization operates with multiple companies with disparate general ledgers using different schemas of chart of accounts, data translations or mappings are required for the data to be loaded into the Planful suite.

Translations provide a mechanism for you to map the data from your local chart of accounts of the reporting site (subsidiary or a partner company) with the common reporting chart of accounts used in Planful.
If your entities do not use a Common Chart of Accounts, you must provide data load files with your native chart of accounts. A Translation will be required to map your native chart of accounts used in your source data load file against the Common Chart of Accounts.
Translation Model types include;

1. Translating all native Source Chart of Accounts to the Common Chart of Accounts.
2. Translating a single source segment to the Common Chart of Accounts.
3. Translating source segments to Common Chart of Account Segments with Multiple varying Translations.

With Translation models of type 1 & 2, data load definitions use a single Translation file for mapping. With the Translation model type 3, Data load definitions use multiple Translations to make up the complete COA definition.
Access the Translations Setup page by navigating to Maintenance > Data Integration > Translations Setup .

Description of Fields on the Translation Setup Page

Add

Add a translation to map source and target segments. You can translate the following:

• All native Source Chart of Accounts to Common Chart of Accounts.
• Single source segment to Common Chart of Accounts
• Source segments to Common Chart of Account Segments with Multiple varying Translations

Following are the available options on the Add Translation page:

• Category: The type of segment; Financial, Currency, etc.
• Source Segments: The segments you are translating data from.
• Target Segments: The segments you are translating data to.
• Enable Description: Enables you a description column on the Translation lines page for the selected source segments.

Edit

Edit mapped source and target segments.

Delete

Multiple lines can be deleted at a time by using Shift or Ctrl keys for row selection.

Translation Lines

Add translation lines. You can copy and paste data directly to the grid. Then, click Save.

Translation Lines Report

The user can add translation lines to define source segments and target segments, run a translation lines report, and export the report.

• Save: When you add translation lines in the application, you cannot save the updates if there are any duplicate records. When you click Save after adding the translation lines, the application validates the added records for any errors. If there are any duplicate lines, the application displays an exception report showing the duplicate lines. You can use the Autocorrect and Save option to remove the duplicate lines and save the data.
• Exception Report: Run the Exception Report to identify the missing segments.
• Export: Exports the list of source and target segments added to the translation.
• Translation Lines: Run the Translation Lines report. Once complete, you will receive a notification. Download the report and open in Excel.

Data Load Rules

This column displays the associated Data Load Rule where the translation is used.

How to Add a Translation?

1. Navigate to Maintenance > Data Integration > Translations Setup.
2. On the Translation List page, click Add.
3. On the Add Translation page, enter a code to identify the translation.
4. Enter a name for the translations.
5. Select a category from which you will be translating segments. 
6. Select the Enable Description checkbox if you want to add a description column for the selected Source Segments. The Description column will be visible when you drill through in a Dynamic Report with Translations data. You can use the Hide Description option available in the Translation Lines toolbar to hide the Description column.
7. For each source segment you select enter the value of the target segment. In the example below, source column 1 in your system maps to the Company segment.
8. Click Save. 
9. Click Translation Lines to define source and target segments.
10. Enter or copy and paste data lines to be translated.
11. Click Save.

The created translations is now listed in the Define Overall Rule Settings step of the Data Load Rule creation process. Users can select this translations when creating a data load rule to load segment members with translations. Users can also add this translations to existing Data Load Rules.

To learn more about Data Load Rules, click here.

Simplified Translations Lines Option

For translations in data loads, without this option, you have to setup translation line mappings for all segments; even those not being translated. The Simplified Translations Lines feature eliminates the need to define, map, and maintain translations for segments not translated.

In Practice

To better explain this feature, two examples are provided below; one shows how the functionality works when you are not using Simplified Translations Lines and when you are using this functionality.

Without Translation Lines Example

In the translation lines example below, the Account segment is the only segment being translated. Department and Project segments both have a one to one mapping; meaning that no translation is required.

With Simplified Translation Lines

Using this feature, translation lines for the Account segment ONLY need to be maintained as shown below:

Simplified Translations Lines Setup

There is some minor setup required.

1. When creating your Data Load Rule , select the No Translation for Unmapped Target Segments checkbox from the Define Overall Rule Settings step in the Data Load Rule.
2. Complete the Define Data Mappings step in the Data Load Rule to map the source columns in the file load to the target segments in Planful as they will no longer be translated. There are no changes required to the load file or the existing loading process to use simplified translation lines.

Using Wildcards

The following table provides a list of wildcard characters(used to define complex Translations) allowed when defining Translations along with a description of each

If an incorrect combination of wildcard characters is used in Translation Lines, exceptions are generated when you save.

The precedence of wildcard characters for applying Translation Rules is %, , ‌ and specific\exact character match. This means the system will first apply % to all applicable Translations, followed by , ‌ and exact character match.

Example: 1

Translation lines are defined with wildcard characters as follows. 

In data loads, the source segment is automatically mapped based on the Translations. Each time the Translation Rule is applied, the previous values for Segment Mapping are updated with the latest values.

Example 2:

Translation lines defined with wildcard character ‌'?':

In data loads, the source segment is automatically mapped based on the Translations. In this case, because line #1 is more specific than line #2, Source Segment 101 is mapped to 1010 instead of 2010.

How to Copy and Paste Translation Lines?

In Excel, select the line(s) you want to paste in Planful and copy as shown below.

1. In Planful, add the number of lines you want to paste on the Translation Lines page.
2. Select the first cell in the first line.
   
   Note:

   Double-clicking the cell places the data only in the selected single cell.

3. Perform a CTRL+V.

Best Practices

• Do not use blank spaces and special characters in the mapping.
• When creating multiple translations for a data load, preserve the order of the source segments columns across different translations.
• All Common Chart of Account segment members used in the Translation should exist in the application. If any segment members are missing, an exception report will be generated highlighting all missing segments.