Kansas SMART

(Statewide Management, Accounting, and Reporting Tool)

Workflow for General Ledger

Meeting Agenda

• Objectives
• Process Definitions
• Journal Creation and Approval
• Assumptions
• Roles
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Agency Considerations
• Questions

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 Team Introductions

General Ledger Team

• Brett Bauer – State Lead

• Lisa Becker – State Team
• Marie Winter-Zima – State Team
• Ismael Garcia – Accenture Lead
• Michael Sutanto – Accenture Team

Contact Email: sunflowerfms@da.ks.gov

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Objectives

• Participants will understand the workflow for General

Ledger approval.

• Enable agencies to be able to decide what approver

roles your agency will need in SMART.

• Identify who in your agency will be in these roles.

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Why am I Involved?

• Provide expertise and experience

• Represent your agency
• Identify any issues/concerns
• Document your current Process and
how the new process will fit in with
your current business requirements
• Prepare for the Role Mapping
activity for your agency in the near
future

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Process Definition:
Creating a Journal Entry

• Creating a Journal Entry is the process of

recording a balanced accounting entry with one or
more debits and credits to record a transaction.
• The total of the debits must equal the total of the
credits or the entry will fail edit check.

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Process Definition:
Approving a Journal Entry

• Approving a Journal Entry is defined as the

process of evaluating that the journal entry is
correct and approving the transaction.
• Following the approval and systematic checks, the
journal will post to the appropriate ledgers.

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Process Definition:
Workflow

• Workflow governs the journal entry approval (and

denial) process. Essentially, workflow is used to
facilitate the process wherein a journal entry is
routed from a Processor to Approver for review
and ultimately approval.
• A Processor submits a journal entry into workflow
and the workflow routing rules will direct the
journal entry to the appropriate
approver/approvers.

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Process Definition:
Routing Rules

• Routing Rules guide the journal through the approval

process.
• The rules for General Ledger will guide the journal from the
Processor to the various Kansas GL Approvers for Level 1,
Level 2, and Level 3.
– The Kansas GL Approver could be a pool of individuals.
• If the agency only has one GL Approver, the system will
show the Approver as Kansas GL Approver – Level 3.
• Kansas GL Approvers can either approve, deny, or recycle
the journal.

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Approvers Options:

• Approve the Journal – continues processing of the journal by

sending journal to the next approver level.
• Deny the Journal – ends the processing of the journal. A
denial email is sent to the processor. The journal will have to
be fixed by the processor, edited, budget checked, and
submitted for approval once again.
• Recycle the Journal – sends the journal entry to the previous
approver.
– For example, Approver 1 looks at the journal and approves it.
Approver 2 looks at the journal, makes some changes but
wants approver 1 to approve it again. When approver 2 recycles
the journal, it will send the journal back to approver 1 for further
review and to approve again.
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When should I use a General
Ledger Journal?

1.Mass Corrections (such as a large summary

correction of payroll)
2.Reclassification entries
3.Adjusting journal entries
4.Record statistics

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 As-Is Business Process Flow:
Creating a Journal Entry
NOTE
Approval sub-process detailed on following slide.

JV entered into SOKI checks Agency

Start A&R approval
SOKI for errors approval

?
JV interfaced STARS Yes A&R contacts A&R corrects in
from SOKI to Edit and Errors?
the agency STARS
STARS Budget Check

No

End
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 As-Is Business Process Flow:
Approving a Journal Entry (Sub-Process)

?
Agency
approves and A&R audits the Edits to be No
Start
releases the JV JV made?
to A&R

Yes

A&R contacts A&R releases

A&R corrects
the agency to A&R Approves the JV to
JV in SOKI
make edits STARS

End

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 To-Be Business Process Flow:
Creating a Journal Entry
SMART

GL Processor
corrects errors A

Yes

SMART SMART SMART

?
Journal edit and GL Processor
GL Processor No
Start budget check Errors? submits
enters journals
process journals

SMART

Journal
submitted for To
Approval
approval to GL Process
Approver(s)
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 To-Be Business Process Flow:
Approving a Journal Entry
SMART

NOTE
Journals are
For “GL Approver X”, X equals
routed to GL
Level 1 (if applicable), Level 2
Processor or
(if applicable), and Level 3.
previous
approver

No

SMART SMART
? ?
From
GL Approver X Yes Journal routed
Creation reviews Approved? to A&R for audit Approved? End
Process
journals and approval

No Yes

SMART SMART
?
GL Approver
sends journal Recycle Deny Journals are
Deny or
back to previous Recycle? A posted
approver
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Assumptions for General
Ledger Workflow

• All G/L journals are subject to workflow.

• Agencies will have at least one level of approval.
– There can be a maximum of three approval levels within
SMART.
• An individual can have both Processor and Approver roles.
• D of A will have one level of approval.
• Journals will not be marked to post until D of A has
approved the journals.
• Denied Journal Entries will be returned to creator of journal
entry not a pool of processors.
• An approver can update a journal then edit and approve the
journal.
• If a journal is denied, an email will be sent to the journal’s
GL Processor.
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Roles for General Ledger
Journal Entry

• Kansas GL Processor
–The individual who creates the journal entries, edits, and budget
checks the journal.
• Kansas GL Approver – Level 1
–The first level of agency general ledger approval.
• Kansas GL Approver – Level 2
–The second level of agency general ledger approval.
• Kansas GL Approver – Level 3
–The third level of agency general ledger approval. (If agency has
only one level, the GL Approver 3 will be the only approver.)
• Central GL Auditor
–The D of A general ledger approver.
• Kansas GL Viewer
–Anyone with security to view the Kansas GL can run certain
reports.

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Frequently Asked Questions

• What happens if the GL Approver is gone?

– A higher level approver can approve the journal. Alternately,
a D of A GL Auditor can approve a journal without any agency
approval and the journal will be valid and workflow approved.
• If I am GL Approver 3 and I have an issue, can I return it to
the GL Processor?
– Yes, any approver level can deny a journal and send it back
to the entry person.
• What if I need more than 3 levels of approval?
– Additional approvals will need to be done outside of the
system.
• If I deny a journal, will it free up budget?
– No, budget check happens with the Kansas GL Processor.

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Key Organizational Impacts for
Approving a Journal Entry
As-Is Process
JVs are budget checked in
STARS after the transaction is
released by A&R.
Corrections made online in
STARS to transactions that
originated from SOKI are not fed
back to SOKI to update the
original document.
Agencies run a report to see
what journal entries failed.
To-Be Process
Journals are budget checked before
they are submitted for approval.
In SMART, the journal process is
done entirely within the system.
Agencies will Inquire by Journal
Status to see which ones have errors.
A journal must have a valid Edit and
Budget check status before it can be
routed for workflow approval.
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Agency Considerations for
Approving a Journal Entry

Your agency may need to consider the following

impacts to your processes / procedures:
•How many levels of approval does our agency
need?
•Who will perform the approvals?
•If we need more than 3 levels of approval, who will
perform the manual approvals?

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Approving Journals from
various sources

• The Journals which are Journal Generated from

sub modules will be pre-approved and allowed to
post after generation.
• Journals created via online, spreadsheet, or flat
file import are subject to workflow.
• Sources of Journals:
– Online (ONL)
– Spreadsheet Journal Upload (SPJ)
– Flat File Journal Interface - INF06 (EXT)

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Questions?

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