Reporting summarization

Period-open phase

This is the first phase in opening a new accounting period. During the period-open phase, the open summarization process is required. To start the open summarization process, the RevPro3.0 Reporting Period Open program must be started as part of the period-open process. 

The period-open summarization program will calculate the ending balance of the prior period and carry it forward to the beginning balance of the current open period. It also calculates the activity that is created in the prior periods. However, this program does not summarize the waterfall data.

Current period summarization

After the period-open process is completed, the following Zuora Revenue activities are performed in the current open period. They are crucial activities based on the transactional revenue data.

• Data collection
• POB release
• Event processing
• Manual actions
• Netting 
• MJE processing

The current period summarization process summarizes the newly collected and released transaction lines for the current period. During the summarization process, details that are related to both the accounting summary and waterfall are summarized. To start the current period summarization process, the RevPro3.0 Reporting Summarize Current Period program must be started.

This summarization program helps in calculating the key data points for the revenue reports, such as beginning balance, activity, addition, release, and ending balance. It also calculates the waterfall data for the current period. 

The RevPro3.0 Reporting Summarize Current Period program can be run multiple times for the current period. Whenever there are any newly collected and released transaction lines, this summarization program needs to be run to get the reports correct. This program can be run based on all data or based on the incremental data changes to save time for the summarization process.

Beginning from version 37.004.00.00, an algorithm is implemented to run this program more efficiently. With this algorithm, the system can automatically determine the best level of summarization based on the current transaction volume, the total volume, and historical performance. You use the SUMMARIZATION_LEVEL profile to control the system behavior regarding this program with the following options:

• Auto
  This is the default value of this profile. The default value allows the system to automatically determine the summarization level. 
• Force Full Build
  When the profile is set to this value, the summarization program always run based on the full build. It summarizes all the revenue contracts that have accounting entries in the current open period.
• Force Incremental 
  When the profile is set to this value, the summarization program always run based on the incremental build. It summarizes only the revenue contracts that are affected after the last summarization in the given period. It does not summarize all the revenue contracts. 

During the current period, the scanning program is required after the current period summarization is completed. This scanning program scans all the summarized revenue contracts to identify the extinct revenue contracts, which are fully amortized and have no future revenue. The extinct revenue contracts will be excluded from the waterfall reports.

During the transfer accounting and sweeping un-posted schedule process, the summarization process automatically occurs and there is no need to manually start any summarization program. For transfer accounting, Zuora Revenue automatically updates the un-posted and posted amount in the summarized data. During the sweeping process, un-posted accounting entries are moved from the current period to the next period and summarization is automatically done for the related revenue contracts.

Current period post summarization

The post summarization process is a second-level summarization on top of the existing summarized data based on the fields that are selected in the Disclosure Aggregation configuration (Setups > Application > Disclosure Aggregation). Some key reports, such as Trial Balance and Period FX Waterfall, use the aggregated data from the post summarization process. To start this process, the RevPro3.0 Current Period Post Summarize Data program must be started.

This program must run at least once in the current open period. It might also need to be started depending on whether the Disclosure Aggregation configuration is changed in the current period. This program can be run more than once in the current period.

Period-close phase

The period-close phase is a critical phase in closing any accounting period and data is aggregated for a given period in this phase. The period-close summarization process is mandatory in this phase to get the correct data for reporting. To start this summarization process, the RevPro3.0 Reporting Period Close program must be started. This program creates a snapshot of the current period waterfall report during the period-close process. The waterfall snapshot is created for all the closed periods and the snapshot tables will be used to get the waterfall report for the close period.

Next period summarization

The Next Period Summarization job (RevPro3.0 Reporting Next Period Open) helps you to perform reporting summarization for the next unopened period while in the current period. Zuora recommends scheduling the Next Period Summarization job during non-peak business hours on a weekly/bi-weekly basis.

This change will drastically reduce the volume of eligible RCs to be summarized by the Period open Summarization job after you open the new period and enable you to open the next period quickly.