Lucanet Data Collection is a web-based solution for collecting, validating, and approving financial and statistical data from your reporting entities. Local teams enter or import their data into forms, validate the data at the point of entry, and submit the forms for central review. Administrators define what is collected with form templates, ensure data quality with validation rules, and bundle both with the participating reporting entities into reporting packages, from which they start data collection processes.
Data Collection is integrated with Consolidation & Financial Planning (CFP): Data Collection imports the reporting entities from CFP, forms can be built from CFP structures such as the general ledger, data can be imported from CFP or Lucanet.Financial Warehouse, and the collected data can be imported into CFP as postings.
No. Lucanet Data Collection is included in your Consolidation & Financial Planning license at no additional cost. Data Collection is displayed under Your Solutions in the main menu of the Lucanet CFO Solution Platform only if Data Collection is activated for your organization and an administrator has assigned you a Data Collection role.
If Data Collection is not displayed under Your Solutions, first check with your administrator whether you have been assigned a Data Collection role. Administrators assign roles in the Administration area of the platform, see Which user roles are available in Data Collection? If your organization does not have Data Collection yet, get in touch with your Lucanet contact or use the contact form↗ on Lucanet's website to have it activated.
A data collection process in Lucanet Data Collection follows a fixed sequence of steps. Administrators carry out the first four steps once, and repeat the remaining steps for every reporting period:
Create and publish form templates that define which data is collected.
Create and publish validation rules that check the collected data.
Import the reporting entities from Consolidation & Financial Planning. Optionally, assign default collectors and approvers to them.
Bundle form templates and reporting entities into a reporting package, assign the collectors and approvers per reporting entity, and publish the reporting package.
Start a data collection process for the reporting package with a reporting period and deadlines. Data Collection creates one form per reporting entity and form template and notifies the assigned users.
Collectors enter or import data, execute the validation rules, and submit their forms.
Approvers review the submitted forms and approve them or send them back. When all forms are approved, the process is finalized.
Lucanet Data Collection has two application roles, which you assign in the Administration area of the Lucanet CFO Solution Platform:
Administrator: Sets up form templates, validation rules, reporting entities, and reporting packages, starts data collection processes, and can view and edit all forms.
Data Collector: Participates in data collection processes for the reporting entities the user is assigned to. Data Collectors have no access to the administration workspaces.
In addition, administrators assign users per reporting entity in the reporting package as Collector, as Approver, or as both. Collectors are users with the Data Collector role. Approvers can be users with the Data Collector role or the Administrator role. Collectors enter data, execute validation rules, and submit forms. Approvers review submitted forms and approve them or send them back. Each reporting entity needs at least one collector and one approver before it can take part in a data collection process. For the full permission tables, see User Roles in Data Collection.
In Lucanet Data Collection, Data Collectors only see the forms of the reporting entities to which they are assigned in the reporting package of the data collection process. If you do not see any forms or tasks in Data Collection, check the following:
An administrator has assigned you as collector or approver for the reporting entity in the Reporting entities step of the reporting package. Only this assignment counts. The assignments in the Reporting entities workspace are optional defaults that make the setup easier, and without an assignment in the reporting package, you do not see the forms.
A data collection process has been started for a reporting package that contains your reporting entity. Forms only exist once a process has been started.
As an approver, you only see forms in the status Submitted, Approved, or Cancelled. Data Collection does not display forms that a collector is still working on.
In Lucanet Data Collection, form templates, reporting packages, and data collection processes build on each other:
A form template defines the structure of the data you collect: sections with elements such as tables, text, numeric, date, or selection fields. Form templates are reusable, and you must publish them before you can use them.
A reporting package bundles the published form templates, the participating reporting entities with their collectors and approvers, the collection frequency, and the group currency. It also determines which validation rules apply and whether intercompany validation is enabled. You must publish a reporting package before you can start a process from it.
A data collection process is one execution of a reporting package for a specific reporting period, with deadlines per form template. When the process starts, Data Collection creates the individual forms that collectors fill in.
To create a form for a balance sheet or another CFP structure in Lucanet Data Collection, add a CFP Pivot table element to a form template. Data Collection then asks you to select the Consolidation & Financial Planning workspace, for example the general ledger, a subledger, a statistical ledger, or a schedule, and lets you select which rows of that workspace to include. The rows keep their original hierarchy, and for schedules, Data Collection also takes over the columns. For the other workspace types, you add the columns yourself, for example one currency column per period value type, or columns based on the CFP dimensions transaction type, partner, or adjustment level.
If the structure changes in CFP later, use Sync with CFP on the table to see which rows were added, deleted, or updated and to adjust the row selection. Changes to a form template apply only to data collection processes that start afterwards, so data that has already been collected is preserved. For details, see Configuring Tables in Form Templates.
A form template in Lucanet Data Collection consists of sections, and each section contains elements. The following elements are available: CFP Pivot table, Pivot table, Dynamic table, Text input, Numeric input, Financial input, Date, Boolean, and Selection list. In a dynamic table, collectors can add and remove rows themselves during data collection. In pivot tables, you configure the rows and columns in the template, including total and formula rows and columns, and you can configure a drill down by local account, cost center, partner, transaction type, or adjustment level.
Every element has a unique element name and a label, and you can mark every element as mandatory. Element-specific options include the maximum number of characters for text inputs, the number of decimals and negative values for numeric and financial inputs, and single or multiple selection for selection lists. For details, see Creating and Configuring Form Templates.
Yes. To change a published form template in Lucanet Data Collection, open the form template with View details and click Edit. Data Collection asks you to unpublish the form template first. The form template returns to the Draft state, and every reporting package that contains it changes to the state Invalid. Data collection processes that are already running are not affected, because each process uses the state of the form template at the time it was started.
After you have made your changes, publish the form template again. The affected reporting packages then change from Invalid to Draft, and you must publish each of them again before you can start new processes from them. If you delete rows, columns, or elements that validation rules reference, Data Collection warns you and pauses the affected rules. For details, see Editing a Form Template.
You do not create reporting entities in Lucanet Data Collection but import them from Consolidation & Financial Planning. In the Reporting entities workspace, click Import reporting entities. Data Collection retrieves the current reporting entities from CFP with their ID, partner, and default currency. Data Collection applies later changes in CFP, such as a renamed reporting entity or a changed default currency, automatically.
After the import, you can optionally assign default collectors and approvers to each reporting entity. The defaults make the setup easier, but only the collectors and approvers assigned in the reporting package take part in a data collection process. Optionally, you can also link a reporting entity to its company in Lucanet.Financial Warehouse to enable the warehouse import for its forms. For details, see Importing Reporting Entities from Consolidation & Financial Planning.
In Lucanet Data Collection, only administrators can start data collection processes, and only from a reporting package in the state Published. Publishing checks the configuration and fails if the reporting package contains no reporting entity or no form template, if a reporting entity has no collector or no approver, if a reporting entity has no form template assigned or a form template no reporting entity, or if a form template references another form template that is not assigned to the same reporting entities. The message Cannot publish reporting package names the affected reporting entities and form templates.
A reporting package in the state Invalid contains a form template that was opened for editing. Republish the form template and then the reporting package. For details, see Publishing a Reporting Package.
To enter data into a form in Lucanet Data Collection, open the form in the Data collection workspace and click Start editing. The form status changes from New to In Progress. Enter the values directly in the cells and fields; Data Collection saves all data automatically. In tables with hierarchical rows, only the lowest-level rows are editable, and Data Collection calculates superordinate rows, total rows, and formula rows automatically. You enter the values of rows or columns with a drill down per element of the drill down dimension, for example per partner.
Instead of entering data manually, collectors can import data with More actions | Import data:
Excel: Upload an XLSX or XLS file and map its accounts to the form rows and its columns to the form columns. Data Collection remembers the mapping for the next import of the same form.
Consolidation & Financial Planning: Data Collection fills the CFP pivot tables automatically with the actual data of the reporting entity and period; no mapping is required.
Lucanet.Financial Warehouse: The warehouse import is available if the administrator has configured the structural mapping in the form template and linked the reporting entity to its warehouse company.
Validation rules in Lucanet Data Collection check the collected data before submission. Regular rules validate relationships within one form or between forms of the same reporting entity, for example that assets equal liabilities plus equity. Each regular rule is either Blocking, which prevents the collector from submitting the form until the rule passes, or Warning, which displays a warning but allows submission. Intercompany rules compare the values that two reporting entities report against each other, in group currency or in transaction currency, optionally with tolerance thresholds. Like regular rules, intercompany rules are either Blocking or Warning. A blocking intercompany rule prevents submission until the intercompany validation has been executed with current data and the rule passes.
Collectors execute the regular rules with Execute validation rules inside a form and the intercompany validation from the context menu of the reporting entity in the Data collection workspace. If data changes after the last execution, the form displays a Validation outdated warning. For details, see Creating and Configuring Validation Rules and Validating Data.
You cannot submit a form in Lucanet Data Collection as long as one of the following applies:
A mandatory element has not been filled in. Data Collection marks mandatory elements with a required indicator.
The validation rules have not been executed yet, or the data changed after the last execution.
A validation rule of the type Blocking failed.
Correct the data, execute the validation rules again, and click Submit for approval. Warnings do not prevent submission. For details, see Submitting Forms.
When a collector submits a form in Lucanet Data Collection, the form becomes read-only and receives the status Submitted, and Data Collection notifies the assigned approvers. An approver reviews the data and the validation results and either approves the form or sends it back with a comment. A form that is sent back returns to the status In Progress, and the collector can correct and resubmit it. When all forms of a data collection process are approved, the process receives the status Finalized.
If you discover an error after approval, an administrator can reopen the approved form with Reopen. The form returns to In Progress and goes through submission and approval again. Reopening a form does not change any posting that has already been imported into Consolidation & Financial Planning until you execute the import again. For details, see Approving and Sending Back Forms.
You import the data collected in Lucanet Data Collection into Consolidation & Financial Planning (CFP) as postings with a data import in the CFP workspace Importing data into reporting entities. Data Collection only exports the values of currency columns for which the option Used for postings is activated in a CFP pivot table. In CFP, you set up a data source of the type Provision via script with the Import from DC script, an assignment table, and a data import, and execute the import per Data Collection form. The data import imports postings from balance sheet, P&L, and statistical ledger tables into the adjustment level Import Data, and postings from schedule tables into the adjustment level DC-SchedulePostings.
If a form is reopened and changed after the import, execute the import in CFP again to overwrite the previous postings. For details, see Importing Data Collection Postings into CFP.
In Lucanet Data Collection, you can delete reporting packages, form templates, and validation rules from the three-dot menu of their row as long as they are not in use:
You can only delete a reporting package if no data collection process has ever been started for it.
You cannot delete a form template while it is attached to a reporting package or referenced by a validation rule.
You cannot delete a validation rule while it applies to forms of an ongoing data collection process.
Yes. In Lucanet Data Collection, reporting entities in the same reporting package can receive different forms. In the Form templates step of the reporting package, every form template is assigned to all reporting entities by default. Click the Reporting entities cell of a form template to restrict it to specific reporting entities, for example a different balance sheet for subsidiaries and holding entities. When an administrator starts a process, each reporting entity only receives the forms assigned to it, and a reporting entity is complete when all of these forms are submitted.
Data Collection only evaluates regular validation rules for a reporting entity if every form template referenced by the rule is assigned to that reporting entity. Changes to the assignment apply to new data collection processes only. For details, see Restricting Form Templates to Specific Reporting Entities.
This content was generated using AI and reviewed by Lucanet subject matter experts before publication.