Monthend Close Automation for Supply Chain and Finance

jocurrin

Hi Everyone - has anyone come up with a way to automate the Month End Close?  Currently our hospitals have users run the AP, IC, and SC jobs that are necessary.  It takes a lot of time and multiple users to complete.  We are looking to streamline this process and wondered if anyone is using a flow for this.  Any feedback is appreciated.  Thanks!

unknown

Hey Joy,

I am not a Supply Chain, Finance person myself (but I play one on tv).  However, I do know my way around IPA.  What jobs in Lawson are being triggered to run to close each of these areas in the hospital?  Here is my take on how to do it:

1.  Allow your users access to WFWK, which is the trigger form for IPA in S3.  Have them type in "Month End" for Service Name and Title.  This would trigger your flow.  

2.  Depending on the parameters of the job the flow could run 1 of 2 ways:

  a.  If the parameters are the first of the month to the last day of the month then an assign node with the necessary JavaScript could be written to calculate those dates.  The dates would then be put into transaction node.  

  b.  If the parameters are not easily derived through a calculation setup a series of User Actions for the end user to enter each parameter that is needed.  An assign node would follow each User Action to assign the value to the applicable variable.  

3.  The flow would then go to the transaction node and trigger the job (preferably in report mode).  A sub-flow could be written to monitor the progress of the job.  

4.  When the job is completed the output could be sent to the end user to validate on a User Action.  When the user action signs off on the report it could be run in update mode.  

5.  Repeat steps 2 - 4 as needed for each transaction.  

That is my very general take on such an automation from the 10,000 ft view.  As they say though the devil is in the details, which I do not know the details of this particular process.  

I am happy to help where I can with regards to this flow.  My e-mail address is:  tgunston@licommunityhospital.org.  Hope this helps!