With this we come to the end of the first chapter where we learned some critical concepts about PeopleSoft Financial applications. We also saw some of the important cross-module configuration activities needed for a working financial system. Here is what we learned.

A Chart of Accounts is the foundation of PeopleSoft financial applications. It includes various attributes that need to be recorded for each accounting transaction. These attributes are called chartfields. We can perform Standard or Advanced configuration to modify delivered chartfields according to our needs. It is always advisable to use standard configuration instead of advanced configuration.

Business Unit is an organizational unit that independently maintains its account balances. Business Units of an organization can be organized on the basis of geography, line of business or any other parameter that we choose. All the financial transaction data such as invoices, journals, and purchase orders are segregated by Business Unit. A SetID is a collection of master data elements such as vendors, customers, banks, and so on. It determines which setup values can be accessed by a Business Unit. SetIDs allow master data to be shared by multiple BUs.

A ledger is the central piece in PeopleSoft financial applications. An organization's account balances are stored in the ledger. Journals consolidate the accounting entries created by various PeopleSoft modules and post them to ledgers. A batch process known as Journal Generator automates the journal creation process. After these journals are created, the Journal Edit batch process validates them. Another batch process - Journal Post - posts valid journals to the ledger, thus completing the journal processing.

Banks are used by an organization to receive customer payments as well as make payments to its vendors. Each bank can have as many branches as needed. Each branch can have multiple bank accounts associated with it.

Configuring a PeopleSoft module involves a large number of tasks that need to be completed in the right order. PeopleSoft delivers a tool called Setup Manager to help in the setup activities. It lists tasks necessary to implement a module in the appropriate sequence. It also provides navigation paths and hyperlinks to the PeopleSoft pages where setups need to be done.