Best practices for testing data migration in cash management modules

ERP Workday
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1

We’re about to start user acceptance testing for our cash management data migration to Workday R1 2023. We’ve migrated bank account data, cash position history, and bank transaction records using EIB and Studio, but I’m concerned about our testing approach. Financial reporting accuracy is critical for treasury operations, and I want to make sure we have comprehensive validation scripts and reconciliation reports in place before we go live.

What testing frameworks have others used for cash management migrations? How do you validate that migrated data produces accurate cash forecasts and position reports? And critically, what rollback planning should we have in case we discover issues post-migration? I’d love to hear about both successful testing strategies and lessons learned from migration issues that weren’t caught during testing.

2

Reconciliation reports should cover multiple time periods. We tested our migration by running parallel reporting for 30 days - generating the same cash position reports from both legacy and Workday systems and comparing line by line. Focus on these key reports: Daily Cash Position, Cash Flow Forecast, Bank Reconciliation, and Available Cash by Entity. Any variance needs to be investigated and resolved before go-live. Also test edge cases like multi-currency transactions, intercompany transfers, and bank fees to ensure they’re handled correctly.

3

Validation scripts are essential. Don’t rely solely on manual testing - you need automated scripts that compare source system balances to Workday balances across multiple dimensions (by bank account, by date, by currency, by company). We built SQL scripts that pulled data from both systems and flagged any discrepancies greater than $0.01. Run these scripts daily during your testing period. For cash management, even small data errors can compound into significant reporting issues, so your tolerance for discrepancy should be near zero.

4

Don’t forget to test the integrations. Cash management doesn’t operate in isolation - it integrates with AP, AR, and general ledger. We had a migration where the cash data was perfect but the integration to AP wasn’t mapping payment methods correctly, so cash forecasts were wrong. Test end-to-end business processes, not just the migrated data in isolation. Run test payment runs, test bank file imports, test cash application workflows. The data might be correct but if the processes don’t work, you’ll have issues.

5

Here’s a comprehensive testing framework for cash management data migration:

Phase 1: Validation Scripts (Automated) Build automated validation that runs after each migration iteration:

Balance Validation

  • Compare total cash balances by bank account (legacy vs Workday)
  • Validate opening balances for each account as of cutover date
  • Check currency-specific balances for multi-currency accounts
  • Verify cash position by legal entity and company

Transaction Validation

  • Count of transactions migrated vs source system
  • Sum of debits and credits by account (should match exactly)
  • Validate transaction dates are within expected range
  • Check for duplicate transactions (common EIB issue)

Reference Data Validation

  • All bank accounts from legacy exist in Workday
  • Bank account numbers and routing numbers match exactly
  • Account types and currencies are correctly mapped
  • Bank account hierarchies are properly established

Phase 2: Reconciliation Reports (Daily During Testing) Generate these reports daily and review with treasury team:

Daily Cash Position Report Compare legacy system vs Workday for each bank account. Any variance greater than $0.01 requires investigation. We used a simple variance report:

  • Account | Legacy Balance | Workday Balance | Variance | Status

Cash Flow Forecast Comparison Run 30-day cash forecast in both systems using same assumptions. Validate that forecasted cash positions match within acceptable tolerance (we used 0.5% variance threshold).

Bank Reconciliation Report Test the bank reconciliation process end-to-end. Import bank statements, run auto-reconciliation, review unmatched items. Ensure reconciliation logic works correctly with migrated data.

Available Cash by Entity For multi-entity organizations, validate that cash is properly allocated to legal entities and companies. This is critical for accurate financial reporting.

Phase 3: Rollback Planning (Pre-Migration) Document your rollback strategy before migration:

Decision Criteria

  • Critical: Any cash balance variance >0.1% → Immediate rollback
  • Major: Bank reconciliation process failure → Pause and fix
  • Minor: Reporting format issues → Fix in Workday, proceed

Technical Rollback Steps

  1. Maintain legacy system in parallel for 30 days minimum
  2. Keep backup of pre-migration Workday tenant state
  3. Document exact steps to revert Workday to pre-migration state
  4. Test rollback procedure in sandbox environment
  5. Assign rollback decision authority (CFO in our case)

Communication Plan

  • Define who gets notified if rollback is needed
  • Template communications for internal stakeholders
  • Bank notification procedures if rollback affects external reporting

Phase 4: Integration Testing Cash management connects to multiple modules - test these integrations:

AP Integration

  • Run test payment batch, verify cash impact is recorded correctly
  • Validate payment method mapping (check, ACH, wire)
  • Test multi-currency payments

AR Integration

  • Test cash application process
  • Verify customer payment allocation to invoices
  • Validate cash receipts update bank balances correctly

GL Integration

  • Verify cash transactions post to correct GL accounts
  • Test intercompany cash transfers
  • Validate month-end cash journal entries

Phase 5: Volume and Performance Testing Test with realistic data volumes:

  • Load 2+ years of historical transactions
  • Run reports with large date ranges (12-month cash position)
  • Test bulk bank reconciliation (1000+ transactions)
  • Validate system performance meets SLA requirements

Critical Success Factors:

  1. Zero tolerance for cash balance discrepancies
  2. Daily reconciliation during testing period (minimum 2 weeks)
  3. Parallel run with legacy system for 30 days post go-live
  4. Documented and tested rollback procedures
  5. End-to-end integration testing, not just data validation

We caught three critical issues during testing that would have been disasters in production: incorrect currency conversion for multi-currency accounts, bank account hierarchy mapping errors that broke reporting, and a timing issue with intercompany transfers. The comprehensive testing approach saved us from a failed go-live.

6

Rollback planning is often overlooked until it’s too late. Before migration, document your rollback decision criteria - at what point do you abort and roll back? We defined three severity levels: minor issues (fix in Workday, proceed), moderate issues (pause migration, fix and retest), critical issues (full rollback to legacy system). Also ensure you maintain your legacy system in read-only mode for at least 30 days post go-live. We discovered a bank transaction mapping issue on day 12 that would have been catastrophic if we couldn’t fall back to legacy data.

7

Test with realistic transaction volumes. Many testing approaches use small sample datasets, but cash management testing needs volume testing to uncover performance and data quality issues. We loaded 2 years of historical bank transactions (about 50,000 records) into our test environment and then ran all our reports and workflows. This exposed several issues we wouldn’t have found with small test datasets - like slow report performance with large date ranges and memory issues with bulk bank reconciliation processes. Volume testing is critical for financial modules.