Leaving PeopleSoft for Workday, with the crosswalk validated before conversion
PeopleSoft keeps accounting in ledger, journal, and voucher tables coded with ChartFields: Account, Department, Fund, Program, Project, Class, combined on every line. Workday replaces the combination with worktags on one journal: Cost Center, Fund, Program, Grant, Project, Spend and Revenue Category. The migration is the crosswalk between the two, and the crosswalk is where a finance team’s years of local conventions live. Datapace resolves the PeopleSoft schema and its ChartField usage first, proposes each crosswalk with the evidence behind it, and has your finance experts validate before conversion.
Today. A crosswalk built in spreadsheets from ChartField combinations nobody fully documented, tested at the first conversion cycle.
With Datapace. ChartField usage resolved from the ledger itself, each worktag mapping proposed with its evidence, and finance validating the crosswalk before the first tenant load.
What Datapace does here
- ChartField usage, from the ledger
- Which ChartField combinations are actually used, by how much and how recently, is resolved from PS_LEDGER and PS_JRNL_LN, so the crosswalk covers what exists rather than what the tree says.
- Worktags proposed, not assumed
- Each combination is proposed as a worktag set (Cost Center, Fund, Program, Project, Spend Category) with a confidence score; the ambiguous ones go to your finance expert.
- Suppliers, customers, invoices
- PS_VENDOR and PS_CUST_DATA resolve to Suppliers and Customers with duplicates shown; open vouchers become Supplier Invoices, open items become the opening position.
- History by period
- How many years of journal history move, and at what grain, is a decision the map makes explicit: balances by period for the rest, kept queryable on the validated PeopleSoft map.
- Every decision recorded
- Each accepted crosswalk row carries its rationale and approver, so the conversion cycles and the auditors check against decisions, not spreadsheets.
The target model
What the mapping resolves to. Each row is proposed with its evidence and validated by your domain expert before load.
| PeopleSoft Financials | Workday Financial Management | Decided before load |
|---|---|---|
| ChartField combinations (Account, DeptID, Fund, Program, Project, Class) | Worktag sets (Cost Center, Fund, Program, Grant, Project, Spend Category) | The crosswalk, proposed from ledger usage |
| PS_VENDOR | Supplier | Duplicates across business units shown for the merge |
| PS_CUST_DATA | Customer | Active customers move; dormant ones flagged with last activity |
| PS_VOUCHER, open items | Supplier Invoice, opening position | Open vouchers convert; paid history summarises |
| PS_LEDGER, PS_JRNL_LN | Journal, ledger balances by period | History depth decided per ledger and recorded |
Questions teams ask
- How much PeopleSoft history moves into Workday?
- That is a decision, and Datapace makes it explicit per ledger: detailed journals for the recent years finance chooses, balances by period for the rest. The legacy map stays queryable, so nothing has to move just to remain answerable.
- Is the crosswalk the whole migration?
- Most of the design, yes. Suppliers, customers, and open items are mechanical once the worktag design is settled; the crosswalk is where the local conventions and the ambiguity live, which is why it is proposed with evidence and validated by finance.
- Who owns each decision?
- Finance owns the worktag design and the history depth; the migration team owns the load order and the conversion cycles. Datapace records who validated what, so ownership is visible when the auditors ask.
See this on your own data
Bring a use case. We will show you what Datapace reads on your live database, what your experts would confirm, and what the agents would propose first.
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