1. OASIS Consulting Group, Inc. Oracle Financials Tips and Hints – I Wish I Knew That Six Months Ago. Steve Bradley OASIS Consulting Group ATL-OAUG August 17, 2001

2. OASIS Consulting Group, Inc. sbradley@sprynet.com Steve Bradley Agenda ADI –Publishing Standard Reports –Publishing Report Sets –Budget/History load templates General –Flexible Default Company based on Responsibility –Tricks with Folders

3. OASIS Consulting Group, Inc. sbradley@sprynet.com Steve Bradley Agenda General Ledger –Consolidations without using Oracle’s Consolidation Process –Validation Priority in Accounting Flexfields –Disabling Code combinations that violate new Cross Validation Rules –Adjusting periods – why you should never use them –Statistical Accounts Problems and Solutions

4. OASIS Consulting Group, Inc. sbradley@sprynet.com Steve Bradley Agenda Payables/Purchasing –Vendor Cleanup –Fix Duplicate Invoices in Vendor Merge –Unmerge Vendors

5. OASIS Consulting Group, Inc. sbradley@sprynet.com Steve Bradley ADI Publishing Standard Reports Can publish any standard report from any module Publish reports to Excel or HTML Customize ADI Themes to properly parse columns –Create a theme with proper column widths –Or, create a theme with one column with 232 char

6. OASIS Consulting Group, Inc. sbradley@sprynet.com Steve Bradley ADI Publishing Report Sets Version 7 ADI 7 supports: 10.7, 11.x and 11i Runs on: Windows 95, 98, 2000 and NT

7. OASIS Consulting Group, Inc. sbradley@sprynet.com Steve Bradley ADI Report Sets (continued) Run report set in the application Publish the set from ADI Request Center Assign a theme to each report in the set ADI will remember the theme assignments for the next use

8. OASIS Consulting Group, Inc. sbradley@sprynet.com Steve Bradley ADI Budget/ History Load Templates Great for repetitive processes Create a separate copy & paste sheet in the ADI worksheet Create the template to be use for history or budget loads including account and amount info Map ADI template cells to account and amount cells on the copy & paste sheet

9. OASIS Consulting Group, Inc. sbradley@sprynet.com Steve Bradley ADI Copy templates coming in from departments into the copy & paste sheet No reformatting is needed to get into ADI template

10. OASIS Consulting Group, Inc. sbradley@sprynet.com Steve Bradley General Ledger Consolidations without Consolidating Oracle’s GL consolidation was designed for dissimilar COA or calendars Provides mapping for COA and calendars Consolidation not needed if functional currency is the only violation of the “3-C’s” between Sets of Books FSG’s can cross Sets of Books Use FSG’s if COA and calendar are “shared”

11. OASIS Consulting Group, Inc. sbradley@sprynet.com Steve Bradley Consolidations with FSG’s “Shared” Chart of Accounts Set of Books using the same AFF definition Not AFF’s that are a duplication of each other

12. OASIS Consulting Group, Inc. sbradley@sprynet.com Steve Bradley Consolidations with FSG’s Crossing SOB’s with FSG reports FSG’s default to the current SOB of not specified Use the Account Assignment form to assign one or more SOB’s to rows or columns Use multiple SOB assignments in a column for “Consolidated” Use single SOB assignments in multiple columns for “Consolidating”

13. OASIS Consulting Group, Inc. sbradley@sprynet.com Steve Bradley Consolidations with FSG’s Advantages No need to define or map consolidations No need to run consolidation process Consolidations are “snapshots” FSG consolidations are “real time” Do not need to re-run consolidation for adjustments made after consolidation

14. OASIS Consulting Group, Inc. sbradley@sprynet.com Steve Bradley General Ledger Validation Priority in Accounting Flexfields Transactions get into Oracle Apps either manually or via automated processes Oracle reacts differently for each It is important to understand the differences in how they are treated

15. OASIS Consulting Group, Inc. sbradley@sprynet.com Steve Bradley AFF Validation Priority Manual Entry Validate Segments –Exists? –Enabled? Validate Combination –Exists? –Combination Enabled? –Violate Cross Validation?

16. OASIS Consulting Group, Inc. sbradley@sprynet.com Steve Bradley AFF Validation Priority ADI Entry Validate Segments –Use LOV – Validates real time –Manual Entry – Validate during/after upload Validate Combinations –Validated during or after upload depending on upload Pre-validation options

17. OASIS Consulting Group, Inc. sbradley@sprynet.com Steve Bradley AFF Validation Priority ADI Pre-Validation Options Full: All Journal data including category, source, currency, date, cross validation and segment Partial: Journal validation including segment security. No account validation. None: No validation except segment security during upload. Validation during JE Import

18. OASIS Consulting Group, Inc. sbradley@sprynet.com Steve Bradley AFF Validation Priority What is the fastest ADI upload? According to ADI documentation: Set system profile option “Validate at Server”= Yes Select No Pre-validation during upload Note: This will only be successful if you know the data is good such as with recurring types of entries that have been uploaded before. If you have bad values then you will spend more time correcting and re-running the uploads.

19. OASIS Consulting Group, Inc. sbradley@sprynet.com Steve Bradley AFF Validation Priority Automated Entry of AFF Transactions Interface transactions to GL from subsidiary ledgers Payables distribution built by matching to PO

20. OASIS Consulting Group, Inc. sbradley@sprynet.com Steve Bradley AFF Validation Priority Validation of Automated Transactions Combination exists in sub system. GL performs additional validation upon import Segment values typically not validated Code combinations validation (without segment validation) is faster May check to see if combination is still enabled Enabled combination does not mean enabled segments! 11i is a little different here.

21. OASIS Consulting Group, Inc. sbradley@sprynet.com Steve Bradley AFF Validation Priority Typical Example: PO to AP to GL Building of Payables distribution from PO has no validation! Create and approve PO Disable old department segment and combinations Match Invoice to PO Automatically Create Invoice Distribution line Approve and pay invoice Interface to GL. Passes import validation Combination fails in Posting

22. OASIS Consulting Group, Inc. sbradley@sprynet.com Steve Bradley General Ledger Disabling Code Combinations for new CVR’s Catch 22 –Disabling a segment value will not let you manually enter that value on a form –Because of this, you cannot test the cross validation rule to see if the combination is also disabled –Disabling a segment value does not prohibit using an existing combination with that value (prior to 11i) –Interfaces will not test for disabled segments

23. OASIS Consulting Group, Inc. sbradley@sprynet.com Steve Bradley Disabling Code Combinations Mass Disabling of Combinations Create CVR that prohibits use of segment value disabled with any other segment Disable all other CVR’s. (Make note of the ones you disable if there are others already disabled) From System Administration run “Cross Validation Rules Violation” report with disable off Review and run again with disable on Enable the CVR’s you disabled above

24. OASIS Consulting Group, Inc. sbradley@sprynet.com Steve Bradley Disabling Code Combinations Caution: This process will disable all combinations violating active CVR’s. That is why you disabled all other CVR’s. Be sure you want to do this. Remember the PO/AP/GL issue mentioned earlier.

25. OASIS Consulting Group, Inc. sbradley@sprynet.com Steve Bradley General Ledger Adjusting Periods – Never use them Carryover from old days for audit entries Did not want to affect management reports Cause problems in Oracle GL –ADI cannot post to them –Reversing entries try to use them –They cause havoc for rolling FSG reports

26. OASIS Consulting Group, Inc. sbradley@sprynet.com Steve Bradley Adjusting Periods Adjusting Periods and ADI ADI uses accounting date, not period Adjusting period dates can overlap other periods ADI cannot determine correct period so it will select the non-adjusting period

27. OASIS Consulting Group, Inc. sbradley@sprynet.com Steve Bradley Adjusting Periods Adjusting Periods and Reversals Year end reversing periods will try to reverse in the adjusting periods People operate out of habit and will probably forget to change the reversing period to the 1 st period of the next year

28. OASIS Consulting Group, Inc. sbradley@sprynet.com Steve Bradley Adjusting Periods Adjusting Periods and FSG’s Rolling period reports (prior 6 months) must be custom coded for each report crossing an adjusting period How do you handle month to month comparatives at year end?

29. OASIS Consulting Group, Inc. sbradley@sprynet.com Steve Bradley Adjusting Periods Adjusting Period Solution Create a separate department, division, company, etc. for adjusting entries Entries can be made for any period or quarter Exclude this segment value from management reports Include it for audited reports

30. OASIS Consulting Group, Inc. sbradley@sprynet.com Steve Bradley General Ledger Statistical Accounts – Problems Any Oracle Statistical account can be use in a non-statistical journal entry No security measures can prevent this Can cause an out of balance FSG Trial Balance

31. OASIS Consulting Group, Inc. sbradley@sprynet.com Steve Bradley Statistical Accounts Solutions Develop good naming conventions for STAT and natural accounts Develop an FSG report to list all STAT accounts with functional currency (USD) balances

32. OASIS Consulting Group, Inc. sbradley@sprynet.com Steve Bradley Statistical Accounts STAT Account Naming Convention Place them near the end of the COA structure Placing them at the beginning makes them too easy to select in error Suggest starting them with “S” Alpha values does not slow down STAT entry since they are usually predefined recurring entries - ADI

33. OASIS Consulting Group, Inc. sbradley@sprynet.com Steve Bradley Statistical Accounts STAT Account FSG Error Listing Lists all activity with STAT accounts having non- STAT currency balance Column Set has two columns: –PTD –YTD (in case you missed them last month)

34. OASIS Consulting Group, Inc. sbradley@sprynet.com Steve Bradley Statistical Accounts STAT FSG Row Set Row Zone: –Currency USD (or your functional currency) Display Options Window: –Display Zero = No Flexfield Assignments Zone: –Flexfield Range: enter your statistical range –Display: E (expand to display all values found)

35. OASIS Consulting Group, Inc. sbradley@sprynet.com Steve Bradley Payables/Purchasing Vendor Cleanup Should have occurred during implementation Needed periodically if you do not have a good vendor naming convention Implementation may have created Dead Vendors

36. OASIS Consulting Group, Inc. sbradley@sprynet.com Steve Bradley Vendor Cleanup Dead Vendors Unused Vendors - no invoices and no PO’s Vendors with only activity being Canceled Invoices Vendors with % in name

37. OASIS Consulting Group, Inc. sbradley@sprynet.com Steve Bradley Legal Disclaimer Oracle does not provide Application support for non-interface tables that have been updated directly using SQL Use these SQL scripts at your own risk You can give me credit for these scripts but I will accept no blame for their use Do not call me with problems or support If you do not understand them - do not use them

38. OASIS Consulting Group, Inc. sbradley@sprynet.com Steve Bradley Vendor Cleanup SQL listings in Paper on CD Duplicate Vendors Listing Fix Duplicate Invoices preventing a vendor merge Delete Unused Vendor Sites Unmerge Vendors

39. OASIS Consulting Group, Inc. sbradley@sprynet.com Steve Bradley Vendor Merge Assistance Oracle’s Vendor Merge listing is useless You need to find the following duplicates: –IBM and International Business Machines –AICPA and American Society of CPA’s –Ace Hardware and Axe Hardware –BellSouth Mobility and Cingular Wireless This is best done by looking for similar street addresses within zip codes

40. OASIS Consulting Group, Inc. sbradley@sprynet.com Steve Bradley Duplicate Invoices in Vendor Merge There may be times when merging 2 vendors creates a Duplicate Invoice situation This frequently happens when dates are used as invoice numbers Oracle’s Vendor Merge will not touch these “duplicate invoices” SQL script appends “-Merge” to invoice number of duplicate

41. OASIS Consulting Group, Inc. sbradley@sprynet.com Steve Bradley Unmerge Vendors With all of the cleanup there is bound to be an error when the wrong vendor is merged Oracle stores all vendor merge activity in a table SQL script will permit the unmerging by entering origin and destination vendor/site data

42. OASIS Consulting Group, Inc. sbradley@sprynet.com Steve Bradley General Flexible Default Company based on Responsibility Oracle provides the ability to define a new User Profile Option that can be used to assign default values based upon the Responsibility used to access the application. Oracle AFF segment definition provides to ability to assign a Default value based upon a User Profile.

43. OASIS Consulting Group, Inc. sbradley@sprynet.com Steve Bradley Flexible Default Company based on Responsibility With these two features you can have a default Company or other segment based upon the user’s responsibility. This can compliment your flexfield security. Not only restricting the user but also providing a custom default value.

44. OASIS Consulting Group, Inc. sbradley@sprynet.com Steve Bradley Responsibility Default Configuration Define Default Company User Profile Option Define segment value default in AFF definition Set Site Level Default Company Set Responsibility Level Default Companies for each Responsibility needing non-Site Default

45. OASIS Consulting Group, Inc. sbradley@sprynet.com Steve Bradley Responsibility Default Configuration Define Default Company User Profile Option In Application Developer Navigate to Profiles Enter: –Name (no spaces) DEFAULT_COMPANY –Application Oracle General Ledger –Profile Name (displayed name) Default Company –Description Assign Default Company by Responsibility

46. OASIS Consulting Group, Inc. sbradley@sprynet.com Steve Bradley Responsibility Default Configuration SQL Validation for Profile Option Optional – creates company list of values for profiles form SQL=“SELECT a.description DEFAULT_COMPANY, a.flex_value into :visible_option_value, :profile_option_value FROM fnd_flex_values a, fnd_flex_value_sets b WHERE a.flex_values_set_id = b.flex_value_set_id AND b.flex_value_set_name = ‘company_value_set_name” COLUMN=“DEFAULT_COMPANY(30)”

47. OASIS Consulting Group, Inc. sbradley@sprynet.com Steve Bradley Responsibility Default Configuration Company Default Profile Definition (cont) User Access: Visible and Updateable Sys Admin Access: Site:Visible and Updateable Resp.:Visible and Updateable

48. OASIS Consulting Group, Inc. sbradley@sprynet.com Steve Bradley Responsibility Default Configuration Define segment value default in AFF definition In GL Setup navigate to Flexfields => Key => Segments Query your AFF and open your company segment Validation: –Default TypeProfile –Default ValueDEFAULT_COMPANY

49. OASIS Consulting Group, Inc. sbradley@sprynet.com Steve Bradley Responsibility Default Configuration Set Site Level Default Company In Sys Admin responsibility navigate to Profile => System Find Screen –SiteYes –ProfileDefault Company Set Site level to desired value using list of values

50. OASIS Consulting Group, Inc. sbradley@sprynet.com Steve Bradley General Tricks with Folders Gives you the ability to modify the display and operation of any screen displaying the Folder icon Hide columns Change the title of columns Change width of columns Change display order of columns Change the sort order of data displayed (available in 1 st 3 columns)

51. OASIS Consulting Group, Inc. sbradley@sprynet.com Steve Bradley Folders Make more data displayable on the 1 st screen Place important data on the 1 st screen Sort the data in a meaningful manner Have the form perform specific query (display only unapproved invoices) You can make a custom folder the default You can make a folder available for use by other users

52. OASIS Consulting Group, Inc. sbradley@sprynet.com Steve Bradley Folders Modify the Invoice Entry form to sort by vendor and inv. Date Type (no sort) Supplier (ascending sort) Invoice Date (descending sort) Invoice Number Site Sup# (Supplier Number) Invoice Amount Description

53. OASIS Consulting Group, Inc. sbradley@sprynet.com Steve Bradley Folders Invoice Distributions Display more data on the 1 st form Number (Line Number) Type Amount Tax GL Date Account Description

54. OASIS Consulting Group, Inc. sbradley@sprynet.com Steve Bradley Folders Payment Batches Batch Name (no sort) Payment Date (sort descending) Status Bank Account Document Pay Group Payment Method Temp (Template)

55. OASIS Consulting Group, Inc. sbradley@sprynet.com Steve Bradley Folders Payment Screen Type Bank Account Document Name Ck# (Document Number) Payment Date Ck Amount (Payment Amount) Supplier Supplier Site

56. OASIS Consulting Group, Inc. sbradley@sprynet.com Steve Bradley Questions Steve Bradley OASIS Consulting Group sbradley@sprynet.com Office404-272-4111