Tuesday, 26 December 2017

Unable to find any value in Column Attribute LOV while defining Global Data Element segment in DFF

If you are unable to find any value in Column LOV while defining segment for “Global Data Element” in DFF. It means you have already utilized all attributes in other contexts. You need to remove those attributes from all contexts to make it available for "Global Data Element".


Same Attributes can be used in multiple contexts but you cannot use those attributes in "Global data element" if already used in any context.

You are not setup as a worker. Oracle EBS

You are not setup as a worker. To access this form you need to be a worker. EBS R12


To solve this issue, Enter person name to your user name and the person should be registered as buyer.
1.    Create Employee (Human Resources>> People>> Enter and Maintain), Person types should be ‘employee’ now.
2.    Add this new employee to your user name (System Administrator>> Security>> User>> Define), Add newly created employee in the person field.

3.    Adding a new buyer (Purchasing>> Setup>> Personnel>> Buyers), Click Add Buyer button and search for your newly created employee and select it and save it. New buyer is added.

Wednesday, 17 May 2017

Void option on Payment actions screen is disabled while trying to void a payment

Void option on Payment actions screen is disabled while trying to void a payment.

Oracle application R12 (12.2.5)
















The payment is done for a prepayment and the prepayment is already applied to a standard invoice.

Oracle actually restrict voiding a payment for a prepayment already applied to an invoice

To void the payment 

Go to prepayment applications and un-apply any invoices applied

Query for the invoice to which you have applied the prepayment (now the invoice should have new distribution line and status must have changed to ‘Needs re-validation’)

Validate the invoice and create accounting

Go back to payment screen and query the payment you want to void

Click the Actions Button

Void check box should be enabled now

Saturday, 18 March 2017

P2P (Procure to Pay) Cycle in Oracle EBS

First you enter the Requisition in PO module. Supplier sends quotation reply of requisitions or RFQ. You can approve the quotation of a supplier after to record all information received from your supplier such as terms and conditions, shipment and price breaks.
Then you can go ahead for Purchase Agreement. Purchase Agreement has two types: first Blanket and Contract Purchase Agreement. You cans use blanket purchase agreement to communicate to those supplier that are negotiating pricing before actually releasing firm purchases. A blanket purchase agreement must have detailed information besides the header level information. A blanket purchase agreement contains lines for specific terms, quantity, promised date, need-by-date and prices.
You can create a contract purchase agreement with a supplier to agree on terms and conditions without entering into agreement for specific items or services. A contract purchase agreement can support competitive solicitation through the RFQ process and then through the purchase releases because a contract purchase agreement has only header level information and no detailed information. Header level includes terms, currency Supplier and a supplier site. You can enter Purchase Order for confirms to purchasing services or goods. Purchase order has four types: Standard, Planned, Blanket and Contract.
Whenever you get goods or service that time you enter receipts in system. There are five types of receipts: manual receipts, express receipts, cascade receipts, unordered item receipts and substitute item receipts. That time accounting entry should be debited to Inventory Material Value and credited to Payable Clearing Account.
Whenever you get the invoice in account department, it enters in the system that time accounting entries should be debited Payable Clearing and credited to Payable. Then you make a payment to supplier that time accounting entries should be debited Payable liability and credited to cash clearing account. After reconciliations between cash management and bank, accounting should be debited to cash clearing account and credited to bank or cash account.
Accrual Accounting - Perpetual Accrual (On Receipt)
Enter purchase order (1)
When you enter a purchase order, accounts are created and stored with the purchase order distribution. The accounts will eventually be used as a basis for creating accounting that is sent to the general ledger. Creating a purchase order in and of itself generates no accounting that is sent to the general ledger.
Receive (2)
When you accrue on receipt, processing a receiving transaction automatically sends a receipt accrual to the general ledger. The Receiving Inventory Account is debited (quantity x purchase order line unit price) and the Inventory AP Accrual account (un-invoiced receipts account) is credited the same amount. Run the Journal Import process with a source of Purchasing to create un-posted journals in the general ledger.

Deliver and cost (3)
After delivering to the final destination, the Receiving Inventory Account is cleared and the Material account is debited. If you use standard costing, the Material account is debited with the standard cost of the item and any difference is charged to the Purchase Price Variance account.
Period end accrual (4)
When items are accrued on receipt, no period-end accrual is generated by the Receipt Accruals - Period-End process. The receipt accrual is automatically generated when the receipt is processed.
Invoice and match (5)
Entering an invoice and matching creates a debit to the Inventory AP Accrual account to clear the liability for the uninvoiced receipt (you now have an invoice). The credit is to the AP Liability account that defaults from the supplier site if the invoice unit price is the same as the purchase order line unit price. Any difference is charged to the Invoice Price Variance account. For items with destination type of Inventory, the Invoice Price Variance account will be the Invoice Price Variance account specified when you defined Inventory Information for your inventory organizations in the Other Accounts tab. The AP Liability account is cleared when the invoice is paid.

Accounting for Mass Additions - Periodic Accrual (Period End)
Enter purchase order (1)
When you enter a purchase order, accounts are created and stored with the purchase order distribution. The accounts will eventually be used as a basis for creating accounting that is sent to the general ledger. Creating a purchase order in and of itself generates no accounting that is sent to the general ledger.
Receive (2)
For most expenses and asset purchases (other than inventory), receipt accruals are generally processed at period end, so no accounting is transferred to the general ledger at the time the receipt is processed.
Period end accrual (3)
If no invoice is received and matched to the purchase order at period end, the Receipt Accruals - Period End process will generate an accrual that is transferred to the GL Interface. Run the Journal Import process to create un-posted journals in the general ledger.
Reverse accrual (4)
Perpetual accruals (on receipt accruals) are reversed when the invoice entered in Payables is matched to the purchase order. Periodic accruals (period end accruals) are reversed when a reversing journal is created and posted in the general ledger.
Invoice and match (5)
Entering an invoice and matching creates a debit to the Inventory AP Accrual account to clear the liability for the uninvoiced receipt (you now have an invoice). The credit is to the AP Liability account that defaults from the supplier site if the invoice unit price is the same as the purchase order line unit price. Any difference is charged to the Invoice Price Variance account. For items with destination type of Expense, the Invoice Price Variance account will be the same as the charge account. In the case of an asset that will be capitalized and depreciated in assets, the charge account is an asset clearing account associated with an asset category in Assets. The AP Liability account is cleared when a payment is processed.
Post asset to Assets (6)
The Post Mass Additions process places the asset in service. When the Create Journal Entries process is run in Assets, the charge account (the clearing account on the invoice distribution) is relieved and the cost account associated with the asset category is charged for the cost of the asset.
Enter invoice (1)
A standard, unmatched invoice entered into Payables will generate a credit to the AP Liability account and a debit to the charge account specified on the invoice distribution. For expenses, this will be an income statement account; for assets that will be capitalized in Assets and depreciated, this account will be a balance sheet account (asset clearing account); for inventory received, the account will be the Inventory AP Accrual account.
Procure to Pay Process
Demand
The procurement process generates and manages requests for the purchase of goods. The demand for purchase items may be a one-time event or may recur in either predictable or random time intervals.
Source
The procurement sourcing process covers the business activities related to the search, qualification, and selection of suitable suppliers for requested goods and services.
Order
The procurement ordering process includes purchase order placement by the buying organization and purchase order execution by the supplying organization.
Receive
The receipt process acknowledges that a purchase order has been duly executed. For orders of physical goods, it will typically include the receipt, inspection and delivery of the goods to inventory or to another designated location. For orders of services, it will typically consist of a notification from the requester or the approving person that the service has been performed as agreed.
Invoice
The invoice process includes entering supplier and employee invoices.
Pay
The payment process consists of those activities involved in the payment for ordered goods and services.
Definitions of Purchasing Document
Blanket Purchase Agreement: It committed amounts for specific date range for service or goods.
Contract Purchase Agreement: It committed amount for certain period of unspecified goods.
Purchase Order types:
Standard: It is regular purchases order to represents your order to the supplier.
Planned: It is a purchase order before you actually order the goods and services.
Blanket: It is entering to against of blanket purchase agreement.
Contract: It is entering to against of contract purchase agreement.
Types of receipts:
Manual: It is for inputting data manually.
Express: It is a quicker method-if you have specified PO then requires fewer keystrokes.
Cascade: It is assists in the distributions of the quantity of a receipt from a single supplier to multiple shipments and distributions.
Unordered: When you are missing a PO or if you’re not sure to which PO the receipt should be matched against, you can enter this type receipt.
Substitute Item: If you do not have any information for the Order Information alternative region then you enter a receipt for substitute item.
Quotation: It is used for quotes from the supplier regarding prices, terms and conditions of items.
RFQ: It is used for soliciting quotes from the supplier regarding prices, terms and conditions of items.
Purchase Release: It is used for releases against other document types, there are two subtypes for this: Blanket and Schedule.
Accounting Entries for Procure to Pay Cycle
A. Inventory Item:
On Receipt
DR Recv Ctl (Source – Inventory – Recvg Controls)
CR Inv AP Accrual Account (Source – Inventory Org Parameters – Other Accounts)
On Delivery
DR Inventory Account (Source – Sub Inventory)
CR Recv Ctl
On matching in AP
DR Inv AP Accrual Account
CR Liability Account (Source – Financial Options > Supplier Site)

B. Expense Item – Periodic Accrual
a. On Matching
DR Expense Account (Source – Item Expense)
CR Liability Account
C. Expense Item – Accrue on Receipt
On Receipt
DR Recv Ctl
CR Expense AP Accrual Account (Source – Purchasing Options)
On Delivery
DR Charge Account (Source – Item Expense)
CR Recv Ctl
On matching in AP
DR Exp AP Accrual Account
CR Liability Account
D. Fixed Asset – Periodic Accrual
On Matching
DR Asset Clearing Account (Source – Item Expense)
CR Liability Account
E. Fixed Asset – Accrue on Receipt
On Receipt
DR Recv Ctl
CR Exp AP Accrual Account
On Delivery
DR Asset Clearing Account
CR Recv Ctl

On matching in AP
DR Exp AP Accrual Account
CR Liability Account

Wednesday, 15 March 2017

Characteristics of good Functional Consultant


In my opinion, an ERP Consultant should have the following personality traits
1.       Listening Skills: The Key trait that separates a good consultant from an average consultant is his/her listening skills. A good listener will be able to pinpoint the issues being raised by the customer and thereby provide the solution to the real problems of the customer. A good listener will most often use the ‘Why’ words a lot. A consultant who is not a good listener will most often end up in providing generic solution rather than providing specific solution to the issues faced by the customer. An average consultant can be heard using phrase ‘This is how the Product works, you have to change the process.
2.       Closure Skills: Most of the average consultants will provide almost complete solution, but fail to close the issue. This will lead to festering issues which will come to haunt you in the most critical times. Most of the time the closure can be achieved with a simple three line minutes of the meeting. However, I am surprised at the number of consultants who lack closure skills. Lack of closure skills is related to the third aspect of good consultant, which are communication skills.
3.       Communication Skills: While listening skill plays a very important part in the initial stages of the project, this is only a part of the overall communication skills. There are three aspects to the communication skills. They are listening Skills, Presentation Skills and Idea Selling Skills. Presentation Skills can be oral and written presentation. The communication skills should not be confused with ability to talk confidently. Communication skills relate to the ability to separate data from information, coming to very common sense root causes, and finding innovative solutions and finally convincing the customer about the strength of your solution. I have seen many very good consultants fail in this aspect.
4.     People Skills: ERP Implementation is nothing but a people management process. In the beginning of the project you have skeptical and probably scared user from the customer side. It is the consultant’s duty to make the user confident in the product and the solution so that at the end of the day he/she can add significant value to the implementation. Many a consultant fails in this aspect since they do not put the necessary time and effort to understand the customer user.

5.     Business Knowledge: It is a no brainer that the implementation consultant should have the knowledge of business. What does this imply? It implies two aspects. First, Knowledge of business, industry, statutory regulations etc. and two, the detailed knowledge of customer’s business. Many a times the consultant goes thru a 10 months of implementation without having a clue on customer’s business or products. And that will lead to a bad implementation. I normally ask the following questions to understand the customers business. How many plants do youi have, which plant produces the most? What is the spread of production load between the plants? What product groups do you have? What is the most profitable product? Who is the most profitable customer? Who is the customer with most revenue for you? What are the raw materials? How do you do production planning? How do you manage inventory? The idea is to understand the key pain areas of a business and try to address those pains in your implementation.

Tuesday, 14 March 2017

Oracle General Ledger Interview Questions

1) Can a flexfield qualifier be changed after it has been created?

Ans)  No.

Once a segment qualifier has been designated for a specific segment and has been saved, it will permanently have the attributes with that qualifier.
For example, you accidentally designate the cost center segment as the natural account segment. Even though you do not compile this, the system saves the changes. And once it has been saved, it will have all the attributes designated for the natural account qualifier, even after it has been changed back, re-saved with the correct qualifier and compiled. This is the inherent functionality of the software.
Unfortunately, there is no real easy solution for this issue. The only option is to create a new chart of accounts and attach a new set of books.


2) How to delete a segment value?

Ans) There is no supported way to delete a segment value. Segment values can only be disabled not deleted.

3) Is there a way to load values for a specific segment outside of the form?

Ans) iSetup is the Oracle product that provides supported APIs to load values into Oracle Applications flexfields.
To load code combinations ADI may be used. Uploading zero amount journals will create new code combinations.
In this case Dynamic Insertion should be enabled and all account segment values need to exist before the new account code combinations will be dynamically created.


4) What are the different types of Journals in General Ledger ?

Ans)  

1. Functional Currency Jv: This Journal, we enter Local Currency transaction purpose.

2. Foreign Currency Jv: this Journal, we enter other than local currency transaction purpose...before we define exchange rates

3.Suspense Jv: this Journal, whenever debit is not equal to credit that time, we enable in set of books window Suspense button, then it works otherwise it's not working

4.Tax Jv: this Journal, calculate taxation of Purchased items


5.Reverse Jv: this Journal whenever we enter recurring journal, at the time of we using..We have two methods...one is Debit to Credit and second one is sign (+ to -)

6.Recurring Jv :this one is We define one template, we use Periodically, these are 3 types
1.Standard 2.Skeleton 3.Formula

7.Mass Allocation Jv :Set of Expenses or Set of Revenue allocate different parts using Formula A*B/C
A is Total Cost Pool..B is Usage Factor...C is Total Usage Factor...

8. Batch JV: Group of Journal we enter at a time, We Define Control Amount

9. Stat JV: This JV we have one side of Amount either debit or Credit.....

5)  What is average Balance In Oracle Financials? 


Ans) The Average Balance feature of Oracle General Ledger provides organizations with the ability to track average and end-of-day balances, report average balance sheets, and create custom reports using both standard and average balances. Average balance processing is particularly important for financial institutions, since average balance sheets are required, in addition to standard balance sheets, by many regulatory agencies. Many organizations also use average balances for internal management reporting and
Profitability analysis.

The difference between an average and standard balance sheet is that balances are expressed as average amounts rather Than actual period-end amounts. An average balance is computed as the sum of the actual daily closing balance for a balance sheet account, divided by the number of calendar Days in the reporting period .


6) Is there a limit to the number of periods in a budget year or how many years a budget can span?

Ans) One can define budgetary control for n number of years however, one year can have maximum of 60 fiscal periods)   

7) What is a funding budget?


Ans) A budget against which accounting transactions are checked for available funds when budgetary control is enable for your set of books.

8) What is planning budget

Ans) The plan for the future expenses is planning budget. It is a paper work. There is no funds requirement. It does not require journals. There are no restrictions for estimating of funds.

9) I was able to post a budget journal to a closed period, why? 

Ans) Yes you can do so, reason being budget journal is not linked with your accounting period. Once you have open the budget period then you can book budget journal for that whole period.

 10) What is the specific purpose of assigning Balancing Segment Values to the Legal Entity in Accounting Manager Setup (as once assigned, the same value is not allowed to be selected for any other Legal Entity), if this value is usable for the Operating Unit(s) that does not have this Legal Entity Context?
Ans) Summary of key facts:

1. Common COA Structure used for Primary and Secondary Ledgers
2. Ledger shared by Multiple Legal Entities
3. Specific Balancing Segment Values assigned to Specific Legal Entity (Overlap not allowed)
4. Specific Legal Entity Vision Operations Assigned to Payables Manager OU for Legal Entity Context
5. User preference set to Access Vision Operations OU by Default in Payables

Conclusion and Findings:

1. Balancing Segment Value Assignment to the Multiple Legal Entities, sharing the same Ledger does not seem to restrict the user of these Balancing Segment Values in the Feeder, Operating Unit specific Modules Like AP, wherein Legal Entity Context is passed to the OU through the link of the Primary Ledger.

2. However, access to these Balancing Segment Values could be controlled through Security Rules being assigned to the Value Set and the Respective Responsibility

3. The Key question is: If Legal Entity having the context to the Operating Unit that shares the common Ledger does not have assignment to it, what impact it has on the integrity of data when this access is otherwise allowed, except through Security Rules?

  

11) What are the interface tables in General Ledger ?

Ans)
GL_BUDGET_INTERFACE
GL_DAILY_RATES_INTERFACE
GL_IEA_INTERFACE
GL_INTERFACE
GL_INTERFACE_CONTROL
GL_INTERFACE_HISTORY 

 12) What is DFF.

Question: What does DFF mean?
Answer: DFF is a mechanism that lets us create new fields in screens that are delivered by Oracle.

Question: Oh good, but can these new fields be added without modifying/customization of the screen?.
Answer: Yes, certainly. Only some setup is needed, but no programmatic change is needed to setup DFF.

Question: Why the word Descriptive in Name DFF?
Answer: I think Oracle used this terminology because by means of setup...you are describing the structure of these new fields. Or may be Oracle simply used a silly word to distinguish DFF from KFF(discussed in latter training lesson).

Question: Are these DFF's flexible?
Answer: A little flexible, for example, depending upon the value in a field, we can make  either Field1 or Field2  to appear in DFF.

Question: So we create new fields in existing screen, but why the need of doing so?
Answer: Oracle delivers a standard set of fields for each screen, but different customers have different needs, hence Oracle lets us create new fields to the screen.

Question: Are these new fields that get created as a result of DFF free text?
I mean, can end user enter any junk into the new fields that are added via DFF?
Answer: If you attach a value set to the field(at time of setup of dff), then field will no longer be free text. The entered value in the field will be validated, also a list of valid values will be provided in LOV.

Question : Will the values that get entered by the user in dff fields be updated to database?
Answer: Indeed, this happens because for each field that you create using DFF will be mapped to  a column in Oracle Applications.

Question: Can I create a DFF on any database column?
Answer: Not really. Oracle delivers a predefined list of columns for each table that are meant for DFF usage. Only those columns can be mapped to DFF segments. These columns are named similar to ATTRIBUTE1, ATTRIBUTE2, ATTRIBUTE3 ETC. Usually Oracle provides upto 15 columns, but this number can vary. 

Question: Can I add hundreds of fields to a given screen?
Answer: This depends on the number of attribute columns in the table that screen uses. Also, those columns must be flagged as DFF enabled in DFF Registration screen. Don't need to worry much about this because all the ATTRIBUTE columns are by default flagged for their DFF usage.

Question: Hmmm, I can see that DFFs are related to table and columns...
Answer: Yes correct. Each DFF is mapped to one table. And also each segment(or call it field) 
is mapped to one of the attribute columns in that table.

Question: I want these fields to appear in screen only when certain conditions are met. Is it possible?
Answer: Yes, we have something known as Context Sensitive Descriptive Flexfields.

In Order to do this, we will follow the below steps(screenshots will follow) :-
1.    Navigate to the DFF Registration screen in Oracle Apps and query on Table AP_BANK_BRANCES. Now click on Reference Field
2.    Navigate to DFF Segments screen and query on the Title of the “Bank Branch” and Unfreeze the Flexfield and add segments as to Section "GLOBAL Data Elements" as shown in screenshots. 

13)   What is Journal Import?
Ans) Journal import is an interface used to bring journal entries from legacy systems and other modules into the General Ledger.(Specifically Journal Import gets entries from legacy data into the GL base tables.
The tables populated during journal Import are
GL_JE_BATCHES,
GL_JE_HEADERS,
GL_JE_LINES,
GL_IMPORT_REFERENCES




14) What is the use of GL_Interface?

Ans) Gl_Interface is the primary interface table of General ledger. It acts as an interface between data originating from other modules such as AP,AR, Legacy data and the Gl Base tables.

15) What is Actual Flag?

Ans) Actual flag represents the Journal type.
A-Actual
B-Budget
E- Encumbrance.

16) What is Encumbrance?

Ans) It is a process of Reservation of funds for anticipated expenditure from a budget. Encumbrance integrates GL, Purchasing and Payables modules.

17) How many Key Flex Fields are there in General Ledger?

Ans)  One. Accounting Key Flex Field.

18) How many types of Budgets are there?

Ans) Two Types.
Expenditure Budgets
Revenue Budgets.

19)What are Spot Rate, Corporate Rate, Transaction Calendar and Accounting Calendar?

Ans) Spot Rate:
An exchange rate which you enter to perform conversion based on the rate on a specific date. It applies to the immediate delivery of currency.

 Corporate Rate:
An Exchange rate that we define to standardize rates for our company. This rate is the standard market rate determined by the senior financial management for use through out the organization.

 User Rate:
Conversion rate that is defined by the user.
EMU Fixed Rate: An exchange rate that is provided automatically by the General Ledger while entering journals. It uses a foreign currency that has a fixed relationship with the euro.
Transaction Calendar: Defines the business days and holidays for any calendar.
Accounting Calendar: Defines different types of calendars namely Fiscal, Federal Fiscal, Month etc.

20)What is Security Rule?

Ans) Security Rules are defined to control the access of a flexfield segment value (Financial information) at a responsibility level.

21) What are Cross Validation & ADI?

Ans) CVS – Cross validate segments – Allows only valid code combinations.
ADI – Allow dynamic inserts. – Allows any code combination irrespective of validity.
ADI would prevail if both of CVS and ADI are checked.

22)What is Translation?

Ans) Translation is a process used to convert functional currency to other reporting currencies at the account balances level.

23)What is Revaluation?

Ans) It is process used to revalue assets and liabilities denominated in foreign currency into functional currency based on period end exchange rate we specify. Unrealized gains/losses are resulted because of exchange rate fluctuations which are recorded in unrealized gain/loss account in GL.

24)What is FSG (Financial Statement Generator)?

Ans) Financial statement generator feature helps us to generate reports such as balance sheets and income statements with out programming. It also provides a high degree of control on the rows, columns, contents and calculations on the report. Different components such as row set, column set, content set, row order, display set have to be defined before a statement is generated, of which row set and column set are mandatory.

25) What is Consolidation?

Ans) Consolidation is a period-end process of combining the financial results of separate business subsidiaries with the parent company to form a single combined statement of financial results.

26) At what level General Ledger data is secured?

Ans) GL data is secured at Set of Book level. Subledger module data is secured at Responsibility level (i.e., at Operating Unit Level).

27) Difference between Primary Ledger and Secondary Ledger in Oracle R12 ?

Ans) Primary ledger:

The primary ledger acts as the primary accounting representation

Secondary Leger:
Secondary ledgers represent the primary ledger's accounting data in another accounting representation that differs in one or more of the following ways: 
·                     chart of accounts
·                     accounting calendar/period type combination
·                     currency
·                     sub-ledger accounting method
·                     ledger processing options

Use secondary ledgers for supplementary purposes, such as consolidation, statutory reporting, or adjustments for one or more legal entities within the same accounting setup. For example, use a primary ledger for corporate accounting purposes that uses the corporate chart of accounts and sub-ledger accounting method, and use a secondary ledger for statutory reporting purposes that uses the statutory chart of accounts and sub-ledger accounting method. This allows you to maintain both a corporate and statutory representation of the same legal entity's transactions in parallel.
Assign one or more secondary ledgers to each primary ledger for an accounting setup.
The secondary ledgers assigned can only perform the accounting for the legal entities within the same accounting setup.