Oracle Financial Statement Generator (FSG)

Financial Statement Generator (FSG)

Tips for Designing FSG Reports

The tips and techniques listed below will make it easier for you to plan and define your financial reports. The tips will also help you maximize FSG's flexibility and minimize your report maintenance activities.

Draft reports on paper first. Before you define a report in FSG, draft it on paper. This will help you plan the report's format and content, saving you time later.

Define a logical chart of accounts. You can significantly reduce report maintenance activities if you use account ranges and/or parent segment values in your row sets, column sets, and content sets.

For example, say one of your rows is total salary expense and you assigned it an account range of 30000 to 39999. If you add a new rent account segment within that range, the new account is automatically included in your reports.

Define generic row sets. You can minimize report maintenance by using generic row sets with the least number of options defined. For example, suppose you need to produce detail expense reports for all of your departments, but they all use different expense accounts. You can use one row set to generate all of these reports. When you define the row set:

• Include all, or most, of your expense accounts in the account assignments.

• Leave the Display Zero option unchecked for each account assignment. This ensures that accounts with zero balances won't appear on the report.

Use existing column sets. Before you define a new column set, review FSG's standard column sets and any custom column sets you've already defined to see if there is one that meets your reporting needs. You can use any existing column set as is, or make a copy then revise it.

We recommend two generic column sets that are particularly useful in managing any organization. One consists of multiple columns, defined to use actual amount types, for consecutive reporting periods (months, quarters, or years). Reports using this type of column set are very useful for determining and analyzing trends.

Another useful column set includes multiple columns defined with actual, budget, and variance amount types. Reports using this type of column set are useful for planning purposes, as well as controlling your business. The standard column sets we provide with FSG include several versions of these two column set types.

Use content sets. Content sets are a powerful and useful FSG feature, which you can use to generate hundreds of similar reports in a single report run. For example, you can use a content set to generate 50 departmental reports from one master report definition. Content sets work their magic by overriding the row set definition of an existing report, by altering the account assignments and/or display options.
Simplify row set and content set definitions. Rather than defining extremely long row sets, take advantage of the Expand and Both display types:

• EXPAND -- creates multiple lines from a single row definition. When defining a row, enter a range for an account segment and assign it a display type of Expand. FSG creates a row for each segment value in the range. If you enter a parent segment value for your range, FSG displays all child values for that parent.

• BOTH -- creates both detail lines and a total from a single row definition.

Use AutoCopy. to copy any existing row set, column set, content set, row order, report, or report set. For example, you can:

• Copy a standard column set, then modify the copy rather than modifying the original. If you modify a standard column set directly, you can unknowingly change other reports that rely on the standard column set definitions.

• Copy an existing row set that is similar to what you need, then modify the copy, rather than build a new row set from scratch.

R12.2.2 Oracle Project Management Features

To support the use of multiple HR rates in labor costing, Project Management allows you to plan in those rates.

Rates when Generating Forecast from Workplan

The forecast process will now automatically use new resource rates when generating the forecast.  Prior to 12.2.2, users needed to manually select the refresh option.

Resource Class

In R12.2.2, you have the ability to plan a resource without associating it to a resource class (people, equipment, material, financial element).  This allows you to plan at a higher level and have costs from multiple resource classes rollup to the same level.

Breakdown Structure

As mentioned in the Project Costing enhancements, Project Management now allows you to plan by cost code work breakdown structure   By linking cost attributes from lower level segments to attributes in higher level segments, you can create a breakdown structure.  You can then associate you CBS to the project’s tasks to allow the association of cost to a specific cost code.  You can then view your costs, budgets, forecasts and workplans by CBS cost attribute.

Oracle Project Contracts

The enhancement in Project Contracts for 12.2.2 is the extension of the Project Contract API.  This API now allows you to update and delete contract header, project line, and deliverables.

Oracle Project Adjustments

Adjustment of Project invoices can be done anything on draft invoices before you approve, release, and interface them to Oracle Receivables. You can perform many of the same actions on an invoice that you can on project expenditures. 

 If you perform an adjustment on an invoice's expenditure items and events, you need to submit the appropriate process to reflect those adjustments. For example, if you change an expenditure item's status from billable to non-billable, you need to submit the appropriate processes to recalculate cost, regenerate revenue, and regenerate the invoice.
When you regenerate a project's unreleased draft revenue and unreleased draft invoices, Oracle Projects deletes the project's unreleased draft revenue and invoices and creates new draft revenue and invoices.

Cancel a released invoice

Cancelling an invoice causes the creation of a credit memo for the entire amount of the cancelled invoice. All items on the cancelled invoice are eligible for rebilling. In addition, Oracle Projects updates the funding balance on the agreement that funded the original invoice.
You cannot cancel an invoice if payments have been applied against it in Oracle Receivables or if an invoice has credit memos applied against it. You can cancel an invoice only if it is released and has no payments, adjustments, or crediting invoices applied against it. Once the cancellation is completed, you cannot delete the credit memo created by the cancellation action. That is, you cannot reverse an invoice cancellation.

Write off an invoice
Writing off an invoice creates a crediting invoice against the original invoice for the write-off amount you request. When you write off an invoice, Oracle Projects reverses the invoice amount from the unbilled receivables account and places it into a write off expense account when you interface the write off to Oracle Receivables.
The write off creates a negative invoice in Oracle Projects that is attached to the original invoice. Oracle Projects records the appropriate write-off accounting transaction in Oracle Receivables when you interface the invoices to Oracle Receivables.
You can only write off an invoice whose status is Accepted. The write-off amount you enter can be any amount up to the outstanding receivable balance on the invoice.

Create credit memos

Oracle Projects automatically creates a credit memo each time you adjust detail expenditure items billed on a released invoice. The credit memo reverses the amount on the invoice by the amount of the adjusting item.
To create a crediting invoice for a project that is not associated with a particular invoice, you should create an invoice reduction event for that project. When you generate the next invoice, Oracle Projects creates a negative invoice that is not attached to the original invoice. After you interface the negative invoice to Oracle Receivables, you can manually apply the negative invoice to any receipt from that customer in Oracle Receivables.

 Do not create credit memos in Oracle Receivables for Oracle Projects invoices. Adjustments made in Oracle Receivables will not be reflected in Oracle Projects, and will cause your amounts to be out of balance with Oracle Projects.

Overapplied Credits: When Oracle Projects sends a credit memo that is greater than the original invoice amount outstanding in Oracle Receivables, Oracle Receivables overapplies the remaining credit memo balance to the original invoice, creating a negative outstanding amount on the invoice.

Delete an invoice

You may determine it is not appropriate to create an invoice for the customer at this time. You can delete unreleased draft invoices.

   To adjust an invoice:

1. Choose Billing, Invoice Review from the Navigator window.

2. Find the invoice you want to adjust.

3. Choose the Invoice, Invoice Lines, and Details buttons to open the Invoice Line Details window.

4. Choose an option from the Special menu to specify how you want to adjust the invoice line details.

5. Choose Run Request from the Invoice window to process the adjustment. 

   To cancel a released invoice:

You cannot delete a cancellation (credit memo) once Oracle Projects performs the cancellation.

1. Choose the Credit button in either the Invoice Summary or Invoice window.

2. Choose Cancel Invoices.

3. When you choose OK, Oracle Projects submits a process to create a credit invoice.

   To write off an invoice:

You can write off an invoice only if it has a status of Accepted.

1. Choose the Credit button from either the Invoice Summary or Invoice window.

2. Enter the write off amount for the invoice.

3. Choose OK. Oracle Projects submits a process to write off the invoice.

   To create an independent crediting invoice:

1. Find the project for which you want to create the credit invoice in the Projects, Templates Summary window.

2. Open the project and select the Events option under Billing Information.

3. Enter an Invoice Reduction type event for the project or top task, as appropriate based on your invoice format.

4. Save. When the Generate Draft Invoices process is run for your project, a credit invoice will be created.

   To delete an unreleased draft invoice:

1. Find the invoice you want in the Invoice Summary window.

2. Choose Run Request.

3. Click on the Delete Invoices option button.

4. Choose OK.

NEW FEATURES IN ORACLE EBS 12.2.4

Main new features in Oracle EBS 12.2.4 include:

• Oracle Financials: Faster invoice approval cycles and integration with Oracle Revenue Management Cloud.

• Oracle Projects: Improved cash flow, transparency, auditing and automated billing in Oracle Project Contracts and Oracle Project Billing.

• Oracle Purchasing: Improved buyer productivity with large orders due to Web ADI-enabled spreadsheet creation and modification of purchase order line, schedules and distributions.

• Oracle iProcurement: Employees can quickly complete shopping activities and begin the requisition approval process thanks to newly streamlined single-step checkout flow.

• Oracle Channel Revenue Management: Quickly adapt to changing business conditions thanks to streamlined user interface and improved volume offer capabilities.

• Oracle Enterprise Asset Management: Improved productivity for linear assets for various industries and public sector.

• Oracle Payroll: One stop views of entire payroll cycle which allows payroll administrators to gain valuable insight into payroll processes, allowing them to avoid costly errors and improve productivity.

To further help organizations transform supply chains from a functional necessity to a competitive advantage, the latest release of Oracle E-Business Suite includes the following supply chain management (SCM) enhancements:

Oracle Order Management: A new HTML user interface provides improved usability, greater flexibility, and a more modern user experience.

Oracle Yard Management: A new solution enables manufacturing, distribution, and asset-intensive organizations to manage and track the flow of trailers and their contents into, within, and out of the yards of distribution centers, production campuses, transportation terminals, and other facilities.

Oracle Manufacturing: Significant usability improvements in the Oracle Manufacturing Execution System (MES) help improve operator productivity by simplifying time entry and quality collection. New capabilities to manage the auto-dekit (disassembly) of serialized products supports customer returns and internal reuse of component parts.

Oracle Enterprise Asset Management: Enhancements to support linear assets in industries, such as oil and gas, utilities, and public sector, help improve productivity and retire costly integrations and custom code.

Oracle Service: Enhanced spare parts planner’s dashboard provides rich user interaction to improve planner productivity.

Oracle Value Chain Planning: Numerous enhancements across multiple products include deeper industry functionality, such as minimum remaining shelf-life enhancements for the pharmaceutical and consumer goods industries, multistage production synchronization for process industries, and integration between Oracle Service Parts Planning and Oracle Enterprise Asset Management for asset-intensive industries. New promotions planning analytics in Oracle Advanced Planning Command Center improve business insight.

To help organizations further modernize Human Capital Management (HCM) practices, the latest release of Oracle E-Business Suite includes:

Oracle Payroll: Payroll dashboard provides at-a-glance readiness checks, validation, and analytical views of the entire payroll cycle to help payroll administrators gain valuable insight into payroll processes, avoid costly errors, and improve productivity.

Oracle Self-Service Human Resources: Transaction dashboard helps employees and managers monitor the approval progress of self-service transactions, and review transaction details at any point after final approval.

Oracle Learning Management: Enhanced user interface simplifies the learner’s ability to search the training catalog, engage in learning activities, and share experiences with fellow learners.

To enable improved user productivity across the applications, the latest release of Oracle E-Business Suite incorporates these current UI design trends:

Optimizations for touch screen tablets, including larger buttons and support for touch gestures.

Support for users to hide/show table columns and save changes as a user personalization.

A simplified home page with colorful icons allows users to easily access favorite functions, and a streamlined universal global header provides easy access to common functions from any page.

More fine-grained proxy access gives users greater control over delegating their Oracle E-Business Suite authority to other users.

Better UI For You
The mobile revolution has brought UI to the center stage. We spend our days critiquing the UIs that surround us; those on our devices and those on desktop screens. Oracle is aware of this and 12.2.4 includes these UI enhancements:
• Larger buttons and touch gesture support for tablets
• Ability to hide or show table columns and save changes as a user personalization
• Colorful icons added to the homepage, so you can easily access your favorites and common functions from any page.

Many Paths to 12.2.4
To get to 12.2.4 you need to first upgrade to the base version of12.2 (whether coming from 11i, 12.0 or 12.1), and from there patch your way to 12.2.4.

I leave you with the show-stopper. Thanks for the on-line patching capability introduced in release 12.2, you can also patch to EBS 12.2.4 whiel 12.2 is running without any down time requirement

Projects Billing Flow