Lecture 4

Oracle Applications
System Administration
Financial Functions,
Value Sets and Flexfields

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 How Will You Automate Your
Enterprise?
By Robert L. Scheier JANUARY 06, 2003

• Whatever the problems, a report last year from Boston-based

AMR Research Inc. predicted that ERP spending will remain
steady at about $16 billion per year between now and 2006,
and Computerworld's Premier 100 IT Leaders ranked ERP
systems as their top project for 2003.
• Advices:
– Make sure end users are willing to pay for the project. That
way, they too have “skin in the game” and an incentive to
make the project work.
– Deliver bad news early – don’t wait for a formal meeting. No
one likes to be surprised.
– Minimize the amount of data you convert to the format and
data descriptions required by the new system, because not
all the data will be converted properly.

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 How Will You Connect With
Customers?
By Stacy Collett JANUARY 06, 2003

• Computerworld's Premier 100 IT Leaders will also spend big on

CRM, enough to rank such projects second on their priority lists
for 2003.
• Companies worldwide will spend $15.4 billion on CRM initiatives
this year, according to research firm Aberdeen Group Inc. in
Boston.
• Advices:
– Minimize customization of off-the-shelf software.
– Don’t add technical features just because they’re available.
– Manage data movement, and insist on data integrity.

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 How Will You Integrate
Technology With Business?
By Bob Violino JANUARY 06, 2003
• EAI involves using software to connect a variety of applications into a
cohesive unit and thereby helps enterprises align systems more closely
with business processes. It's become a critical part of the IT strategy at
many organizations looking to meld disparate systems and quickly
deliver data to employees, customers and partners.
• Some analysts say companies can expect to spend $200,000 to
$400,000 on an EAI project, including software and installation costs.
• Advices:
– Manage and control EAI implementation from a central group, with
input from IT and business managers.
– Have the skills and/or training programs in place to implement and
maintain EAI software.
– Have IT staff work in conjunction with other departments, such as
customer service or sales, in the implementation of EAI.

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 How Will You Build Business on
the Web?
By STEVE ALEXANDER JANUARY 06, 2003
• Computerworld's Premier 100 IT Leaders ranked e-commerce projects
fourth on their list of top priorities for 2003. But the rules have
changed. Required-payback times are shorter, often no more than a
year. E-business initiatives tend to focus on improving order or sales-
lead management, tuning the sales channel or creating business
partner self-service portals.
• New York-based e-business research firm eMarketer Inc. projects that
2003 worldwide e-business IT expenditures will be $245 billion, up 49%
from $164 billion in 2002. Premier 100 IT Leaders who have reaped the
benefits of e-business projects share some tips for success.
• Advices:
– Check out the financial status of vendors, and leave extra time for
project completion.
– Market your e-business project to customers, and follow up with
training.
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 How Will You Improve Your Core
Systems?
By AMY HELEN JOHNSON JANUARY 06, 2003

• Upgrades of core systems are among the top five projects the
Premier 100 IT Leaders said they'll tackle this year. Getting
things right is important because core system upgrades aren't
cheap.
• Advices:
– Involve the people “who leave fingerprints on the
keyboards.”
– Sell the project often by making a compelling argument in
favor of “soft” benefits.
– A good manager with a mediocre crew can “run rings
around a poor manager with a high-quality crew.”
– Interim checkpoints are a must.

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Oracle Applications Products
Financials Manufacturing
•Oracle General Ledger •Oracle Inventory
•Oracle Assets •Oracle Bills of Materials
•Oracle Receivables •Oracle Order Entry
•Oracle Payables •Oracle Work in Process
•Oracle Purchasing •Oracle Cost Management
Human Resources Project Accounting
•Human Resources •Project Costing
•Payroll •Project Billing
Sales
•Oracle Sales and Marketing
•Oracle Sales Compensation
•Oracle Sales Analysis
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 Oracle Applications Integration
Accounts
Project
Payables
Accounting
Accounts
Receivables
Fixed Assets

Order Entry
Set of Books GENERAL Set of Books
Exchange Rates Exchange Rates
LEDGER
Purchasing
Inventory

Human Cost
Resources Management
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Oracle Applications Integration

• Chart of Accounts
• Journal Entries
• Financial Reports

GENERAL LEDGER

• Budgeting
• Multicurrency
• Global Consolidation System
• Financial Statement Generator

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 Oracle Financials
•Journal Entries
•Journal Entries •Additions/Retirements
•Invoices •Depreciation
Accounts •Payments •Adjustments
Fixed Assets
Payables

•Journal Entries
•Inventory/ •Journal Entries
WIP activity GENERAL •Payroll Human
Inventory
LEDGER Resources

•Journal Entries •Journal Entries

•Invoices •Accrued
Accounts •Receipts Receipts
Purchasing
Receivables •Journal Entries
•Revenue
Project •Labor Costs
lecture 4 •Usage Costs 10
Accounting
 Oracle Project Accounting
•Payroll Information
Human General
•Set of Books Information
Resources Ledger
•Employee Data •Revenue
•Organizations •Labor Costs
•Jobs •Usage Costs
•Customer Data Project
•Expense Reports
•Invoicing Accounting
•Vendor Data
•Report Balance •Vendor Invoices
•Report
Commited Costs •Project Related
Requisitions
Accounts and PO’s Accounts
Purchasing
Receivables Payables

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 Oracle Human Resources
Project General
Accounting •Set of Books Information
Ledger
•Employee Information
•Organizations
•Jobs and Positions •Payroll
•Hierarchies Information
•Locations Human •Employee Information
•Employee Information Resources •Locations

•Employee Information
•Jobs and Positions
•Locations

Fixed Accounts
Purchasing
Assets Payables

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 Oracle Manufacturing
•Item Information •Inventory and WIP
•Units of Measure Transactions
•ATP/On Hand
General
Inventory •Receipts Purchasing
D Ledger
e
m
a •Internal Requisitions
n •Shipment •JE
d •Model - Invoices
•Reservation •Invoice Information
Structure - Receipts
•Demands •Returns/Credits
- Bills
- Routings •Item Information Order •Booked Orders
- Calendar •Units of Measure •Customer Information
•ATP/On Hand Entry
•Credit Information
•Item
•Items Information •Sales Reps.
Info
•Unit of Measure •Payment Terms
•Units of
Measure
•Final Assembly Order
•Model
Structure
Bill of Work in Accounts
- Bills •Reservations
Materials - Routings Process
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Receivables
- Calendar
 Oracle Applications Integration

•Model Structure
•Final Assembly
Orders
•Model Structure Oracle
Bill of Material
•Item Information •Sales Orders
•Units of Measure •Customer Information
•Credit Information •Shipment
•Sales Reps. •Reservation •Items Info/Units of Measure
•Payment Terms •Demands
•Reservations
•Invoice Information •Units of Measure
Oracle •Returns/Credits Oracle •Item Information Oracle •Demand
Receivables •Booked Orders Order Entry •ATP/On Hand Inventory
•Journal Entries
- Invoices
- Receipts

•Revenue
Oracle •Adjustments Oracle Oracle
Project •Accrued Receipt •Requisitions
General Ledger * Purchasing •Purchase Orders
Accounting

•Journal Entries
- Additions •Vendors
- Retirements Information
- Depreciation
- Adjustments
•Journal Entries
- Invoices •Item Information
Oracle •Units of Measure
Oracle - Payments
Payables
Assets

•Assets Information
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Oracle Inventory
Order

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Oracle Applications Data Flow

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 System Administration Functions
Applications Forms and
sign-on functions
Programs
and
reports
Define
applications privileges

Balance online and Online

concurrent processing Programs
and
reports
Set application
defaults or
user profiles Default
printer Save output
as OS file
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Managing Application Security:
Overview
Windows

Reports

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Responsibility Components

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 Defining a New Responsibility
You must assign the following to your new
responsibility:
• A data group to supply the form, report, and
program connect privileges
• A menu to supply access to forms within an
application
• Any function or menu exclusions to control access
to the functionality of the application
• A report security group to control access to reports
and concurrent programs

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 Using Responsibilities
Using Predefined Using Custom Responsibility
Responsibility Define Define Define
or modify or modify or modify
data group menu request group

Define
or modify
responsibility
Exclude
functions
and menus
Define Define
application application
user user

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 Data Group
• What Is a Data Group?
– A data group is a collection of pairings of an application with an
Oracle ID. Data groups automatically support concurrent
processing and cross-application reporting. They guarantee that an
application connects to a unique application database account.
• Data Groups and Application Object Library
– Application Object Library owns the database tables referred to
during concurrent processing and the standard submission of
reports by any Oracle Application. Therefore all applications need
access to the Application Object Library tables. When you are
defining a data group, the application Application Object Library is
automatically included. The Application Object Library’s Oracle
ID cannot be updated or deleted.

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Data Groups Serve Two Purposes

– Identify the Oracle ID to which forms connect

when users select the responsibility. Choose
one application-Oracle ID pair from the data
group to associate with your responsibility’s
windows.
– Concurrent managers use a data group to match
the application that owns a report or concurrent
program with a unique Oracle ID.

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 Overview the Flexfields
• Using Flexfields to Customize Applications
– A flexfield is a customizable field that opens in a
window from a regular Oracle Applications window.
Defining flexfields enables you to tailor Oracle
Applications to your own business environment. You
can easily define flexfields to modify or extend Oracle
Applications without programming. By using flexfields
within Oracle Applications you can:
• Structure certain identifiers required by Oracle
Applications according to your own business
environment
• Collect and display additional information for your
business as needed
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 Customizing Oracle Applications

Oracle General Ledger Oracle Assets

Application
windows

User-defined flexfield windows

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 Flexfield Structures and Flexfield
Segments
Item Information Flexfield

__ Item Information _______________

Segments:
(Category, Category COM Computer
Item, Item 876 Monitor
Color)
Color LTN Light tan

Structure:
(Category Segment + Item Segment + Color Segment)

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Key and Descriptive Flexfields
Key flexfields
build unique __ Item Information _________
entity identifiers Category COM Computer
Item 876 Monitor
Color LTN Light tan

Descriptive flexfields
Payment Type CC gather additional
information
Store 54321
Dept 987
Number 4958-2938-4747
Exp. Dt 12 - 99

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 Key Flexfields
In Oracle Applications you use key flexfields as identifiers for
entities. Generally, the identifier you create using a key flexfield is
required by the application (for example, the Accounting Flexfield
builds the account number used by Oracle General Ledger).

__ Sales Information ______________________ Standard

window
Transaction 3987 Payment Type
Customer Jane Doe

Item COM-876-LTN

Description Computer - Monitor - Light Tan []

Key
flexfield __ Item Information _______________
window Category COM Computer
Item 876 Monitor
Color LTN
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 Key Flexfield Example:
Accounting Flexfield
The Accounting Flexfield is used to create and display account
numbers. The Accounting Flexfield is owned by Oracle General
Ledger, but Accounting Flexfield values are used by many of the
financial applications. The example shows an Accounting Flexfield
structure consisting of five segments.

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 Descriptive Flexfields
You use descriptive flexfields to collect information beyond that
collected by Oracle Applications. Using descriptive flexfields
allows you to gather additional specialized information required by
your business. The use of descriptive flexfields is optional.

__ Sale Information ____________________

Transaction 3987 Payment Type CC
Customer Jane Doe
Item COM-876-LTN
Description Computer - Monitor - Light Tan [ ]

Payment Type CK Payment Type CC

Store 54321 Store 54321
Dept 987 Dept 987
Number 1028 Number 4958-2938-4747
Second ID MC 4565-3939 Exp. Dt 12 - 99
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 Storing Flexfield Data Internally
In general, key flexfields store their data in columns called
SEGMENTn, where n is a number. In general, descriptive flexfields
store their data in columns called ATTRIBUTEn, where n is a number.
Key flexfield Descriptive flexfield

... Segment1 Segment2 ... ... Attribute1 Attribute2 ...

Oracle Applications base tables

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Validating Input Using Value Sets

Category value set

COM APPL FURN

__ Item Information _________

Category COM Computer
Item 876 Monitor

755 876 933

Item value set

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 Types of Value Sets
• You can define several types of value sets depending on how you need
your values to be checked. All value sets perform minimal checking; some
value sets also check against the actual values, if you have provided any.
• None - A value set of the type None has no list of approved values
associated with it. A None value set performs only minimal checking of,
for example, data type and length.
• Independent - Independent type value sets perform basic checking but also
check a value entered against the list of approved values you define.
• Dependent - A Dependent value set is associated with an Independent
value set. Dependent value sets ensure that all dependent values are
associated with a value in the related Independent value set.
• Table - Table value sets obtain their lists of approved values from existing
application tables. When defining your table value set, you specify a SQL
query to retrieve all the approved values from the table.
• Special - This specialized value set provides another flexfield as a value set
for a single segment.
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•Value Set Usage by Key Flexfields
The SQL*Plus query below can be used to show which
segments of which structures of which key flexfields use
different value sets. This report does not show any
information for flexfields used with SRS.
•desc apps.fnd_flex_value_sets ;

select flex_value_set_name "Value Set",

descriptive_flexfield_name "Flexfield",
descriptive_flex_context_code "Structure",
end_user_column_name "Column"
from apps.fnd_descr_flex_column_usages a,
Don't try at
apps.fnd_flex_value_sets b home
where a.flex_value_set_id = b.flex_value_set_id
and descriptive_flexfield_name not like '$SRS$%'
order by flex_value_set_name,
descriptive_flexfield_name,
descriptive_flex_context_code;
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•Value Set Usage by Descriptive Flexfields
The SQL*Plus query below can be used to show which
segments of which structures of which descriptive
flexfields use different value sets. This report does not
show any information for flexfields used with SRS.
•desc apps.fnd_id_flexs ;
select d.flex_value_set_name "Value Set",
a.id_flex_name "Flexfield",
e.id_flex_structure_name "Structure",
c.segment_name "Segment"
from apps.fnd_id_flexs a,
apps.fnd_id_flex_structures b,
apps.fnd_id_flex_segments c,
apps.fnd_flex_value_sets d,
apps.fnd_id_flex_structures_tl e Don't try at
where a.application_id = b.application_id home
and a.id_flex_code = b.id_flex_code
and b.application_id = c.application_id
and b.id_flex_code = c.id_flex_code
and b.id_flex_num = c.id_flex_num
and c.flex_value_set_id = d.flex_value_set_id
and c.application_id = e.application_id
and c.id_flex_code = e.id_flex_code
order by d.flex_value_set_name, a.id_flex_name,
e.id_flex_structure_name;
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Oracle Applications Key Flexfields
Asset Bank Details
Oracle Oracle
Category Cost Allocation
Assets Payroll
Location People Group

Oracle Oracle Sales Tax Location

General Accounting Receivables Territory
Ledger
Oracle
Oracle Service Item
Service
Account Aliases
Item Catalogs Grade
Oracle Item Categories Oracle Job
Inventory Sales Orders Human Personal Analysis
Stock Locators Resources Position
System Items Soft Coded

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Key Flexfield Application Tables
This SQL*Plus query can be used to show Oracle Applications key flexfields and the tables in which they store their code
combinations.
ID_FLEX_NAME APPLICATION_TABLE_NAME
--------------------------- -----------------------
Accounting Flexfield GL_CODE_COMBINATIONS
Category Flexfield FA_CATEGORIES_B
Asset Key Flexfield FA_ASSET_KEYWORDS
Location Flexfield FA_LOCATIONS
Oracle Service Item Flexfield MTL_SYSTEM_ITEMS_B
Territory Flexfield RA_TERRITORIES
Sales Tax Location Flexfield AR_LOCATION_COMBINATIONS
Item Categories MTL_CATEGORIES_B
Account Aliases MTL_GENERIC_DISPOSITIONS
Item Catalogs MTL_ITEM_CATALOG_GROUPS
Sales Orders MTL_SALES_ORDERS
System Items MTL_SYSTEM_ITEMS_B
Stock Locators MTL_ITEM_LOCATIONS
Grade Flexfield PER_GRADE_DEFINITIONS
Job Flexfield PER_JOB_DEFINITIONS
Personal Analysis Flexfield PER_ANALYSIS_CRITERIA
Position Flexfield PER_POSITION_DEFINITIONS
Soft Coded KeyFlexfield HR_SOFT_CODING_KEYFLEX
Bank Details KeyFlexField PAY_EXTERNAL_ACCOUNTS
Cost Allocation Flexfield PAY_COST_ALLOCATION_KEYFLEX
People Group Flexfield lecture 4
PAY_PEOPLE_GROUPS 45
 Some Oracle Applications
Descriptive Flexfields
Bonus Rates Bank Branch
Oracle Oracle
Calendar Types Payment Terms
Assets Payables
Price Indexes Site Address

Oracle
Oracle Credit History
General Daily Rates
Receivables Information
Ledger

Activity
Information Employee Labor
Oracle Item Cost Oracle Rate
Bills of Information Work in Shop Floor
Material Progress Status
Shift Time WIP Parameters
Information

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Descriptive Flexfield Application
Tables
This is a partial report for one application (Oracle General Ledger - application ID
101) and does not show any information for flexfields used with SRS.
TITLE APPLICATION_TABLE_NAME

------------------------------ ----------------------------
Accounting Calendar: Calendar GL_PERIOD_SETS
Accounting Calendar: Periods GL_PERIODS
AutoAccounting Rules GL_IEA_AUTOGEN_MAP
AutoAllocation Batch GL_AUTO_ALLOC_BATCHES
AutoPost Criteria GL_AUTOMATIC_POSTING_OPTIONS
AutoReversal Criteria GL_AUTOREVERSE_OPTIONS
Automatic Posting Sets GL_AUTOMATIC_POSTING_SETS
Budget Types GL_BUDGET_TYPES
Budget Versions GL_BUDGET_VERSIONS
Budgetary Control Group: Group GL_BC_OPTIONS
Budgetary Control Group: Rules GL_BC_OPTION_DETAILS
Common Stocks: Share Activity GL_SHARES_ACTIVITY
Conversion Rate Types GL_DAILY_CONVERSION_TYPES
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