Oracle Applications does not allow users to view other’s output. Internally Report Review Agent allows(RRA) only the user who submitting the report to view the report output. For those who are very new to Oracle can understood RRA as a default text viewer that Oracle Applications provides, which allows users to view report output and log files. Very often report Review Agent is also referred by the executable FNDFS.

That mean the output cann’t be utlized by another user unless untill you have provided the profile option setup for another user.

Sometime business user wants to see other user report submitted by another?

Minimum you have do is you need to alter the value of seeded profile options “Concurrent:Report Access Level”.

Business case

Within Oracle installation , lets say you have four different user profiles been maintained:

1. Super User : the one who has access to everything
2. Supervisor : the one who does not have access to all the functions but access to most of Function expect few setup.
3. User : the one who has access to limitted screens based on their responsibility
4. Inquiry :one who has access to limitted screens based on their responsibility.

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Read this:

• KNOW WHAT IS SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT (SCM)? : An Overview
• SCM Subsystem

This article is an easy guide for Techno-functional consultant to understand SCM from Implementation as well as Oracle Application product Prospective.Lets start the topic with some of high points of earlier post .

• As mention in earlier post a Supply Chain is a network of retailers, distributors, transporters, storage facilities and suppliers that participate in the sale, delivery and production of a particular product.
  • Make a note a supply chain is product specific, not company specific
• Supply chain management (SCM) is a systematic approach to manage the entire flow of information, materials, and services from raw material suppliers through factories and warehouses to the end customer.
• Moreover , SCM involves the flows of material, information and finance in a network consisting of customers,suppliers, manufacturers, and distributors.
• You should be clear with Flow that SCM can manage :
  • The flow of actual materials, the top middle bars
    • From suppliers : flows of raw materials, intermediate products, finished goods
    • Reverse material flows : returns, repairs, servicing, recycling, disposal
  • and the information flows
    • From suppliers : manufacturing capacity, delivery schedules, promotions they have going
    • Reverse flows : sales, orders, inventory, quality, promotions
  • And finally, there are financial flows:
    • From suppliers: Credits, consignment, payment terms, invoice
    • Reverse Flows : payments, consignment
• Supply Chain Management is the management of the entire value-added chain, from the supplier to manufacturer right through to the retailer and the final customer.
• SCM has three primary goals: Reduce inventory, increase the transaction speed by exchanging data in real-time, and increase sales by implementing customer requirements more efficiently
• The need for SCM is because effective Supply Chain Mgt. is the next logical step towards increased profits and market share.
• Supply Chain Management (SCM) in line manager prospective is “let’s-keep-things-moving-efficiently”.

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This was a reader question : What are major reason, why companies undertake ERP in there business Line?

Answering to this question is very subjective matter and if you ask to ERP implementor, they can figure out n number of reason , but outmost these are very common:

1. A need to replace Outdated Business application
   • As we required Common processes and procedures
   • As need common shared data
   • As Need common reporting
2. A need to consolidate IT Platform
   • need to replace legacy system
   • Need to reduce the IT cost(will see this in another post , how this affected)
   • Need to connect with emerging technology gateway.

In simple words, these are major five reason why companies undertake ERP.

Integrated Financial Information

Integrated supply Chain Information(Customer Order Information)

Standardize and speed up manufacturing operation

Reduce Inventory and decrease Procurement Cycle

Standardize HR Information

Suggested Reading

• Familiarize yourself with Oracle application World
• What is CEMLI’s Framework?
• What is Oracle’s Application Implementation Methodology (AIM)

Approved Supplier Lists in Oracle is the term used to describe a list of items and commodities that have approved sources from a list of suppliers.

In Oracle , while setting up Approved Supplier Lists you can specify the manufacturer of the product, the distributor of the product or a company that both sells and distributes. You must specify the name of the supplier, you can optionally specify the site that you purchase from. For each Approved Supplier Lists, you can specify whether it applies to the whole enterprise or a single facility.

Take a note, there is always one organization which is responsible for negotiating on behalf of subsidiaries and operating units, this is called the ‘Owning organization’.

Moreover ,you need to specify the unit of measure that will be used when creating purchase orders and the method of creating releases against blanket orders, which could be any of the following:

• Manual release through Autocreate
• Automatic release in complete status (i.e. generate and approve PO)
• Automatic release in incomplete status (i.e. generate PO and approve in separate step).

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How to know ‘Web ADI’ Version in EBS?

You have two options to find the version of WebADI , if you do not want to get any help from DBA.

Option 1(a) Release 12

1. You need to logon in EBS
2. Once you get the Homepage, you need to paste the url in the same browser window.
   http://hostname:portnumber/OA_HTML/BneAdminServlet
3. You replace the hostname,domain and port number
4. Once you enter these details, An html/xml return page list out the ‘Web ADI’ versions.
5. Look for the attribute named “Bne Release Label”.

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Do you know: How many different regulatory regimes of different countries handled by EBS?

The EBS Financials applications include 56 country localizations* to deal with individual regularity requirements. Not only in addition to this due to the flexibility of the applications these are incorporate reporting/duality requirements within GL structures but also FA (Fixed Assets) can manage multiple accounting treatments.

Moreover, the tax procedures are different for each country. From R12 onward there is separate module called E business Tax, which can handle different tax procedures satisfying the need of local or global regulatory need.

Do you Know : How ERP products analyzed in different ways depending upon the requirement, e.g. management accounts, statutory GAAP,FSA, local GAAP, US GAAP ..like wise..

Lets take about Oracle, we have concept of rollups and parents so whilst the underlying “leaf/Children” codes might exist on all the countries chart of accounts they are rolled up and totaled differently.This way the system supports unlimited structures and it enables different entities to be reported by any rollup.

Moreover, the dynamic insertion in GL Module supported feature ensure the analysis of new account codes is considered.

Do you Know : Where can we include Off Balance Sheet items in the ledger?

In SAP this can be through memo records which appear in the Balance Sheet.

In Oracle , COA can also include statistical(STAT) balances in EBS.

Do you know: How can a debtor account be reported in e.g. creditors in the balance sheet if it has a credit balance at the reporting date?(This question was asked by Controller who used SAP before moving to OracleApps)

In this case, if I am not wrong, EBS’s GL would only contain total debtors , as we donot have unitary ledger concept to separate accounts, and not seen in the GL at least till 11i.Correct me if wrong.

Catering the need for countries specific legislative requirements ,it is shown as a creditor then a reversing journal would be posted between debtor control credit balance account and creditor control debit balances . Moreover, the fact is Oracle system does not allow you direct postings to control accounts.

On checking with SAP Functionality, what is found is during the period end closing procedure provision to segregate the debit balances of creditors and credit balance of debtors.

* You need to check with Oracle Documentation if added recently in past one month.

This topic is bit off track form the main subject area, but has its own importance specially if you are working as Consultant and also if you are responsible for letting customer know about its benefits.

A fortnight ago, I was reading a intresting post made by Kas Thomas in his blog for Oracle’s plan for saving money and then topic just pop-up and thoughts to share how this benifits to existing EBS Customer.

“We have focused on lowering the total cost of ownership of our software products by improving integration, decreasing installation times, lowering administration costs and improving the ease of use. Reducing the total cost of ownership of our products provides our customers with a higher return on their investment, which we believe will create more demand and provide us with a competitive advantage.” [This was claimed itself by Oracle in there last quarterly report page 23 of last paragraph under New Software Licenses ]

“Cost of support” aka “Cost of ownership” are quite significant for SME’s where cost is the major factor. As more and More companies are opting for Release 12 upgrade and Fusion path therefore revisiting the topic makes lot of sense.

What is meant by Support Cost :

With Oracle Support, you know ‘up front’ and with certainty how long your Oracle products are supported.

Oracle’s Plan for Saving your Money

The new Lifetime Support Policy provides access to technical experts for as long as you license your Oracle products and consists of three support components:

• Premier Support
• Extended Support
• Sustaining Support

Lets take a quick look, how these differ among each other:

• Premier Support :Provides maintenance and support of Oracle database, middleware, and application products for 5 years from their general availability date, which Includes:
  • Major product and technology releases which covers technical Support as well as updates, fixes, and security alerts,Tax, legal and regulatory updates
  • Oracle also provide upgrade Scripts
  • You can also get certification with new third party products/versions
• Where as Extended Support, is offered on specific defined releases, which includes most features of Premier Support for an additional 3 years from general availability which includes
  • Major product and technology
  • Technical Support
  • Updates, fixes, and security alerts
  • Tax, legal and regulatory updates
  • Upgrade scripts
  • The items which does not included under this schema is certification with new third party products/versions.
• Where as Sustaining Support provides technical support– i.e., access to our online and call-center support which is surly metalink—for as long as you license your Oracle solutions. These Includes
  • Major product and technology releases
  • Technical Support
  • Access to MetaLink/Customer Connection
  • Pre-existing fixes for your solution
  • Customers may also obtain customer specific fixes at an additional fee
  • Things which is excluded are :
    • New updates, fixes, and security alerts
    • New tax, legal, and regulatory updates
    • Certification with new third party products/versions
    • Certification with other Oracle products

A comparative study between these three can be best understood as:

When it get started

Since September 19, 2005.

Lifetime Support Policy & Coverage for Oracle Applications Products Versions

Here is the list[adopted] for coverage details for Oracle Application products.

In the above list you can see the key-code color shading of the rows as:

• Pink = Support does not follow the Lifetime Support Policy
• Light Grey = Release will have a direct upgrade to Oracle Fusion Applications
• White = Follows the Lifetime Support Policy

where as Latest release 12 is have details as:

Indeed there was relief for existing customer annoucment made during keynote at the COLLABORATE conference 2008 by Oracle President for extending Premier Support for the Oracle(R) E-Business Suite Release 11.5.10 through November 2010. This makes a great hope for OracleApps customers to get opportunity to plan more effectively for the Release 12 upgrade.

Oracle does have a seperate sheet for mentioning the details for Oracle application.

Extend Premier Support until 2012 with no additional fees

These are some of the high Points for Extending Premier Support untill 2012.

• Premier support ended for release 11.0.3 in February 2007 and Sustaining support ends in January 2009.
• Sustaining support ends for releases 11i 1 through 11i 6 in July of 2007. Companies who have not upgraded by then will need to re-license the software to gain access to new releases!
• Premier support ends for release 11i 7 in May of 2007
• Premier support ends for release 11i 8 in November of 2007!
• Premier support ends for release 11i 9 in June of 2008.
• Upgrading to release 11i 10 provides premier support through 2009, and it can be extended for an additional fee.
• Upgrading to release 12 gives you time to determine your own migration schedule.

Supporting Resources

• Lifetime Support Policy
• Lifetime Support Policy Data Sheet
• Lifetime FAQ

Additional Reading

• New Support Changes for Apps 11.5.9 and 11.5.10 SChan Blog
• Clearing Away The Smoke , Oct 2007 blog Post by Floyd Teter
• Our Iceberg Is Melting ,Nov 2007 blog post by Floyd Teter

Many of EBS users take advantage of the ‘File-Export’ functionality. This functionality was specifically designed for use on ‘Folder’ forms so users could export the data displayed on the screen to Excel.

This is one of the option that allows users to export information from a row based data set into a desktop file so that they can utilize these data’s sheet for there own reference or any other reporting or feeding purpose .

This is yet another story of some basis functionality differences in two ERP Products(Oracle EBS and SAP), Here are some sets of of Q & A with core user discussion.

• Can the system export all data from all modules to external applications?
  • Oracle: In Oracle you can export all the data directly from form, where as you can’t export all report data into Excel.
  • SAP : The SAP situation is opposite, that mean you a need interface for exporting data from modules where as for reports you can can be downloaded in Excel.
• Is the export tool easy to use? What user skill-set is required?
  • Oracle :In oracle you do it From the menu it is FILE/EXPORT
  • SAP :Yes, the method for exporting reports is via menu paths from within the report overview. This method is common throughout SAP. An understanding of Microsoft products is required.
• Can exports be set with run-time parameters?
  • Oracle:Yes but only limited for Forms
  • SAP : , answer is Yes,ie exports can be defined to run at specific times, this would run the appropriate report in SAP and download to the necessary network location or printer.
• Export Functionality from Custom Form?
  • Oracle:If your form is based out of Template.fmb, you can get use of Export Functionality.
  • SAP : Not sure about this
• Integration with Other Non Oracle and Oracle system like Hyperion , Third Party Tax or Other Product for Forecasting and Budgeting?
  • Oracle:Depends , what format is used by these application. As per industry practice .csv format is standard , there fore all Exported can be saved into .CSV that will be easily recognize by other application.

Exporting Apps Reports Into Excel sheet

There is no such seeded functionality that you can get from EBS for exporting into Excel.

There are several options available which depends upon the usage and volume of data into Report.

1. You cannot directly see the output in Excel from view -> Request -> output.
   You need to make changes to report so that the output is saved as delimited text file and then open with excel with the delimiter. This way at least some data get into excel, easy but ugly format, if have header and report title details.
2. Use Oracle XML Publisher.
   It should give you an option for output in Excel files.But make sure, if you are pulling Financial data, you must tell financial and Controllers that there are certain limitation for:

   • Number of rows generated exceeds the Excel maximum

   • Use of formulae or macros can’t done in the Excel output

   • They can’t get Pivot sort of report into Excel based XMLPub.

   • Amount alignment because of numeric value ( Seems this should be fixed by assuming string value)

   • Decimal Placement

Data loading and formatting into excel . as whenever you have lot of rows then it will take some more time to dump into Excel , because of XHTML with the mime type set to get Excel to open it.

3.) Seeded Functionality of Excel Output

1. Login to apps, using “System Administrator” responsibility
2. Navigate to Install -> Viewer Options
3. Add the entries as below
   File Format=Text Mime Type=application/vnd.ms-excel Description=Microsoft Excel
   File Format=Text Mime Type=application/vnd.ms-word Description=Microsoft Word
4. Save the changes
5. Bounce Apache (Not sure if it works without bouncing Apache)
6. View the concurrent requests log (view log button)
7. Goto Tools -> Copy File. It will open a new window viewer option with the choices to select the Viewer to open the logfile. Select Microsoft Excel here and press ok.

4) Use concurrent program output format as XML. Change the output format to EXCEL in this path
Submit Request–> Options–>Layout–>Format.

Additional Issue which user might encounter

1. User can’t get Save Prompt
   • Check the version of the IE in desktop and do these additional Internet Explorer settings.
   • Tools>Internet Options>Security>Custom Level>Downloads
   • Automatic prompting for file downloads needs set to Enable
2. Another issue File-Export does not work in some pc’s many times. Not sure, what is Oracle Solutions. I had a trick , whenever such issue I told me user to Press CTRL key and then do the file export. This works…

In summary

Any thoughts :)

Disclaimer : SAP Functionality which is discussed is based out of Personal observation and discussion with SAP user, which they are using bit older version.Any Conflicts with SAP functionlity must be validated. Oracle Version which is used for reference is 11.5.10.2/R12.

It was request from one of reader to provide some information for new organization Hierarchy model between two release of 11i and R12.Therefore invite you to run through the following diagram as below with some basics.

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One quick question from non Oracle user ..

Do we have any functionality in Oracle for handling “Alternative Payee” in payable ?

My answer is NO , at least I have never seen any seeded out-of-box, though Customer asked many times..

Does anyone have any answer from Oracle side?

In the real business environment, there are many cases where the vendor name used for procurement purposes may be different than the name that the vendor must be paid to. Instead of using the vendor name as the payee name, it required to have an alternate field where we can state the payee name.

The good is that SAP does has capability to handle such functionality as they maintain an alternative payee at the supplier master level and wherever you need to pick either of them just pass the information and print the name of Check. So simple…That’s why user coming from SAP product really hates Oracle, and complaining why Oracle does not have such small things, but they don’t have choice.

Minor Customization or work around is not always a choice for SME’s as cost be major driving for the implementation.No comment on this..

I tried to explore by asking to core user, how they are achieving this in SAP. They simply run through few steps and demonstrated how they achive this. Within SAP this consist of few steps as:

• Created a vendor master record for the alternative payee. Block this account against posting.
• Specify the account number of the alternative payee in the Alternative payee field within the payment transactions section of the vendor master record.
• While making payments for this vendor, the payment program access the name and address of the alternative payee.Cool..

Oracle Approach

Some things called “Factoring Arrangements”

What is Factoring Arrangements ?

Exploring in accounting books and google , A factoring arrangement is basically a purchasing agreement under which a person or entity such as a big Corporation acquires outstanding debts, invoice or account receivable at a discount from another entity, usually a company.This was very common in US specially in textile industry. [Adopted]

Let see how Oracle trying to handle this in payable:

When the check is going to a factor or for a garnishment you can create a pay site and indicate the payee’s name on the first address line starting with “OR Factor”.

This is what 11i/R12 payable/Payment documentation says :

If a vendor A sells its receivables to a factor (ie third part for your Oracle), you can enter invoices for the supplier A and make payments to the factor by creating a pay site defined for the factor. On the first address line enter the name of the factor preceded by the word “and” or “or.” On the remaining two address lines, enter the address of the factor. Payables then addresses the payment to the supplier and/or the factor, since Payables prints the vendor name and the three address lines on each payment.

How Oracle explain this case

Supplier ABC has sold their receivables to Factor B, and you want to send payments directly to Factor B.

Case (i) You want your payment document to be made out to “ABC or Factor B.”
Case (ii) You want your payment document to be made out to”ABC AND Factor B.”

Define a pay site for supplier ABC called Factor B.
On the first address line enter “OR Factor B.” for case (i)
On the first address line enter ” AND Factor B.” for case (ii)

On the remaining two address lines enter Factor B’s address.

If you select the Factor B supplier site when you enter and pay an invoice for ABC, the first two lines of the payment will read “Payable to: ABC OR Factor B” if setup is as case (i) or “Payable to: ABC AND Factor B.” if setup is case (ii).

And this way the factor can endorse and cash the payment.

I tried and tested , but this does not serve the purpose.Any one have some better idea , Please …

Don’t tell customization , I have 2-3 options ready to fit but customer want $0 solution.

Finally

Is this a totally different things not any work around with alternate payee.

Lets hope, Oracle payment is new family in R12 might,consider this an enhancement request to cater the need for those user who is moving from SAP to Oracle.

Any thoughts welcome :)

Disclaimer : SAP Functionality which is discussed is based out of Personal observation and discussion with SAP user, which they are using bit older version.Any Conflicts with SAP functionlity must be validated. Oracle Version which is used for reference is 11.5.10.2/R12.