Have you heard about the product called “ASSURENET” , this is one of good product for reconcilation activity getting attention now a days by Accountants , Auditors ,controllers because the good capability of managing Finance accounts reconciliation and Audits trials feature. No matter its Balance sheet account or bank account, this product have great functionality which will add lot of value to business.

What is AssureNET

AssureNET GL is a web-based process management system for the general ledger account reconciliation & certification function. It is designed to strengthen the account reconciliation internal control while making the process much more efficient and SOX compliance.

This Product normally comes with three major functional modules like:

1. Complete Assigned Tasks & Activities Module
2. Prepare or Monitor Quality Assurance Reviews Module
3. Manage or Monitor Task & Activities Module

Using this software you can get the advantage of following benefits:

• This will Simplified the account reconciliation process , as most of the ERP does not have enough capability keeping the auditors in mind.
• This will reduced the amount of time necessary for Internal Audit’s testing of account reconciliations.
• This enhanced the visibility into the performance of the control across the entire enterprise which may include detailed analysis by department, location, products or region.
• Automated email notifications will help to inform participants of impending reconciliation and review dates or missed deadlines
• Automated summaries of exception statistics and extensive management reporting
• Last but not the least complete segregation of duties between the reconciliation, review, approve and certification functions

Application Technology

Typically this application is developed using

• .NET Framework
• IIS WSE
• ASP.NET , AJAX Extensions
• And SQL Server as database.

This comes with hosted solutions via vendors On-Demand business unit as well as you manage and own this this product at your site.

References
Check out this product at vendor site, if your department is ready to spend few thousand of dollar.

Thanks To Tony Ouk , who pointed Oracle Blog dedicated for IFRS.

Since last couple of years , Oracle has really been making an effort to provide more information on IFRS.

A few resources now available:

1. An Oracle webpage solely dedicated to IFRS (http://www.oracle.com/applications/ifrs/index.html)

Here you will learn more about this topic. You will find white papers, podcasts, and news features that provide further information on IFRS.

2. A blog that often posts about IFRS current events (http://blogs.oracle.com/FinancialsMkting/)

Check it out for more information..

Top Post in OracleApps Epicenter on IFRS

• A bit on IFRS
• International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) Oracle White Paper

Do you know IFRS aka International Financial Reporting Standards is a set of accounting standards, similar to that you have US GAPP.

IFRS is already adopted in more than 110 countries as of now and countries like Canada, Brazil, India, Korea and Japan is planning for IFRS compliance by 2011. Check it out old post for details.

So what in inside

IFRS are standards and interpretations adopted by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB).

IFRS are considered “principles based” set of standards in that they establish broad rules as well as dictating specific treatments.

International Financial Reporting Standards(IFRS) comprise:

• International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) – standards issued after 2001
• International Accounting Standards (IAS) – standards issued before 2001
• Interpretations originated from the International Financial Reporting Interpretations Committee (IFRIC) – issued after 2001
• Standing Interpretations Committee (SIC) – issued before 2001
• There is also a Framework for the Preparation and Presentation of Financial Statements which describes some of the principles underlying IFRS.

IFRS re-define in term of Accounting Principles

In simple equation

IFRS = Financial Reporting standards = Balance Definitions

that mean “disclosure Requirements” and “Balance Definitions “.

US GAAP vs. IFRS – A difference

check out this post for some the key differences between these two.

Here is comparative study for IFRS on compliance issue.

Here is IFRS Standards and the underline Oracle mapped products

Oracle White paper

• EBusiness Suite Release 12 oriented white paper

IFRS will be one of the most significant enterprise-wide change initiatives facing finance over the next few years.IFRS adoption not onky limited to accounting and financial reporting functions but it will also require changes across people, process and technology.

• • Oracle’s Financial Management Solutions: Preparing U.S. Companies for the Transition to IFRS
  • Managing the Transition to International Financial Reporting Standards
• Oracle Hyperion oriented white paper
  • Oracle’s Financial Management Solutions: Preparing U.S. Companies for the Transition to IFRS

These Oracle’s white papers will help you in getting answer of these:

1. Options for implementing multi-GAAP accounting and eventually switching over to IFRS inyour financial (ERP) systems?
2. Exploring ledgers and business systems which contain the necessary reporting data, and, if not, what and which processes required to capture and report new data?
3. Linking IFRS principles been incorporated into fore-casting and management reporting processes.

Two major Process in term of IFRS

1. Revalution : Check it out for definition here. This is still not comply with IAS30 and IFRS standard.Enhancement request #4098044,is already registered with Oracle.
2. Translation : Check it out for definition here.GL translation is compliant with both US GAAP and IFRS standards.

Top Post in OracleApps Epicenter on IFRS

• A bit on IFRS

Report Manager Publishing issue:

1. You have done setup the profile option BNE Allow Set Parameters = Yes ( System Administrator > Profile>System)
2. Created template from Report Manager(Report Manager>Financial Report Template Editor)
3. Upload the template.
4. Now you are trying to modify the same template and trying again to upload (Report Manager>Financial Report Template Editor)
5. System will not allow as the overwrite existing template not enabled.

You might get this issue, when you are trying to achive this. Therefore if you are using Report Manager to run FSGs, when you created template for upload, you need the paramters like “Enable Drill” and “Overwrite Existing Template” to be checked by default.

These two options might help you in achieve this

Options 1

What you need is to default “Enable Drill” and “Overwrite Existing Template” check box to true.

You can achieve this by simple update from backend directly by running this script from database.

UPDATE BNE_PARAM_LIST_ITEMS T
SET T.BOOLEAN_VALUE_FLAG = 'Y',
T.DESC_VALUE = 'Defaulting to True'
WHERE T.APPLICATION_ID = 265
AND T.PARAM_LIST_CODE = 'FRM_EXCEL_UPLOAD'
AND T.PARAM_NAME in('frm:template_drill_enable','frm:template_overwrite');

on successful commit, you need to recreate the template by bouncing the Apache.

Options 2

Another Options is follow as per Oracle metalink Note (#784512.1 ) , this will enable you to default “Enable Drill” and “Overwrite Existing Template” check box to true, you need to edit upload parameters of FSG Template Editor.(Adopted from metalink)

1. Login to application navigate to Desktop Integration responsibility. Open Create Document function.
2. Browser address bar will display an URL like
   http://<host>:<port>/oa_servlets/oracle.apps.bne.webui.BneApplicationService?bne:page=BneCreateDoc change it
   http://host:port/oa_servlets/oracle.apps.bne.webui.BneApplicationService?bne:page=BneParameter and click enter.
3. Uncheck the “Restrict to this application” check box and click next.
4. Click Name LOV. Search for the parameter list code “FRM_EXCEL_UPLOAD” and select it.
5. To Update the parameter “frm:template_overwrite” click the pencil icon next to the parameter.
6. In the resulting Define Parameter page set the default value to True and enter description as “Defaulting to True” and save.
7. Now repeat the same for “frm:template_drill_enable” parameter to default the value.
8. Once you complete click the Save button in the main page (“Define Parameter List” page).
9. You can perform test the changes by clicking test button in the main page.

This is the another name for the VAT Audit File mostly used in Europe as per OECD.The Standard Audit File was renamed ‘Standard Audit File for Tax Purposes’ ‘SAF-T’ to avoid any confusion.

OECD :Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development

There are 30 member countries part of OECD.You can check out the details at www.oecd.org

Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France,Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, the Slovak Republic, Spain, Sweden,Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States. The European Commission also takes part in the work of the OECD.

Currently OECD have two documents

• Guidance for the Standard Audit File – Tax
• Guidance on Tax Compliance for Developers of Business And Accounting Software for Tax Purposes

Oracle support for SAF-T

If your accounting system is running on 11i10+, then you need to apply the patch 7012852.

This patch is part of European Localization requirement.

Once you apply this patch , system side its install the SAF-T/OECD feature.

You can run the report for the different report levels. The report only displays the specific section of data for the report levels.

• Payables (P): All sections except customers, sales invoices, and sales payments.
• Receivables (R): All sections except suppliers, purchase invoices, and invoice payments.
• General Ledger (G): Only header, general ledger and general ledger entries sections.
• All Levels (A): All sections.

Take a note, the standard and generic SAF-T/OECD file does not address these country-specific requirements.

The audit file in R12 is not yet available.

Two useful sessions from youtube for beginners for understanding XBRL.

How XBRL Works :This Video by Charls Hoffman explaining the essence of XBRL. He took a typical financial statement footnote and demonstrates how its text can be structured for meaning.

XBRL in Plain English : Informative introductory video has lots of fun graphics and a cheerful narrative.

Earlier Post

• Back to Basics: Notes from Financial Reporting & XBRL
• XBRL & Reporting

What is XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) is:

This is an international market driven corporate reporting information format standard

• XBRL is a freely available electronic language for business reporting.
• A platform for corporate reporting standards
• A tool that can enhance the quality and efficiency of business reporting
• A way to enhance the analysis of information contained within business reports
• An information standard designed specifically to enhance business information exchange
• Good is that this is available on a royalty free basis
• This is based on accepted reporting standards
• A market reality with broad and accelerating regulatory adoption around the world
• The key components of:
  • Technology = XML-based specification (information format)
  • Language / dictionary = (information)
  • Terms by jurisdiction (US, Germany,Ireland, Singapore,Japan,….)

Why this is getting popular in accounting world

• Because this provides a database-like structure, using text files
• This defines a collection of financial facts for a specific report, industry, and jurisdiction (taxonomy)
• Facilitates the data exchange between proprietary systems
• Promotes the re-use of data with far less effort

You can download a copy of Deloitte’s XBRL pod cast from here. You can also download a copy of their Technology Predictions 2008 Report from the same page and refer page 14 for XBLR Information.

High point of the documents is authorities are pushing to make XBRL mandatory for the submission of tax returns and financial reports. In the US the SEC already has 40+ big companies filing XBRL tagged reports.APAC countries like China and Singapore they already started.The UK Government plans to make XBRL mandatory by 2011.

ERP Products -XBRL-enabled Products

• ORACLE : Oracle EBS as GL FSG
• PeopleSoft
• SAP mySAP financials
• Hyperion Financials
• Microsoft Business Solutions Navision

The New is XBRL Specification 2.1 & Oracle General Ledger 11i/R12

XBRL Financial Reporting is supported in General Ledger (GL) through its Financial Statement Generator (FSG).

You can map XBRL Elements to FSG Row Sets.

As per metalink note 602332.1, Oracle does not support XBRL 2.1.

Currently on version 2.0 of the taxonomy is supported by Oracle in FSG’s. Lets hope XBRL 2.1 will be available by sometime early in 2009.

Similar post

• XBRL & Reporting

Suggested Reading

Improving XBRL Implementation & Interoperability
This white paper provides some technical insights into the improvements made to XBRL in the 2.1 version of the standard. It is primarily aimed at IT professionals that need to advise or make decisions about the use of XBRL. Download

Reference notes

• Note:239123.1 :XBRL Support in Oracle General Ledger
• Note 277877.1 :Setup Checklist for eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) FSG reports
• Note:297280.1 :FSG Reports Using XML Publisher

There are two very distinct features in E-Business Suite Release 12 of AGIS.

1. Automatic Balancing – When a transaction with multiple BSV’s is entered, the Balancing Process automatically generates the correct intracompany or intercompany accounting entries, depending on whether the balancing segments are in the same legal entity or in different legal entities. If the balancing segments values are in the same legal entity (intracompany accounting) the automatic Balancing Process uses Cross-Entity Balancing Rules to generate the balancing accounting entries. You can specify both the Debit Balancing Segment Value and Credit Balancing Segment Value for the balancing relationship; this new dimension allows you to define explicitly the accounts that should be used when any pair of balancing segments values are balanced against each other. If the BSVs are in different legal entities (intercompany accounting) the automatic Balancing Routine uses Intercompany Accounts setup to create the balancing accounting lines. You can setup several intercompany accounts for your intercompany activities, and select one as the default to be used for automatic balancing.
2. Manual Intercompany Transaction entry – entry of intercompany transactions is enhanced . For all requestor(initiator) and recipient organizations, the legal entity information is displayed on each transaction. Intercompany accounting entries are generated automatically based on centralized setup. The requesting organization is able to create a single batch containing multiple recipient transactions across different ledgers, currencies and calendars, which are automatically submitted to all recipients for approval. When a batch is entered with multiple recipients, Oracle AGIS optionally prorates the distribution amounts for each recipient, based on the proportion of the transaction allocated to that recipient.

Balancing : Difference (11i vs R12)

• In 11, balancing journal entries were generated at posting time by the GL posting routine
• In R12, the Balancing Routine (balancing API is called by GL and SLA): Generates balancing accounting entries for subledger journal entries at time accounting is created Generates balancing journal entries at posting time for all other journals.

R12 Balancing API

Balancing API is triggered from Journal Posting process or from Subledger Journal Creation process. Once it is called it creates balancing journal lines automatically based on the setup for the combination of journal source and category.

Balancing has 3 elements :

1. The Balancing API
2. Intracompany Balancing Rules (Navigation: Setup->Financials->Accounting Setup Manager->Accounting Setups)
3. Intercompany Accounts

The Intracompany Balancing Rules and Intercompany Accounts are used by the Balancing API to generate accounting lines for transactions that include multiple balancing segment values.

The Balancing API is called from the General Ledger at posting time for GL Journals, and from the Subledger Accounting Architecture during the accounting process for subledger transactions. Transactions originating in Payables and Receivables will be balanced using the Balancing API when SLA performs the accounting for them.

Technical Interest

Following two tables involved

1. FUN_BALANCE_OPTIONS
   This table stores the ledger, journal source and category information for which the Intracompany balancing rules have been defined. These rules are used by the Intercompany Balancing API to balancing Intracompany journals. This table also gives the clearing balancing value option selected for a particular source and category.
2. FUN_BALANCE_ACCOUNTS
   This stores the intracompany accounts defined between each trading and transacting balancing segment value. These accounts are used by the Intercompany Balancing API to balancing Intracompany journals

• The table FUN_BALANCE_OPTIONS and the table FUN_BALANCE_ACCOUNTS are linked by a Template_id.
• The posting program uses the package FUN_BAL_UTILS_GRP while creating the intracompany lines.The pls files for the package FUN_BAL_UTILS_GRP are fungbalutilb.pls and fungbalutils.pls. File location would be at $FUN_TOP/patch/<version>/sql.

Similar Post

• R12 AGIS : What makes “Advanced” – Part II (0)
• R12 “AGIS” : What makes “Advanced”
• Defining Intracompany Balancing Rules From Dave Blog.

Metalink Note

• 604441.1 :AGIS Setting Up Intracompany And Intercompany Accounting – An Example

A reader query from Sreekanth Allamudi

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Adding a New Operating Unit with LE , here are the steps you need to perform.

Prerequisite:

1. Finalize the your organizational structure
2. Finalize your COA Structure
3. Finalize SOB criterion which depends on 3 C (Calendar , Chart of account and Currency)

A Note for your COA and LE design

The COA must recognize the real world that the business operates in, and the entities through which its operations are carried out. It must meet the basic requirement that it should provide all financial information by ‘real’ legal entities (as opposed to organizational classifications of business units, divisions etc.). It also allows us to capture information along the dimension by which we hold ourselves out to the real world, and is extremely useful for tax and statutory reporting. The ‘real’ legal entity must be a balancing segment, i.e. it should be possible to extract a self balancing chart of accounts by legal entity. This may not be a requirement for a business division where BS (balance sheet) elements may not be shared and separate information may be required only for the P & L (Profit and Loss) accounts.

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