Oracle Financials Accounting – Interview Technical Fucntional Questions

 1. What are the application objects that support View Accounting and Drilldown?
GL_Import_Reference_Table (modified) For Example Invoices imported from Payables into GL goes to these tables from GL_Inerface table.
GL_SL_LINK_ID
GL_SL_LINK_TABLE
GL_JE_LINES (modified)

New views in the database:
FA_AEL_GL_V
FA_AEL_SL_MRC_V
FA_AEL_SL_V

2. Where in Oracle General Ledger 11i can Drilldown be accessed?
You can drilldown from GL Account Inquiry window and the GL Journal Entry and GL Journal Inquiry windows. (N) Tools -> Drilldown Open the Journal entry in GL and go to Tools – drilldown, its shows u the origin of the journal entry. It is used only for viewing the origin of the journal entry.

3. What are the Release 11i Sub-ledger drilldown features?
Expanded Subledger drilldown to other subledgers. View Accounting Lines window.

4. What are recurring invoices? What are AP setup steps?
Some times suppliers would not be sending any invoices, but still the payment have to be made to him. Ex: rent, lease rentals. In this situation we have to create invoice every period wise. For that purpose we have to create one recurring invoice template. Template means with one master copy creating the multiple invoices. Here we are creating the one invoice master copy is formally known as recurring invoice or recurring invoice template.

Setup: 1) Create one special calendar
2) Create one full distribution set
3) Enter payment terms in the recurring invoice window
4) Enter the template no., first invoice amount, special invoice amounts.

Recurring Entries are of 3 types-
1. Standard,
2. Skeleton,
3. Fornulae Based

In GL Module
1.Define Formula Batch (e.g. ABC Rent batch)
2.Enter Lines (Here u have both Debit as well as Credit lines)
3.Generate Recurring period
4.Review Journal Batch
5.Post the batch

1. Standard Recurring Journal: It is used for same accounts & same amounts e.g.
Utilities Dr
Cash Cr

2. Skeleton Recurring Journal: It is used for same accounts but for different amounts, e.g.
Recurring Fee Dr
Cash Cr

3.Formule Based Journal: It is used for different accounts with different amounts, e.g.
Salaries Dr
Cash Cr

5. If any conflict occurs in FSG who will override; Column Set or Row Set?
The override component is row set. However some times it depend on the column set also.

6. What is the difference between discounts and adjustments?
Discount refers to the payment terms or on quantity (bulk order discount) ordered. In the invoice received from supplier, discounts term is specifically stated, e.g. “If paid with in 15 days discount @ 2%”, what you need to do is pay 2% less then the original invoice amount, however caution should be taken that the freight amount should not be considered while calculating the discount. Adjustment could be for various reasons- Over priced invoice, short delivery of quantity as per goods received note, poor quality etc. Agreed upon amount will be deducted from the invoice, while making the payments. In AR, discount is given to promote the business and cash flow. Adjustments are made to adjust the account balances, which is not possible in other means.

7. What are cycles of GL, AP, and AR?
GL Accounting cycle can be further elaborated like this…
1. Open Period.
2. Create Functional and foreign journal entries.(including the journal import from legacy systems and subledgers).
3. Reverse journal entries.
4. Post the journals.
5. Review and correct the balances.
6. Revalue foreign currency balances.
7. Translate foreign currency balances.
8. Consolidate set of books.
9. Run accounting reports.
10. Close the accounting periods.

AP cycle ——– Purchase Order –> Receipt –> AP voucher –> Payment made
AR Cycle ——–Sales Order –> Shipment –> Invoice –> Payment receipt
GL cycle ——– Direct GL JE / Transfer subledger data to GL –> Post

8. What are Summary Accounts and Rollup groups?
Summary Account is an account whose balance represents consolidation of accounts. Rollup group is a collection / consolidation of parent accounts. e.g. Assets is a total of Current assets and Fixed Assets. Current assets / Fixed assets in turn are collection of assets.

Summary Account is an account whose balance represents the sum of other account balances. You can use summary accounts for faster reporting and inquiry as well as in formulas and allocations. Rollup group is a collection of parent segment values for a given segment. You use rollup groups to define summary accounts based on parents in the group. You can use letters as well as numbers to name your rollup groups.

Summary accounts are consolidated balances of accounts and rollup groups is collection of parent accounts.

9. What Sub-ledgers does Oracle General Ledger 11i Drilldown support?
Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable and Cash Management. Drilldown from Oracle General Ledger 11i also supports Oracle Purchasing module (displays POs and Requisitions) from 11.5.9 version onwards. Drilldown from Oracle General Ledger 11i is supported for Oracle Payables, Oracle Receivables, Oracle Assets (except depreciation), Projects, Purchasing, Inventory, and Work in Process (WIP).

 

Shivmohan Purohit

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oracle Forms Development (Developer 2000): Part 2

Question: What are ALERT?

Answer: An ALERT is a modal window that displays a message notifiying operator of some application condition.

Question: Can a button have icon and label at the same time?

Answer: NO

Question: What is mouse navigate property of button?

Answer: When Mouse Navigate is True (the default), Oracle Forms performs standard navigation to move the focus to the item when the operator activates the item with the mouse. 
When Mouse Navigate is set to False, Oracle Forms does not perform navigation (and the resulting validation) to move to the item when an operator activates the item with the mouse.

Question: What is FORMS_MDI_WINDOW?

Answer: forms run inside the MDI application window. This property is useful for calling a form from another one.

Question: What are timers? When when-timer-expired does not fire?

Answer: The When-Timer-Expired trigger can not fire during trigger, navigation, or transaction processing.

Question: Can object group have a block?

Answer: Yes , object group can have block as well as program units.

Question:  How many types of canvases are there?
Answer: There are 2 types of canvases called as Content and Stack Canvas. Content canvas is the default and the one that is used mostly for giving the base effect. Its like a plate on which we add items and stacked canvas is used for giving 3 dimensional effect.
 
Question: What is a visual attribute?
Answer: Visual attributes are the font, color, and pattern properties that you set for form and menu objects that appear in your application’s interface.

Question: Diff. between VAT and Property Class? 
Answer: Named visual attributes define only font, color, and pattern attributes; property classes can contain these and  any other properties. You can change the appearance of objects at runtime by changing the named visual attribute
programmatically; property class assignment cannot be changed programmatically. When an object is inheriting from both a property class and a named visual attribute, the named visual attribute settings take precedence, and any visual attribute properties in the class are ignored.

Question: Which trigger related to mouse?

Answer: When-Mouse-Click
    When-Mouse-DoubleClick
    When-Mouse-Down
    When-Mouse-Enter
    When-Mouse-Leave
    When-Mouse-Move
     When-Mouse-Up

Question: What is Current record attribute property?

Answer: Specifies the named visual attribute used when an item is part of the current record.
Current Record Attribute is frequently used at the block level to display the current row in a multi-record If you define an item-level Current Record Attribute, you can display a pre-determined item in a special color when it is part of the current record, but you cannot dynamically highlight the current item, as the input focus  changes. 

Question: Can u change VAT at run time?

Answer: Yes. You can programmatically change an object’s named visual attribute setting to change the font, color, and pattern of the object at runtime.

Question: Can u set default font in forms?

Answer: Yes. Change windows registry (regedit). Set form45_font to the desired font.

Question: Can u have OLE objects in forms?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Can u have VBX and OCX controls in forms?

Answers: Yes.

Question: What r the types of windows (Window style)?

Answer:  Specifies whether the window is a Document window or a Dialog window.
10) What is OLE Activation style property?
10) Specifies the event that will activate the OLE containing item.

Question: Can u change the mouse pointer? How?

Answer: Yes. Specifies the mouse cursor style.  Use this property to dynamically change the shape of the cursor.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Question: What are savepoint mode and cursor mode properties? Level?

Answer: Specifies whether Oracle Forms should issue savepoints during a session. This property is included primarily  for applications that will run against non-ORACLE data sources.   For applications that will run against ORACLE, use the default setting.
Cursor mode – define cursur state across transaction Open/close.

Question: What are OPEN_FORM, CALL_FORM,NEW_FORM? Diff?

Answer: CALL_FORM : It calls the other form. but parent remains active, when called form completes the operation ,  it releases lock and control goes back to the calling form.
When you call a form, Oracle Forms issues a savepoint for the called form.  If the CLEAR_FORM function causes a rollback when the called form is current, Oracle Forms rolls back uncommitted changes to this savepoint.
OPEN_FORM: When you call a form, Oracle Forms issues a savepoint for the called form.  If the CLEAR_FORM function causes a rollback when the called form is current, Oracle Forms rolls back uncommitted changes to this savepoint.
NEW_FORM:  Exits the current form and enters the indicated form.  The calling form is terminated as the parent form.  If the calling form had been called by a higher form, Oracle Forms keeps the higher call active and treats it as a call to the new form.  Oracle Forms releases memory (such as database cursors) that the terminated form was using.
Oracle Forms runs the new form with the same Runform options as the parent form.  If the parent form was a called form.

Question: What is call form stack?

Answer: When successive forms are loaded via the CALL_FORM procedure, the resulting module hierarchy is known as the call form stack.

Question: Can u port applictions across the platforms? how?
Answer: Yes, we can port applications across platforms.Consider the form developed in windows system.The form would be generated in unix system by using f60gen my_form.fmb scott/tiger

 

 

 

 

Oracle E-business Suite – Some thoughts

Some Random thoughts –

ERP are huge apps with so much to explore in terms of functionality, business process, technology components, software architecture and organization dynamics. Working in implementation project Oracle Apps really brings you close to all this aspects. I do prepare some random notes of the interesting things I come across about any software product. Some of the key things I discovered/learned about E-Business suite in the last few months of engagements:

• Ad-Utilities for managing middle tier components.

• Integrated data model. Example: there’s one entity hosting customer data which is referred by all the module ranging from Customer Management, Order Management, Advance Shipping

• Open Interface tables to flow in or out the transactions from one module to other. The same interfaced tables could be used to bring the data from other not E-Business suite systems

• APIs corresponding to virtually all the online functionality. The is key for any ERP application. Integration needs always requires creating master data and transactions from the scripts or programs. APIs make this simpler to approach since it will be impossible for any way to go and update all the underlying base entities without breaking the integrity. APIs have always been powerful since they centralize the business logic and all sort of integrity checks at one place. I will stop on API here. Every one knows about the advantage reusability, modularity, refactoring, OO and other core aspects of software designing.

• Approaching integration with third party applications. This really requires proper planning for developing the custom scripts, testing and rolling out the customization.

• Consistent UI. Consistent usability and user interactivity.

• Power of Concurrent request manager.

• CUSTOM.pll, which allows in non-invasive manner you put the custom hooks in the standard forms.

• There were lots of learning on how to go abound customizing E-Business suite apps. CUSTOM.pll, database triggers, modifying standard reports (though not recommended), defining custom Application, DFF and KFF, lookups etc.

• Coding standards. E-Business suite taught me some of the nifty coding practices.

• One of the big learning was the philosophy and thinking that goes behind designing and developing packaged applications. The E-Business suite apps are perfect for business needs across industries and wide range of business requirements from different organization. This is achieved by the flexibility, setups and configurations provided by E-Business suite applications. On top of theses, there are avenues to do additional customization to achieve very specific business need. Sometime back I did post on how the development of software product differs from the custom solution, but Oracle E-Business Suite holds a special place. Lot of expertise, effort, planning and experience goes in developing products like E-Business suite.

 

There were many more though. E-Business Suite is huge and the above list in no way wants to undermine the complete set of functionality that it offers. These are just my personal learnings.