Oracle Applications Documentation AIM Methodology

Oracle Applications – Documentations – Using AIM or Tailored AIM Methodology

here i am giving brief intro, in next article you can find much details information on AIM documents and reference

Not all companies are using the same AIM instead they are using their own giving different names but the formats of all the documents are more or less same. Each stage is having set of documents.

First Stage: Analysis

Second Stage: Designing

Third Stage: Build – DEMO / PROTO TYPE

Fourth Stage : Testing

Fifth Stage : Go Live

Six Stage : Post Production

Various documents for different scope and criterias such as

1.Implementation

2.Customization

3.Conversions

Below some brief on mostly used document types

BR Documents : Business Requirement Documents, which is primafaciely done by the Functional Persons of the Implementation Team like Funtional Project Leads / Managers. These documents are the Set up Documents, which is 100% based on the BR 120 – Business Requirement Gatherings as provided by the business. Now as a Funtional Consultant you need to always go for the BR – 100, that is set up document, so BR 100 is the To Be Process after you gather all sorts of info from the Biz and map in the Oracle systems

MD Documents : Modular Designing Documents, which are is primafaciely done by the Technical Persons of the Implementation Team like Technical Project Leads / Project Manager. These documents are the Design Documents, which is again based on the BR 120 – Business Requirement Gathering as provided by the business. These MD’s are of basically discussed any customization needs or any special behaviaour oracle system should work which is not the Standard Oracle Funtionality. These also discussed about the tables and the Interface Tables or forms which are going to be used in the particular modules. Thses also discussed about the High Level Designs like Flows of the Business and all. These MD’s are basically made after you all Functional Design and if there is no work around Oracle System provides for a particular Test Scenario and there is no other way other than to go for the Customization.

MD.70 is technical Document(Technical resource will design), which show all Technical Details like Coding, Maping and Logics.

MD.50 is Desgin Document(Functional resource will design), which explore all design methods like its road-map, which includes all design setups.

thanks – Shivmohan Purohit

Oracle Applications / Financials – Functional Question on General Ledger – Budgeting

Oracle Applications / Financials – Functional Question on General Ledger – Budgeting. Quite useful as FAQ and Interview Questions for General Ledger.

11. What is Set of Books? What are the four conditions when you change your SOBs?SOB is of 2 types – Primary and Reporting.Primary SOB - All transactions are with functional Currency

12. What is an Invoice?

AR invoice is a document sent to the customer with details like, Bill-to customer code, product code, qty sent, price, currency, credit terms, tax details, etc. Based on this invoice, customer will make payment to the company and the same is applied against the invoice. AP invoice is the document received from the supplier and contains information such supplier details, product code, qty, price and tax details. This invoice is entered in the AP module and payment is made to the supplier against this invoice.

There are 2 types of invoices-

1. Periodic 2. Milestone

Also, Invoice is an information sheet which a company sends to the buyer along with the good. It explains the details of the goods in the shipment and also the prices. Invoices can contain all sorts of data regarding the shipment and goods depending on the company and product.

13. Can you disable budgetary control for a set of books?

You can, however existing encumbrances are not cleared from the feeder systems. Therefore it is not recommended. If you do change the budgetary control options for an existing set of books, you must do two things for the change to be reflected.

–Run the Period Map Maintenance concurrent request, it must complete successfully.

–Exit Oracle Applications and restart. You must completely exit the application…it is not sufficient to select Sign on again from the Oracle Applications Special menu.

14. Is there a limit to the number of periods in a budget year or how many years a budget can span?

There is no limit for the budget. One can define budgetary control for n number of years however, one year can have maximum of 60 fiscal periods.

15. Why don’t my Detail budgets roll up to my Master budget?

Detail budgets do not automatically roll up to the master budget. The GL uses summary accounts to maintain master/detail budget relationships between them.

16. I was able to post a budget journal to a closed period, why?

Yes, a budget journal can be posted to any period that is in an open budget year for that budget. This is regardless of the status of that period. The budget journal is not linked with your accounting period. Once you have open the budget period then you can book budget journal for that whole period.

17. How many ‘Current’ budgets can you have?

For each set of books, you can have only one current budget at any point in time. The only distinction between a ‘current’ and an ‘open’ budget is that the current budget defaults into the budget field on several budget-related forms. It can be replaced however by any ‘open’ budget in the field.

18. What is a funding budget?

Funding budget is a budget against which accounting transactions are checked for available funds when budgetary control is enabled for your set of books. Funding Budgets are approved budgets.Two types of budgets are there in Oracle Apps: 1- Fund 2- Plan.

Fund budget create the Budget Journal but plan budget used only for planning. Fund budget requires journal entries, and is assigned to a summary template or account range in the budget org, where the funds check level is set at Absolute or Advisory. It is the assignment that makes it a ‘funding budget’; it is not done at the budget definition level.

19. Why is my budget requiring budget journals?

At the set of books level that option is not enabled? This would happen when the budget itself is defined to require budget journals. This is done at the budget definition level.

20. Why can’t I inquire on my budget amounts from INQUIRE/BUDGETS navigation path?

The Budget Inquiry form (GLXIQBUD) is used to perform inquiries about master and detail budgets. GL compares summary balances between your master and detail budgets, and checks for budget variances and violations. This form only looks at summary accounts. To inquire on detail accounts you must use the navigation INQUIRE/ACCOUNTS, and choose the ‘budget’ amount type.

21. If I delete my budget org, will the budget amounts be deleted?

No, the amounts will be same. Deleting the budget organization does not remove the budget amounts from the GL_BALANCES table.

22. Can I update/adjust an existing account range in my budget organization?

Yes you can update an existing account range in Budget Organization.

23 How many times can a budget be purged?

Budget can be purged only one time.

24. Why is there no value in the REQUEST_ID column of GL_BUDGET_INTERFACE for rows with data that failed to be uploaded by the Budget Spreadsheet Upload program?

You are trying to open the next budget year. After navigating to the form and querying the budget, you notice the [Open Next Year] button is grayed out. You find that Account code combinations are not being added to the Budget Organization.

25. Why don’t my Detail budgets roll up to my Master budget?

Detail budgets do not automatically roll up to the master budget. The GL uses summary accounts to maintain master/detail budget relationships between hierarchy levels. Summary templates are defined so that accounts in your lower level detail budgets roll up into the same summary accounts as the detail accounts in your controlling master budget. A common misconception is that the detail budgets somehow roll up to the master budget by definition, this is not true. You must actually budget to a detail account in the master budget; this then serves as the controlling amount for the detail budgets. Master/Detail budgets are used in the budgeting process to control Authority and identify budgets that exceed control limits. They are not intended for reporting purposes.

26. I was able to post a budget journal to a closed period, why?

A budget journal can be posted to any period that is in an open budget year for that budget. This is regardless of the status of that period (closed, opened, or future enterable).

27. Why don’t my budget amounts appear on my FSG?

To include budgets (encumbrances or currencies) in a FSG report, your report definition must specify a row set of column set that has control values specified in the Balance Control options. In the report definition itself, you associate budget names with the control values that are assigned to the row or column set.

Shivmohan Purohit

Reporting SOB - All transactions are with foreign Currency

You have to assign your SOB to your responsibility. Set of book means linking between the 3cs i.e. chart of accounts, calendar, currency and maintain 5 mandatory accounts. Set of books are created keeping in mind the ‘Accounting Structure”. This is a combination of 3 ‘Cs’ – Chart of Accounts, Currency and Calendar. Chart of Accounts is made up of segments- Max of 30 Segments are allowed. Two Segments are mandatory – Balancing and Natural segment, Calendar –This can have a max of 365 periods (daily calendar) and a min of 1 period (Yearly calendar). Periods can be monthly, fortnightly, weekly, daily.

Oracle Expert – Mandeep Dhami

Hello Friedns, as in continuation to involve Subject Matter Experts to improve and get to knowledge, here today we showcasing Mr Mandeep Dhami, An Oracle Application experts in his area. I encourage you all to ask ur query/ question to him.

Name	Mandeep Dhami
Expertise	Module: Payables, Assets, Internet Expense and GL
Organization	Current: Merrill Lynch Past: J.P. Morgan Chase
Contacts	Email: mandeepdhami4u@hotmail.com

 1.      Tell something about you, your professional experience/ background, past assignment, Interests.

Ans: I have just got into the world of Oracle Professionals, working as Functional Consultant on Payable, Assets, Internet Expense and GL modules. So far I have been involved in implementing the above modules of Oracle across various locations in Asia Pacific region. I have been involved from operations side giving requirements to the deployment team, who then sets up the system and then I get involved in doing System Integration Testing (SIT). Once SIT is successfully done we get the same testing done by end users as part of Users Acceptance Testing (UAT). This also involves giving training and preparing training material for the end users.

2.      If any professional want to become functional consultant (either in manufacturing or financials), how she/he should take it and go ahead?

Ans: It will be too early for me to comment on this as I am quit novice in this role. But whatever I have experienced so far I can say that the functional consultant should have good knowledge about the working of various modules from end users perspective.

3.      Give some commonly used Functional Concepts/ Questions in Oracle Applications’ Financials Modules.

Ans:  What accounting entries are generated when an invoice is entered and paid?

What’s the difference between cross validation rule and security rule?

4.      What is your favorite Oracle Applications modules, share some of your interesting professional work experience.

Ans: My favorite module is Payables. In terms of interesting experience I can recollect one when implementing oracle payables for one of the locations where they were giving cash advance to employee. This was also a new learning for me. I got the solution for the same after consultation with my colleagues from the team. The real problem was to sale this solution to the location as first of all this application was new for them and this functionality was to be used by them only in the region. It took couple of training sessions with detailed flow chart and training material to get them agree to the solution suggested.

5.      Your advice/ Suggestion for Oracle Technical and Functional Professions

Ans: I would say that the professional should have good knowledge about the modules they are working on and should always strive to be up to date with latest happenings on their areas of work. I would also suggest visiting such blog (http://knoworacle.wordpress.com/) which are full of information and knowledge.

6.      Your feedback on Knoworacle.wordpress.com

Ans: Very good initiative by you to share knowledge on Oracle. There are various articles on different modules of Oracle and all these is from your own practical experience which makes this initiative all that more special, important and accurate.

Thanks – Shivmohan Purohit ( knoworacle.wordpress.com )    

Oracle-Expert-Raju-ghosal

Hello Friedns, as in continuation to involve Subject Matter Experts to improve and get to knowledge, here today we showcasing Mr Raju Ghosal, An Oracle Applications DBA, experts in his area. I encourage you all to ask ur query/ question to him.

Name	Raju Ghosal
Expertise	Oracle Application SysAdmin /Cloning
Contacts	Email: raju.ghosal@gmail.com

 1.      Tell something about you, your professional experience/ background, past assignment, Interests.

Ans: Currently working with a Multinational in Developing strategic projects deployment plans; analyzing and coordinating ERP business applications across all phases of an entire Software Application Life Cycle (SALC).

I was involved in through out implementation of E-Business Financials module in my earlier assignment which includes interfaces of legacy data, GAP analysis, customization of FORMS, Reports and Maintaining 5 instances with scheduled refreshes, up to date patching etc.

I was also a part of management advisory board for all BCP activities.

 2.      Please share some/ any of your Oracle work related professional /project experience.

Ans:  I was involved in through out implementation of E-Business Financials module in my earlier assignment which includes interfaces of legacy data, GAP analysis, customization of FORMS, Reports and Maintaining 5 instances with scheduled refreshes, up to date patching etc.

 3.      What is term Environment Management in context of Oracle Applications, How it is relevant for Oracle Applications setups in various organizations

Ans: Environment management duties include:

Instance Management - Work with DBAs, SA’s and CT Application Teams in coordinating instance refreshes, downtimes, usage for initiatives.

Oracle Patch Management – Coordinating with Functional teams /DBA Teams /Prod Support teams/Oracle Teams, etc on Patches/SRs for Oracle Application Instances. 

Opening SR Reviews and Follow Ups – Host weekly status calls

Coordinating Finance Technology Environment Initiatives – examples:  10G Upgrades, Partitioning, etc with DBAs, Functional Teams, App Leads and Prod Support.

Status Reports – Produce various surveys, reports, logs, etc pertaining to Technology Initiatives, issues and standard operations.

Conducting Business Continuity Planning initiatives which includes Crash and Recovery test and High Availability Test etc.

 4.      You take lot of interview, what are the common professional skills you look in candidates, how you advise candidates to focus on to improve their interview performance.

Ans: The common qualifications I look for in a candidate are:

Should be confident of what he is speaking. Should have sound knowledge on the business impact of the task he is doing or has done. He/She should understand the business logic involved or the process flow of the application he is working on.

He/She should have excellent attitude towards work and always willing to learn.

5.      How you differentiate between Support, Development, Implementation and other different kind of activities as part of team scope and work. How they different and how a professional should identify his role and relevance. What are skills require for different kind of activities.

Ans: Implementation is the whole of processes that defines a complete method to implement software in an organization. It is based on best practices and case studies from various literature sources and presents a collection of processes and products that make up a complete implementation method to allow any organization to plan and execute the implementation of ERP software.

Developer Role is to prepare the Technical Specification (based on a Functional Specification given by a Functional Consultant), build the code, Review the code and finally to prepare the Unit Test Cases. Sometimes the developer may be asked to do a technical research for an optimal solution.

After a go live, the application needs a maintenance/support to resolve the issues/tickets raised by the users when using the application. Ticket is like a request for changes/bug fixing or a request for a new Developer Role includes bug fixing/change the existing code due to new requirements/build a new code etc.

 6.      Need your view on terms Functional, Technical and Techno-Functional. How you think these have relevance. Do techno-functional professional real advantageous or it is kind of overlapping.

Ans: Techno Functional professionals has always the advantage over Functional or Technical guys specially in cracking the Interviews as they are very good to map the Business needs with the jobs they are doing moreover they are in very high demands among Multinationals where you need to gel well with the actual business users.

To my understanding a professionals should be well versed with the business needs along with the technical jobs they are expected to perform. This gives a win-win feeling to both the Business needs and the technologies as a whole.

7.      Your feedback on Knoworacle.wordpress.com

Ans: Good going…I wish all the best for future Endeavour.

8.      Please any additional questions/ thoughts from your sides

Ans: You should publish few DBA related articles which are in high demands in current market scenarios.

Disclaimer:  Opinions expressed by the OCP Advisor is entirely his own and do not reflect the position of Oracle or any other corporation. Any advice or recommendations discussed are not validated by Oracle.

Thanks – Shivmohan Purohit ( knoworacle.wordpress.com )