Monday, June 23, 2014

Oracle General Ledger FSG Report Fundamentals - Basics

Standard Reports and Listings

 Oracle General Ledger delivers over 70 standard reports. The following categories provide financial and non-financial information for General Ledger data.


Standard Reports and Listings
Oracle General Ledger provides several types of reports and listings to meet your business needs. All of the information in these reports and listings is also available online.
You can obtain account analysis information, budget information, chart of accounts listing, and many other types of data without customization.


When to Use Standard Reports


Use Standard Reports to do the following:
       To view financial and non-financial information in trial balances, journals, account analysis, and other reports
       To group reports into report sets that can be run simultaneously
       To schedule reports to run at regularly scheduled intervals

Financial Statement Generator Features

Financial Statement Generator (FSG) is a powerful report building tool for Oracle General Ledger.
Financial Statement Generator Features
Oracle General Ledger's Financial Statement Generator empowers you to do the following:
          Generate financial reports, such as income statements and balance sheets, based upon data in your general ledger.
          Apply security rules to control what financial information can be printed by specific users and responsibilities in any reports they run using FSG.
          Define your reports with reusable report objects, making it easy to create new reports from the components of reports you've already defined.
          Design custom financial reports to meet specific business needs.
          Print as many reports as you need, simultaneously.
          Print the same report for multiple companies, cost centers, departments, or any other segment of your account structure, in the same report request.
          Schedule reports to run automatically.
          Produce ad hoc reports whenever you need them.
Print reports to tab–delimited files for easy import into client–based spreadsheet programs.



Use Financial Statement Generator Reports to do the following:   
       Create custom financial statements
       Create consolidated reports and perform consolidation for companies sharing the same set of books
       Report on translated and foreign currency amounts
       Report on budget vs. actual and different amount types such as PTD, QTD, and YTD

Preparing Your FSG Report

Plan your report before you begin building your rows and columns.


Preparing Your FSG Report
Before you define a report in Oracle General Ledger, draft your report on paper. Sketching the report in advance helps you plan the format and content of the report and saves you time later.




With FSG you use a fundamental row and column concept to build your own financial reports:
       Decide which rows and columns make up your report
       Define the rows and columns
       Assign attributes to the rows and columns
       Build a report using the rows and columns

Building Basic Reports
Basic reports consist of a few headings to describe the information in the report, followed by the report data, which is often presented in tabular form as a series of intersecting rows and columns. Basic reports are two dimensional, similar to what you might create in a spreadsheet.


Oracle General Ledger's Financial Statement Generator (FSG) is a powerful and flexible report building tool you can use to build your own custom financial reports without programming.

Financial Statement Generator
You can define custom financial reports, such as income statements and balance sheets, online with complete control over the rows, columns, and content of your report. You can control headings, descriptions, format, and calculations in addition to the actual content. The reusable report components make building reports quick and easy. You can copy a report component from one report, make minor edits, then apply the report component to a new report without having to create a new report from scratch.
Row Set
          A required report component that defines the rows of your report. Typically, accounts are assigned to row set definitions. For each row, you control the format and content, including line descriptions, indentations, spacing, page breaks, calculations, units of measure, and precision.
Column Set
          The second required report component that defines the columns of your report. Typically, amount types are assigned to column set definitions. You control the format and content of each column.
Report
          You build a report by defining then combining up to five reusable report components. At a minimum, you must have a row set and column set for every report. Before you define a report using the Financial Statement Generator (FSG), draft your report on paper. Sketching the report in advance helps you plan the format and content of the report and saves you time later.



Steps for FSG Financial Reports

Use a four-step process to create and run customized financial reports.


Steps for FSG Financial Reports
All reports require a row set and a column set. There are three other optional report components that are used to apply special formatting to your reports. For example, you can hide specific rows, rearrange the sort order of your rows, display the account value and/or description, or print reports by any accounting flexfield segment, such as department, on separate pages.
Report Sets
          A report set is a group of FSG reports. Typically, report sets are used to group reports you run together frequently. For example, you can create a month-end report set that includes a balance sheet, an income statement by department, an income statement by company, and a budget vs. actual income statement in a single submission without having to run each report separately.

Defining Row Sets

Define the format and content of rows in financial reports.


Defining Row Sets
          A single row set can be used for many different reports. For example, Row Set A above is used for an Income Statement with current information. It can also be used to produce an Income Statement for any other entity (company, division, group, or cost center), or for the same entity with a yearly comparison column.
          A Row Set defines the format and content of the rows in an FSG report. In FSG, the commonly assumed attribute for a row definition is an account assignment, whereas the attribute for a column definition is a time period or amount type. When you define a row set, you can:
Assign accounts:
          To indicate which general ledger account balances you want to include in the row. You can assign an individual account, parent account, or range of accounts to each row.
Define calculations:
          To perform a variety of complex computations in your report. The calculations can refer to any previous rows in a report, including rows you choose not to display.
Specify formatting:
          To control page breaks, indentation, line spacing, and underline characters. You can define a new row set, or use FSG's AutoCopy feature to copy an existing row set, which you can then modify as needed.
Note: If you have average balance processing enabled in your set of books, you can report on functional, foreign, and translated average balances.
Implementation Note
Row Set:
          When creating a balance sheet, you must include your entire income statement account range for the Current Period Retained Earnings amount. Oracle General Ledger never posts the monthly net income amount to an actual current period retained earnings account. This only happens when the first period of a new fiscal year is opened. Thus, to achieve the figure for current period retained earnings, it is a reporting solution where you enter your Profit and Loss account range in the account assignment.     
          When creating reports, it is a good idea to include check figures at the end of the report to verify that all accounts were properly assigned in the reports. This is particularly useful if you have had to enter account ranges with gaps because of the structure of your chart of accounts.
          For example, when creating a Balance Sheet, add check figures at the end of the report defined as follows:
-          Total Assets 1000-1999
-          Total Liabilities 2000-2999
-          Total Stockholder's Equity 3000-9999. Note: In order to derive the net income amount that is usually posted to current period retained earnings, you must include your income statement account range.
Assigning Line Numbers to Rows:
          You should enter line numbers in increments of 10 to allow for space to add additional rows for future modifications.
Account Assignment Display Option:
          Oracle General Ledger stores debit balances as positive numbers and credit balances as negative numbers. If you want your credit balance accounts, such as liabilities, and revenues to display as positive numbers, select the Change Sign check box. Doing so will have no effect on your calculations.



 Assigning Accounts

You can select the sign and ranges of accounts for each row in your row set.


Assigning Accounts
Select the Account Assignments button to assign accounts for a row set.
Select a numeric operator (+ or -) to add or subtract the totals for the account range.
Enter a Low and High for the range of account combinations. To specify an individual account, enter the same account as the Low and High. You can leave these fields blank to create generic row sets with universal account assignments.
Enter a Display type for each account segment:
          Select "E" to expand the range and display one report line for each segment value.
          Select "T" to total the amounts in the range and display only one total line for the segment values.
          Select "T" for each segment of the range if multiple account ranges are assigned to a row.
          Select "B" to display both the expanded detail and the Total. "B" combines the effects of "E" and "T".
Implementation Note
Account Assignment:
          You should always enter a unique Row Name for every row. The Row Name does not appear in any reports, but it does appear in lists of values when you perform calculations. If the row is simply a label, for example, "Current Assets", that does not have any accounts assigned to it, you should append the row name with the word "label" to let you know that this row contains no accounts and you will not need to include it in your calculations. Also be sure the row name is unique to ensure that calculations yield the correct results. If you use the same row name for two different rows, FSG will not know which row to use.
          Consider creating generic row sets by applying "T" display types for each account segment. You can later define content sets to create more specific reports.



 Defining Calculations in Row Sets

To define formulas, Oracle General Ledger provides the following mathematical operators:

Defining Calculation in Row Sets
Median - The midpoint or the middle value.
Average - The value obtained by dividing the sum total by the number.
Standard Deviation - A value obtained by dividing by one less than the number of squares in the sum of squares.
Absolute Value - Debit and credit values are both displayed as positive numbers.
Note: Because Balance Control and Display Options are usually defined for columns, they are covered in the Defining Column Sets section. However, they may also be defined for rows.
Implementation Note
Row Set Calculations:
          Oracle General Ledger stores credit balances as negative numbers and debit balances as positive numbers. For example, revenue accounts are stored as negative numbers and expense accounts are stored as positive numbers. Therefore, you should define your calculations accordingly. For example, to create a row called Gross Margin that calculates revenues minus costs, you should add (not subtract) your costs row to your revenue row.



 Reviewing Your Row Set Definitions

Review row set component definitions using standard FSG listings requested from the Submit Request window.
       Use the FSG–Row Set Summary Listing to review the name and description of the row sets defined and the report title and the chart of accounts associated with each row set
       Use the FSG–Row Set Detail Listing to review the row sequence, name, description, amount type, period offset, currency, format and display options, account assignment and calculations for each row of a row set

Reviewing Your Row Set Definitions
The main difference between these two reports is that the FSG–Row Set Summary Listing summarizes all row sets while the FSG–Row Set Detail Listing details only one row set.

Defining Ad Hoc Reports

Create financial reports on the fly by defining ad hoc reports in the Run Financial Reports window.


Defining Ad Hoc Reports
To run ad hoc reports, you select report objects and other report parameters during the report submission process. With predefined report, you can run the report with the parameters you saved in the report definition or you can change the parameters at runtime.
Note: If you change the parameters at runtime, FSG will not save them in the stored report definition.


Defining Column Sets


Define the format and content of columns in financial reports.

Defining Column Sets
          Column sets define the format and content of columns in your financial reports. Column sets include headings and subheadings, currency assignments, amount types, exception conditions, and calculation columns for totals.
          You can define columns one by one as you do for row sets, or you can build a column set graphically.
          When you define a column set, you indicate which Oracle General Ledger balance type you want to include in the column.
          Although you normally assign accounts to your rows, you can also assign an individual account combination or range of account combinations to each column.
          You can define calculations to perform a variety of complex computations in your report.
          The calculations can reference other columns in the report.
          You can define a new column set, copy information from an existing column set, or use one of the standard column sets provided by Oracle General Ledger.
Implementation Note
Column Sets:
          When using the Quarter-To-Date (QTD) Amount Type in column sets to perform quarterly reporting, you will need to create four different column sets if you are using a non-standard calendar, such as a 13 period calendar because 13 does not divide evenly into 4 and the period offsets will not give the desired results.
Column Set Amount Types:
          When creating column sets that will be coupled with Balance Sheet Row Sets, be sure to use the Year-to-Date (YTD) amount type. Oracle General Ledger does not store YTD balances. Thus, in order to achieve a cumulative total on balance sheet accounts, you must have FSG calculate the amount for you using the YTD amount type.



Applying Column Set Relative Headings


You can use relative headings to create dynamic column headings which depend on the period you specify. Relative heading you can use are:
       &POI (Period of Interest)
       &BUDGET
       &DOI
       &ENCUMBRANCE
       &CURRENCY

Applying Column Set Relative Headings
&POI:
          Enter &POI, followed by a number from -999 to +999 that refers to the relative period offset of your column.
          For example, enter &POI0 to display amounts for the period you specify at run time, enter &POI-1 to display amounts one period before the period you specify at run time.

&BUDGET:
          Enter &BUDGET, followed by a control value number to print the budget name assigned to the control value number when you define or run your report.

&DOI:
          Date of interest, the date for which you want to run the report.

&ENCUMBRANCE:
          Enter &ENCUMBRANCE, followed by a control value number to print the encumbrance type assigned to the control value number when you define your report.

&CURRENCY:
          Enter &CURRENCY, followed by a control value number to print the currency assigned to the control value number when you define or run your report column.


Standard Column Sets


Oracle provides 14 standard column sets that cover a variety of generic reporting requirements.
       Income Statements
       Balance Sheets
       Other Reports


Standard Column Sets
          Columns containing actual amounts for multiple consecutive periods (trend reports)
          Actual, budget, and variance columns (control reports)
The generic column sets can be used for the following reports:

Income Statements
          Functional: Breaks out expenses by functional area
          Natural Account: Lists expenses by account or groups of related accounts

Balance Sheets
          Detail balance sheet accounts
          Summary balance sheet accounts

Other Reports
          Statement of changes to financial position
          Daily activity reports

You can define these reports at whatever level of detail is appropriate for your business.




Reviewing Your Column Set Definitions


Review column set component definitions using standard FSG listings requested from the Submit Request window.
       Use the FSG–Column Set Summary Listing to review the name and description of the column sets defined in your current set of books
       Use the FSG–Column Set Detail Listing to review the column sequence, name, description, amount type, period offset, currency, format and display options, account assignment and calculations for each column of a column set

Row Set and Column Overrides

A conflict exists if different values are entered for the same option in both the row set and the column set.


Row Set and Column Overrides
Row Overrides Column
          Amount Type
          Period Offset
          Control Value (Must assign same currency or budget type at row and column level)
          Format Mask
          Factor
          Display Zero
          Level of Detail
Column Overrides Row
          Override Row/Column Calculations (Conflict exists only if the same value (Yes or No) is entered at both the row and the column set levels)
          Activity
Other Conflicts
          Accounts: Report uses intersecting accounts.
          Summary: Must assign the same summary option at the row and column level.
          Currency: Must assign the same currency at the row and column level.
          Change Sign: Yes overrides No.
Change Sign on Variance: Yes overrides No.



Defining and Requesting Financial Reports


Mix and match row sets and column sets to create a variety of reports.


Defining and Requesting Financial Reports
          Once you define a report, you can save it and use it whenever you run a financial report or define a report set.
          You can copy a financial report you have already defined and modify the new report as necessary.
          You can also define ad hoc financial reports as necessary to meet special reporting needs.
Caution: If the same Row Set is used in ten different reports and you later modify the Row Set, the ten reports will be affected.
Implementation Note
Ad Hoc Reports:
          All ad hoc reports are saved by FSG to be rerun in the future. You can delete each report individually in the Define Financial Report window or you can delete all of them at once by running the Program – Delete Ad Hoc Reports from the Submit Requests window.
Running Reports:
          If your FSG reports are not producing output or you are having trouble getting a complicated report definition to work correctly, you should view the log file for the Financial Statement Generator in the Requests window. If the error message in the log file is not detailed enough, change the user profile option FSG: Message Detail to full.

Handling Rounding Problems


Oracle General Ledger offers two choices for handling rounding problems.
Example: Format is 99999; Factor is Thousands



Specifying Control Values



Specifying Control Values
You can report on budgets, encumbrance types, and other currencies by using control values. Control values are numbers that you specify in the Control Value field, of the Balance Control options region, on row sets and column sets. When you define a financial report applying the row set or column set containing a control value, you must specify what the control value or number represents in the Define Financial Report window. There is a Control Value button located on the Define Financial Report window which opens the Control Values window. Here, you specify a number and a budget name, encumbrance type, and/or currency. For currencies, you can specify "entered" currencies or "translated" currencies.
Note: You must run translation before you use the "translated" currency type.
For example, if you define a column set and specify a control value of "1", you refer to the same number in the report definition and assign either a budget name, encumbrance type, or currency to associate with the control value.
Notes:
          You must assign the same budget, encumbrance type, or currency to intersecting row and column control values.
          You cannot enter currencies in the report definition if the report does not contain a row and/or column set with a currency control value.
          You must specify a budget or encumbrance when your report includes rows or columns which use related amount types, such as PTD-Budget or PTD-Encumbrance.



Defining Content Sets


Define content sets to override segment values and produce multiple versions of a single report.


Defining Content Sets
Even though content sets are optional, they are the most powerful component of all FSG components.
By assigning a content set to a report request, you can generate hundreds of similar reports in a single run. The content set controls how the numerous reports differ from each other. For example, you can define a departmental content set which prints a separate report for each department or you can apply a content set to an expand row set to print a total report.
Content sets work by overriding the row set definition of an existing report and replacing the row set account assignments and/or display options.
Content sets can be saved as part of a report definition, or can be added dynamically at the time you request an FSG report.
Hint: Consider using content sets exclusively to control the specific output for each report.



Selecting Display Options

Use display options to control if segment range values are totaled and how they are displayed.
       RE - Row/Expand
       RT - Row/Total
       RB - Row/Both
       CT - Column/Total
       PE – Page Expand Report
       PT - Report/Total
       N - No Override
Selecting Display Options
You can enter a display option for each account segment range to designate how you want to display information in a report and whether to print single or multiple reports.
RE - Row/Expand:
          Select RE to expand the range and display a separate line for each segment value in the range. If you are using parent values, enter the same value as the high and low. Oracle General Ledger displays only the children (or grandchildren). This is the same as selecting Expand for row sets.
RT - Row/Total:
          Select RT to total the amounts in the range and display only one line as the Total line. This is the same as selecting Total for row sets.
RB - Row/Both:
          Select RB to expand and total the range. RB will display a separate line for each segment value and display a total for all the segment values. This is the same as selecting Both when defining row sets.
CT - Column/Total:
          Select CT to total the range and display only the total for the segment values. This has no effect on the report display.
PE – Page Expand Report:
          Select PE to expand the range and create a separate report for each segment value in the range. If you are using parent values, enter the same value as the high and low. Oracle General Ledger displays only the children (or grandchildren).
PT - Report/Total:
          Select PT to total the segment value range and display the total on one page.
          N - No override: Select to use display options entered in the row set definition.
Implementation Note
Display Options:
          Page Expand (PE) Report is the most commonly used display option. It allows you to perform consolidation within FSG.




Reviewing Your Content Set Definitions

Review report component definitions using standard FSG listings.
       Use the FSG Content Set Summary Listing to review the names, descriptions, and processing types of the content sets defined in your current set of books
       Use the FSG Content Set Detail Listing to review the segment values and their display types for a content set

Defining Row Orders

Modify the order of detail rows in a report.
Defining Row Orders
You can use a row order with row expand row sets or content sets to control how expanded detail rows are displayed in your report.
You can do the following:
          Display account descriptions in addition to or instead of segment values.
          Sort detail rows by amounts displayed in a column.
          Sort detail rows by account segment values or segment value descriptions.
          Rearrange the sequence of your account segments to fit specific reporting needs.
          Suppress descriptions for particular account segments.



 Ranking Methods

Determine in what order rows are displayed:
       By segment value
       By segment description
       By values within a specified column
       Specify what segment information to display:
       Value
       Description
       Both

Ranking Methods
Oracle General Ledger offers several ways to order and display expanded detail rows. Select a ranking method and to display segment values, segment value descriptions, or both. Alternatives include the following:
          Order by ranking, display description: For example, department number.
          Order by ranking, display both: For example, the name of the department.
          Order by description, display description: For example, department description.
          Order by description, display value
          Order by value, display description
          Order by value, display value



 Reviewing Your Row Order Detail Listing Report

You can use the Row Order Detail Listing to review the ranking and display options of a row order.

  
 Copying Reports and Components

Create new reports and report objects by copying existing objects using AutoCopy, then modifying the copied report objects. Items that can be AutoCopied include:

Copyright Reports and Components
You can copy existing row sets, column sets, content sets, row orders, display sets, reports, and report sets to create new report objects.
After you copy a report object, you can modify the new object instead of recreating a new object from scratch.
Caution: Modifying a report object will affect all reports that use the report object. To avoid affecting all reports that use a report object you want to modify, use AutoCopy to create a copy of the report object, then apply the desired modifications to the copy of the report object.



 FSG Report Prerequisites

Prerequisite for running Financial Statement Generator reports include the following:
       Use the profile option FSG:Allow Portrait Print Style to control print orientation
       Define security rules to limit the financial information a specific user can print
       Include Program - Run Financial Statement Generator in your responsibility to run FSG reports as standard report submissions

FSG Report Prerequisites
          To control the print orientation of reports that are less than or equal to 80 characters wide, set the user profile option FSG:Allow Portrait Print Style.
          To limit what financial information can be printed by specific users on their FSG reports, define security rules and enable them for use with FSG.
          To run reports through standard request submission, your System Administrator must assign Program - Run Financial Statement Generator to the report security group for your responsibility.
Note: We recommend that you run the General Ledger Optimizer program before you run your monthly reports. This will help your financial reporting processes run faster. Program – Optimizer is run from the standard report submission window.

Enabling FSG Security

Use the General Ledger Super User or System Administrator responsibility to define security rules to control what financial information specific users can print when they run FSG reports.

Enabling FSG Security
If you have General Ledger Super User or System Administrator responsibility, you can define security rules to control what financial information specific users can print when they run FSG reports. For example, you can prevent Company 01 users from printing reports for Company 02 and vice versa.



Run FSG Reports from Standard Request Submission



Run FSG Reports from Standard Request Submission
You can request reports from the Run Financial Reports window or through standard request submission (Submit Requests window). The advantage of requesting reports through standard request submission is that you can schedule the reports to run automatically. You can also combine FSG reports with standard reports, listings, and programs. The disadvantage is that you cannot run report sets through standard request submission.




Running Financial Report Sets


       You can include multiple reports in a single financial report set
       You can include multiple financial report sets in a single multiple report set
       You can run all or part of a report set
       You can run several reports with predefined print options and parameter values
       You can include a report more than once if you want to run the same report with different parameter values

FSG Tips and Techniques


To maximize your reporting flexibility and keep report maintenance to a minimum:
       Draft your reports on paper first
       Define a logical chart of accounts and make use of Parent accounts
       Define generic row sets and use existing column sets
       Use the Expand and Both options

FSG Tips and Techniques

To maximize your reporting flexibility and keep report maintenance to a minimum:
       Select the rounding option for your calculations
       Change the order of detail rows
       Use content sets and display sets for your report
       Use AutoCopy
       Transfer report objects from one database to another

Setting FSG Options for General Ledger



Setting FSG Options for General Ledger
FSG: Accounting Flexfield:
          Select the General Ledger application reporting flexfield. The default value for this profile option is account. You cannot view this profile option at the user level. Your System Administrator must set this profile option at the site or application level.
FSG: Allow Portrait Print Style:
          Control the print orientation of your Financial Statement Generator reports that are less than or equal to 80 characters wide. You can print these reports in either portrait style (80 character wide) or landscape style (132 character wide).
FSG: Enable Search Optimization:
          Enhance the performance of reports that contain account assignments with a large number of parent segment values and child segment value ranges. When you set this profile option to Yes, the FSG performance enhancement is applied.
FSG: Enforce Segment Value Security:
          Control whether your defined security rules will apply to reports produced using FSG.
FSG: Expand Parent Value:
          Control whether the rollup group or the summary flag associated with flexfield assignments determine the expansion of parent values when requesting summary balances.
FSG: Message Detail:
          Specify the error message catalogue and level of detail in your error message log file when you request your Financial Statement Generator reports.
FSG: String Comparison Mode:

          Do not change this profile option unless instructed to do so by Oracle World Wide Support. This profile option affects the character language for text-based character sets.

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