May 1999 Volume 3.3
Atlanta OAUG
Tips and Techniques
www.atloaug.org
Editor’s Comments
I am writing this on the way home from the OAUG conference in San Diego. It was another successful conference and attendance was announced at 7,700 although other reports quoted 8,100 attendees.
Oracle announced several goals for the R11 versions of the applications. Lower administrative costs by moving from administrative processes to self service processes. Make better decisions by migrating from transaction processing to business intelligence. Support for globalization.
The keynote speaker, Daniel Burrus, was quite good. You can reference his comments at www.burrus.com/handouts.
J
The fall 1999 OAUG conference will be in Orlando, September 26-30. If you are planning to submit a paper for this conference, your first deadline is the application due May 12. Authors of accepted papers will be notified May 28. The paper will be due July 7, and presentation visuals will be due Aug 4.
J
The Atlanta OAUG group has always had a "functional" orientation. To broaden the participation of our membership, we will begin including some technical foundation classes. This is your chance to find out a little bit about what happens "under the hood" of your Oracle applications. At the June meeting look for a presentation about SQL for the non technician. The August and October meetings will present GL and AP technical foundation classes. Come and enjoy a different look at the Oracle Applications.
System Administration
From: Uffe Moller <UM@aua.auc.dk>
I use this script to select candidates for pinning:
select owner || '.' || name object, type, to_char(sharable_mem/1024, '9,999.9') "space(K)", loads, executions execs, kept from v$db_object_cache where type in ('PACKAGE','PACKAGE BODY') and (executions > 999 or kept = 'YES') order by owner, name ;
From: "Shreter, Hilary" <SHRETERH@ORAU.GOV>
Just to add to this: I've been adding to my "pinned list" every few days and the performance results are phenomenal. To help out: here's a script I stole from somewhere to tell how much total room you're using:
Here's how much is pinned:
select to_char(sum(sharable_mem)/1024,'9,999,999.9') "TOTAL PINNED (K)" from v$db_object_cache where type in ('FUNCTION','PACKAGE','PACKAGE BODY','PROCEDURE') and owner not in ('SYS') and kept = 'YES'
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From Jim Crum at BOSS Corporation
If you are researching an error, many applications have Debug on/off profile options. Turn them on for additional help when diagnosing a problem. While there doesn't seem to be a pattern, here are some profile options that we found.
From: Mohan Thanikanti <mthanika@camail2.harvard.edu>
If you make the profile option OE:Debug = YES , then in the concurrent program it self , you can see the detail logic of the program in the Request log.
But if you want to verify the trace file …
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Q. Can any body tell me how to see the bug number information in MetaLink. When I go to the site with the bug number given by Oracle Corp it says that no info is found for the bug.
From: "Gow, Tony" <GOWA@tc.gc.ca>
I asked Oracle and their response is that you cannot see bug information until the bug has been closed by development. Until then it is NOT available to the public. if you want an update on a particular bug, it is best to go through the TAR that is associated with the bug and have the Oracle analyst provide you with an update.
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Does anyone have a complete listing of all or any of the menu options for Oracle Apps - GL, AR, AP, CST, WIP, BOM, INV, PO, MRP etc?
From: jmcdonald@princesscruises.com (Jeanne R Mcdonald)
In the days of CHUI (Vs GUI), I used to set up a menu called BIG_TOP and include the top menu for each responsibility as selections and run the report of it. Kinda hokey but it worked.
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How can we allow a report created by one user's request submitted to be viewed by another user? We know that we can see all requests in the SA concurrent manager, but we need the second user to be able to view the report created by another's request submittal.
From: jbuelow@suburban.com
Go in as SA and choose Profile -> System, then choose Site and specify Concurrent: Report Access Level. You will have two choices: you can either choose User, which will mean that only the user can see his or her reports, or you can choose Responsibility, which will mean that the user can see any of his or her reports as well as any report submitted by another user logged on with the same responsibility. For example, if you choose Responsibility, then anyone who submits a report as AP: Processor, can see any of his or her own reports, as well as any report submitted by any other person who is logged on as AP: Processor.
This won't give you the full capability of seeing other people's reports. Using the above example, the AP: Manager still won't be able to see anything submitted by any AP: Processor. However, it does give you more than you have when you are limited by User.
Upgrades
The release date for release 11i has slipped from the July date announced at the OAUG Hawaii conference. This release of the software is now promised for September 1999 on Solaris and October for other platforms.
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The next release of ADI was demonstrated at the OAUG conference by Brett Hooker. It has many nice features and looks like a nice step forward. The code has been frozen and shipped to CD manufacturing. It should be available about May 15.
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Oracle uses the phrases internet computing and network computing architecture (NCA) as synonyms.
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Release 11 uses Oracle8, Forms 4.5 and Reports 2.5 (Developer 1.6.1).
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Win98 is NOT currently certified with the Jinitiator technology (April 99).
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Oracle promised Release 11.03 would be available in April 1999. R11.04 should follow in 4 to 6 months.
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The recommended desktop configuration for R11 is a 200+ MHz processor. Win95 should have 32 MB and WinNT 4.0 should have 48 MB of memory. If you concurrently run other desktop applications with the Oracle Applications, use 64 MB of memory. The monitor setting should be SVGA (1024 X 768) with 16 bit, high color, or 65,536 color. WinNT 3.51 or Windows 3.1 is not usable as a desktop platform.
Financial Apps
GL
Q. If I am doing a sequence of step-down allocations in which an allocation pool (target) is then used as the source of the next allocation, can the entire allocation be set up in a single allocation in the desired order or would each step in the allocation need to be defined and generated separately.
From: "Donohue, Lynn " <ldonohue@kpmg.com>
If the second formula is dependent on the first formula, you have to do your steps in different batches, being sure the batches are generated in the correct order. Basically, if one allocation is a step down from another allocation, the first allocation would have to be run AND POSTED before the second allocation could be run (the second allocation would not have the balance to begin from until the first allocation has been generated and posted, to put that balance where the next allocation starts).
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From: "Waldman, Dianne" <dwaldman@dreamworks.com">>
Beware if you use summary accounts that it can double the balances shown in your ad hoc queries. We use Noetix Views and Discoverer and created a query asking for the balances of certain accounts. Until we added a specific condition to exclude summary accounts, the balances retrieved were exactly double what they should have been.
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Q. Our company has decided to change its fiscal calendar from Feb 1-Jan 31 to Jan 1-Dec 31. Jan-99 (Period 12) is already OPEN and has transactions posted against it. The change will be made beginning February 1, 1999. We are trying to determine the impact of this change and how best to modify our calendar.
From: Nicolas Woollaston <NWoollaston@swichtec.co.nz>
We have just been through the same thing. The approach used was to create a new set of books with the new calendar. The journals were copied across and the id's on the SOBs and calendars were then swapped (so that the subledger interfaces wouldn't have to be changed). We have ended up with two SOBs, one for each calendar, so that we can report out of either for the overlapping period.
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Q. When building a row set (or any component), Oracle GL for FSGs has an auto copy feature. Does that exist in GLDI Report wizard, and if so, how do you do it?
From: "Mike Figalora" <Mfigalor@Estee.com>
When selecting a report, you have the option to make a copy of it when bringing it into Excel. GLDI will automatically rename all the report components with a date and time stamp name. You can also set it to make a copy every time you bring a report into Excel, so you cannot mistakenly change a production report
From: Joe Maliszewski <jmaliszewski@csi.com>
In GLDI select Load Existing Report component. Then click on the Make a Copy? check box. Then it will load an exist report as a copy. I only have 4.0 but I believe this functionality is available in earlier versions.
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From: Jpkozicki@aol.com
The best method of prohibiting users from entering certain values is to create security rules and assign them to responsibilities. For example, you could create a security rule to only let a GL user enter accounts for a specific company or a specific company/cost center combination. The security rules you develop must be tied to new responsibilities that you need to create. You can create a new responsibility using existing responsibilities as templates.
AR
Q. Our problem is we have collectors who can be assigned to many customers. When the collector leaves the company a new collector is assigned. What is an easy way to change the collectors name without having to pull up each individual customer and making the change? We are using one profile class so we can't make the change through there.
From: Margaret.Whitefield@ps.net
Instead of setting up collector name to be based on an individuals name, make them specific to the type of customers supported or generic collector names. My clients customer base covers all of the U.S. and the collector names used are like North, Northeast, South, Southeast, etc.
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Q. Can anyone explain the process to put an invoice in dispute in AR?
From: "Kotla, Venkat" <Venkat.Kotla@ceridian.com>
Go to Collections --> Account Details form. Find your invoice and put a number in dispute amount field. It inserts a record in AR_DISPUTE_HISTORY table and puts the invoice under dispute. However, the amount_due_remaining field is not affected when you put an invoice under dispute.
From: "Jagannathan, Ravi" <RJagannathan@prcnet.com>
To place an item in dispute:
Alternate method:
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Q. We are implementing lockbox . We want an overpaid amount to become "On Account" instead of "Unapplied". Is there any setup needs to be done to make this or there any work around for this problem?
From: "Rapavi, David" <drapavi@kpmg.com>
To get the additional amount of the receipt paid to go On-Account rather than to Unapplied, simply setup an AutoCash Rule Set and indicate that the "Remaining Remittance Amount" goes to "On-Account" in the Automatic Matching Rule zone.
Note: if your Lock box file includes a transaction number, the above will not work. The extra amount will automatically go into "Unapplied" and the user will have to manually apply this to On Account.
MFG Apps
INV
Q. I would like your opinions on the merits of combining categories in to one 'large' category versus having three or four small ones.
From: Harry Swallow <harry.swallow@interpath.net>
I think it really depends on the specifics of your requirements. If your Buyers want to 'group' Items a certain way, but the Planners, or the Cost Accountants, or the folks in the Customer Service Department want to see Items grouped differently, then multiple Category Sets would be called for, in order to satisfy everybody's requirements. If all interested parties can agree on how Items are to be categorized, then one 'large' Category Set may be adequate. I don't think Item creation or maintenance is much of an issue. Having 'user friendly' Categories that allow your various user-groups to do their jobs effectively is more important.
From: "Dale Peterson " <dalepeterson@rocketmail.com>
It is usually more advantageous to have multiple single segment Categories than one or two multi-segment Categories because:
In some cases, where certain corporate standard combinations are predefined and must be followed throughout the business (such as Purchasing Commodities) then it makes sense to create a 3 or 4 segment Category. However, I would then recommend that BOTH the multi-segment Category Set and all of the individual segment's Category Sets be loaded and maintained where applicable. Even though this requires a little more maintenance it gives the users the best of BOTH possibilities since now a user can run any standard or custom report by a single segment or by a multi-segment combination.
Work Flow
The work flow enabled applications in R11 are, PO, GL, PA, AP, HR, Account Generator, Service, ENG, Web Employees, Web Customers, and Web Suppliers.
Work flow is not the same as Alert. Alert is still used in R11 to detect database events.
Support
The entire Release 11 documentation library (not including TRMs) is available on MetaLink in Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) format.
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The definition of a bug is when the software doesn’t work as designed and as described in the documentation.
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MetaLink provides the ability to view all known bugs and the bug headers. If you find a bug header that might be applicable to your site, contact support for more details.
Extensions
There is a white paper about setting up an applications development environment for the internet computing model. See MetaLink for a copy of this paper.
From: Madhu Sheela <smadhu@cisco.com>
If you want to access the request id of the concurrent program inside the sql script...then create a non displayable parameter with 10 characters in length and should be defined as constant with value in the next field as &reqid (exactly like that).
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From: Madhu Sheela <smadhu@cisco.com>
You can register tables and columns using the following packages :
Consulting
The www.bosscorporation.com web site has been rebuilt in the last month. It is now designed to present tips and news about the Oracle Applications. Enjoy.
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Each project, including upgrades, should have a central point for issues – things that don’t work, TARs, and project log items. In a typical project, this log will have more than 100 items.
Call for Contributions
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We need your contributions to keep the content of this news letter fresh and topical.
If you run across something in your daily interaction with the Oracle Applications that makes you think "isn’t that clever, strange, well done, impressive, difficult, etc." drop me a note and we will share it with our readers. We especially appreciate contributions for manufacturing and project accounting applications.
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Please, send me an e-mail to Jim.Crum@bosscorporation.com or FAX to BOSS Corporation at 770-622-5400. Thanks!
ATL-OAUG
Administration
You are welcome to correspond by email
Coordinator: Brenda Carlton, KPMG Consulting (bcarlton@sprynet.com)
Web and List Administrator: Nick Chase, CSA (nchase@csac.com
Newsletter editor: Jim Crum, BOSS Corp (Jim.Crum@bosscorporation.com)
Audiovisual Equipment: Toni Cobb, Caribiner International
Liaison Member: Volunteer needed from each company to spread meeting info
Host Companies/Speakers: Volunteers (How about You?)
Last Meeting 3/19
See www.atloaug.org for presentations
"Oracle's Front Office Applications" Michelle Rubio-Cegelka, Oracle Corp
"Enforcing and Resolving Data Integrity in an Information Management Architecture" Mark Poling, AnswerThink Consulting
"Upgrading the Oracle Applications: Going Beyond the Technical Upgrade" Robert Cooney, KPMG Consulting
General Business - Brenda Carlton, KPMG Brenda gave an update of OAUG activities including the SEOUC conference held last month and the upcoming OAUG conference in San Diego next month. The deadline for the "call for papers" for the Sept Orlando conference is ~3 weeks after the San Diego conference. Brenda also presented a video screencam of how to log into the "members only" section of www.oaug.org and perform a search on papers presented at the '96 - '98 conferences. A search engine is available by topic, author, company, module, etc.
Panel members are needed for the ED/EDI panel at the May 21 meeting. Send an email to bcarlton@sprynet.com to volunteer.
Remaining 1999 Meetings: May 21, Jun 18, Aug 20, Oct 15, Nov 19
Volunteers are needed to speak in '99. Send an email to bcarlton@sprynet.com. Member spotlight companies are also needed for each meeting.
Liaison Contact: A person is needed at each ATL-OAUG member company. One liaison is needed from each company to forward Atl-OAUG notifications and newsletters to the other Oracle users/consultants within your company. Consultants are encouraged to invite their clients to Atl-OAUG.
Thanks! Thanks to St. Paul Software for providing us with the conference space, refreshments and door prizes.
50 attendees were present.