FSG Tips and Tricks

By Melanie Cameron

About Melanie Cameron

14 years experience with EBS Worked on every release since 10.6, oldest release was 9.x 20 years experience in Finance, including banking, mortgage, manufacturing, SOX compliance and IPOs 5 year member of the AZOAUG Board of Directors A Funcno Techno consultant who Prefers knitting over palm pilots

About MSS Technologies, Inc

Established in 1989 Located in Phoenix and Denver Deliver business application solutions to the Mid Market:
- ERP, BI, Data Warehousing, Application Development Services, Strategic IT Planning

MSS Vision:
- Innovate the way business management solutions are delivered and eliminate the word failure from the information systems vocabulary.

Tip #1

If it works.. Dont change it

Anatomy of an FSG

Account Override Options

On Report enter Segment Override Add a Content Set When running, add Segment Override or Content Set On Column Set Add Override Value Remember, a segment must be included at the Lowest level to be Overridden at a Higher level!

Row Sets

Define Row Sets

Account Assignments

Calculations
Using Row Numbers:

Using Row Names:

Row Tips
Number your Lines 10, 20, 30
- Leave Room for growth

Skip and Page Break be consistent on Before and After

- Easier to create consistent looking reports

Row Names in Calculates are easier to see what the calculation is doing
- WARNING: sometimes this leads to inaccurate results when adding Rows that have Calculations in them

Row Tips
Use Display Zero to add proofing rows or columns to your report
- They display only when there is a problem Assets does not equal Liabilities plus Owners Equity, or a zero balance account is not zero

Using ICM? If this is an audited Financial Statement, or one that is linked to your controls, you may want to use Ranges instead of Parent accounts
- ICM will not see all the Child accounts under a parent, only the Parent Account, which is not the account being audited nor the one that relates to the control

Column Sets

Define Column Sets

Budgets and Forecasts?

Define Control Values on the Report and select them on the Row and Column Sets to determine which budget numbers are used on the Report

What goes on a Column set vs Row set?

Column Set Company or Dept assignments for column breakout Column Calculations Format Options Level of Detail Control Values Offsets Row Set Row Titles Account Assignments Row Calculations Format Options Level of Detail

Build Columns

Column Tips
Make the Number formats at least one over the largest current number
- Allows room for growth and formulas

When creating columns, assign them all a width of 10

- Use the Build Columns, you can adjust the widths in a graphical interface that gives a better visual image

Clicking on Build Column Set will override any previous column formats you had saved
- Not bad or good just something to be aware of

Content Sets

Content Set Tips

These are buggy! Sometimes they do not give you the results you expect if it works, leave it alone If a copied set gives different results, check the manual or a white paper, and only change the one that is wrong

Row Order

Row Order Tips

The Width on the row order sometimes needs to be 1 wider then the actual segment to display

ADI
Did you know you can define FSGs in ADI?

ADI Define Report

ADI Define Report

ADI Define Report

ADI Define Report

Maintenance
Auto Copy
- Will not copy over the same name in the target database

Database Links
- This requires the apps password if you setup a new user name and password, ensure it has the proper Write access

FSGs running slow

Remove any disabled companies from Content Sets Ensure all segments of the Accounting Key Flexfield are setup to be Indexed Run Program> Optimizer
- Gather Statistics - Re-indexes the Segments, or Indexes them if it was just turned on
Work with your DBA if this is the first time using this report or turning on Indexing

Hierarchy of Data
Request overrides everything Report overrides Components Content Set overrides Column and Row Sets

Row always overrides Column Amount Type Offset Control Value Format Factor Display Zero Level of Detail

Column always overrides Row Calculation when check box is checked Activity (DR, CR or Net)

No Override Rules
Accounts uses intersecting from Row and Column Summary must be same as Row and Column Currency must assign same currency for intersecting columns and row, or will display 0 Change Sign (and on Variance) Defaults to No, Yes anywhere will override

Running and Publishing Reports

Options:
- Concurrent Request
Formatting limited

- ADI
Runs as Excel or HTML Control questionable because it has 100% of Excel functionality Allows drill downs on lines that are Parent Accounts or Account Ranges for analysis purposes

- XML Publisher
Limits analysis available with ADI

Concurrent Request

ADI

XML Publisher

Differences?
ADI Can drill down XML Can publish securely Concurrent Manager Limited space and formatting

Whats coming in R12?

FSGs publish with Report Manager Users are working with Oracle to have ADI like features available

Questions?

Contact Information

Mcameron@msstech.com To Download a copy of the FSG Tips and Tricks White Paper: www.MSSTech.com and click on FSG White Paper