OverviewofReportinginGeneral Ledger

y y

GeneralLedgerprovidesyouwithavarietyofreportingcapabilities,includingtheFinancial StatementGenerator,onlineinquiries,andstandardreportsandlistings.

TheFinancialStatementGeneratorenablesyoutobuildyourowncustomreportswithout programming.Youcandefinereportswithcompletecontrolovertherows, columns,contents,andcalculationsinyourreport.

y Youcandefinereportstoreportacrossledgersinaledgerset.Youcanevenhave thesamereportbereusablefordifferentledgers,ledgersets,orreporting currencies. currencies y Youcanperformonlineinquiriestosearchfordetailedinformationquickly.For example,youcanperformanonlineinquiryofyouraccountbalancesorjournal entriesforaledger.Youcanalsoreviewanyofyourfinancialstatements, accounting i reports,orlistings li i online. li y GeneralLedger'sstandardaccountingreportsandlistingsincludetrialbalances, journals,generalledgers,accountanalysisreports,chartofaccountlistings,and more.Youcansettheruntimeoptions p fordetailorsummary yinformation, ,sort sequence,andtheselectionofdatayouwanttoseeonthereport.

OverviewoftheFinancial StatementGenerator
FinancialStatementGenerator(FSG)isapowerfulreport buildingtoolforOracleGeneralLedger.WithFSG,you can: y Generatefinancial f lreports,such hasincomestatementsand d balancesheets,basedupondatainyourgeneralledger acrossaledgersetoraledger. y Generate G presentation i quality li financial fi i lreportswith i hXML Publishersothatyoucanhavemorecontrolwithreport formattingoptions,includingchangingfont characteristics insertinggraphicalimagesorlogos characteristics, logos,and addingcolour y Designcustomfinancialreportstomeetspecificbusiness needs. needs

SimpleReports
y Thesimplestreportsconsistofafewheadingstodescribethe

informationinthereport, p followedby ythereport p data,whichisoften presentedintabularformasaseriesofintersectingrowsandcolumns. Therefore,simplereportsaretwodimensionalinnature,similartowhat youmightcreateinaspreadsheet.

y Therowsandcolumnsdeterminethevalueswhichappearinthebodyof

asimple p report, p by yvirtueoftheattributesthoserowsandcolumns possess.Forexample,considerarowwhoseattributeisthebalance sheetaccountnamedCash"andacolumnwhoseattributeisOct. 2010."Areport"cell"definedbytheintersectionofrow"Inventory"and column l Oct2010,"will llcontainthe h Cash hb balance l f forOctober b 2010

RowsandColumns
WithFSGyouusethisfundamentalrow/column concepttobuildyourownfinancialreports: y Decide D id which hi hrowsand dcolumns l will illmake k upyour report. y Definetherowsandcolumns, columns thentellFSGwhat attributesthoserowsandcolumnshave. y Buildareportusingthoserowsandcolumns.

RowSetsand dColumn l Sets

y FSGfurthersimplifiesreportbuildingbyallowingyouto

groupmultipleroworcolumndefinitionsinto"sets."For example,supposethatyou'vejustdefinedasimplereport which hi husestwo t columns l with ithth theattributes tt ib t "Y YearEnded E d d 12/31/95"and"YearEnded12/31/96."Yourealizethatyou mightwanttousethesetwocolumnsformanyother reportsbesidestheoneyou you've vejustdefined. defined consistsofthesetwocolumndefinitions. definitions Then, Then whenever youneedanewreportbasedonthesetwocolumns,you simplytellFSGtobuildareportusingthecolumnset.You candothesamething gwithg groups p ofrowdefinitions, ,and createRowSets.

y WithFSG,youcandefineandsaveaColumnSetwhich

DefiningRowsandRowSets,and AssigningAccounts
y Rowsaresubcomponentsofrowsets.Theyaredefined

whenyoucreateanewrowset.
y Eachrowdefinitionforasimplereportincludes,ata

minimum: Asequencenumbertoindicateitsorderintherowset. Anaccountassignment(aledgerspecificationanda rangeofaccounts)oradescription.Youusea descriptionrowtodisplayasubheadingimmediately aboveagroupofrelatedrows.

E l Row R Set S tDefinition D fi iti Example:

Inthisexample,thereportlinesgeneratedbytherowdefinition with ithsequencenumber b 10will illappearfi first tonthe th report, t f followed ll d bythereportlinesfortherowwithsequence20,then30,then40. ThedataforthesereportlinesarederivedfromtheVisionUS ledger.

Display sp ayTypes ypes

Whenyoumakeanaccountassignmenttoarowdefinition, y youalsospecify p yoneofthreedisplay p ytypes yp foreach segmentoftheaccountstructure.Thedisplaytypecontrols thelevelofdetailFSGwillshowonyourreportfor individualreport p lines:
y Expand:Yourreportwillincludeonelineforeachvalueof

theaccountsegment y Total:Yourreportwillincludeonlyonelineforthat segment,whichisthetotaloftheamountsforallvaluesof the h accountsegment. y Both:Yourreportwillincludeboththeexpandeddetail andthetotal

B i R tF tti Basic Report Formatting

y Inasimplereport,thestandardcolumnsetyouchoosedeterminesthe y y y y

basicdataitemformatting,suchaswhethertodisplayacurrency symbolorhowmanydecimalpositionstoinclude.Standardcolumn predefinedcolumnheadings. g setsalsohavep Rowlabels,aswellasthecolumnheadingsabovetherowlabels,are insertedintoyourreportbyFSGautomatically. TheReportTitle,whichyouspecifywhenyoudefinethereport'srow set isalsoaddedautomatically, set, automatically alongwiththedate/timethereportis printed,pagenumbers,andthecurrentperiod. Otherformattingwhichyoucontrolforsimplereportsincludes indenting,lineskippingbetweenrows,underlinecharacters(for subtotals bt t l and dt totals), t l ) and dpageb breaks. k Formoreformattingoptionssuchaschangingfontcharacteristics,you canuseXMLPublishertopublishyourFSGreportwithadesigned y andformat.UseXMLPublishertoapply pp yabasicreport p template p layout layoutandformattoyourFSGreport.

DefiningReports
y DefiningasimpleFSGreportisquiteeasyonceyou've

definedyourrowsandrowset. set
y You ouo only yhave avetog give vet the ereport epo tde definition t o aname a ea and d

optionaldescription,thenassignyourrowsetanda standardcolumnsettoit.
y That'sallthereistoit.Oncedefined,youcangenerate

thereport p atany ytimeby ytelling gFSGtorunit

ColumnDefinitionArea
y Foreachcolumndefinition,youenterfourpiecesof

information;Sequencenumber, number Name, Name AmountType, Type and PeriodOffset.

y Unlikerowsequencenumbers,columnsequencenumbers

donotcontroltheorderFSGdisplaysreportcolumns.
y Columnsaredisplayedonyourreportsinexactlytheorder

theyappearintheColumnSetBuilderwindow.
y Yourefertoacolumn'ssequencenumberwhenyoudefine

calculationsinanothercolumn

ColumnDefinitionArea
y Otherthanformatmasksandrelativeheadings,themostimportant

thingtonoteaboutcreatingcolumnheadingsisthepositioningof columnsacrossthereport.Twofactorscontrolthis:

LeftMargin:Thisisthestartingpositionoftheleftmostcolumn,to

reservespaceforFSGtoprintyourreport'srowlabels. ColumnWidth:Eachcolumnhasaspecificnumberofprintpositions defined,knownasthecolumnwidth.Thewidthmustbelargeenough toholdallprintablecharacters,includingcurrencysymbols,decimal points,andnumberseparators. p p

y Thereisalsoamarginareaatthelefttodefinethereportareasabove

therowlabelsandtotheleftofthecolumnheadings,arulertohelp layoutheadings, headings andheadingdefinitionsforeachcolumnofthereport report.

FormatMasks
y Aformatmaskdefineshownumbersaredisplayedin

yourreports.Youcanspecifynumbers,decimal places,currencysymbols,andotherdisplaycharacters. Forexample,ifyouuseaformatmaskof$99,999,999, FSGwilldisplaythenumber4234941as$4,234,941.

y Themostimportantthingtorememberwhenusing

formatmasksistomakesureyouincludeenough spaceinyourcolumndefinitiontoprintallthe numbersandspecialcharactersallowedbytheformat maskyouuse. use

ColumnHeadings
y Headingscanincludeanyalphabeticornumeric

characters. h They Th mayalso l include i l d special i lcharacters, h exceptfortheampersandsymbol(&).

y FSGalsoprovidesadefaultheadingoption,whichyou

canuseasisormodifytobuildacustomheading.

ColumnDefinitionArea...
y Recallthatmostcolumnsaredefinedusinganamounttype.GeneralLedgerprovides

numerousamounttypes,whichdefineaperiodtypeandbalancetype.Forexample,the amounttypeQTDActualspecifiesaquarterlyperiodtypeandactualbalances.The amounttypeYTDEncumbrancespecifiesayearlyperiodtypeandencumbrancebalances.

y FSGusesthePeriodOffsettodeterminewhichspecificperiods'balancestoincludeona

report.Periodoffsetsarespecifiedrelativetotheperiodyouspecifywhenyourequest thatFSGrunareport.Forexample,ifyouwantareportofmonthlycashbalancesfor January,1996throughDecember,1996,theperiodofinterestisDEC1996.

y Ifoneofyourcolumndefinitionshasaperiodoffsetof6,FSGwilldisplaythecash

b l balances for f J June,1996 6i inth that tcolumn l

RelativeHeadings
y YouuseFSG'sRelativeHeadingsfeaturetodefinedynamicheadingswhose

contentchangesdependingonsomevalueyouprovidewhenyourequestthe report.

y Youdefinerelativeheadingsbycombining: Anampersand(&) Identifiesthefollowingtokenandnumberasarelative

heading. g Atoken Representingperiodofinterest(POI),constantperiodofinterest (CPOI),constantdayofinterest(CDOI),budget(BUDGET),encumbrance (ENCUMBRANCE),orcurrency(CURRENCY).Themostoftenusedtokenis POI. Anumber ForPOIrelativeheadings,thenumberisaperiodoffset.

y Forexample,&POI10indicatesthetenthperiodbeforetheperiodofinterest.

&POI+6or&POI6indicatesthesixthperiodfollowingtheperiodofinterest. POI0istheperiodofinterest

Calculations
y Youcancreatearoworcolumndefinitiontocalculate

valueswhicharethendisplayedonyourreport.Thisis especiallyusefulforaddingsubtotals,totals,variances,and percentagestoyour ourreports. reports Youcanalsocreatenon displayedrowsorcolumnstoholdtheresultsof intermediatecalculations,thatareusedinother calculations. calculations y Aswithclientbasedspreadsheetprograms,youcanuse otherrowsorcolumnsinyourcalculations.Forexample, youcandefineacalculatedrowwhichaddsarangeofother rowstoarriveatasubtotal.Or,youcandefineacalculated columnwhichsubtractsonecolumnfromanothertoyield avariancecolumn.

ContentSets
y Byassigningacontentsettoareportrequest,youcangenerate

hundredsofsimilarreportsinasinglerun.Thecontentset controlshowthenumerousreportsdifferfromeachother.

y Forexample,assumeyourorganizationhasaledgerwith50

departmentsandthatDepartmentisoneofyouraccount segments.AlsoassumethatyoualreadyhaveanFSGreportfor travelexpenses,whichyourunweekly.Byusingacontentset withyourexistingreportdefinition,youcanprintatravel expensereportforeachdepartment,inonereportrequest.You canthendistributethereportstothe50departmentmanagers forreviewpurposes. byoverridingtherowsetdefinitionofanexistingreport.

y Contentsetsaresimilartorowsetsandactuallyworktheirmagic

ReportSets
y Youwillprobablywanttorunmanyreportsatthe

sametime,perhapsinaspecificsequentialorder.
y WithFSGyoudefineareportsettoaccomplishthis.

Thereportsetdefinitionincludesanameand description,thenameofeachreporttoincludeinthe set,andasequence q numberforeachreport. p

y Onceyou'vedefinedareportset,youcanrunallofthe

relatedreportswithasinglerequest.

SchedulingReports
y GeneralLedgerincludesaprogramnamedRun

FinancialStatementGeneratorwhichyoucanuseto runyourFSGreports. y TheprimaryadvantagetorunningFSGreportsthis way(ratherthanusingtheRunFinancialReports window) i d )i isthat h youcanschedule h d l reportstorunon specificdatesandatspecifictimes. y Youcanalsospecifyhowoftenyouwantthereport requestssubmitted.Onceyousetupscheduledreport runs,therelatedreportswillbeprocessed automatically withoutanyfurtherworkonyourpart automatically, part.

AdHocReports
y WithFSGyoucancreateadhocreportstomeet

specialreportingneedswhereyoudon'twanttocreate apermanentreportdefinition. definition y Forexample,youmightgetarequestfromyour organization's organization sControllertoproduceaonetime analysisreportoftravelrelatedexpenses. y Whentheadhocreport p iscomplete, p y youwantto deleteit.

TipsandTechniquesforUsingFSG
TheFinancialStatementGeneratorReportBuildingProcess y BeforeyoudefineareportinFinancialStatementGenerator, draftitonpaper.Thiswillhelpyouplanyourreport'sformat andcontentandsaveyoutimelater. later
y Definerowsetsthatspecifytheformatandcontentofyour

reportrows. rows Typicalrowsetsincludelineitems, items accounts, accounts and calculationrowsfortotals. reportcolumns.

y Definecolumnsetsthatspecifytheformatandcontentofyour y Typical yp columnsetsincludeheadings, g ,currency yassignments, g ,

amounttypes,andcalculationcolumnsfortotals.