In the first blog post of this three-part Solution Highlight series featuring a proven leader in defense-grade, high assurance cyber security solutions, I will cover Oracle Revenue Management.  My colleague, Mehmet Erisen will share his views on Global Supply Chain Management including Manufacturing with OSP and intercompany order fulfillment across business units featuring Oracle Supply Chain Management. We’ll round out the series with the third and final blog post focused on Salesforce to Order Cloud integration. 

About Our Client: a trailblazer in the cyber security space, our client needed the ability to automate its complex and manual revenue allocation processes. 

Challenge

• Manual revenue recognition processes leading to errors and delays 

• Difficulty in complying with ASC 606 / IFRS 15 standards 

• Lack of real-time visibility into revenue reporting 

Solution

Implemented Oracle Revenue Management – Managing Bundles and Stand-alone Selling Price (SSP)  

Oracle Fusion ERP provides robust functionality for managing and automating the implementation of product bundles and determining the SSP for revenue recognition under ASC 606 and IFRS 15 standards. Key highlights include: 

• Revenue Management: Automates revenue processing tasks, minimizing manual interventions, allowing organizations to comply efficiently and consistently with the ASC 606 and IFRS 15 core principles 

• Bundling Capabilities: Allows seamless configuration and management of product/service bundles with clear pricing structures 

• Automation and Scalability: Automates complex revenue allocation processes, improving efficiency and scalability 

• Real-time Analytics: Provides insights into sales trends and SSP analysis, enabling data-driven pricing strategies 

Benefits

• Reduced Manual Effort – Eliminated spreadsheet-based tracking 

• Improved Accuracy – Minimized revenue leakage and misreporting 

• Faster Close Cycles – Automated recognition speeds up month-end close 

• Regulatory Compliance – Ensured adherence to ASC 606 / IFRS 15 

• Enhanced Visibility – Real-time insights into revenue performance 

Oracle Revenue Management Cloud enables organizations to automate revenue recognition, reduce compliance risks, and gain real-time financial insights. This solution delivers value for companies with complex revenue streams, such as SaaS, manufacturing, and professional services. 

This solution is particularly effective for companies looking to streamline revenue recognition while maintaining compliance and operational efficiency.  

Let me know if you’d like a deeper dive into any of these features! 

It’s 1099 season – is your ERP ready?

It only takes a few simple steps to verify your data and make sure you are fully prepared to meet the IRS deadline to publish your 1099’s.

Step 1:

Validate that your “Reporting Entities” are setup, and that they have assigned “Balancing Segments”.   A reporting entity contains the federal reporting number.  It will logically group your 1099’s by paying company from the payables invoices lines.

Step 2:

Validate that your 1099 Suppliers contain one “site” flagged as a “tax site”, that it has a “Tax Type” assigned, such as “MISC7”, a country code, and a Tax ID number on the Supplier Profile page.  If there is a “Tax Reporting Name” that is different from the Supplier Name (such as a DBA), verify it is populated with the correct data.

Step 3:

Create and Pay invoices.  Validate that the line items on the invoice contain “MISC7”.  To validate these invoices will be picked up on a 1099, run the report: US 1099 Payment Report.  To determine why something is missing, you can run the following helpful reports:

• US 1099 Invoice Exceptions Report
• US 1099 Supplier Exceptions Report

If you have already created invoices BEFORE your supplier settings were updated, you can run the process “Update Income Tax Details”, which will retroactively populate tax data on your invoices based on the new supplier information.

For more useful tips and tricks, contact Perficient today, respond to this blog, or email matt.makowsky@perficient.com for a free 1 hour consultation.

#oraclecloud

#oracleerp

#1099

#oraclefinancials

#oraclesupport

At Perficient, we revolutionize the world’s leading brands, how they engage with their customers, and propel their business forward. Our global footprint across the U.S., Latin America, and India empowers us to redefine excellence throughout the industry.

Behind these transformative journeys are our thousands of skilled strategists and technologists, each individually equipped with a wealth of expertise. We believe in the power of collaboration at Perficient, and our thought leaders work together to cultivate connections with global industry analysts across Forrester, Gartner, IDC and more.

In 2023, we’ve adapted, thrived, and secured 35 analyst report inclusions – 22 highlighting our success in the third and fourth quarters. Continue reading to learn more about Perficient’s most noteworthy successes in the second half of 2023.

Perficient Named a Major Player in IDC MarketScapes for Experience Build and Design Services

Perficient has been named a Major Player in the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Experience Build Services 2023–2024 Vendor Assessment and IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Experience Design Services 2023–2024 Vendor Assessment reports. These IDC MarketScapes highlight leading global providers of experience build and experience design services, offering a framework for organizations to compare vendors based on their product and service offerings, capabilities, strategies, and current/future market success factors.

“It’s an honor to be recognized as a Major Player in these IDC MarketScape reports, as we believe this distinction is a testament to Perficient’s global breadth and depth and highlights our focus on digital experience as a key differentiator for our clients’ strategies. As a trusted partner in the experience build and design space, Perficient delivers expertise in personalization, data and analytics, service design, and product design. Our industry experience, real-world innovations, and intellectual property, such as Envision Online, transforms our clients’ organizations and provides enhanced experiences for all users.”

Jim Hertzfeld, principal of digital strategy, Perficient

READ MORE: Perficient Named a Major Player in Two Global IDC MarketScape Reports

The IDC MarketScape for Experience Build Services notes, “As an independent digital experience agency, Perficient combines business and technology transformation capabilities including a robust collection of supporting assets and tools, with a focus on the design and build of customer experiences.”

The IDC MarketScape for Experience Design Services outlines that Perficient’s network of global innovation centers “aim to foster creativity, experimentation, collaboration, and continuous improvement among clients, and encourage the development of cutting-edge technologies and solutions.”

Highlighting Perficient in Forrester Landscape Reports

Perficient was listed in The Commerce Services Landscape and The Digital Transformation Services Landscape in Q3 2023, and our geographic focus in four regions – North America, Europe, Middle East & Africa, Asia Pacific, and Latin America – was recognized in the Digital Transformation Services report. As a dynamic, global organization, we believe that with our cohesive integrated strategy, we can deliver from any of our geographic locations and bring together the best team and the best value for the customer.

In addition to these Q3 inclusions, Perficient was also listed in The Application Modernization And Migration Services Landscape, Q4 2023 report, and is shown for having selected Infrastructure modernization, Applications rationalization/retirement, and Cloud-native development execution as top reasons clients engage with us. Perficient was most recently included in The Continuous Automation And Testing Services Landscape, Q4 2023 report, noting our geographic focus in North America, Asia Pacific and Latin America, which we believe is a testament to our global delivery expertise. In addition to the core business scenarios identified in the report, we are also shown for having selected Visual testing, Cloud migration testing, and IoT and embedded application testing as top reasons clients work with us. We believe these core and extended business scenarios provide insight into Perficient’s comprehensive testing capabilities.

LEARN MORE: Perficient’s Quality Assurance and Test Automation Services

Perficient Experts Contributing to Forrester Research

Throughout 2023, Perficient experts have been quoted in numerous Forrester reports, contributing insights and diverse industry expertise, spanning areas such as accessibility, healthcare, and developer experience. One colleague was quoted in Forrester’s report, Five Levers Of Developer Experience For Developers, providing insights on how teams can establish best practices for communication. In addition to this Forrester quote, Perficient was listed as a company interviewed for all four reports in this series of research: Five Levers Of Developer Experience For Developers, Developer Advocates, Vendors, and Leaders.

We also had two of Perficient’s healthcare experts quoted in Forrester’s Clinician Technology Adoption Hinges On A Clinician-Centered Strategy report. Priyal Patel MHA, director and healthcare strategist emphasized, “When you don’t have a strategy, technology doesn’t do what it needs to do. You can have the most amazing technology, but if you don’t implement it correctly with the right strategy, or create the necessary change management to support it, it won’t work.” Kristina Kaufmann MS RN, lead business consultant agreed, pointing out the importance to “Connect the dots between different units. If you have different units doing different things, you cannot scale. They need to talk.”

READ MORE: Perficient Mentioned in Two Forrester Reports on Tech-Enabled Clinician Experiences

Marybeth Wrabel, senior solutions architect, was quoted in Forrester’s Health Plans Can Reach New Heights (And Connections) In Digital Member Engagement report emphasizing that healthcare consumers seek providers who create seamless experiences.

“Why would members spend time engaging with their health plan if they don’t see the benefit in doing so?”

An Honorable Mention in a Gartner® Magic Quadrant

Perficient was notably included as an Honorable Mention in the 2023 Gartner® Magic Quadrant for Cloud ERP Services for Service-Centric Enterprises, published November 20, 2023. We believe this recognition is a testament to our innovation in the Cloud ERP landscape, underscoring our commitment to delivering exceptional solutions.

In addition to this accolade, Perficient was also included in various Gartner® Toolkits, which are designed to assist enterprise leaders with the vendor selection process. Most recently, Perficient was included in the Gartner® Toolkit: Vendor Identification and Selection Guide for AI and Data and Analytics (D&A) Service Providers, published October 18, 2023. Perficient’s experts help clients transform data and integrate AI to unlock actionable business insights, and we believe this Toolkit inclusion confirms our ability to deliver these transformative results.

Elevating Perficient’s Presence in the Global Analyst Community

Beyond the reports highlighted in this blog, we’ve had several additional report inclusions from Forrester, Gartner and IDC that fuel our expanding presence and influence within global analyst communities. Visit our Analyst Coverage page to see additional 2023 inclusions and to stay up to date with future mentions that exemplify Perficient’s prominent position in the industry.

Gartner delivers actionable, objective insight to executives and their teams. Its expert guidance and tools enable faster, smarter decisions and stronger performance on an organization’s mission-critical priorities, and Gartner included Perficient in Honorable Mentions in the 2023 Magic Quadrant for Cloud ERP Services for Service-Centric Enterprises, published November 20, 2023.

The 2023 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Cloud ERP Services for Service-Centric Enterprises defines “Cloud ERP services for service-centric enterprises as services provided by third-party systems integrators to assess needs, implement solutions and evolve platforms that are transforming their back-office systems via the implementation of cloud-based ERP solutions. Service-centric enterprises are organizations that typically focus on service (nonproduct) industries.”

According to Gartner, “Service-centric enterprises engage services for cloud ERP applications to modernize their ERPs and drive better business outcomes. IT leaders should use this Magic Quadrant to evaluate vendors of cloud ERP services as part of a composable ERP strategy.”

We are excited about our presence in this Magic Quadrant report, and we believe this recognition is a testament to our innovation in the Cloud ERP landscape, which we think is underscoring our commitment to delivering exceptional solutions. We believe our enterprise resource planning team of ERP cloud architects bring deep expertise to help transform business processes to support faster and better decisions for organizations to scale and grow.

To access this complete report and others, visit gartner.com. The full report is available for purchase or free to Gartner subscribers. You can find the report directly at: 2023 Magic Quadrant for Cloud ERP Services for Service-Centric Enterprises.

To delve into Perficient’s ERP capabilities and connect with our experienced ERP consultants, learn more here.

Gartner Disclaimer:

Gartner Magic Quadrant for Cloud ERP Services for Service-Centric Enterprises, 20 November 2023
Analysts: Alan Stanley, Denis Torii, Eric Cheung, Brett Sparks, Danny Kreidy, Irada Veliyeva.

Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally, and MAGIC QUADRANT is a registered trademark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates and are used herein with permission. All rights reserved.

The Period End Close Challenge

As an EBS consultant for the last 20 years, one of the hardest parts of my job has been explaining the period end process.

The reconciliation reports, roll forwards, the disparate screens, lack of consistency across the modules. Don’t get me started on inventory, with its archaic requirement to close each inventory organization on its own.  Manage 2000 warehouses and let me know how that works out for you.

Cloud is a Game Changer

The game in Cloud has changed. Oracle has provided Period Close Monitor, easy to use dashboards and reconciliation tools, manage by exception capabilities.  It’s *almost*all at your fingertips.

I feel confident Oracle will continue to streamline it in future releases.

Period End Close Monitor

The Period Close Monitor allows a quick and immediate snapshot of all the sub-ledgers, with actionable capability so *exceptions* can be dealt with in *real time*.  You can see record counts of not accounted transactions or transactions not yet transferred to general ledger.  You can *drill* into the records and see the specific issues so you can resolve them.  No need to dig through reports.

Reconciliations on Demand

In Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable, there’s a reconciliation dashboard which performs two functions at one time: Reconciles the AP/AR trial balance to the GL Balance – with drill down capability to see the differences, in categorized buckets (manual journals, for example).  And the roll-forward takes you from the previous months ending balance to the current months ending balance.  Each element of the formula is drillable so you can see each transaction that makes up the total.  Of course, you can always fall back on the standard reports for validation or supporting documentation.  Each reconciliation may be saved for future audit, by simply running the “reconciliation extract” process and giving it a unique name such as “AP-JUL-2018”.  Doing this means you don’t have to dig through cabinets of reports or network drives to find what you did last summer.  Yes, Oracle knows what you did last summer.

Room For Improvement

Fixed Assets, while included in the close monitor, does not yet have a reconciliation dashboard.  This is one area I hope Oracle makes some improvement on.  All the traditional reports were brought forward from EBS.  One new thing Oracle has done in cloud, as of Release 13 – You can now re-open the previous period if no transactions were yet created in the new period – Nice improvement over EBS!  There is also a new feature to  “Manage All Books” where you can quickly run create accounting, copy to tax books, run depreciation, close the periods all from one screen, for each FA Book!  Just select the book and click the buttons.  If only we could get those reconciliation dashboards!

A Huge Leap Forward

The most significant improvement is BY FAR the Inventory month end close process. Let me explain: There is NO inventory month end process.  Let me explain further.  If you have 1 or 1000 inventory organizations, you have no inventory close process.  You can transact in inventory to the end of time, without ever worrying about close – separating operations from accounting and finance.  Sheer brilliance.

This is what an ERP should be – a masterpiece of integration minus obstruction.  How did Oracle do this?  Simple.  They moved all the accounting functions into the brand new Costing module.  Costing now controls all of the accounting and period end processes.  The close process is conducted at he “Cost Book” level, which ostensibly means, as long as all your inventory organizations belong to the same Cost Book (within a country), there is only one single inventory close.  ONE. SINGLE. INVENTORY. CLOSE.  Every inventory transaction is interfaced over to costing.  The costing engine runs.  Any errors sit in the costing close.  Allowing operations to move forward, without getting caught up in the costing process.  As with EBS, standard costs can be added in after the fact, and the costing engine will correct any errors as corrections are made in real time.    Operations is now free from the financial burden of their month end duties.

The second biggest improvement is the month end accrual process for expense.  As with Inventory, Oracle has essentially removed the month end close from Procurement.  Let me say that again: There is no month end process for procurement.  In the Costing tool, financial analysts can run the month end accrual processes on demand, whether AP is closed or not.  As AP Invoices are matched to PO’s or receipts, they fall off the next accrual report and accounting entries are created automatically.

With these changes in the period close process,  there are fewer dependencies between operations and finance teams, placing all the tools the finance department needs in the finance departments hands.  This is how it should be – a 100% top down view, without bogging down operations – they have product to ship, and how many times have I heard in the realm of EBS – “My operations teams are not filled with CPAs”.  Cloud ERP is about efficiency, and it has achieved it.

Speaking of dependencies, given the new structure, there are far fewer dependencies between the modules as well, however common sense still prevails.  You can close FA any time, but you still shouldn’t close it before AP.  You will still more than likely follow the traditional sequence, starting with AP and AR.  Costing can be done any time, just keep running the integration between inventory and costing daily.

For assistance with your period end – contact PERFICIENT!  We are ready to assist you *right now*!

In my previous blog posts (Part 1 and Part 2), I reviewed the steps to configure the system, so it will read the bank transaction codes. Now I will review the import and upload process, which is the final step in manually loading your bank statements. The process is very simple because it is similar to the process for loading any FBDI or other zip files to the system. Before we get into these steps, first let me give you a few tips on how to be efficient with this whole process.

1. Download your files from the bank website in bulk. You should be able to download several bank accounts at once with a specified date range. By doing this, you can download all of your accounts for a full month, or possibly several months, depending on the limitations brought on by your bank. One of my clients had over 30 bank accounts and they were able to download a month’s worth of statements for all of them at once.
2. If each bank account’s statements download in separate files, just copy and paste the data into one file. This allows you to make one import/upload.
3. You MUST save the files in .txt format, then again as a .zip file. Fusion will not be able to read anything in the actual BAI format, but it can read .txt format.
4. When saving the files and the zip file, do not leave any spaces between the characters of the file name. For example, “BBVA JAN 2017” will not work, but “BBVA-JAN-2017” will. Don’t worry, though, if you upload with spaces, the process will end in error and the log file will tell you this is the issue.

Now that we’ve hit some key success tips, I’ll walk you through the import/upload process.

First, go to the “File Import and Export” screen and load using the ‘fin/cashManagement/import’ account option.

Then, go to “Scheduled Processes.” You will use the ‘Load Interface File for Import’ process, then use the ‘Process BAI2 Format Bank Statements’ as the Import Process and choose your zip file as the Data File.

If you do happen to receive errors or a warning, go to the Bank Statements and Reconciliation work area to see if the ‘Import error’ link gives you a reason for the rejection. If you see it’s because there is a missing transaction code, go add the transaction code, then click the Retry icon to resubmit the import process for that statement. Please see my previous blogs Part 1 and Part 2 for steps on adding transaction codes.

If no errors exist, you can start reconciling your statements right away! Notice that as you start reconciling, you can track how many lines are still unreconciled for each date (statement).

In the upcoming blogs, I’ll cover the reconciliation process along with autoreconciliation rules. You’ll be clearing out your statements in no time!

Now that you know where you need to add transaction codes in your Fusion instance, you must now make sure you classify them appropriately. In case you don’t already know, Oracle reads bank statements at both the header and line level, so you must add the codes to the proper mapping groups in the Manage Code Map Groups task.

Unfortunately, Oracle only provides a seeded balance code group with seeded values, as seen below:

Since you are defining these codes manually, you must also create a transaction code group. Best practice from Oracle suggests using the naming convention of CE_TRX_CODE, like so:

Go ahead and check the box for “Return Input if No Match” so that if there are errors reading these codes the statement lines can still be loaded with reasons provided for the errors. For example, if CE_TRX_CODE mapping does not include code 275, the system will load the statement and tell you that code 275 is missing from the mapping.

Now you will start adding your codes.

Review the BAI2 Bank Statement Overview file from your bank to determine the balance (header) codes versus your transaction (line) codes. You will have to add all of your balance codes to the CE_BALANCE_CODE mapping group and all of your transaction codes to the CE_TRX_CODES mapping group. The file I had from one bank labeled the header codes as “Summary” or “Status” codes, while all line level codes were labeled as “Detail”. Hopefully your bank provides enough descriptions for their codes so you can easily differentiate the two types.

Even though you have to add each code to the three FSM tasks – Manage Code Map Groups, Manage Bank Statement Transaction Codes, and Manage Cash Management Lookups – you should know that you only need to categorize them accordingly in the Manage Code Map Groups screen.

Next week, I will review the process for loading the bank statements. After that, I’ll run through some tips and tricks for managing your bank statement loads.

Throughout my career as a consultant, I have run into several clients that want to manually load their bank statements into Oracle. Since the implementation of electronic uploads can be time-consuming as well as out of the budget for some, there is a way around this. Loading bank statements manually can be done in the Cloud, and I am going to tell you how to do so over the course of my next several blog posts.

First, you have to determine the format of your statements. My experience has consistently dealt with BAI2 files, so that is where my expertise lies. If you are loading EDIFACT FINSTA statements, you may also be able to take some of these notes and apply this process to loading those as well, as they both have seeded configurations in the Cloud. Using the seeded BAI2 Bank Statements code map group works successfully and helps prevent additional configurations on the bank formats in the Manage Formats task.

Next, you need to get the BAI2 Format Overview from your bank. This provides the list of all the transaction codes that your bank uses. BBVA Compass generously provides the classifications of their transaction codes so you can determine the balance codes versus the transactional codes. This is important for the next few steps.

Now you will have to manually add all of these transaction codes to your Fusion instance. The important note to take away here is that Oracle doesn’t tell you these codes have to be added in three places to get the system to read them, but this is something I was able to figure out through my many painful hours of testing statement loads and consistent errors. I read several documents that stated the codes needed to be added in either the Code Map Groups task or the Manage Bank Statement Transaction Codes task, but I figured out they need to be added in both places as well as one more place.

In order for the system to read statements that are manually loaded, you must also add each code to the Manage Cash Management Lookups task in FSM. In this screen, you can search for the Lookup Code called CE_INTERNAL_BALANCE_CODES. In the Financials Generic Lookup Type section, you will need to add each transaction code. This enables the system to read each code that is imported. I used the “Common Set” reference data set so that all BBVA transaction codes will import successfully for any business unit using this bank.

In next week’s post, I will go into more details on determining balance codes versus transaction codes and where to plug in each type. Then, we will review the process for loading the bank statements.

Closing the General Ledger is the final step in the period close process. Now that we have reviewed the close process for the Financials subledgers (see previous blogs), you will now see how it all comes together in the ledger. Steps that are not included in this review are those involving the Procurement and Project modules, which will come at a later time. The steps for closing the ledger are as follows:

1. Verify that the status of the next period is set to Future Entry. This has probably been done automatically when the current period was opened, but it’s best to double-check this.
2. Run the Create Accounting process or subledger accounting in the Journals work area. This should push all transactions, payments, etc. to the ledger.
3. Reverse journals as needed by running the AutoReverse process from the Journals work area. Don’t forget to post these reversals.
4. Generate any allocations. You can run the Generate General Ledger Allocations process as well as the Generate Intercompany Allocations process, if applicable to your business processes.
5. Review any unposted journals by running the Journals Details Report from the Scheduled Processes screen. The Posting Status parameter can be set to Unposted Journals so that the user can analyze and resolve any outstanding journal issues.
6. Post all remaining journal batches by running the Create Accounting process one more time.
7. Now you can run the necessary reconciliation reports, Trial Balance Report, and Account Analysis Report to further verify all balances tie out.
8. Don’t forget about the intercompany reconciliation from the Intercompany module (if applicable). Run the Prepare Intercompany Reconciliation Reporting Information process to push all transactions to the ledger.
9. Next, enter any final adjustment or accrual journals as needed, and post them.
10. If currency conversions are implemented, you will then want to ensure all rates have been updated, balances have been revalued and translated, and have been accounted for.
11. Update the ledger periods by closing the current period and setting the new period to Open.
12. The last and final step is to reverse any accrual entries that were processed in the previous period.

Now that the ledger has been closed successfully, you are free to run your financial reports and start transacting in the new period. If you would like to see the order for closing previous subledgers, check out my blog called “Closing the Books? Follow This Order!” so you have a full understanding of the Fusion Financials closing process from beginning to end.

When closing Cash Management, the steps can slightly vary depending on whether or not your business has automatic or manual bank statements and reconciliations. The overall process is as follows for either process being used:

1. Load bank statements as your business process requires, whether this be manual or automatically from your bank.
2. Reconcile the statements. Depending on your business needs, you can reconcile against Payables, Receivables or the Payroll modules.  Reconciliation can be done either through submitting the Autoreconciliation process or through the Manual Reconciliation process. Again, this depends on how automated the instance has been delivered to you based on business requirements.
3. After either reconciliation process has been submitted, you can review the results and resolve any exceptions that are located in the Reconciliation region in the Bank Statements and Reconciliation work area.
4. If needed, external transactions can be created to balance the missing statement lines or any other exceptions.
5. Review the Reconciliation region again and resolve any additional unreconciled statement lines as necessary. Hopefully, the external transactions and reconciling of statement lines with subledgers has helped to resolve most of the issues already.
6. Run the Create Accounting process for any external transactions that were created.
7. Submit and review the Cash to General Ledger Reconciliation report to determine if anymore unreconciled transactions exist, then resolve as needed. Run this report from the Bank Statements and Reconciliation work area to capture all subprocesses. You can also submit several other reports that can help locate and resolve additional cash reconciling issues that may occur.
8. Lastly, you must correct any invalid entries that were created during this closing process. Reverse or edit any journal entries that have been transferred and/or posted to the ledger accidentally (if needed).

If you would like more details on the overall close process for Fusion Financials Cloud, please reference my blog “Closing the Books? Follow This Order!”

Closing the Fixed Assets module should be a quick and painless process each month. As most Oracle ERP users know, the module only allows for one period to be opened at a time, and once you close the period you can never re-open it again. I guess this can be both a good and bad thing – depending on how efficient your team is with keeping asset tracking up-to-date each month. There are a few simple steps you want to run through to ensure the module is closed properly and they are as follows:

1. Ensure that the Create Mass Additions process has been submitted through the Payables work area. This ensures that any invoiced assets have been pushed through to the Fixed Assets module and can be processed accordingly.
2. Once all assets are in the module, process them as needed – Capitalize, classify, update financial/descriptive details, etc.
3. Run the Create Accounting process. This will account for all the newly added assets and gives you the opportunity to see what is outstanding so you and your team can resolve any issues.
4. Run Depreciation. The ease of running depreciation is as simple as the click of a button. The Depreciation infotile provides a summary of all Period, Book, Ledger, Depreciation, and Asset information so you can do a quick review of what’s happened this month.
5. You can optionally choose to run depreciation as a stand alone process or you can run it in Close mode, which kicks off the depreciation process as well as closes the books. Of course, if you prefer to run depreciation separately from closing the period, you can do that as well. This final step is simply here to tell you to close the period.

When closing the Fixed Assets period, ALWAYS remember: You can NEVER go back once you have moved on. If you reference my previous blog called “Closing the Books? Follow This Order!” you will see the order of closing each module, so you will be able to reference where Fixed Assets fit into this process.

Thanks for taking the time to learn this simple process!

Closing the Receivables period is as simple as closing the Payables period. Some may even say it’s simpler. The following steps are best practice for performing this monthly process:

1. Open the new Receivables period.
2. Run the Create Accounting process. This ensures that everything that is outstanding is accounted for and ready to close out. Be sure to run this process from the Receivables work area to ensure that all Receivables subprocesses are kicked off as well including the Revenue Recognition process.
3. Review the Outstanding Subledger Transactions section on the Period Close dashboard. This will tell you anything that is still unaccounted for, what’s accounted for but not transferred to the ledger, and anything that has errors or is in draft mode. The beauty of this tool is that you can drill into the transactions that are listed here so you can reconcile/investigate as needed.
4. Run the Create Accounting process again, but make sure to run it from the Receivables work area.
5. Run the Receivables to Ledger Reconciliation report. This is very helpful in drilling into issues that you may not have been able to resolve from the Period Close work area. It allows you to drill into the differences balance and determine where the issues lie.
6. Once all the outstanding issues have been resolved, you can now close the period. Luckily, there is no sweep process to run for Receivables like there is for Payables.

Oracle provides several other reports that can be ran to determine variances as well, such as the Trial Balance Report, Adjustment Register, Transaction Register, etc. If you want to stay on top of any Receivables issues throughout the month, you can always run these reports to ensure business processes are running smoothly.

Running through the close process for Fixed Assets will come next, so check back soon for the tips on closing that subledger…