Oracle Financials R12 - GL STEP 1 - Chart Of Accounts

Step by step Guide

Step 1

General Ledger

Setup & Maintenance
Chart Of Accounts
Mohammed Raouf

Chart of Accounts [ Accounting Flexfield ]
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Setting Up the Accounting Flexfield
Adding Segments to the Accounting Flexfield
Creating a Value Set for the Accounting Flexfield
Adding Information on the Segments
Adding and Maintaining Values for Your Accounting
Segments
o Viewing and Maintaining Account Hierarchies for
Parent/Child Relationships
o Account Maintenance
o Custom Segments for Tracking Additional Data (DFF)

2

You should know that …
Setups and the decisions surrounding any ERP or accounting system are critical not only to the
success of the project, but also to the usability of the system.
EBS is no exception. Taking the time to understand the setups and what they affect is time well spent
not only during an implementation or upgrade, but also for any person trying to understand, is there
a better way to use the system?
As stated already, ERP implementations are not projects with beginnings and endings, but a journey
that continues throughout the ever-changing landscape we call business.
Setup steps are broken down into two types: Required to use EBS and Optional, which means that
they only need to be performed to use that specific functionality. The Required setups include,
in this order:
1. Configure the Accounting Flexfield.
2. Configure the Accounting Calendar.
3. Configure the Accounting Setups (required fields of Legal Entity and Ledgers only).
4. Assign the Ledger profile and other required Profiles in System Administration.
5. Assign Data Access Sets, even if it is blanket access for everyone.
6. Open the first period.
All other setups are optional, depending on your specific business needs.

3

Business Structure ..
Assuming that KSA &
UAE have the same
Tax reporting

Two Ledgers To represent
two Currencies as well as
differences in the SLA

Two Operating Units
allow for segregation
of the data in the
Subledgers

The two companies [ Balancing
Segment Values BSV ] in Cairo
Operations will create two
complete Balance Sheets

Ledgers, Charts of Accounts, and Operating Units are difficult, are costly, and carry a high degree of risk to change.
Taking the time to create them with foresight into future business needs and growth will decrease your ERP cost in
future years.
4

Chart Of Accounts Structure ..
Segments

Values

Code Combinations

01 . 101 . 4100

Marketing Salaries

So when the Marketing Department in the Administration Company 01 in Cairo Receive the Monthly Salaries
in the end of the month and assuming that the cash value is [1000] the journal entry will be :

5

Chart of Accounts
[Accounting Flexfield ]

6

Setting up the Accounting Flexfield
The Accounting Flexfield is the basis for your Chart of Accounts, and how transactions can be accounted in the
system. When deciding the structure of your Chart of Accounts, be sure to allow room for growth [ Spare Segment ],
as it cannot be changed with any standard EBS functionality once it is defined.
Find your
Application GL , and
your title is Acc FF

It’s preferred to name
the Code as the Title,
it makes trouble
shooting and custom
reports easier
Use it after Defining
your Summary
accounts [ LATER ]

Use it after Finishing your
Accounting FF and the
COMPILE button will appear
Allow you to use the Cross-Validation
Rules feature in EBS, and you should
always use them when ALLOW
DYNAMIC INSERTS is checked

Click SEGMENTS to
create each segment

[N] Setup | Financials | Flexfields | Key | Segments

Ensure you do not select the GL Ledger Flexfield by mistake—this is a copy of the Accounting Flexfield that is
updated when the Flexfield is compiled and the program [ Program – General Ledger Flexfield ] runs. EBS does this
automatically when changes are saved. Changes should never be manually added to the GL Ledger Flexfield. The GL
Ledger Flexfield was added in R12 to improve processing times for some of the more intensive processes, like FSG
and Mass Allocations.
7

Adding Segments to the Accounting Flexfield

NAME is the name of the segment, while PROMPT is what appears on data entry screens. Making the NAME and
PROMPT consistent will help eliminate confusion when creating custom reports. You can identify up to 30
segments in your Accounting Flexfield, make it as detailed as required to track required data in the general ledger

You must define the Value Set for each
segment so you can choose them from
the LOV [ In the Next page ]

2

1

COA consists of the different segments that make up your account combination. Some of these segments, such as
a segment for [Product ], have no significance in how the system behaves other than to store transactional data
separated by Product. Other segments, such as the Balancing Segment, greatly impact how the system works,
because all debits and credits associated with any value in the Balancing Segment must net to zero. EBS requires
that a Balancing Segment and a Natural Account be assigned to every chart of accounts. A Cost Center, used to
track departmental expenses, is only required when Oracle Assets is implemented. Optionally, Intercompany,
Management, and Secondary Tracking segments, as well as other segments your business may require, can be
added to make up the entire Accounting Flexfield.
8

Creating a Value Set for the Accounting Flexfield
A VALUE SET needs to be set up for each segment in your account; it
becomes the location where the valid values are stored for use.
always be LIST OF
VALUES, meaning
that the user must
enter a value that is
set up and active in
this value set.
Often set to CHAR,
where numbers are
used for data entry
accounts, and Alpha
characters can be
used for parent
accounts.

Click USAGES to see where Value Sets are
used as far as Concurrent Program
Parameters, Descriptive Flexfield Segments,
or Key Flexfield Segments. This is useful
information for determining where Value Sets
are used, both seeded and custom sets.

The number of characters in the segment

Usually no MINIMUM VALUES or MAXIMUM VALUES are
assigned for Accounting segments

VALIDATION TYPE for an accounting Flexfield can only be DEPENDENT, INDEPENDENT,
or TABLE VALIDATION (the other options are not valid for the accounting Flexfield’s
value sets). INDEPENDENT will validate against the predefined values but has no
restriction on their use. DEPENDENT means that the value of this segment is
dependent on the value in another segment; it offers similar validations as CrossValidation Rules (CVRs). Whereas CVRs state that all values are available in every
segment, but combinations can only be created where a rule is not violated,
DEPENDENT validation creates a subset of values that are valid for the previous
segment. As a rule, CVRs are easier to maintain than DEPENDENT validation

NO SECURITY will not
add any security
when creating
combinations in your
accounting Flexfields.
NON-HIERARCHICAL
SECURITY will allow
Security rules to be
set up, which will
restrict the values
users can have access
to for entry and
inquiry.
HIERARCHICAL
SECURITY works the
same as NonHierarchical, except
the rules are assigned
at the parent level
and cascade down to
the child

9

TABLE VALIDATION will require the value set to be validated against data in a specific table, and requires
SQL to be added on the Edit Information form, which will tell EBS how and where to validate the data.
This is commonly used with the accounting Flexfield value sets when the data must be validated against a
custom table that houses the accounts from a nonrelated system.
Click EDIT INFORMATION to select the segment you want to make this segment DEPENDENT on.
Close the Edit Information and Value Set form to get back to the Segments Summary form to set up the
Flexfield Qualifiers.

10

Adding Information on the Segments

The Accounting Flexfield has three qualifiers that are required: Cost Center when Assets is implemented, Natural
Account, and Balancing Segment. Optionally, an Intercompany segment can be defined for tracking intercompany
balances. Management segments are used to identify combinations as part of a specific management segment for
reporting, and a Secondary Tracking segment is used with revaluations, translations, and year-end processing to more
uniquely identify these transactions.

They cannot be changed once the accounting Flexfield is used.

11

Segment Qualifier

Description

Balancing Segment
(Required)

All transactions within a Balancing Segment value must balance for Debits and
Credits. Use a Balancing Segment value for each entity you want to obtain a Balance
Sheet and Income Statement for. If only an Income statement is required, then it is
not necessary to set up a balancing segment value for that entity.

Cost Center (Required
when Assets is implemented)

Used to classify Departmental or Cost Center transactions for segregated Income
Statements or Management Reports.

Natural Account (Required)

This is the core segment of your accounting Flexfield and is used to classify each
transaction into accounts such as Revenue from Sales. The Natural Account segment
determines if an account combination is classified as an Asset, Liability, Owners
Equity, Income, or Expense, and these classifications are used as part of the year-end
process to determine which accounts roll into retained earnings, and which carry a
balance forward into the next year.

Management (Optional)

Primarily used to restrict access, both Read and Write, with a Data Access Set. The
Management segment will allow only specific data within a balancing segment to be
viewed or updated by a group of users. The Management segment qualifier can be
assigned to any segment of the account, except the
Balancing segment and the Natural Account.

Intercompany (Optional)

This segment can help with intercompany and intracompany balancing by tracking all
intercompany transactions in this segment.

Secondary Tracking (Optional)

Utilized by Revaluation, Transaction Gains/Losses, fiscal Close Journals to record
cumulative translation adjustments, unrealized gains and losses, and fiscal close
entries to retained earnings into a unique account combinations of balancing
segment and secondary tracking segment.
12

NAME,
DESCRIPTION,
COLUMN, and
NUMBER will
default from the
previous setup
and cannot be
changed on this
form.
Adding a DEFAULT
TYPE and a DEFAULT
VALUE will cause all
Accounting Flexfield
forms to default
the DEFAULT VALUE
in so that users do
not have to key the
data (but they can
change it). This
default can be
removed later
when the segment
is used.
The DISPLAY SIZE will default from the value set, whereas the
DESCRIPTION SIZE will determine how much of the value’s
description will appear on the forms and can be modified.
CONCATENATED DESCRIPTION SIZE is used on reports when this
segment is concatenated with the other segments, allowing a smaller
portion of each segment’s description to appear on the report—this
is really for space saving on the report, especially ones that are not
written in XML using Oracle’s BI Publisher.

To add additional info
INDEXED will default
to checked, ensuring
that this segment is
picked up with the
Program – Optimizer
concurrent request
and indexed for
faster transaction
processing and
reporting. The
Optimizer program
will gather statistics
and create indexes
for your Accounting
Flexfield, making
reports and such
processes as
interfaces run faster.
PROMPTS are what the users
will see in both the LIST OF VALUES
and WINDOW in EBS.
SECURITY ENABLED will determine if
this segment will use Security Rules.
Security Rules can restrict the values a
specific responsibility has access to.
13

Adding and Maintaining Values for your Accounting Segments
Once the Flexfield structure is set up, values will need to be created prior to using them in a combination. When
assigning values to each segment, ensure you leave room for future growth as follows:
100000 Cash – Parent Account
100105 Operating Account
100110 Petty Cash
100115 Payroll

100000 Cash – Parent Account
100001 Operating Account
100002 Petty Cash
100003 Payroll

You have 2 steps to start adding values :
1) Querying up the Accounting Flexfield

2) Add values to each segment in your structure

Company - Department - Account

Setup | Financial | Flexfields | Key | Values

14

Qualifiers for the Natural Account

Later

For all segments, ALLOW BUDGETING and ALLOW POSTING will default to NO for parent accounts, or YES for posting accounts. These can
be changed to meet your company’s needs with one limited restriction: Parent accounts should never ALLOW POSTING.
For the natural account, ACCOUNT TYPE is available and has two main purposes: to classify accounts as Assets, Liabilities, Owners Equity,
Revenue, or Expense (Budgetary CR and DR are available for encumbrances), as well as to determine which accounts will roll into Prior
Year Retained Earnings at the end of a fiscal year. THIRD PARTY CONTROL ACCOUNT will need to be CUSTOMER, SUPPLIER, or YES to use
the Third Party Balance feature. This feature will prevent manual transactions from being allowed to use this segment, and any
combinations created with it, only allowing journal entries created in the subledgers. This will prevent manual mispostings to the account
and make reconciliations easier between the subledger and the General Ledger.
Selecting CUSTOMER restricts journals to subledgers where the application is identified as CUSTOMER, and the same goes for SUPPLIERS.
Selecting either CUSTOMER or SUPPLIER will restrict posting to these accounts and prevent mispostings. For example, a common posting
error is to create a manual journal entry to the payables liability account in the general ledger, which throws this account out of balance
with the subledger. Setting up the payables liability account as Suppliers will restrict entries to the account to only entries from Payables.
RECONCILE needs to be set to YES to use the feature of Reconciling accounts, usually for VAT transactions or clearing accounts.
15

Viewing and Maintaining Account Hierarchies for Parent/Child Relationships

Parent/child relationships can greatly reduce some of the maintenance involved in such EBS features as FSGs and
MassAllocations, but the logic of the relationships must be established and the accuracy maintained.

When you
define the
parent
value this
2 buttons
appear

Allows you to add an account or a
range of accounts to a parent. Both
Parent and Child accounts can be
made a child of other accounts. After
selecting the To and From accounts,
select either PARENT VALUES ONLY or
CHILD VALUES ONLY under the
INCLUDE field.

available for any child and allows a
range to be moved from one parent
to another. These features work well
when you just need to look up a
specific account’s children or move a
range, but they can be cumbersome
and confusing and do not show a
complete picture of the account
hierarchy – It’s preferred to use the
Account Hierarchy Manager .

To move up and down the tree of the
hierarchy for this parent, starting at
the top, which is the parent itself,
with other parents assigned to it, and
through each of these assigned
parents, showing their assignments
(both parent and child accounts).

17

DEFINE CHILD VALUES

MOVE CHILD VALUES

VIEW HIERARCHIES

18

Using the Account Hierarchy Manager
Selecting Yes prevents other users from making changes to the hierarchy
while your changes are being made. If this message does not appear, the
profile - GL AHM: Allow Users to Modify Hierarchy is set to No for your access.

1

2

Highlight the CHART OF ACCOUNT and
SEGMENT you want to see the hierarchy for.

3

Setup | Accounts | Manager Setup | Financials | Flexfields | Key | Rules
19

Export to Excel

Add a Parent

Add a Child

View the
Hierarchy
tree

The arrows at the bottom of the screen allow you to scroll through all
of the values set up in your Chart of Accounts.

To modify an existing value,
right-click the value and
select View Attributes.
DESCRIPTION, EFFECTIVE
DATES, BUDGETING
ALLOWED, and POSTING
ALLOWED fields can all be
updated. Once any updates
or additions are completed to
the hierarchies and accounts,
use the yellow diskette icon
to save any changes made in
the hierarchy manager prior
to closing. You can change
existing Hierarchies by
REMOVING an account or by
modifying the range
associated with a parent;
these ranges can be deleted
or modified, or else you can
create a new range.

20

Account Maintenance
To accommodate changing that business needs Accounts will be disabled over time, sometimes requiring
balances to be moved from one combination to another, and rules set up and maintained. EBS offers a feature to
move not only balances, but the actual journal entries themselves, preventing the double account research when
performing reconciliations and analysis.
Setup | Other | Mass Maintenance
Select the REQUEST
TYPE of MOVE/MERGE
to move journals and
merge account
transactions and
balances. Add a
REQUEST NAME and
DESCRIPTION, and
select the LEDGER this
request pertains to. The
SOURCE is the account
you are moving the
transactions from, and
the TARGET is where
they are moving to.
PREVALIDATE to see a
report of all the
transactions that will
move. Once you have
validated that data,
requery the REQUEST
and select SUBMIT. This
will start a concurrent
process that will move
the transactions and
reflect the new account.

From

To

Mass Creation feature to
create new accounts
automatically based on
existing accounts. For
example, if you add a
new cost center to your
organization you can use
mass creation to create
all the accounts you
need based upon one of
your other cost centers.

will take you to the screen
where segments are
created and maintained.
Replaced by SUBMIT
button on R12.1.3

Can be used to
reverse any REQUEST
that has been
SUBMITTED in error
and therefore reverse
the move of the
transactions.

21

Account Combination Maintenance
Although Dynamic Insertion allows EBS to create account combinations automatically, you may still need to do some
maintenance in the combinations screen. Adding an alternative account for processing subledger transactions for a
disabled account is one example.

PRESERVED will prevent
this account from being
updated when the
PROGRAM – INHERIT
SEGMENT VALUE
ATTRIBUTES is run.

The TYPE will default in
from the TYPE assigned
to the natural account
value; it cannot be
updated in this form.

Program – Inherit Segment Value Attributes
[Updates account combinations to have the same
attributes as the segment values. This includes end
dates, enabled status, and posting status.

Adding a TO
date is the
recommended
way to disable
an account
combination
NOT unckeck
the ENABLED
check box.

will allow
reconciliations
to be
performed on
this
combination.

Setup | Accounts | Combinations
The ALTERNATE ACCOUNT field is used when a combination has been disabled or end-dated or ALLOW
POSTING has been unchecked. For journals being imported via the Journal Import interface when the
inactive account is on one of the journal lines, ALTERNATE ACCOUNT will be used by EBS instead when
creating the journal entry. This is a powerful tool in coordinating the timing of disabling combinations when
transactions are being fed into the General Ledger from subledgers and feeder systems.
22

Account Aliases
The alias allows the users to select all or part of a combination by typing in a word such as CASH as opposed to keying
the entire accounting combination. Setting the profile option called Flexfields: Shorthand Entry can help control the
alias usage.

1

Selecting Not Enabled will turn the alias
feature off, even if an alias is enabled.
New Entries Only will limit the alias to
most forms for the Flexfield where a
new record is created, whereas Query
and New Entry will use the alias when
new records are created or in query
screens. All Entries will use the alias for
creating new records or updating
existing records, and should not be
confused with Always, which will use
the alias for creation, update, and
querying data. This feature works with
form data entry, such as journal entries,
but not with web forms such as
iProcurement, as the pop-up for the
alias does not appear on HTML forms.

23

Query the General Ledger APPLICATION and select the FLEXFIELD TITLE you want to add an alias to. Select ENABLED, and add the MAX
ALIAS SIZE to set a limit on the alias name, as well as the PROMPT, which is seen by the users when entering the alias on a form. The
ALIAS is the name the user will enter instead of the actual account combination. The TEMPLATE determines which segments will
default in for this ALIAS, and what the defaults will be. Notice that on the Bad Debts alias in the example, the Cost Center is not
completed, allowing the user to add a cost center when using the alias. The ALIAS DESCRIPTION is the description that appears on the
Alias form. Under the ALIASES, EFFECTIVE tab, the aliases can be ENABLED and given a FROM and TO date. Recompile your Flexfield to
engage the alias on the forms, by going into the Key FlexfieldSegments screen (Setup | Financials | Flexfields | Key | Segments),
querying the accounting Flexfield and clicking COMPILE. Once this is set up, the alias pop-up box will appear when users
encounter a form where an account combination is available to be entered.

2

3
24

Setting Up Rules for Valid Account Combinations
Cross-Validation Rules (CVRs) are used to prevent inaccurate combinations from being created in EBS, and are essential
in preventing mispostings when Dynamic Insertion is turned on. Using a find box where the Accounting Flexfield is
queried up. Select the Accounting Flexfield, and click FIND. General Ledger will appear in the APPLICATION, and
Accounting Flexfield in the FLEXFIELD TITLE, and the STRUCTURE that was selected in the Find box.
- Keep it Simple and clear to assists in maintenance and help with troubleshooting.
- Make sure to include the entire segment values first and exclude the invalid accounts
An important thing to remember is
that CVRs only prevent new
combinations from being created.
They do not disable any existing
combinations that were created
prior to creating the rule. Run the
concurrent process called
Cross-Validation Rule Violation
Report, found in System
Administrator. This report can be
run to review or disable all the
combinations that violate all the
active CVRs in your system.
Combinations can also be disabled
manually in the General Ledger |
Setup | Accounts | Combinations
form.

Setup | Financials | Flexfields | Key | Rules

25

Custom Segments for Tracking Additional Data (Optional) Descriptive Flexfields [ ]
A powerful feature in EBS is the ability to add custom fields on many of the forms. DFF setups look exactly like the
Key Flexfield used for creating your Accounting Flexfield. Perhaps the hardest part of setting up DFF is finding out the
DFF name that appears on the form and table you want to use. The easiest way to see all the DFFs on a specific form
is to use the Examine feature. This feature requires either that the user enter the APPS password or that the profile
option called Utilities: Diagnostics be set to Yes (this can be set for just a few users, as it can be set at the user level).
Also you can perform a standard Find as you see here.

This name appear soon
you click the DFF icon []
In the form of Enter
journals Header DFF.
Then you choose the
values from the
segments that you
defined here.

The next steps like
the KFF setup
Setup | Financials | Descriptive | Segments
26

The beginning is always the
hardest
27

Oracle Financials R12 - GL STEP 1 - Chart Of Accounts

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