Introduction

Every ERP Implementation project needs to have a Data Reconciliation activity once the Data Migration is completed ( can be done phase wise too, but unless we reconcile the data we are not sure about both the volume (data records loaded) as well as the quality (correctness)  of data. While it was comparatively easy when we used to Transfer data from one On-Premise System to another (assuming both the system allows us to create custom database objects) it at times might be challenging when you are moving data from:

1.      On-Premise Source System To a Cloud Target System

2.      Cloud Source System To Another Cloud Target System

I have seen some instances where the implementation teams take a Data Extract from the Cloud Target System and loads the Data into a Custom Database Object ( at On-Premise Source System) and then performs data reconciliation. While this approach works fine I personally am reluctant to use this approach. Some of the reasons being:

1.    Organizations move from On-Premise System to Cloud System primarily to standardize there process and get rid of Custom Objects (both Database components as well as UI Items). Keeping this goal in mind if we have to create additional (I am assuming one would suffice but there could be need of more than one too) database objects at the source system then the entire purpose is lost. One has to do additional maintenance of this new object.

2.   At all points one would need to keep going back to the source system to perform reconciliation when this activity should ideally be performed at the Target Application.

3.   Imagine if there are multiple source systems then in that case one would need to create additional database objects for each source system

4.   The moment you decide to decommission your Legacy Systems you are doing away with this reconciliation feature too (unless you decide to extract and store the generated comparison reports)

5.   And add to all this what if your source system is also on Cloud  (No Option to create custom database objects).

Well does this means that we are left with no option and we can’t perform Data Reconciliation.

At first thought it might appears so, but that’s not the case,we have a workaround, and that is creating the same report in Target Application.

Let’s see how to do that.

Worked Out Example

In this example we would be using two sets of static data (excel spreadsheet one comprising data extracted from the source system (say SourceSystemPersonData.xls) and the other one from the target application (say TargetSystemPersonData.xls)). We might have used actual database tables from the target application instead of using a Excel but that would have involved a little bit more complication and chances are there that we might lose the focus too. If required we may take up that activity in next article, but for now let’s restrict ourselves to this scope ( static excel spreadsheet data ).

We are only considering three data fields for comparison which are:

1.      Person Number (PersonNumber)

2.      Person Name (PersonName)

3.      Person Date of Birth (PersonDOB)

We would be performing three scenarios here which are:

1.      Verify whether the data in Person Name field for both Source System and Target System is correct

2.      Verify whether the data in Person Date of Birth field for both Source System and Target System is correct

3.      Verify whether every Person Record (PersonNumber) present in Source System has got loaded into the Target System or not.

In order to perform all these checks we need to carry out certain steps which are as follows:

1.      Create a Custom Data Model and load both the SourceSystemPersonData.xls and TargetSystemPersonData.xls as two separate Data Sets

2.      Create a Data Link between the two Data Sets

3.      Create Expression Variables

4.      Create a Report Template and apply conditional formatting to easily track the mismatching data / records ( using colour coding)

5.      Create a Report using the Custom Data Model and the Template and Verify Results

Create Custom Data Model

We would need to create a custom data model making use of the SourceSystemPersonData.xls and TargetSystemPersonData.xls

A snapshot of SourceSystemPersonData.xls appears as below:

A snapshot of TargetSystemPersonData.xls appears as below:

The SourceSystemPersonData (Data Set) is created using SourceSystemPersonData.xls as the data source (screenshot below):

Similarly, TargetSystemPersonData (Data Set) is created using TargetSystemPersonData.xls as Data Source (Screenshot below):

Create a Data Link Between The Data Sets

Now that we have the Data Sets created we would need to create a Data Link between the two Data Sets (named as G_1 for SourceSystemData and G_2 for TargetSystemData)

Create Expression Variables

In this step we would need to create expression variables. If you are not sure what an Expression variable is or how to use it please feel free to read thisarticle hopefully this would get you started.

We would create three expression variables. Details in table below:

Once created the Data Model would appear as below:

Create Report Template and Apply Conditional Formatting

In this step we would create a BI Publisher Template (XPT) and map the contents of G_1. We would be using the following data fields:

1.      SourceSystemPersonNumber (Prompt changed to PersonNumber)

2.      SourceSystemPersonName

3.      TargetSystemPersonName

4.      SourceSystemPersonDOB

5.      TargetSystemPersonDOB

Also we would apply conditional formatting on PersonNumber , TargetSystemPersonName and TargetSystemPersonDOB fields.

Once all the setup is done we can run the report and verify the results.

Introduction

Legal Employer is one of the very basic attributes associated with every worker record. It is one of the basic workforce structure setup one performs prior to starting with data migration , configuration and other steup related activities.

While it is expected that utmost care is taken while performing an Enterprise Structure Setup sometimes there are unforseen circumstances where in there is a need to change the Name of some of the basic Workforce Structure Components. While some of the components like Jobs, Grades, Positions , Departments can be changed using the “Manage Workforce Structures” link from navigator, going to the specific task “Manage Position”, “Manage Jobs”, “Manage Departments” etc. It is not so straight forward if one would like to change the name of Legal Entity.

Some of the common reasons due to which a Legal Employer (Legal Entity with Legal Employer checkbox ticked) may need a Name Change post workers have been hired are :

1. Incorrect Name provided during configurtaion (Typo Errors)

2. Organization decided to make a change at a later date

3. Aquisition

So let’s see how do we make such change.

Worked Example

Login to Application with appropriate credentials (user with Admin privileges) and Click on “Setup and Maintenance” link under Navigator.

Navigator -> Directory -> Setup and Maintenance

Search for Business Object Name “Legal Entity” . Once you do so a list of Tasks, Task Lists and Business Objects which have names with matching words as “Legal Entity”  are displayed. (check screenshot below)

Next we need to click on “Legal Entity” link and this would open up a new UI page which would list all tasks associated with the Business Object. (screenshot below):

We would need to click on “Search Legal Entities” as shown above and this would open up the “Manage Legal Entities” page where one could search for a specific legal entity ( “01 USA LE” for this example)

Next we would need to click on the Name Value (“01 USA LE” for this example ) which would open the Edit Legal Entity Page. One can now make changes to the Name field ( and other fields as applicable ) and Save.

Note: I have purposefully not changed the name or other details here, as there is no specific need here but if required one may create a new Legal Entity make the change and then the new name should be visible across the application.

This is how one can make changes to Legal Entity related information and the same would reflect across the application.

Introduction

I would request all of the readers to kindly go through the below articles before proceeding with this one (its fine if you are already aware of the concepts..but it may serve as a good refresher too):

HCM Extract Components in Oracle Fusion Cloud: An Introduction

Using an Extract Rule Type Attribute for a HCM Extract in Oracle Fusion HCM Cloud Application

In the above articles we have tried to explain what are the different components of an HCM Extract and also how to use an Extract Rule Type Attribute for an HCM Extract.

This article too is about defining a Extract Rule Type Attribute but it has some major enhancements to the previous one (Using an Extract Rule Type Attribute for a HCM Extract in Oracle Fusion HCM Cloud Application ) in sense that while we used to return a static (hardcoded) value from the Fast Formula here we would try to have a dynamic value ( value derived from individual’s details as stored in the database).

In this example, we would try to fetch the Length of Service (referred to as LOSInDays from here on) for each individual.

We would calculate this details by finding the difference (in days) between the current date and the person’s enterprise hire date.

So let’s get started.

Fast Formula Details

Application Screenshot

If we use the below details and create the Fast Formula , save and compile it then the application screen would appear as below:

Introduction

Many a times there is a specific need when we want to have a identifier in the Output File (we are referring to outbound integration) based on which certain logic is applied (could be used while deriving other file fields or even used by consuming system). This kind of requirement can be achieved by making use of derived extract attributes.

In this example, we would classify an  HCM Extract where in we would classify records as a NewHire. This categorization would be done basis a Extract Attribute named IsPersonNewHire which will hold the value of ‘Y’ if the record is new hire else ‘N’.

If a person is hired within 7 days of the Extract Run Date then the record is considered to be a NewHire.

For this example we will create an Extract which will comprise of the following fields:

1. Person Number

2. Enterprise Hire Date

3. LOSInDays

4. IsPersonNewHire

Running the Extract

We will run the extract and check the results.

Developing Low Code, No Code Reports in Oracle ERP Cloud Application 

Introduction

Before the digital revolution which we are experiencing today it was difficult to imagine that a report/analysis could be built without any technical knowledge. But times have changed and they have changed to make things better. Now we talk about Low Code / No Code Applications which are easy to build with minimal or no technical knowledge. Having an idea of the technical aspect helps but now it is not necessary.

With Oracle ERP Cloud Application too one can create No Code Reports.

This so called No Code Report is commonly referred to as an OTBI Analysis in ERP Cloud.

Creating a Simple No-Code Report

One would need to login to Oracle ERP Cloud Application with a user having appropriate privileges and then follow the below navigation:

Navigator-> Tools-> Reports and Analytics

One can also use the spring board icons (shown below)

Once you click on the links (either of the above two option) it would take to you to the Report & Analytics Home page

Next, we need to click on the “Browse Catalog” button (highlighted in yellow) and the below page opens:

One would now need to click on “Analysis” a new popup window will appear which would list all available Subject Area.

Once you click on the Subject Area (“General Ledger – Transactional Balances Real Time” for this example) the following screen will appear

One can now drag and drop fields from the folders on the left (sample below)

Now one can click on the Results Tab and we will get our No Code Analysis (One can build a Report out of the same...you may even decide to call this analysis as a Report too)

Introduction

In some of the previous articles we have seen what is meant by HCM Extract, what are the different components of an HCM Extract, How to derive a Static Value for an Extract Attribute using Extract Rule Method and even deriving a dynamic value for an Extract Attribute using Extract Rule.

In this post we will try to demonstrate how to derive an Extract Attribute by making use of other Data Elements and Extract Input parameters.

In this example, we will try to fetch the Length of Service of an individual.

This is calculated by using the follwoing logic

Length of Service =  Effective Date - Person Enterprise Hire Date

Now Effective Date is a Input for the HCM Extracts and Person Enterprise Hire Date is another Extract Attribute previously defined (part of same Data Group)

So let-us quickly look at the setups required to achieve this.

Setups

We would need to perform the following setups:

1. Create a HCM Extract Input Parameter

2. Create a HCM Extract Database Item Group Attribute

3. Derive the Extract Attribute Value using the two elements defined above

We would now get into details of each of the above mentioned components

HCM Extract Input Parameter

Effective Date is one of the delivered Input Parameter of any HCM Extract.

HCM Extract Database Item Group Attribute

We will define an Extract Attribute named EnterpriseHireDate.

Derived HCM Extract Attribute

LOSInDays is a HCM Extract Attribute which will get its value from a Fast Formula

Details of Extract Rule Fast Formula

LOSInDays Extract Attribute fetches its value from an Extract Rule Type Fast Formula. Details of the Fast Formula are in below table

Introduction

In some of the previous articles we have seen what is meant by HCM Extract, what are the different components of an HCM Extract, How to derive a Static Value for an Extract Attribute using Extract Rule Method and even deriving a dynamic value for an Extract Attribute using Extract Rule.

In this post we will try to demonstrate how to derive an Extract Attribute by making use of other Data Elements and Extract Input parameters.

In this example, we will try to fetch the Length of Service of an individual.

This is calculated by using the follwoing logic

Length of Service =  Effective Date - Person Enterprise Hire Date

Now Effective Date is a Input for the HCM Extracts and Person Enterprise Hire Date is another Extract Attribute previously defined (part of same Data Group)

So let-us quickly look at the setups required to achieve this.

Setups

We would need to perform the following setups:

1. Create a HCM Extract Input Parameter

2. Create a HCM Extract Database Item Group Attribute

3. Derive the Extract Attribute Value using the two elements defined above

We would now get into details of each of the above mentioned components

HCM Extract Input Parameter

Effective Date is one of the delivered Input Parameter of any HCM Extract.

HCM Extract Database Item Group Attribute

We will define an Extract Attribute named EnterpriseHireDate.

Derived HCM Extract Attribute

LOSInDays is a HCM Extract Attribute which will get its value from a Fast Formula

Details of Extract Rule Fast Formula

LOSInDays Extract Attribute fetches its value from an Extract Rule Type Fast Formula. Details of the Fast Formula are in below table

Introduction

If you have worked in Oracle EBS Applications I am sure you might have faced some tough times figuring out how to pass a Data Type Input Parameter to a Concurrent Program. One might still be able to cope up with this challenge using some format type-casting in the underlying code which accepts the input from the UI makes some format changes and then passes on the required format to the calling package/procedure. But in a Cloud Deployment Model one does not has the liberty to make any changes in the underlying code. Changes if any has to be done on the UI itself ( be it the ESS UI page or the BIP Report UI Page or the Data Model UI Page).

In this article we will try to figure out what should be the ideal format in which a date type input should be passed to call a BI Report.

We would be trying out various scenarios which are:

1. Defining a Date Type Parameter (format MM-DD-YYYY which is the recommended format for passing date type parameter) and not defining any date format type on ESS Job definiton page. At this point I assume you all are aware of how to create an ESS job in Oracle Fusion Application but if thats not the case please do spend some time and read through this post here and hopefully you would be good to proceed.

2. Defining a Date Type Parameter (format MM-DD-YYYY at BI Data Model UI Page) and defining the same date format type on ESS Job Definition page.

3. Defining a Date Type Parameter (format YYYY-MM-DD which is the format in which ESS UI page passes the argument value to the BIP Report..yes the ESS Job definition page provides different date type format selection options but they are all for display purpose.. We will get this covered during our demonstration)

4. Defining a Text Type Parameter (Textbox input) which takes the value as send by the ESS job page

So without much ado lets begin.

Pre-requisite

In order to proceed with this we will define a very simple SQL query which would have a input parameter. The SQL query will fetch the “person number” and the “start date” details from per_all_people_f table.

Once done we will pass a value try to get results and save sample data ( this is required before a BIP Report can be created from SQL Data Model)

Next we will make a Report from this data model and run the same the sample output will appear as below:

We would also create an ESS Job and the job definition page would appear as below:

The section highlighted in yellow explains the following points:

1. Data Type of Parameter is Date or Time

2. Only the Date part is to be shown

3. There is no default date format assigned.

Now we will get started with running the ESS Job (created above). We would refer BI Data Model Date Data Type as BIDATE <format> and ESSDATE<format> for ease of understanding purpose

Scenario 1: BIDATE <MM-DD-YYYY> and ESSDATE <No Format>

In this scenario we will submit the ESS job with current configuration

And if we check the results we could see that there is no output returned. A further deep dive and the XML data shows that the value of date paramter is completely different from the one passed which was passed from UI.

Scenario 2: BIDATE <MM-DD-YYYY> and ESSDATE <MM-DD-YYYY>

Now before runnng  this scenario we would have to modify the ESS job definition and set the default date format to MM-dd-yyyy as shown below:

Now we will run the ESS job

And when we check the ESS job output we find that there were no records retrieved from the BIP Report and also the parameter value passed to the BI Data Model was totally different from the one specified on the ESS UI

Scenario 3: BIDATE <YYYY-MM-DD> and ESSDATE <YYYY-MM-DD>

For this scenario we will make two changes. First one is to change the ESS Job parameter default date format to YYYY-MM-DD (as shown below)

The second change is to change the Date Format of the BI Data Model (as shown below)

And next we will submit the ESS job

And on verifying the results we will find that we do get an Output and also the value of input parameter as passed to the BI Data Model is excatly matching with the one passed from ESS UI.

Scenario 3: BI Parmater (Data Type as Text) and ESS Parameter (No Default Date Format)

In this scenario we will make two changes again. The first change is to ensure that there is no default date format for the ESS Job parameter (as shown)

And the second change is to change the data type of BI Data Model parameter to Text

And we would next submit the scheduled process

And we look at the BI Report output we find that it has data.

Introduction

Oracle ERP Cloud Application can be configured to automatically generate a user account each time a permanent / contingent / pending worker record is created.

The various rules which define the user account creation rule is controlled using User Preferences. The navigation is Navigator->Tools->Security Console

Also one should have a look at the User Creation Settings as defined in the “Manage HCM Enterprise Information” Task

The above value of “Both person and party users” means that a user account will get created for both person (records having HCM Module related information) as well as for party users ( suppliers, supplier contacts etc)

As per the Metalink Note (Doc ID 2164087.1) user accounts for all future dated hires are created on the date of hire. For pending workers however the records do get created the moment person record is created.

In order to verify this we will create three person records on 07-Jun-2018 with the following details and check whether the user accounts gets created.

We would check for the User Accounts for these users

User Account Status As on 07-Jun-2018

User Account Status As on 08-Jun-2018

Introduction

In one of the previous article <link here> we have seen how to make use of  “Extract Rule” Type Fast Formula to derive values using

1. Extract Input Parameters

2. Other Extract Attributes

However, one major limitation of an Extract Rule Type Fast Formula is that it always returns a Text Output. What this means is that even if you had a numeric output as a result of all calcualations performed earlier it would give a corresponding text value as a output. This also implies that one would not be able to perform any mathematical operations on the extract rule output value. One alternative for this could be to use another Extract Rule Fast Formula wherein one may use the TO_NUMBER function.

Let-us demonstrate the same using a example.

Pre-requisite

We already have an existing attribute (‘LOSInDays’) defined which is based upon a Extract Rule Fast formula. We would now make use of this attribute, apply the TO_NUMBER function on this perform a mathematical operation and then return a text type value.

Introduction

While most of us are probably aware of various type of Graphs, Charts which can be used to visually display data metrics there are still a lot many types which are unexplored.

One such unexplored (probably less commonly used one is a Waterfall Graph Chart).

In this article, we will create a very simple OTBI Analysis and build a Waterfall Graph from it.

OTBI Analysis

For this example, we will use “Workforce Management - Person Real Time”  Subject Area and choose the following two fields.

The criteria tab should appear as:

Also one would need to add a View of Grpah Type and choose the following values

And the Results Tab would appear as:

And if we place both the Graph and the data(tabular format) in the compound layout (side-by-side) the Analysis would appear as:

Introduction

Many a times individuals are only interested to find the measure of a specific fact like # of Absences,

# Hires, #Promotions, #Terminations etc and are not that interested to find the low level details. While one can always build a detailed analysis / report which would display all information but sometimes just a Tile displaying the content of interest meets the needs.

Oracle ERP Cloud Application allows us to create such reports. We call them Performance Tile Reports.

In this postm we will try to demonstrate how a Performance Tiel Report is created.

Creating a Performance Tile Report

In this example we would try to diaplay the Total Number of Transactions as well as the Total No of Transactions which had issues (those which did not get completed)

We will use “Human Capital Management - Transaction Administration Real Time” Subject Area

The Criteria Tab will appear as below:

And once we move to the results tab we could see the output

If we click on the Edit (Pencil Icon) we could find details of the Performance Tile Reports ( for this example lets choose the Performance Tile (2))

Introduction

One of the most common requirement for every Technical Consultant working with Oracle and Related Technologies is to find out specific database tables which holds a specific piece of information. This input is required to create reports, understand links between various tables and even for troubleshooting purpose.

While I don’t deny that this information can also be easily available from Fusion Apps OER Tables and Views section but sometimes they might not yield desired results.

Say for example, I am interested to know Which All Tables has ASSIGNMENT_ID as a table column

We would try to find the answer to this question in two ways:

1. Using OER

2. Executing a SQL

So let’s begin then

Using OER

As a first step we would click on the Fusion Apps OER link which will take us to the below page:

Next, we need to click on Functional Area ( either of Sales, Global Human Resources, Financials, Procurement, Project Portfolio Mgmt, Supply Chain Mgmt) and then choose any of the available options under Tables and Views Section (highlighted below)

Once you click the same it will take you to a new screen (screen-shot below)

One would enter the name of the Table , Field, View in the Search Text Box (Highlighted in yellow in above screenshot) and when they click on serach icon the below screen will appear

We could see that the search returns 150 results and only the first 20 are shown. One can use the Prev/Next button to navigate through the entire list.

We would click on Next and

Bump! While we were expecting to see the next 20 items we got a “No results found”. Not sure why this happened but yes these things do happen . If we are lucky enough we can get the details in the first page of search and are good to go but if not we need to find an alternative solution. The SQL based approach might come to rescue in such cases.

Executing a SQL

One may even create a SQL data model to find the details. For this example we would illustrate ow o find list of all tables which holds a particular column (Assignment_id) .

We would use the below SQL query and create a Data Model

Screenshot

And once we click on Data (Tab) and pass Assignment_Id as the Column Name in parameter followed by a click on View we could see the results

Note: There is a LOV List besides Rows which by default holds a value of 5 and other available values are 10,50,100,200. So in case there are more than 200 rows (which one can figure out by running a count(*) query on the above sql ) one would need to create a report.

Introduction

In this article, we would quickly illustrate how to show warning message on Absence Recording Page. This is applicable to Release 12 version.

Pre-requisite:

Creating Custom Warning Message

We would need to create a Custom Warning Message using the Manage Messages Task.

Navigation: Setup and Maintenance -> Manage Messages

Please populate the following details while creating Warning Message

And, the screen would look as below:

Creating a Global Absence Entry Validation Fast Formula

Next we need to create a Global Absence Entry Validation Fast Formula. In my case, I already had an existing Fast Formula and I added the following code snippet:

*Note: I have used a 2>1 condition as I am using this example for illustration purpose where-in I want this piece of code to be executed every time. One may use a different IF condition as per business requirement.

Attaching Fast Formula to Absence Type

Once the Fast Formula is compiled we would need to attach this to an Absence Type . Pick this formula name from the Drop Down List which appears along side Validation Formula.

Once all the above steps are done we are ready to try to apply a Leave and once we try that (screen-shot below)

We could see that a Warning Message appears . Notice it gives the Option of ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ where-in Transaction gets saved/submitted ( depending on the Action Button which was acted upon by user) or the transaction gets cancelled when ‘No’ is pressed.

Introduction to Supply Chain Management Modules in Oracle Cloud Applications:

Oracle has come up with Fusion Applications in 2011. Modules like CRM, HCM and Financials have proved successful. With blooming cloud market, Oracle Cloud is making a mark in the Supply Chain Management applications. Considering the complexity of Supply Chains, Oracle is coming up with improved functionality and features to cater the Client requirements.

Oracle Supply Chain Management Cloud has the following modules. For easy understanding high level differences between EBS and Cloud Apps are provided wherever necessary.

1. Product Management:

  Oracle comes up with Product Information Management module to handle product information. Product Hub offering is the product solution for Master Data management and Product Information Management. Product Hub is pre-integrated with other Oracle ERP cloud modules. The product is mature and feature-rich. Most of the EBS functionality is available in the Cloud today.

2. Order Management Cloud:

Oracle initially launched Order Management in the name of Order Orchestration, with Order Entry only through CPQ (product acquired by Oracle from BigMachines) cloud. From Release 11 of Cloud Apps, Order Management is launched, in which Sales Orders can be created within the native Cloud application itself. Order Management is completely re-architectured when compared to E-Business Suite. The new product is highly technical in terms of features and is completely built on FMW technology. (Oracle Fusion SOA Middleware). Having built on SOA, Fusion Order Management (FOM) has the ability to be integrated with any system via web services.

Distributed Order Orchestration (DOO) is the heart of Order Management Cloud, which orchestrates the sales orders and tracks the fulfillment lines till its completion. DOO can be integrated with third party systems for order capture or order fulfillment or both.

3. Pricing:

Pricing in Fusion Apps is also re-architectured. The new modules uses the latest Marketing principles to price an item in the system. The principles are defined based on the Customer Profile and the Segmentation. Pricing product provides the flexibility to create strategies to handle the customer segments in an efficient way. In comparison to EBS, the product looks new. The most heard features like Order qualifiers and modifiers are handled in a completely different way. Pricing runs on Matrices, Algorithm and the Service Mapping. The algorithm can be configured with custom fields (Flexfields) and derive the price.

4. Manufacturing:

Manufacturing is a late entry into the SCM applications stack. Released in R11, the manufacturing module handles Plant, Work Areas and Work Centers, Work definitions and Work Orders. However, the features are available only for managing, execution and monitoring of Discrete manufacturing. As of date, Oracle does not have any functionality to support Process Manufacturing.

5. Inventory and Costing:

Inventory management handles material transactions with in the warehouse. Inventory module has most of the features common in comparison to EBS. Features like Org transfers, move orders, physical inventory and cycle counting are present from the initial release of the Cloud Apps. The product gained strength in functionality from REL 11 with the introduction of advanced fulfillment techniques like Internal Material Transfers ( IR-ISO in EBS), Back-to-Back, Consigned Inventory flows. However, in this module inventory replenishment is restricted to only Min-Max planning so far.

Costing is a module that is re-architectured in comparison with EBS. The concept of entering costs next to inventory transactions can no more be seen. Oracle costing introduces the concept of Cost Organization and Cost books to handle cost scenarios. Average and Standard costing are supported till the latest release. Costing provides Cost Accounting and Landed Cost Management features as of latest release.

6. Global Order Promising:

GOP promises delivery of customers based on supplies spanning across modules like Inventory, Manufacturing (work orders) and Procurement (suppliers). It provides features that help customers with what-if analysis, check availability. Also offers, Capable to promise , Profitable to promise features to compare the promising methods. GOP uses the ATP and sourcing rules needed for handling the scheduling requests. Though offered as an additional license to OM, GOP is tightly integrated with the former module, making it easy to check the availability of the items during Order Entry itself.

7. Planning:

Supply Chain Planning (Value Chain Planning) is product solution to handle demand and supplies by forecasting demand and determining resource activities, material requirements. Planning offers Demand Management, Planning Central, Sales and Operations Planning and Supply Planning Cloud services. While Planning central provides basic features Demand and Supply Planning provides advanced functionality of supply-demand.

In the coming articles, let's get into more details discussing the features in each product.

Thank you for watching out this space.

Item Creation in Oracle Cloud:

Oracle Cloud provides Item Creation in the module Product Information Management..

Item creation needs few Pre-requisites

• Item Class

• Item Master

• Units of Measure

1. Welcome Page / Home screen

2. On the landing page → Click on Tasks Menu→ Create Item

3. Create Item Screen →

4. Item Creation Screen →

Enter Item Name, Description, Item Status and Lifecycle phase

5. Item Overview screen →

Enter Primary Units of Measure (say Each)

6. Associate Item to Inventory Organization →

7. Click on Save Button to save the item.

8. Verify Item creation

Click on Manage Items from Tasks Menu (refer Screenshot 2). Search with the item name and two records should appear. One record for Item Master and another for the Inventory Organization.

Thank you for watching out this space.

Pre-Requisites for Item Creation in Oracle Cloud – Item Org:

Oracle Cloud provides Item Creation in the module Product Information Management.

Item creation needs few Pre-requisites

1. Item Organization ( Item Master )

2. Item Class

3. Units of Measure

Item Master also called as Item Organization is the Organization in which all the items are created. This is a virtual Org and hence does not need any location while defining it. Once an item is created in Item Org, it can be associated to multiple Inventory Orgs, where the transactions on the item take place.

1. Item Organization

1. Navigate to Setup and Maintenance → Select the offering Product Management and click on Item Organizations

2. Click on Create Button

1. Enter Name – Name of the Item Organization

2. Organization – this is the Item Org Code

3. Business Unit

4. Legal Entity

3. Item Organization Parameter

Search for the Item Master Organization Name in the drop down

4. Click on Save button

5. Verify the Item Master Creation by searching for the Item master in the search box

Thank you for watching out this space.

Introduction

I hope most of you are already aware of what a dashboard is and what are the various benefits/advantages of creating and using a dashboard, but if you are not don’t worry we got you covered. Do click this link here and hopefully all your doubts will be cleared.

Many a times I have seen implementers, consulting teams and even operational teams (well actually I should not count them.. As at times they are not aware of the entire product functionality) would be keen on developing new analyses and reports before properly checking whether the application provides some delivered reports for the same. One thing leads to another and what generally we end up with is a complex designed report at times hard to maintian with the added disadvantage of not being 100 % sure about the authnticity and correctness of data. Using a delivered report can make our life easier and saves us from taking unnecessary risks. Some of the notable advantages of using a delivered analysis/reports are:

1. Owned by product team so patch/upgrade safe

2. The best of the breed developers would be developing the reports so quality would be top class

3. You can raise support ticket in the Support portal

4. Best practices would be incorporated while report development.

There could be many more to add here but let’s restrict ourselves to the topic now which is “An Introduction of Line Manager Dashboard In Oracle Fusion HCM Cloud Application”.

As a line manager an individual has to be aware of multiple things like Headcount, Workforce Events,Workforce Trends, Absence, Time and Labor, Performance, Goals,Talent Review, Profile, Employee Competency and Succession Management for its subordinates and direct reports. Building accurate meaningful analysis for all the areas from scratch is surely going to take a lot of time. Using the delivered Line Manager Dashboard would simplify things.

Navigation: Dashboard -> Human Capital Management -> Line Manager Dashboard

I have just shared snapshot of the Headcount tab but one can surely navigate to all other tabs and be familiar with the various delivered analysis under Line Manager Dashboard.

Introduction

One of the most common requests I have received from consultants and implementers is that there aren’t many ways available via which one could verify the Fast Formula used in their project.

There are some options of logging messages using ESS_LOG_WRITE but what becomes a challenge is that there is not enough calrity about:

1. Which ESS job should be run to get details for which Fast Formula

2. Identifying where did the Fast Formula failed

3. Values fetched by certain DBI Items used in Fast Formula

While each one of us may have a different way of troubleshooting , I personally prefer to create a custom Fast Formula (Global Absence Entry Validation Type) , attach the same to an absence type and when one tries to apply leave using Absence Recording UI a message is displayed (depending on the specific logic in the Fast Formula)

So without further ado we will get started.

Pre-requisite

We would have to have some basic setups done before we demonstrate how we fetch specific DBI values.They are:

1. Create a Custom Fast Formula of Global Absence Entry Validation Fast Formula

2. Create a Custom Absence Type

3. Attach the Fast Formula with the Absence Type

4. Choose a specific employee record and try to record a absence record

5. Depending on the logic in the Fast Formula a message would be displayed with the relevant details (DBI values)

Custom Fast Formula (Global Absence Entry Validation)

For this example we will create a Custom fast formula (TEST_DBI_VALUE) using which we will try to find a meaningful message on Absence Recording Page. We will try to find out an individual’s Person Number, Display Name, Business Unit Name, Employee and Employment Category.

Application Screenshot

Create Absence Type and Associate the Fast Formula with this Absence Type

We would need to create a absence type and ensure that the Fast Formula is associated with it

Absence Recording

Next we will pick any employee (some one who belongs to US legislation as the Absence Type has been set-up to be used for only US Legislative Data Group)

We will use “Robert Jackman” (Person# 541) and see how does an absence recording event happens

We could notice that we are getting the error messages which contains details of the various DBI Items (the values of which we are interested to fetch). As we have not defined the message in “Manage Messages” set-up we are getting the infor which says the message cannot be accesses, but anyhow our intent is to find out the value of the various fields like person number, display name, business unit, employee and e,ployment category an dthe displayed message

“Person Number -541 having Full Name – Robert Jackman belongs to Business Unit – US1 Business Unit.Employee category for this person is – White collar and Employment Category is – Full-time regular.”

So this is how one can make use of this custom fast formula and retrive value of any DBI Item

That’s all for now and I hope this technique will help you in debugging fast formulas and also to fetch the values of DBI Items

Thanks for your time , have a nice day ahead!

Oracle Fusion Performance Management is designed to support workers, managers, and business leaders with point-in-time evaluation of worker performance. Organizations can configure the performance process to match their business practice. An industry-leading user experience enables workers and managers to easily see where they are and move smoothly through the process. Guidance and decision support are provided to users in context to help them easily and intelligently complete evaluations. Embedded intelligence supports managers and HR administrators in efficiently monitoring and managing the overall performance management process, enabling them to take action at the point it is needed.

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