Oracle’s Financial Statement Generator (FSG) is a built-in report writer for EBS, which is used to produce financial statements (or otherwise known as FSGs). It’s often described as cumbersome, clunky and is difficult for end-users to build and edit existing reports. FSGs are comprised of a number of components which are integrated to produce a set of financial reports.
There are a number of steps in defining and building FSGs:
Report Specifications: These are usually prepared by accountants or end-users – mapped-out in Excel or within a Word document and passed to the report developers
Report Development: An IT department (or consultant who has requisite technical skills to understand the report specification) translates it into its FSG components
Report Testing: Accountants or end-users can conduct the testing of reports to check report parameters, runtime, display layout and, most importantly, financial results
Report Re-work: Any changes to the report are specified by the accountants and passed to the IT department for re-working
Report Acceptance: The accounting department “signs-off” on each report to confirm that it’s correct and acceptable. The IT department promotes this report to production status so it can be run against the live financial data.
Report Changes: Due to several changes in business needs and reporting requirements, financial report structures and layouts will often be altered. Of course, it’s a good idea to re-review the points above.
FSG Report Definition Process:
For many EBS customers, the report definition process is a time-consuming and arduous process: Requiring a mix of IT and finance resources. The steps for the process include:
1) Define the Row Set
First, define the basic row parameters and display options such as row set name, the formatting parameters, balance control options, and display and override settings.
Next, define the account assignments for each segment including whether to display totals, expand the selection, or show both totals and expansions. There can be many lines of segment selections, which can be added or subtracted to apply to a total for the row. Alternatively, a row calculation can be defined using multiple sequence definitions that refer to either constants or other rows in its logic.
For each row there are four forms (screens) to review, making the row set definition a long process.
2) Define the Column Set
A set of steps, similar to the process in row set definition, must be passed through to define each column. Display options, balance controls, sequence, spacing and formatting are defined prior to the account assignments. Again, each column includes four forms (screens).
3) Define the Content Set (optional, but used heavily)
Content sets are used to apply additional segment filters to a report and column set. This helps produce separate income statement pages for each department without having to build multiple reports, columns or row sets. Account assignments and their corresponding display options are made to produce a range of valid segment values that drive the resulting report pages.
4) Define the Report
Another set of screens enable you to define a report that uses an existing row and a column and content set combination. There are additional optional components and overrides that can also be set. The report structure is saved and can be run as a single report request or as part of a report set (a grouping of reports to be run sequentially from a single request).
5) Run Report or Report Set
To run a predefined report, a request is submitted for the specified period and the resulting report pages are rendered in text, CSV, XML, or Excel format.
Excel Integration:
Publishing an FSG in Excel format requires an additional setup and uses desktop ADI integration in EBS 11i. In R12 complex, additional infrastructure is required to be put in place. Publishing an FSG to Excel and enabling drill-down uses a combination of Excel templates, BI publisher, Report Manager, and Web ADI.
Insight makes the process of developing and deploying financial reports from EBS substantially easier. Insight can import existing FSG row set structures and easily replicate column and content set structures through the use of user-controlled filters.
Insight enables you to:
- Import existing FSG row sets and hierarchies
- Edit using drag and drop and mouse clicks
- Build new row sets in minutes
- View an entire row set definition as a visual tree
- Easily define column and content sets using filter selections
- Apply high-quality formatting
- Inbuilt drill-down to GL and subledgers at any level
- One click publishing and Excel export
