FSG Tips and Tricks

By Melanie Cameron

About Melanie Cameron 14 years experience with EBS Worked on every release since 10.6, oldest

release was 9.x 20 years experience in Finance, including

banking, mortgage, manufacturing, SOX compliance and IPO’s 5 year member of the AZOAUG

Board of Directors A Funcno Techno consultant who Prefers knitting over palm pilots

About MSS Technologies, Inc

Established in 1989 Located in Phoenix and Denver Deliver business application solutions to the Mid

Market: - ERP, BI, Data Warehousing, Application

Development Services, Strategic IT Planning MSS Vision:

- “Innovate the way business management solutions are delivered and eliminate the word failure from the information systems vocabulary.”

Tip #1

If it works……..

Don’t change it

Anatomy of an FSG

Account Override Options

On Report – enter Segment Override Add a Content Set When running, add Segment Override or

Content Set On Column Set – Add Override Value

Remember, a segment must be included at the Lowest level to be Overridden at a Higher level!

Row Sets

Define Row Sets

Account Assignments

Calculations

Using Row Numbers:

Using Row Names:

Row Tips

Number your Lines 10, 20, 30- Leave Room for growth

Skip and Page Break – be consistent on Before and After

- Easier to create consistent looking reports Row Names in Calculates are easier to see

what the calculation is doing- WARNING: sometimes this leads to inaccurate

results when adding Rows that have Calculations in them

Row Tips

Use Display Zero to add proofing rows or columns to your report

- They display only when there is a problem – Assets does not equal Liabilities plus Owners Equity, or a zero balance account is not zero

Using ICM? If this is an audited Financial Statement, or one that is linked to your controls, you may want to use Ranges instead of Parent accounts

- ICM will not see all the Child accounts under a parent, only the Parent Account, which is not the account being audited nor the one that relates to the control

Column Sets

Define Column Sets

Budgets and Forecasts? Define Control Values on the Report and select them on

the Row and Column Sets to determine which budget numbers are used on the Report

What goes on a Column set vs Row set?

Column Set Company or Dept

assignments for column breakout

Column Calculations Format Options Level of Detail Control Values Offsets

Row Set Row Titles Account Assignments Row Calculations Format Options Level of Detail

Build Columns

Column Tips

Make the Number formats at least one over the largest current number

- Allows room for growth and formulas When creating columns, assign them all a width

of 10- Use the Build Columns, you can adjust the widths in

a graphical interface that gives a better visual image Clicking on Build Column Set will override any

previous column formats you had saved- Not bad or good – just something to be aware of

Content Sets

Content Set Tips

These are buggy! Sometimes they do not give you the results you expect – if it works, leave it alone

If a copied set gives different results, check the manual or a white paper, and only change the one that is wrong

Row Order

Row Order Tips

The Width on the row order sometimes needs to be 1 wider then the actual segment to display

ADI

Did you know you can define FSG’s in ADI?

ADI – Define Report

ADI – Define Report

ADI – Define Report

ADI – Define Report

Maintenance

Auto Copy- Will not copy over the

same name in the targetdatabase

Database Links- This requires the apps password – if you setup a

new user name and password, ensure it has the proper Write access

FSG’s running slow

Remove any disabled companies from Content Sets

Ensure all segments of the Accounting Key Flexfield are setup to be Indexed

Run Program> Optimizer- Gather Statistics- Re-indexes the Segments, or Indexes them if it was

just turned on Work with your DBA if this is the first time using this report

or turning on Indexing

Hierarchy of Data

Request overrides everything Report overrides Components Content Set overrides Column

and Row Sets

Row always overrides Column

Amount Type Offset Control Value Format Factor Display Zero Level of Detail

Column always overrides Row

Calculation – when check box is checked Activity (DR, CR or Net)

No Override Rules

Accounts – uses intersecting from Row and Column

Summary – must be same as Row and Column Currency – must assign same currency for

intersecting columns and row, or will display 0 Change Sign (and on Variance)– Defaults to

No, Yes anywhere will override

Running and Publishing Reports

Options:- Concurrent Request

Formatting limited

- ADI Runs as Excel or HTML Control questionable because it has 100% of Excel

functionality Allows drill downs on lines that are Parent Accounts or

Account Ranges for analysis purposes

- XML Publisher Limits analysis available with ADI

Concurrent Request

ADI

XML Publisher

Differences?

ADI – Can drill down XML – Can publish securely Concurrent Manager – Limited space and

formatting

What’s coming in R12?

FSG’s publish with Report Manager Users are working with Oracle to have

ADI like features available

Questions?

Contact Information

Mcameron@msstech.com

To Download a copy of the

FSG Tips and Tricks White Paper:

www.MSSTech.com

and click on FSG White Paper