Oracle Report Manager

Tips, Tricks and Traps Prithis Das

Agenda
Objectives Case Study Company Background Reporting background Report Manager features What Report Manager does not do Setup Considerations Quick Tutorial Using Report Manager Tips Using Report Manager Tricks Traps Lessons learned

Objectives
Provide useful information for R12 implementation teams for implementation of Oracle General Ledger, Financial Statement Generator and Report Manager Indirectly educate users about new R12 Report Manager features Help avoid potential pitfalls using actual experience from implementing Report Manager

Case Study Company Background

Auto Salvage Company New implementation of R12 Started April 2007 with very early releases of R12 General Ledger, Payables, Assets, Cash Management, Advanced Global Intercompany System 120+ Legal Entities Six regional accounting centers Complex reporting requirements 400+ legacy reports using best-of-breed reporting tool

Reporting Background Complex reporting requirements 400+ legacy financial reports using dedicated reporting tool Typical Trial Balance took over 15 minutes to generate Legacy Reports in Excel, and included publishing features such as fonts, bold and underlining Lack of security Users were able to access all reports across legal entities

Report Manager features

Report Manager is an integral part of Oracle EBS Assumes implementation of Oracle General Ledger incorporating Financial Statement Generator (FSG) Provides an online repository to store and access financial reports Personalized look and feel on financial reports Reports can be submitted and accessed through Web browser. Hence jinitiator need not be installed if user accesses Report Manager only. Incorporates security rules to restrict access to published content

What Report Manager does not do

You cannot create FSG components (Row Sets, Column Sets etc) in Report Manager. These will need to be created through standard FSG Excel outputs from Report Manager will not incorporate Excel formulas Excel templates do not save all formatting options Works well with FSG reports. However Standard reports in Oracle will have formatting issues

Setup Considerations
Patchset level Metalink 820653.1 (9 Jul 2009)
Check for latest before implementation For 11.5.10.2 apply FRM.H over and above FRM.G For R12 Report Manager is Auto-installed. Apply FRM.A

Report Manager uses Self Service Workflow Applications Report Manager requires the BNE platform used by Web ADI Functional Dependancies
FSGs should have been defined in GL For standard reports, they should be assigned to Request Group assigned to the Report Manager

Custom menu and responsibility for Report Manager Browser and Excel settings Seeded template vs Custom templates
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Custom menu and responsibility

Pre-defined menus for Report Manager are not complete
FRM_SECURITY_MENU menu is pre-defined but not adequate

Need to define/assign additional functions to custom menu:

Financial Report Template Editor Financial Report Submission Standard Report Submission Repository Management

Alternatively, you may add these functions to the GL_SUPERUSER menu

Custom menu and responsibility

Create custom menu for Report Manager
System Administrator > Application > Menu

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Custom menu and responsibility

Create custom Responsibility for Report Manager

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Browser and Excel Settings

Works with Internet Explorer, Firefox, Netscape
See Metalink 389422.1 (5-Aug-09) for latest browser requirements

Internet Explorer Settings

Navigate to Tools -> Internet Options and choose the Security tab Select Local Intranet and choose the Custom Level button. Set the following option to Prompt.
Initialize and script Active X controls not marked as safe

Excel Settings
Open Excel, Go to Tools -> Macro -> Security -> Trusted Sources Check the "Trust access to Visual Basic Project

Incorrect settings will lead to error Microsoft VBScript runtime error: 429 - ActiveX component can't create object or similar error.
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Quick Tutorial
Create a Template Submit a single FSG report Monitor Request and View Output Submit a Request Set

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Quick Tutorial
Create a Template
Select Financial Report Template Editor Select a Report, Select Excel Template Editor, Click on Create

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Quick Tutorial
Create a Template
Confirm ActiveX control interaction by clicking on Yes, if prompted

Excel template gets created with FSG components

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Quick Tutorial
Create a Template
Personalize template with fonts, graphics etc, then upload to Oracle

Use Oracle menu to upload modified template to Oracle

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Quick Tutorial
Create a Template
Name the template, select Drill option, Upload.

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Quick Tutorial
Create a Template
Name the template, select Drill option, Upload.

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Quick Tutorial
Run a Report
Select Financial Report Submission

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Quick Tutorial
Run a Report
Select the new template, add parameters, Submit.

Select your template

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Quick Tutorial
Run a Report
Monitor Requests, View Output

View Output

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Quick Tutorial
Run a Report
Publish Report in Excel

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Using Report Manager Tips

Create and Test your financial report on standard FSG, and then publish the report using Report Manager
Do not waste time over column heading formatting in Apps

Use the Generic FSG template wherever possible. If you use custom templates, each template is associated with a single report Report Set considerations
Report Sets can only be submitted through standard FSG submission Responsibility submitting Report Set must be the same that is publishing it

Use Repository Maintenance to avoid tablespace issues

Apply Patch first (Metalink 803014.1)

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Using Report Manager Tricks

Use Report Manager templates directly from FSG submission
Users are familiar with the Request submission functionality

Schedule your month-end reports to publish automatically

Use standard scheduling functionality

Store Excel settings on custom Excel templates

Cell background color Cell / Text font Cell alignment Cell Border Cell Merge Underline Page Settings:
a. Orientation (Portrait / Landscape) b. Paper Size c. Width of Page
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Using Report Manager Tricks (contd.)

Display the Description column in the middle of the report

Description column in the middle of a wide report

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Using Report Manager Tricks (contd.)

Display the Description column in the middle of the report
Create a Custom Template Use the Menu (Oracle > FSG Template > Move Line Items Right)

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Using Report Manager Tricks (contd.)

Use Report Manager templates directly from FSG submission

Before submission, select a template, and set Format = EXCEL. View Output will open the output in Excel, using the template

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Using Report Manager Tricks (contd.)

Use Report Manager templates directly from FSG submission
Use XML Publisher Responsibility Copy the Generic FSG Template, update the Data Definition to FSGXML program. Attach custom template file if required.

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Traps
Repository Maintenance could lead to disappearing menus
Patch 6884665 if on R 11i Patch 6884280 if on R 12 (Metalink 803014.1)

Can submit Report Set only from Java form

Need to update Output Option to XML for each report

Mixup of Request Set submission vs Report Set submission menu items

Report Set on Java form, but Request Set in Report Manager

Printing XML file if Profile Option Number of Copies is set to 1

Metalink 748037.1 workaround is to attach dummy printer to RGRARG

Significant impact on Database size due to XML outputs Does not use Definition Access Sets functionality Report Manager output ignores Display Sets
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Traps
User to Value Security mandates use of Content Sets
Alternately, place specific reports on end-user menus

Images (such as logos) can be used on templates from 12.0.6 Profile Option for AutoArchive does not archive. Need to archive manually.

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Traps (contd.)
Repository Maintenance could lead to disappearing menus
Patch 6884665 if on R 11i Patch 6884280 if on R 12

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Traps (contd.)
Can submit Report Set only from Java form
You cannot submit a Report Set directly from Report Manager Also, need to update Output Option to XML for each report You can, however, publish a Report Set from Report Manager

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Traps (contd.)
Mixup of Request Set submission vs Report Set submission menu items
The menu labeled Request Set Publish publishes Report Sets The menu labeled Report Set Publish publishes Request Sets

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Traps (contd.)
Printing XML file if Profile Option Number of Copies is set to 1
Metalink 748037.1 workaround is to attach dummy printer to RGRARG However, workaround will lead to using Reprint for regular reports

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Lessons learned
Need to be on at least 12.0.4 or later for minimal issues Web interface can have a learning curve Use Report Manager selectively for upper management reports. Operational reports are efficiently done through standard FSG submission with text output Use Repository Maintenance frequently move critical reports to network drives Longer than usual turnaround time on SRs

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Presenter Information Prithis Das Rolta TUSC dasp@tusc.com

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