A deep dive into the Report Manager functionality of Oracle EBS R12

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A Hitchhikers Guide to
Oracle Report Manager in R12
Prepared by:
Prithis Das
Dynamique Solutions LLC
Session ID#: 13976

2. Presenter’s background
■ Over 18 years in the Oracle EBS sphere
■ Over 22 years of business process improvement experience
■ Consulting experience with Big 5 and other major
organizations
■ Oracle Certified Specialist in General Ledger
■ Chartered Accountant and Management Accountant from
India
■ Authored and presented papers on SLA, Web ADI, Reports
Manager at several OAUG and local events
■ Currently on a major R12 upgrade
■ Contact:
▪ Cell: +1.630.3649457
▪ Email: prithis.das@dynamique.us
▪ Web: www.dynamique.us

3. Agenda
■ Objectives
■ Case Study Company Background
■ Reporting background
■ Report Manager features
■ What Report Manager does not do
■ Setup Considerations
■ Quick Tutorial
■ Security in Oracle Report Manager
■ Using Report Manager – Tips
■ Using Report Manager – Tricks
■ Traps
■ Lessons learned

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

5. ■ 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
Case Study Company Background

6. ■ 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
Reporting Background

7. ■ 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. Users can be given access to Report Manager only
without the need to open up Java forms.
■ Incorporates security rules to restrict access to published
content
Report Manager features

8. 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

9. Setup Considerations
■ Patchset level – Metalink 726958.1 (15 Jan 2014)
■ Check for latest before implementation
▪ Release 12.2 (R12.FRM.C patches)
▪ Release 12.1.3 (R12.FRM.B patches)
▪ Release 12.0 (R12.FRM.A)
▪ Release 11i (FRM.H)
■ Note 1077728.1 : Report Manager users must use Internet
Explorer for full functionality

10. Setup Considerations
■ Report Manager uses Self Service Workflow Applications
■ Report Manager requires the BNE platform used by Web ADI
■ Functional Dependencies
▪ FSGs should have been defined in GL
▪ Standard reports 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

11. 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
(or the GL_SUPERUSER” menu:
▪ Financial Report Template Editor
▪ Financial Report Submission
▪ Standard Report Submission
▪ Variable Report Submission
▪ Repository Management
▪ Report Set Publish
▪ Request Set Publish
▪ Request View
▪ Security Workbench

12. Custom menu and responsibility
■ To enable Drilldown you must also assign the following
functions to the custom menu
▪ Account Analysis and Drilldown (Search Page)
▪ Account Analysis and Drilldown (Product Branding)
▪ FSG Drilldown: Launch Page
▪ FSG Drilldown: Select Content Set Rows
▪ FSG Drilldown: Effective Range Selection Page
▪ FSG Drilldown: Balance Inquiry Page
■ For each of them choose the Function Name value without
"_G"

13. Custom menu and responsibility
■ Create custom menu for Report Manager
▪ System Administrator > Application > Menu

14. Custom menu and responsibility
■ Add this menu as a sub-menu to the GL_SUPERUSER
responsibility or a custom responsibility

15. Browser and Excel Settings
■ Works with Internet Explorer, Firefox, Netscape
▪ See Metalink 389422.1 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

16. Quick Tutorial
■ Create a Template
■ Submit a single FSG report
■ Monitor Request and View Output
■ Submit a Request Set

17. Quick Tutorial
■ Create a Custom Template
▪ Select Financial Report Template Editor
▪ Select a Report, Select Excel Template Editor, Click on Create

18. Quick Tutorial
■ Create a Template
▪ Confirm ActiveX control interaction by clicking on Yes, if
prompted
Excel template
gets created with
FSG components

19. Quick Tutorial
■ Create a Template
▪ Personalize template with fonts, graphics etc, then upload to
Oracle
Use Oracle menu to
upload modified
template to Oracle

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

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

22. Quick Tutorial
■ Run a Report
▪ Select Financial Report Submission

23. Quick Tutorial
■ Run a Report
▪ Select the new template, add parameters, Submit.
Select your
template

24. Quick Tutorial
■ Run a Report
▪ Monitor Requests, View Output
View Output

25. Quick Tutorial
■ Run a Report
▪ Publish Report in Excel

26. Quick Tutorial
■ Financial Report drilldown
▪ Double-click on an amount in the report to view the details of
transactions totaling the amount displayed
▪ Can update some of the drilldown parameters, if desired

27. Quick Tutorial
■ Reports Repository
▪ All reports submitted through Report Manager are stored in the
reports repository
▪ Allows an organization to:
— Organize and view completed reports
— Update publishing and security options for completed reports
— Archive and delete reports

28. Quick Tutorial
■ Reports Repository menu opens the Repository

29. Security in Report Manager
■ Report Manager offers 4 security options:
▪ No Security
— Individual user access to reports is determined by assigned
responsibility
▪ Flexfield Value Security
— Standard flexfield value security (GL Security Rules or Data Access
Sets) is attached to a responsibility and applied to publishing and
viewing financial reports
▪ User to Value Security
— Security can be defined in Oracle Report Manager to control access
to secured financial reports
▪ PL/SQL Based Security
— Create and apply custom security suited to an organization’s specific
needs

30. 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)

31. 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

32. Using Report Manager – Tricks (contd.)
■ Display the Description column in the middle of the report
Description
column in the
middle of a
wide report

33. 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)

34. 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

35. 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.

36. 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
■ Mix-up 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

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

38. 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

39. Traps (contd.)
■ Mix-up of Request Set submission vs Report Set submission
menu items in earlier releases of R12
▪ The menu labeled “Request Set Publish” publishes Report Sets
▪ The menu labeled “Report Set Publish” publishes Request Sets

40. 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

41. 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

42. A Hitchhikers Guide to
Oracle Report Manager in R12
• Contact
Email
prithis.das@dynamique.us
Cell
+1.630.3649457
Website
www.dynamique.us
Additional questions?
Q & A

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