, ,

Reconciliation with GL – Accounts Payable Trial Balance

Q:  What formula should I use to balance AP to GL? 
A:  Use the following as an example of how to balance. In this example, you are closing your accounting period for April and you have just posted your final invoice and payment batches to your general ledger system.

To reconcile your accounts payable activity for April, make the following calculation:“Accounts Payable Trial Balance” as of March 31+   “Posted Invoice Register” for the period between April 1 and April 30–    “Posted Payment Register” for the period between April 1 and April 30

=   “Accounts Payable Trial Balance” as of April 30 
Reconciling AP to GL is accomplished with the use of the following reports.
“Posted Invoice Register”
“Posted Payment Register”
“Accounts Payable Trial Balance” (current and last period)
These reports ensure that your Trial Balance accurately reflects your accounts payable liability by matching the Posted invoices and payments with the AP liability account. You can also compare your AP liability accounts to GL by doing a query of the accounts in GL to identify the account or accounts out of balance. The trial balance total should be the same as your GL liability account.
If not:

Run the GL “Account Analysis” report for the liability account and for the date range in question. Look for transactions with a source other than Payables. This can quickly pinpoint any transactions incorrectly charged to the account. Make sure that you have not made manual journal entries to your liability account in General Ledger.When you identify the accounts you go back to AP and do a query on the account to find the invoices out of balance.

The last step is to create a journal entry in GL to balance the account or accounts that is out of balance.

Q: How is the as-of-date used in the “Accounts Payable Trial Balance” report? 

A: The as-of-date is used to determine which invoices and payments should be included on the report.  Any invoices or payments with an accounting date AFTER the entered as-of-date will not be displayed on this report. 
/by
, , ,

Metalink Introduction

What is My Oracle Support?My Oracle Support provides personalized, proactive, and collaborative support across all Oracle products.

Metalink is a knowledge base for Oracle, it provides access to a vast amount Oracle resources such as: Articles, Notes, Forum, Patches, Support and a whole lot more. In order to get access to Oracle Metalink you must be a customer or partner. 
The great aspect of Metalink is that it allows one to find resources for troubleshooting purposes. I have resolved many issue ranging from functional setup to complex database issues.
Another, great feature is Oracle Support via Metalink. You can raise an SR or Support Request (previously known as a TAR) to Oracle Support for issues. As an Orace customer you can send an SR on almost every topic. I have taken advantage of this, for example I once submitted an SR on how to find a particular patch.
/by
, ,

Oracle vs. SAP in five points!

As an ORACLE EBS consultant, we should aware of its counterpart –SAP and a few range of prospects that differentiate these two giants in today’s ERP market. Both SAP and Oracle eBusiness Suite (EBS) have strengths, weaknesses, and tradeoffs. Different clients have different needs, ranging from functional requirements, technical maturity, tolerance for risk, budget, and a host of other factors. 
So what are the differences between these two solutions? Although there are numerous variances in the detailed workflows and functionality of the solutions, there are five key high-level variables that we should aware of.
  1. Best of breed functionality vs. more tightly integrated modules. The software strategy of the two vendors could not be much different. While SAP has built a solution primarily from the ground up, Oracle has grown primarily through acquisition of best-of-breed point solutions. For example, Oracle has acquired Demantra for advanced sales and operations planning, Hyperion for financial reporting, and Siebel for CRM, while SAP has built much of this functionality into its core ECC and All in One ERP solutions.
  2. Product roadmap. SAP continues to build upon and enhance its core product offering, while Oracle is moving toward Fusion. While some may suggest that Oracle is more innovative or visionary in its technology direction, it also means that there may be more uncertainty with Oracle’s product lines. This is especially true for clients considering Oracle’s JD Edwards and Peoplesoft solutions.
  3. Flexibility. Although very powerful, SAP can be more difficult to change as a business evolves. This is both a strength and a weakness: it is tightly integrated and helps enforce standardized business processes across an enterprise, but it can be more difficult to modify the software to adjust to evolutions to core processes and requirements. Oracle’s best of breed approach, on the other hand, can allow for more flexibility to accommodate changing business needs, but this strength can become a weakness when it becomes harder to enforce standardized processes across a larger organization.
  4. Implementation cost, duration, and risk. Although both solutions typically cost more and take longer to implement than most Tier II ERP software, there are distinct differences between the two. Oracle has a slight advantage in average implementation duration and an even larger advantage in average implementation cost, at 20% less than SAP. SAP, on the other hand, has the lowest business risk of the two, measured via the probability of a material operational disruption at the time of go-live.
  5. Business benefits and satisfaction. This is perhaps SAP’s greatest strength. Although Oracle has the highest executive satisfaction level of all ERP vendors across the globe, SAP leads the pack in actual business benefits realized. Assuming the #1 reason most companies implement ERP software is to achieve tangible business benefits, this can be enough to justify SAP as a solid solution for many companies.
The key takeaway here is that, as with any ERP solution, SAP and Oracle both have their strengths and weaknesses. One solution may be the best fit for one organization, while not a good fit for others, even within the same industry. The only way to make sense of the pros and cons in a way that is meaningful to your organization is to engage in a robust ERP software selection process that considers your requirements, priorities, and competitive advantages to find the right fit.
/by