1

Copyright 2006 Excel4apps (Pty) Ltd

Oracle Financial reporting guidelines for
GL Wand and Excel







www.excel4apps.com
Excel4Apps (Pty) Ltd
sales@excel4apps.com
All rights reserved.

2
Copyright 2006 Excel4apps (Pty) Ltd

Foreword 3
Accuracy 3
Header sheet with parameters 3
Control totals per sheet 4
8ingle generic get balance 5
Protecting your workbook 5
mpact 6
8heet Tab formatting 6
Conditional formatting 6
Charts 7
Efficiency 8
Drop down list of values 8
Dynamic formulae 9
8tyle sheets 10
Working with dates 11

3
Copyright 2006 Excel4apps (Pty) Ltd
Foreword
The purpose of the guide is to assist people that are developing GL Wand reports to make
maximum use of underlying Excel functionality in order to produce high impact, accurate and
efficient Excel based Oracle Financial reports. This guide is not designed to teach GL Wand
functionality or replace instructor lead Excel training but rather emphasise Excel functionality
which works well with GL Wand reporting.

The guide is best used as a checklist to see if your GL Wand reports contain all the
recommended components. The Microsoft Office Excel help and the GL Wand online help
should be referred to for detailed content.
Accuracy
Header sheet with parameters
If you are creating a multi-sheet report, then we suggest inserting a header sheet to contain
global parameters which are valid throughout the entire sheet. This will make maintenance
of the parameters much easier.

4
Copyright 2006 Excel4apps (Pty) Ltd

Control totals per sheet
A control total is an "independent test to confirm a report balance is accurate (complete).
The periodic maintenance of the Chart of Accounts through the creation of new accounts or
the maintenance of hierarchies can invalidate an existing FSG report or GL Wand report.

We suggest inserting control totals at the top of each sheet or in the header sheet in a multi
sheet report. The parameters of a control total would typically sum the entire range which is
itemised in the sheet. Use conditional formatting to highlight potential problems areas.

5
Copyright 2006 Excel4apps (Pty) Ltd
Single generic get balance
Using one generic get balance formula is recommended as this allows the formulae to be
copy and pasted around the workbook. It also supports the single version of the truth
concept in terms ongoing maintenance. Any Get Balance formulae can be edited to
incorporate changes and recopied throughout the report.

Using absolute and relative referencing as well as an appropriate report structure will make
this possible.


Protecting your workbook
Reports that will be distributed to others for refresh only should be protected. To protect a
workbook use tools/Protection/Protect sheet. Sheet protection is using in conjunction with
format cells. Select Format/Cells/Protection and then unlock any cells that you will allow
changes on. For example the List of Values fields should be unprotected in order to allow the
recipient to change it.

6
Copyright 2006 Excel4apps (Pty) Ltd


mpact
Sheet Tab formatting
Sheet tab formatting allows you to change the colours of the "Sheet tabs.
Creating standards throughout your organisation can improve productivity between co-
workers.

A suggested standard is
Header (Black)
Reports (Grey)
LOV (default)

Conditional formatting
Conditional formatting allows you to format a cell based on the value of that cell or another
cell. For example positive variances against budget of x % could be highlighted in Grey or

7
Copyright 2006 Excel4apps (Pty) Ltd
Control totals whose difference does not equal to zero could be formatted in red as per the
example below.




In order to conditionally format cells, select Format/Conditional Formatting/ from the menu.

If the format is based on the value of the cell being formatted then use "Cell value is as the
condition. The example above uses this option. If the format is based on the value of
another cell, then use "formula value is. For example, use the "formula is option to
highlight say the actual or budget value in the report whose variance exceeds the tolerance
limit set.
Charts
Charts can be used effectively to highlight trends or relative weighting. Select Insert/Charts
and then the appropriate styled chart.
Employee Expenses
6%
Operating Expenses
72%
Depreciation
4%
Other Expenses
18%

8
Copyright 2006 Excel4apps (Pty) Ltd
Efficiency
Drop down list of values
Drop down list of values are very useful for selecting a valid value as an input parameter.
The recommend way of using the list of values options with GL Wand is to

1. Create the list
Create a separate sheet containing all the "lists of values. Use the next segment
value parameter to make sure that the list is dynamic.
2. Name the list (as a range)
One way to do this is to highlight the range, then name it (as a range) by editing the
name as a range in the "name box.
pic


3. Create the List of Values
Select Data/Validation.List.then make the source=Range name eg =Department. The
"equals sign must be included.

9
Copyright 2006 Excel4apps (Pty) Ltd

Dynamic formulae
It is recommended that dynamic formulae are used in GL Wand reports as these will be
updated each time you log on (or in the case of get balance) each time the report is
refreshed.

Static values are useful during the report development phase. Static values as the name
implies are not refreshed and care needs to be taken when using them in a final report.

10
Copyright 2006 Excel4apps (Pty) Ltd



Style sheets
For those of you familiar with Microsoft Word style functionality you will be pleased to know
that Excel offers similar functionality. Styles can be useful for creating a common look and
feel to all reports with the added benefit of being able to update the style in and propagate
that change throughout the excel workbook.

To create a new style
First format the cells to your liking, using normal excel formatting options.

11
Copyright 2006 Excel4apps (Pty) Ltd
Name the formatting as a style.
Format/Style/Name then edit the name to say "GLW Heading
To apply styles in your document
We suggest displaying the style drop down button on your toolbar.
To place the style drop down on your toolbar please do the following steps.
1. Right click on a toolbar (not the GL Wand toolbar)
2. Select customise from the menu
3. Select format from the Commands tab
4. Then drag the Style drop down over a toolbar

To apply a style to an area of a document
1. Highlight area
2. Select the style from the drop down list

Working with dates
Oracle applications requires that the date parameter of the Get Balance formula be a date in
a text format in the same case as defined in Oracle Applications. A useful formula for
converting Excel date cells into GL Wand readable date format is the Text function.
Insert Function/Text ..Text or simply type
= text(Cell Ref,ddd-yyy) converts a date cell into text.

12
Copyright 2006 Excel4apps (Pty) Ltd

If the months in your calendar within Oracle Apps is defined with uppercase values then use
for example.
= Upper (text(Cell Ref,ddd-yyy)) which converts a date cell into uppercase text.