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)





Report Manager uses Self Service Workflow

Applications
Report Manager requires the BNE platform used by Web
ADI
Functional Dependancies



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

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



Need to define/assign additional functions to custom menu:






FRM_SECURITY_MENU menu is pre-defined but not adequate

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.


Excel Settings



Initialize and script Active X controls not marked as safe

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



Schedule your month-end reports to publish automatically



Users are familiar with the Request submission functionality

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




Can submit Report Set only from Java form



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

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



Need to update Output Option to XML for each report

Mixup of Request Set submission vs Report Set submission

menu items


Patch 6884665 if on R 11i

Patch 6884280 if on R 12 (Metalink 803014.1)

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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