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A Hitchhikers Guide to
Oracle Report Manager in R12
Session ID#: 13976

Prepared by:
Prithis Das
Dynamique Solutions LLC

REMINDER
Check in on the
COLLABORATE mobile app

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Presenters 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: 630.3649457
Email: Prithis.das@dynamiquesolutionsllc.com
Web: Dynamiquesolutionsllc.com

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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

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Objectives
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

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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

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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

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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. 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

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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

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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

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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

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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

(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

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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"

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Custom menu and responsibility

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

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Custom menu and responsibility

Add this menu as a sub-menu to the GL_SUPERUSER
responsibility or a custom responsibility

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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

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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 Custom 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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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

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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

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Quick Tutorial
Reports Repository menu opens the Repository

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 Report Manager offers 4 security options:

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Security in Report Manager

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 organizations specific

needs

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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

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

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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.)
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

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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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A Hitchhikers Guide to
Oracle Report Manager in R12

Q&A

Additional questions?
Contact
Email

Prithis.Das@dynamiquesolutionsllc.co
m

Cell
630.3649457

Website
Dynamiquesolutionsllc.com
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