What is ERP

What is Enterprise Resource Planning ??

Lets take an example. Suppose you are running a small grocery shop named "Janata Grocery", so the typical operation as a shop owner is you basically buy groceries from some big seller and stock it in your shop. Now people come to your shop for day-to-day needs and buy stuff from your shop at a slightly higher price than what you originally bought and stocked it in your shop.Ocassionally you may not be carrying items or run out of stock that people ask for so you make a note of it and promise the person to come back tomorrow and they will get their item. So far so good, now lets name some entities before we proceed and things get complicated. The big seller from whom you buy stock is called as Vendor, the people who come to your shop to buy things are known as customers, the stock in your shop is known as inventory.

So far we have identified few entities that play an active role in your day-to-day operations. As time goes by, your business expands and now you take orders over the phone and provide service to deliver the items to your customers, so you hire people to help you out in maintaining the inventory, do the delivery part and all the necessary stuff to keep the business running smoothly. The people you hire are known as employees.So in this small shop, you typically manage the bookkeeping activities by hand using a notepad or something similar. Now imagine the same setup on a larger scale where you have more than 10,000 customers, have more than 1000 vendors, have more than 1000 employees and have a huge warehouse to maintain your inventory. Do you think you can manage all that information using pen and paper? Absolutely no way! Your business will come to a sudden stop sign.

To facilitate big businesses, companies like Oracle Corporation have created huge software known in the category of ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) as Oracle Applications. Now coming to think of it, Oracle Apps is not one huge software, instead it is a collection of software known as modules that are integrated and talk to each other.

Now what is meant by integrated? First let us identify the modules by entities. For e.g Purchasing and Account Payables deal with the vendors since you typically purchase from vendors and eventually have to pay the dues. Oracle Purchasing handles all the requisitions and purchase orders to the vendors whereas Oracle Accounts Payables handles all the payments to the vendors.

Similarly Oracle Inventory deals with the items you maintain in stock, warehouse etc. Dealing with customers is handled collectively with the help of Oracle Receivables and Oracle Order Management. Order Management helps you collect all the information that your customer is ordering over the phone or webstore etc whereas Receivables help you collect the money for the orders that are delivered to the customers.

Now who maintains the paychecks, benefits of the 1000 employees? right! it is managed by Oracle Human Resources. So you get the idea by now that for each logical function there is a separate module that helps to execute and maintain that function.

So all the individual functions are being taken care but how do I know if I am making profit or loss? That's where integration comes into play. There is another module known as Oracle General Ledger. This module receives information from all the different transaction modules and summarizes them in order to help you create profit and loss statements, reports for paying Taxes etc.

Just to simplify the explanation, when you pay your employees that payment is reported back to General Ledgers as cost i.e money going out, when you purchase inventory items the information is transferred to GL as money going out, and so is the case when you pay your vendors. Similarly when you receive items in your inventory it is transferred to GL as money coming in, when your customer sends payment it is transfered to GL as money coming in. So all the different transaction modules report to GL (General Ledger) as either "money going in" or "money going out", the net result will tell you if you are making a profit or loss.

All the equipment, shops, warehouses, computers can be termed as Assets and they are managed by Oracle Fixed Assets. Initially Oracle Applications started as bunch of modules and as time passed by they added new modules for different and new functions growing out of the need for today's internet world.

So if you come across a module that you are trying to learn and work on, first try to understand what business need is it trying to fulfill and then try to understand what the immediate modules that it interacts with. For e.g lets say you come across Oracle Cost Management module, you will learn that it helps to maintain the costs of items in your inventory and the immediate modules that it interacts with are Oracle Inventory (ofcourse), Oracle Bills of Material, Order Management and so on..

There is more to ERP than this layman explanation of a complex beast that does not justify a single bit but I wished I had this knowledge when I was thrown into Oracle Applications right after I graduated from college. Back then the only piece of software I had known to write was implementing binary trees, infix, prefix, postfix notations in pascal and TSRs (Terminate and Stay resident) using assembly.

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Continuing with the simplicity and popularity of the above article, this article will try to explain the GL basics in simple terms. It assumes you have basic accounting knowledge like debit, credits, expense, accounts etc

What is General Ledger

Most people are familiar with their own bank statement, which shows an opening balance, transactions that occurred throughout the period, and a closing balance. That statement is a snapshot of your account at a particular point in time. A company keeps an account, like the records the bank keeps of your bank account, for every organization or customer that the company does business with.

Balance Sheet The balance sheet summarizes accounts and financial activities in three broad categories: assets, which represent all the things that the company owns; liabilities, which show how much money the company owes to others; and capital/retained earnings, which show the total cash invested in the business by the owners or shareholders.

Income StatementIn addition, accounts are kept for all the revenues and expenses of the company. These accounts are summarized in an income statement, also called a profit and loss statement, which represents the performance of a company over time.

The first step in capturing your transactions is to set up your chart of accounts. Your chart of accounts determines how your accounting information is collected, categorized, and stored for reporting purposes. In Oracle Financials, all accounts are identified by a unique Accounting key Flexfield combination, which is your chart of accounts structure. You assign each account the qualifier of asset, liability, owner's equity, revenue, or expense.

Periods are identified by names such as FEB-2000 or WEEK1 2-98 and represent non-overlapping consecutive date ranges. FEB-2000 would include the date ranges O1-FEB-2000 to 29-FEB-2000 and would be followed by MAR-2000 starting on 01 -MAR-2000. You choose the names, following whatever convention you devise, and you assign the date ranges. You can even set up a one-day period for year-end adjustments that begins and ends on the same day.

Double-Entry Accounting

Double-entry accounting requires constant symmetry; total debits must equal total credits. Every accounting transaction results in one or more debits and credits that always remain in balance. For example, a $5000 purchase of office equipment would result in an increase to the asset account as well as an increase to a liability account.

In Oracle Financials, the account number is referred to as the Accounting Flexfield, which is used throughout all of Oracle Applications whenever a transaction is entered into the system. The Accounting Flexfield consists of multiple segments, such as those for company, cost center, and account. One full Accounting Flexfield is called a combination. Each journal entry line is tagged with an Accounting Flexfield combination. For expense transactions, the AFF usually identifies who incurred the cost (for example, which company or department) and what the cost was for (for example, travel expense). If you want more detailed information, such as which region, cost center, and product incurred the cost, you can design your AFF structure to include that information as well. Because total debits must always equal total credits in every transaction, Oracle General Ledger requires that all journals balance. If you try to enter an unbalanced journal, Oracle General Ledger will either reject the transaction or force the transaction to balance by posting the difference to a suspense account.

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This is a useful alphabetical list covering most of the Oracle e-Business Suite products.

There must be quite a number of products still in research and development and some will never get to see the light out of the development labs.

Oracle Product Codes

1. ABM - Activity Based Management2. AD - Applications DBA3. AHL - Oracle Advanced Service Online4. AHM - Oracle Hosting Manager5. AK - Oracle Common Modules-AK6. ALR - Oracle Alert7. AMF - Oracle Fulfillment Services8. AMS - Oracle Marketing9. AMV - Oracle MarketView10. AN - Oracle Sales Analysis11. AP - Oracle Payables12. AR - Oracle Receivables13. AS - Oracle Sales14. ASF - Oracle Field Sales15. ASG - Oracle CRM Gateway for Mobile Services16. ASL - Oracle Mobile Field Sales Laptop17. ASO - Oracle Order Capture18. ASP - Oracle Field Sales/PalmTM Devices19. AST - TeleSales20. AU - Application Utilities21. AX - Global Accounting Engine22. AZ - Application Implementation23. BEN - Oracle Advanced Benefits24. BIC - Customer Intelligence25. BIL - Sales Intelligence26. BIM - Marketing Intelligence27. BIS - Oracle Applications BIS28. BIV - Oracle Service Intelligence29. BIX - Call Center Intelligence30. BNE - Oracle Web ADI31. BOM - Oracle Bills of Material32. BSC - Balanced Scorecard33. CCT - Oracle Call Center and Telephony34. CE - Oracle Cash Management35. CHV - Oracle Supplier Scheduling36. CLN - Supply Chain Trading Connector for RosettaNet37. CN - Oracle Sales Compensation38. CRP - Oracle Capacity39. CS - Oracle Service40. CSC - Customer Care41. CSD - Depot Repair42. CSE - Oracle Enterprise Install Base43. CSF - Field Service44. CSI - Install Base45. CSL - Oracle Field Service/Laptop46. CSM - Oracle Field Service Palm47. CSP - Oracle Spares Management48. CSR - Oracle Scheduler49. CSS - Support50. CST - Oracle Cost Management51. CUA - CRL Financials Assets52. CUE - Oracle Billing Connect53. CUF - CRL Financials54. CUG - Oracle Citizen Interaction Center55. CUI - Oracle Network Logistics Inventory56. CUN - Oracle Network Logistics NATS57. CUP - Oracle Network Logistics Purchasing58. CUS - CRL Supply Chain59. CZ - Oracle Configurator60. DDD - Oracle CADView-3D61. DOM - Oracle Document Management and Collaboration62. DT - Oracle DateTrack63. EAA - Oracle SEM Exchange64. EAM - Oracle Enterprise Asset Management65. EC - Oracle e-Commerce Gateway66. ECX - Oracle XML Gateway67. EDR - Oracle E Records68. EGO - Oracle Engineering Online69. ENG - Oracle Engineering70. ENI - Oracle Engineering Intelligence System71. EVM - Value Based Management72. FEM - Strategic Enterprise Management73. FF - Oracle Fast Formula74. FII - Financials Intelligence75. FLM - Oracle Flow Manufacturing76. FND - Application Object Library77. FPT - Oracle Banking Center78. FRM - Oracle Report Manager79. FTE - Oracle Transportation Hub80. FV - Oracle Federal Financials81. GHR - Oracle Federal HR82. GL - Oracle General Ledger83. GMA - Oracle Process Manufacturing Systems84. GMD - Oracle Process Manufacturing Product Development85. GME - Oracle Process Manufacturing Process Execution86. GMF - Oracle Process Manufacturing Financials87. GMI - Oracle Process Manufacturing Inventory88. GML - Oracle Process Manufacturing Logistics89. GMP - Oracle Process Manufacturing Process Planning90. GMS - Oracle Grants Accounting91. GR - Oracle Process Regulatory Mgmt

92. HRI - Human Resources Intelligence93. HXC - Oracle Time and Labor94. HXT - Oracle Time and Labor Rules95. IBA - iMarketing96. IBC - Oracle iContent97. IBE - iStore98. IBP - Bill Presentment & Payment99. IBU - iSupport100. IBY - iPayment101. ICX - Oracle Self-Service Web Applications102. IEB - Oracle Interaction Blending103. IEC - Oracle Campaign Plus104. IEM - Oracle eMail Center105. IEO - Call Center Technology106. IES - Scripting107. IEU - Oracle Universal Work Queue108. IEX - Oracle Collections109. IGC - Commitment Administration110. IGF - Student Systems Fin Aid111. IGI - Oracle International Public Sector Financials112. IGS - Oracle Student Sytems113. IGW - Oracle Grants Proposal114. IMC - Oracle Customers Online115. IMT - Oracle iMeeting116. INV - Oracle Inventory117. IPA - CRL Financials Projects118. IPD - Oracle Product Development Exchange119. ISC - Supply Chain Intelligence120. ITG - Oracle Internet Procurement Enterprise Connector121. JA - Asia/Pacific Localizations122. JE - European Localizations123. JG - Regional Localizations124. JL - Latin America Localizations125. JTF - CRM Foundation126. JTM - Oracle CRM Mobile Foundation127. JTS - Oracle CRM Self Service Administration128. ME - Maintenance, Repair & Overhaul129. MFG - Oracle Manufacturing130. MRP - Oracle Master Scheduling/MRP131. MSC - Oracle Advanced Supply Chain Planning132. MSD - Oracle Demand Planning133. MSO - Oracle Constraint Based Optimization134. MSR - Oracle Risk Optimization135. MWA - Mobile Applications136. ODQ - Oracle Data Query137. OE - Oracle Order Entry138. OFA - Oracle Assets139. OKB - Oracle Contracts for Subscriptions140. OKC - Oracle Contracts Core141. OKE - Oracle Project Contracts142. OKI - Oracle Contracts Intelligence143. OKL - Oracle Lease Management144. OKO - Oracle Contracts for Sales145. OKR - Oracle Contracts for Rights146. OKS - Oracle Contracts Service Module147. OKX - Oracle Contracts Integration148. ONT - Oracle Order Management149. OPI - Operations Intelligence150. OTA - Oracle Training Administration151. OZF - Funds & Budgets152. OZP - Trade Planning153. OZS - Oracle iClaims154. PA - Oracle Projects155. PAY - Oracle Payroll156. PER - Oracle Human Resources157. PJI - Oracle Project Intelligence158. PJM - Oracle Project Manufacturing159. PMI - Process Mfg Intelligence160. PN - Oracle Property Manager161. PO - Oracle Purchasing162. POA - Purchasing Intelligence163. POM - Oracle Exchange164. PON - Oracle Sourcing165. POS - Internet Supplier Portal166. PQH - Oracle Public Sector HR167. PQP - Oracle Public Sector Payroll168. PRP - Oracle Proposals169. PSA - Public Sector Applications170. PSB - Oracle Public Sector Budgeting171. PSP - Oracle Labor Distribution172. PV - Partner Relationship Management173. QA - Oracle Quality174. QOT - Oracle Quoting175. QP - Oracle Pricing176. QRM - Oracle Risk Management177. RG - Application Report Generator178. RHX - Oracle Advanced Planning Foundation179. RLA - Oracle Release Management Integration Kit180. RLM - Oracle Release Management181. SHT - Applications Shared Technology182. SSP - Oracle SSP183. SYSADMIN - System Administration184. VEA - Oracle Automotive185. VEH - Oracle Automotive Integration Kit186. WIP - Oracle Work in Process187. WMS - Oracle Warehouse Management System188. WPS - Oracle Manufacturing Scheduling189. WSH - Oracle Shipping190. WSM - Shop Floor Management191. XDP - Oracle Provisioning192. XLA - Oracle Common Accounting Modules193. XNB - Oracle eBusiness Billing194. XNC - Oracle Sales for Communications195. XNI - Oracle Install Base Intelligence196. XNM - Marketing for Communications197. XNP - Oracle Number Portability198. XNS - Oracle Service for Communications199. XTR - Oracle Treasury200. ZFA - Oracle Financial Analyzer201. ZSA - Oracle Sales Analyze

What happens when you login to Apps?

Firstly and surely there is a URL for oracle applications that is structured possibly in below format, although it can vary from version of apps.http://machinename:portnumber/OA_HTML/US/ICXINDEX.htmhttp://machinename:portnumber /oa_servlets/AppsLogin

When you join an Oracle Apps development team for an employer, you will first be given URL of the development environment.

In any Oracle Apps implementation project (assuming it has gone live), there are minimum of three environments, each with different URL's and different database instances.

These are:----------------Development environmentTesting environmentProduction environment

You will most probably, be given an url, username and password of the development environment.

What happens when you login--------------------------------------A. Your login gets authenticated against a table named fnd_user for your username and password. The screen below is where username and password defined. This screen is called user definition screen. Only system administrators have access to this screen.

B. As you can see above, this username xxpassi is attached to two responsibilities (this will be discussed in details in latter training lesson). It is this assignment to the responsibility that controls what a logged in person can do and can't do. In laymans words, a responsibility is a group of functions an user is authorized to perform.

C. When you successfully login you will see below screens.

This screen below will prompt you to change your password, to a value different than that assigned by System Administrator.

Click on either of the above Responsibility Names, will initiate Oracle Apps( Note: You might be prompted to install jinitiator..just keep clicking OKOK for all Jinitiator messages). Effectively, what I mean to say is that you do not need to download jinitiator from anywhere; Oracle will do this automatically (provided your DBAs got this cofiged) for you during your first logon attempt from the PC. Once your jInitiator gets installed

Hurray, we have logged into apps.

Some notes on advanced info :Oracle internally uses a login named GUEST with a password oracle, Some people regard this as a security threat, but it isnt. Your DBAs can change the guest password from its default value after installation.

Oracle uses a DB User account named applsyspub to which it first connects during validation of LOGIN. This user account has very restricted privileges and has access to below objects (primarily for authentication purposes):-FND_APPLICATIONFND_UNSUCCESSFUL_LOGINSFND_SESSIONSFND_PRODUCT_INSTALLATIONSFND_PRODUCT_GROUPSFND_MESSAGESFND_LANGUAGES_TLFND_APPLICATION_TLFND_APPLICATION_VLFND_LANGUAGES_VLFND_SIGNONFND_PUB_MESSAGEFND_WEBFILEPUBFND_DISCONNECTEDFND_MESSAGEFND_SECURITY_PKGFND_LOOKUPS