Oracle Fixed Assets Implementation Tips and Strategies

North Central Oracle Applications Users Group

Brian Bouchard - (312) 338-5120

Introduction

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Purpose
Overview Keys Key

of Oracle Fixed Assets

to Successful Implementation

Concepts
Tip

Implementation Conversion Questions

Strategies

Overview of Oracle Fixed Assets

Maintain Property & Equipment Inventory Rule Based Depreciation Flexible Structures (Category, Location, Asset Key, and Descriptive Flexfields) Asset Workbench

Tax Accounting
Integration with other Oracle Applications

Keys to a Successful Implementation

Early Planning Create Project Plan/Guidelines Complete Participation of all Users (Include Tax Department) Maintain Communication with other Application Teams Define Reporting Requirements Early Document Setup Decisions Continuous Feedback

Key Concepts - Integration

Oracle Fixed Assets Integration

Key Concepts - Asset Category Flexfield

Group Assets according to like depreciation rules Category flexfield serves as the holder of default rules (life, method, prorate & accounts) for each of your corporate and tax books

One segment must serve as a Major segment

Usually Tax Driven - Consult tax department when defining Can have up to 7 segments, 30 characters each segment (recommend 2 or 3 segments) Combination of segment values plus separators must be 30 characters or less

Key Concepts - Location Flexfield

Group assets according to Physical Location Main function is for Property Tax as opposed to a true Asset Tracker One segment must serve as State segment Define structure that can be easily maintained

Can have up to 7 segments, 30 characters each segments

Key Concepts - Asset Key Flexfield

Group like assets for enhanced reporting Specific to each implementation No financial impact on the system If not using, one segment required for setup (Define without validation)

Can have up to 10 segments, 30 characters each segment

Key Concepts - Key Flexfields

Plan Flexfield Structure carefully - including all your segment information (segment order, field length, dependencies) Once you have started entering assets using a flexfield, you cannot change the flexfield Dynamic Insertion versus Greater Control

Oracle Assets only displays a limited number of characters on its forms and reports - may wish to limit the number of segments per flexfield.

Key Concepts - System Controls

Company Name - Select a company name that will appear on all Oracle Assets reports Automatic Asset Numbering - If converting from a legacy system, select a starting number greater than the number of legacy assets Oldest Date Placed in Service - Required to enter the date of the oldest asset in your database

Key Concepts - Calendars

First Period - Must define all calendars from the period corresponding to the date placed in service of the oldest asset Integration to GL - Depreciation Calendar period names must be identical to the period names you have set up in your General Ledger (May force/determine GL calendar period naming convention) Tax Depreciation Calendar - Monthly versus Quarterly Depreciation and Prorate Calendars

Key Concepts - Books

Oracle Assets allows the creation of multiple sets of books within a single installation Can create multiple companies within one GL set of books, or multiple companies each with its own GL set of books Create Tax books for each Corporate Book Depreciation calculation Limitation: If you have multiple sets of books, assets must be retired from one book in order to transfer to another book (Cross depreciation books)

Key Concepts - Acct Generator/Flexbuilder

Oracle Assets uses Acct Generator/Flexbuilder to general accounting flexfield combinations for journal entries Allows you to designate a specific source for each segment in the accounting flexfield for which Oracle Assets creates a journal entry Flexibility to create journal entries according to your requirements Can specify to what level of detail to create journal entries for each book and account type

Key Concepts - Mass Additions Table

Create Assets from Oracle Payables using the Create Mass Additions Process Create Asset Additions from Another Payables system Convert Assets using the Mass Additions Interface

Create Assets from Oracle Projects using the Interface Assets Process

Conversion - Examine Existing Data

Clean data before conversion - do not load poor quality data into Oracle Fixed Assets Are you confident your legacy system processes depreciation correctly? Yes - Load existing depreciation values No - Have Oracle Assets recalculate

Map existing fields and data attributes to Oracle Assets. Include key flexfields (Asset Category, Location, Asset Key, Accounting Flexfield)

Conversion - Accounting Flexfield

Upon defining the Chart of Accounts for GL, make sure that the following Fixed Assets requirements are considered: Define Asset Accounts - Many standard reports in Fixed Assets sort by the account of each asset category

Define Clearing Accounts - Ensure that one or more clearing accounts are defined - these accounts will hold any transactions which hit the GL but not FA Cost Center Qualifier - set the cost center qualifier in the Accounting Flexfield for Fixed Assets - Used by many standard reports

Conversion - Questions

What data is being converted? (Cost vs. NBV, YTD Depreciation, Reserve, DPIS, Method, and Life) What tax data being converted? (Cost, YTD Depreciation, Reserve, DPIS, Method, and Life) What is the first period in Oracle? How will assets be converted? Electronic (SQL scripts) ADI

Conversion - Electronic Conversion

Use the Mass Additions Interface table to load assets electronically Each asset loaded must be attached to an Asset Category, Location, Asset Key and Accounting Flexfield using Oracle internal identification numbers Create a file from your legacy data (csv, dat, txt) Define an Interim table in the Oracle Database Create a SQL*Loader control file (.ctl) - tells SQL*Loader how to import data into the interim table

Conversion - Electronic Conversion Cont.

Use SQL*Loader to import the information to your interim table (if data not already in an Oracle database) Verify the number of records in your interim table and compare to your legacy data Verify totals for your cost and depreciation reserve Use the interim table to convert legacy data fields to Oracle formatted fields (internal ids, dates, methods, lives, etc.) Verify that all assets have required ids Load the FA_MASS_ADDITIONS Table from your interim table using SQL*Plus

Conversion - Electronic Conversion Cont.

Use SQL*Plus to verify that all required fields have been populated (Consult the Oracle Open Interfaces Manual) Run the Mass Additions Status Report and the Unposted Mass Additions Report to check your data Post your mass additions using the Post Mass Additions Process Verify that all assets were posted. Correct any assets which did not post in the Mass Additions Prepare form and rerun Mass Additions Post

Conversion - Tax

Initial Mass Copy vs. Periodic Mass Copy - Use the Mass Copy Process to copy your assets into each tax book associated with your Corporate Book Depreciation Reserve - Let Oracle Fixed Assets Recalculate the reserve or use SQL*Plus to update the values from your legacy data Life, Method, Prorate - Use SQL*Plus to update the lives, methods and prorates for each asset in your tax books

Verify any updates by using the Tax Additions Report

Tip #1 - Implementation Date

Beginning of Fiscal Year (Recommended)

Year-End reporting (one database versus two) Ease of Data Conversion Tax Reconciliation Load assets into the last period of the last fiscal year (i.e. Calendar year 2003, load into Dec-02)

Mid-Year
Transactions from two databases Can opt to convert from prior year-end (enter all transactions through point of implementation)

Tip #2 - Define Reporting Requirements

Examine Oracle Assets Standard Reports (Standard reports usually do not meet most companies reporting requirements) Examine both Corporate and Tax Reports Design reports keeping the Key Flexfields in mind (Sort, total and page break by segments within key flexfields) Test - thoroughly test all custom reports before moving to Production

Tip #3 - Loading Values

Create Excel Macros to automate the loading of values into Oracle for system setup Asset Categories Depreciation & Prorate Calendars Value Sets for Flexfield segments Test for a few lines of data before loading a large group of values For large value sets, transfer values in smaller batches

Tip #4 - Sizing Hardware & Database

Oracle Fixed Assets uses a tremendous amount of tablespace for storing depreciation data Important to properly size the following tablespaces:
Application

tablespace (FAD, FA_DATA or some derivative) - Houses all fixed assets tables Indexes (FAI or FA_INDX) Rollback Segments - used to undo changes in the database when a database failure occurs

FA Large Rollback Segment (Required)

Application profile option used to set rollback segment (could require up to 800 MB)

Questions