A UK Oracle User Group publication

Auto Accounting rules for Projects R12

by Amit Kumar Bothra, iTrain

A ccounting Practices have been severely scrutinized and progressivelymodified over the last decade. Ever since the world saw the debacle

of Enron and WorldCom and then, more recently, the sub-prime crisis,Sarbanes Oxley and Basel II were no longer alien words and companiesstarted becoming more watchful of their accounting practices.

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The Basic Accounting Practicesfor Project Management

Accounting entries must be generated forall financial activities of a project, frominception to project completion. From anIAS point of view, costs on revenue generating projects should not be capitalised unless the project has been completed to a significant level and it hasbeen accepted by the customer. In OracleProjects, the AutoAccounting feature allowsthe creation of accounting entries for thevarious project activities using pre-definedaccounting rules.

AutoAccounting is a feature in OracleProjects that determines how each project-related transaction is recorded in aform of accounting entry in Oracle GeneralLedger. AutoAccounting is unique toOracle Projects. During each Projectprocess (Cost Distribution, Transfer,Revenue Distribution, or InvoiceGeneration), the AutoAccounting functionis called and run against each transactionautomatically by the system.

Based on rules defined to meet customerspecific business practices, AutoAccountingdetermines the appropriate value for eachof the individual segments of the company’s Accounting FlexField. The transaction is completely processedonly if AutoAccounting has successfullypopulated all of the segments of theaccounting FlexField and the combinationof the segments passes Oracle GeneralLedger’s validation.

AutoAccounting creates AccountingFlexField segment combinations, alsoreferred to as Code Combinations. Becausesome of these combinations may not exist,Oracle Projects requires activation of theDynamic Insertion option in theAccounting Key FlexField. DynamicInsertion allows new combinations to becreated, as long as no customer definedcross validation rules are violated. WithoutDynamic Insertion turned on,AutoAccounting would never be able tocreate new combinations, and henceAutoAccounting would fail with errors.

AutoAccounting is organised into groupsof related accounting transactions. These groups are called AutoAccountingFunctions. In Release 12 there are a total of 36 AutoAccounting Functions. For each AutoAccounting Function, there are a number of AutoAccountingFunction Transactions.

Function Transactions allowAutoAccounting to generate differentresults under different circumstances. With the use of different function transaction, code combinations generatedwould be different for labor costs on revenue generating and non-revenue generating projects, between expense costson indirect project and direct projects. The number of Function Transactions associated with functions may vary from afunction to another function.

During the implementation of OracleProjects, AutoAccounting rules are definedto meet client specific business practices.These rules determine howAutoAccounting populates the individualAccounting FlexField segments.

Company management had to ensure thatthey complied with the InternationalAccounting Standard (IAS), FinancialAccounting Standard Board (FASB) andGenerally Accepted Accounting Principles(GAAP).

Finally, demands from auditors request thatcompanies financial and management activities are in strict adherence with suchaccounting guidelines and are making theproject managers job even more complex.

For organizations running projects, Oracle Projects offers are a great tool tohandle their day to day business both onthe project management side as well as the accounting for project managementactivities.

Introduction

Oracle Projects offers an integrated projectmanagement solution to handle the complexities of projects and to manage the accounting practices for the variousactivities undertaken during each phase ofthe project. Governments and internationalregulatory authorities continue to imposecomplex and ever-changing regulations onorganisations.

Auditors have become very cautious andweary of the way accounting is done andthey have started demanding strict compliance with the accounting standards.It has become the joint responsibilities ofthe project managers, financials controllersand accounting managers to ensure that thesoftware solutions being used for the project management activities are capableof adhering with these regulations.

By using Oracle Projects, organisations can now be 100% compliant with therequirements of accounting standards while ensuring efficient handling of project activities.

“Oracle Projects offers an integrated projectmanagement solution to handle the complexities of projects and manage the best accounting practices complaint with IAS.”

13OracleScene Issue 38 Summer 2009

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There are three types ofAutoAccounting Rules:Constant-based; Parameter-based;and SQL Select based

Constant-based: AutoAccounting Rulesare used to directly populate theAccounting FlexField segment with a givenvalue. Each time a given Constant-basedAutoAccounting Rule is used, it will returnthe same value. Constant-basedAutoAccounting Rules are commonly usedto populate the Accounting FlexField segments with values that remain the sameno matter the circumstances.

Parameter-based: AutoAccounting Rulesuse parameters predefined by OracleProjects as their input. The parameters canbe used to directly populate the AccountingFlexField segment or they can be used tomatch against values in an AutoAccountingLookup Set. The matching value is thenused to populate the Accounting FlexFieldsegment.

SQL Select-based: AutoAccounting Rulesuse the Oracle Database Structural QueryLanguage (SQL) to determine which valueto populate the Accounting FlexField with.SQL Select-based rules are intended for situations where client-specific businesspractices dictate that more than one parameter is necessary to determine theappropriate value to use. An examplewould be the situation where both theProject Type and Expenditure Type, takentogether, determine the appropriate valueto use.

Accounting Entries

Following are some of the key accountingentries that were suggested during the lifecycle of a project which were compliantto the IAS and GAAP.

Please note that this is not an exhaustive list of accounting entries andOracle may automatically generates additional accounting entries depending oncustomer specific project transactions.

Conclusion

Oracle Projects provides an integrated project management solution which allowsorganisations to handle a variety of different types of projects. It also facilitatescompliance with the prevailing IAS andGAAP accounting best practices, thus providing peace of mind and value formoney for company senior managementand executives.

Labor Cost Accounting EntryCOST WIP ACCOUNT DRLABOR CLEARING ACCOUNT CRExpenses Report Cost Accounting EntryCOST WIP ACCOUNT DREXPENSE CLEARING ACCOUNT CRInventory Cost Accounting EntryCOST WIP ACCOUNT DRINVENTORY CLEARING ACCOUNT CRMisc Transactions Cost Accounting EntryCOST WIP ACCOUNT DRMISC TRANS CLEARING ACCOUNT CRLabor Revenue Accounting EntryUNBILLED RECEIVABLES/UNEARNED REVENUE DRLABOR REVENUE ACCOUNT CRExpense Report Revenue Accounting EntryUNBILLED RECEIVABLES/UNEARNED REVENUE DREXPENSE REPORT REVENUE ACCOUNT CRInventory Revenue Accounting EntryUNBILLED RECEIVABLES/UNEARNED REVENUE DRINVENTORY REVENUE ACCOUNT CRMisc Transactions Revenue Accounting EntryUNBILLED RECEIVABLES/UNEARNED REVENUE DRMISC TRANS REVENUE ACCOUNT CREvent Revenue Accounting EntryUNBILLED RECEIVABLES/UNEARNED REVENUE DREVENT REVENUE ACCOUNT CRInvoice Accounting EntryRECEIVABLES ACCOUNT DRUNBILLED RECEIVABLES/UNEARNED REVENUE CRCash Accounting EntryCASH/BANK ACCOUNT DRRECEIVABLES ACCOUNT CR

Manual/Scheduled Journal Entries in Oracle General Ledger once the project has been accepted and revenue can be recognisedLabor Cost Capitalisation Accounting EntryLABOR COST ACCOUNT DRCOST WIP ACCOUNT CRExpenses Report Cost Capitalisation Accounting EntryEXPENSE REPORT COST ACCOUNT DRCOST WIP ACCOUNT CRInventory Cost Capitalisation Accounting EntryINVENTORY COST ACCOUNT DRCOST WIP ACCOUNT CRMisc Transactions Cost Capitalisation Accounting EntryMISC TRANS COST ACCOUNT DRCOST WIP ACCOUNT CR

iTrain is a specialist independent ERPchange and transition managementintegration service provider. Throughout the UK market, iTrain delivers a variety of consulting andtraining ranging from Oracle Release 12to 11i eBusiness suite, SAP, Java,Peoplesoft, to technical services acrossthe complete ERP functional scope(Finance, HR & Payroll, Supply Chain,CRM). iTrain’s highly skilled consultantsand trainers also have the flexibility toassist you with any large or small projects your company wants to implement from an email integration toa full systems update.To learn more about iTrain’s servicesplease contactinfo@itrainconsulting.co.uk

About the AuthorAmit Kumar Bothra is a Senior Oraclefunctional consultantwith extensive experience in theImplementation ofOracle financials, supply chain

applications & Oracle Projects suites. With over 7 years in the ITConsultancy, Amit is an extremelyexperienced, clear, logical thinker withstrong leadership and presentationskills. Amit comes from a SolutionsArchitecture background with provenanalytical and problem solving skills.He has broad functional experienceacross many financial modules suchas GL, AR, AP, I-Expenses, AdvancedCollections, Project Costing & Billing,and Oracle Time & Labor.