Oracle Fixed Assets Implementation Tips and Strategies

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Oracle Fixed Assets -Implementation Tips and
Strategies

• North Central Oracle Applications Users Group
• Brian Bouchard - [phone]

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Introduction

• DARC Corporation
• Application Implementation Methodology
• Installation and Upgrade
• DARC Products
• Technical Consulting
• Functional Consulting
• DARC Academy
• Customer Support Services
• User Group Affiliations

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Purpose

• Overview of Oracle Fixed Assets
• Keys to Successful Implementation
• Key Concepts
• Implementation Tip
• Conversion Strategies
• Questions

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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

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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

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Key Concepts - Integration

• Oracle Fixed Assets Integration

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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

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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

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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

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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.

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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

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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

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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)

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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

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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

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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)

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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

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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

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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 SQLLoader control file (.ctl) - tells
  SQLLoader how to import data into the interim
  table

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Conversion - Electronic Conversion Cont.

• Use SQLLoader 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 SQLPlus

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Conversion - Electronic Conversion Cont.

• Use SQLPlus 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

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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 SQLPlus to update
  the values from your legacy data
• Life, Method, Prorate - Use SQLPlus to update
  the lives, methods and prorates for each asset in
  your tax books
• Verify any updates by using the Tax Additions
  Report

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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)

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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

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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

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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)

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Questions