Oracle EBS Period Close Advisor

The Oracle Period Close Advisor provides guidance on recommended period-end procedures for E-Business Release 12.x. It is intended to be generic and does not relate to a specific organization or industry. Step-by-step best practices with tips and troubleshooting references are provided to assist you through each phase.

Period Close Advisors are a series of checklists and documents that detail the steps involved in closing the month-end books and show how the tools in Oracle Financials can help you with that close. They give both IT and business users the opportunity to focus on business success rather than just simply maintaining system uptime.

Access to all Oracle Support Advisors requires a valid “My Oracle Support login.” Once connected, the Period Close Advisor starts with Support Document ID 335.1. These are not static .pdf files that are downloaded and read; they are interactive HTML pages that guide the reader through the close process.

The Period Close Advisor provides guidance on recommended period-end procedures for EBS Release 12.x. It does not relate to a specific organization or industry, and does not address specialized accounting procedures. Still, it includes step-by-step best practices with tips and troubleshooting references for the business analyst.

 

 

Oracle Period Close Advisor

Each sub-ledger is documented in a separate tab, shown in order of the data flow dependency. For example, Order Management feeds data into Oracle Receivables, so it is closed before closing Oracle Receivables. The nine applications addressed in the Period Close Advisor in close sequence are:

1. Order Management / Shipping

2. Cash Management / Treasury

3. Payables

4. Receivables

5. Purchasing

6. Inventory / Costing

7. Projects

8. Assets

9. General Ledger

Regardless of the module being processed, the advisor breaks down the close into a series of phases:

• Evaluate and Prepare: Aimed at a more technical audience, provides a checklist of patches, data fixes etc.
• Process Transactions: Aimed at business users, provides a step-by-step process for processing transactions during the close process
• Create Accounting: Aimed at business users, provides a step-by-step process for running the accounting processes
• Reconcile: Aimed at business users, provides a step-by-step process for running reconciliation reports
• Close Period: Aimed at business users, provides a step-by-step process for closing and opening accounting periods

You don’t need to have all these applications to use the Period Close Advisors. Within each application, guidance is provided for systems and the end user.

As an example, the steps in Receivables include:

Evaluate and Prepare

• A reference to the Patching & Maintenance Advisor to verify our current patch levels.
• Receivables training materials
• Validation Diagnostics – tests that need to be run to verify patch levels, etc.
• Ensure data consistency with “Generic Datafix Patch.”
• Provide reference to training materials

Process Transactions

• Complete Invoices and Credits and Adjustments
• Complete Receipts and Reversals
• Complete Invoice and Customer import
• Complete Lock Box processing
• Run Revenue Recognition program
• Print Invoices

Create Accounting

Create Accounting is the new process in Release 12 that creates the accounting in the Sub-ledger accounting tables and offers flexibility in how you generate your accounting. Accounting can be created immediately online or run as a process and can be generated 3 different ways:

1. Draft: The transactions accounted in draft mode can be included on accounting reports, but cannot be transferred to the General Ledger. This mode is for informational purposes only allowing you to review the accounting entries via the output report or using the Sub-ledger Accounting Inquiry screen prior to creating final entries.

2. Final: The transactions that have been accounted in Final Mode are accounted but not yet transferred to General Ledger. When using Final mode, you have the option to transfer and post to General Ledger based on the settings of the “Transfer to General Ledger” and “Post in GL” parameters.

3. Final Post: Transactions that have been accounted in Final Post are transferred to and posted in the General Ledger.

Reconcile

• Reconcile Transaction Activity for the Period
• Reconcile Outstanding Customer Balances
• Review the Unapplied Receipts Register
• Reconcile Receipts
• Reconcile Receipts to Bank Statement Activity for the Period
• Reconcile Posted Journal Entries

Close Period

• Close Current Receivables Period
• Review Sub-ledger Period Close Exception Report
• Third Party Balances Report
• Review Unposted Items Report
• Review Account Analysis Report
• Open Next Receivables period
• Run Reports for Tax Reporting (Optional)