1. Financial Report Authoring
Using Financial Reporting
Studio
July 2015
Beginner Course

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Agenda
 Overview of FR - FRC vs. Workspace vs. Studio
 Getting Started
 Demo – Basic Report
 Questions and Answers
 Appendix: Recap and Best Practices

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Overview of Financial Reporting – FRC vs.
Workspace vs. Studio
 Financial Reporting Center (FRC) vs. Workspace
– FRC is more simplified user interface for running reports/books only
 All users (accountants, CFO, line level managers)
– Workspace is browser tool for power users accessed from FRC task:
 Multiple tabs to display multiple reports at one time
 Create books, create batches, schedule batches, perform admin
functions
 Financial Reporting Studio is report authoring application
– Installed on your pc

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Recommendations Before Getting Started
 Before creating any financial reports, create all chart of account
hierarchies and ‘Publish’ to GL balances cubes
– If not, will have to re-define FR reports later (and Smart View queries and
allocations)
– See Account Hierarchy best practices document.
 See General Ledger balances cube documentation (Chapter 5 Define
Ledgers of Financials Implementation Guide)
– What is Generation (Gen 1, Gen2, etc) vs. Level (level 1, level 2, etc)
– How calculations work?
– What dimensions require default

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Pre-Requisite: Database Connections
 Admin to define FR Database Connection
– From Workspace: Tools->Database Connection Manager
– From FR Studio: Create new report, Place Grid on report pallet
 Carefully determine DB connection names
– Use same db connection names in each environment: CRP1, CRP2, Test,
Stage, Dev, Production)
– Ideally, do not change DB connection names

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Report Layout and Terminology
 User POV
– Default dimension member per
dimension per user
– Value persists across reports and
across sessions
 Grid POV
– Default dimension member for a
dimension on a report grid
– The value can be changed by a
user, but it will not persist across
sessions and will not impact other
users
– Can be hidden

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Demo – Basic Report

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Questions?

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Appendix:
Recap and Best Practices

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Best Practices – Dimension Layout
 First determine dimension layout (offline)
– Any dimension can be placed in 1 and only 1 grid element (row, column,
page, user pov, grid pov).
– Multiple dimensions can be on row, column, page, user pov and grid pov
 Row (many times natural account, but can other dimension)
 Column
– Accounting Period is common (based on user pov, offset of -12, etc)
– Scenario dimension (only if Actual vs Budget in different columns)
– Amount Type dimension (only if need both PTD, QTD, YTD in different
columns)
– Balance Amount dimension (only if need BB, Period Activity or EB in
different columns)

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Best Practices - Dimension Layout (continued)
 Page (most common is Company, or Cost Center)
 User POV
– ‘Top grey bar’ when report rendered.
– User POV is any dimension not in Row, Column or Page
– Tracked per user (persists across sessions)
– Like a where clause: What dimensions do you want to change
interactively?
 If want same default each time for every user, place on Grid POV

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Best Practices – Dimension Layout (continued)
 Grid POV
– Used to ensure same initial default value for that dimension every time for
all users (also can Lock value)
– Could be any COA elements not used in report analysis (default to top
level)
– Scenario – if only Actuals and not needed on columns
– Amount Type – if not needed on columns
– Balance Amount – if not needed on columns
– Currency – if always the same
– Currency Type - often

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Recap - Quick Steps to Create Report
 Insert Grid onto report pallet. Place dimensions on Grid
 Make Grid POV available. Put any default values via Grid POV
– Tip: Any tab you navigate automatically sets or resets the default to highest
level. Only navigate to tabs you want to do this for.
 Save report at this point initially
 Turn suppression normally on for Grid
– Also replacement text on remaining #ZERO and #MISSION with ‘0’
 Enable ‘Drillthrough’ on Grid Properties sheet.
 Start columns (since normally less than rows)
 Start building rows

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User POV vs. Prompts Best Practices
 User POV is best practice over Prompt
– User POV tracked for each user
– User POV works with functions (for member selector)
– User POV can be used for a dimension on Page, Row and Column
 Prompts primarily when need to select multiple values
– Prompts can be used for dimensions not just on Page, but also row and
columns


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Other Considerations
 Design Time row/column vs. Run Time row/column
– Fat Row/Column concept
 1 row in FR studio with 10 members selected. Always displays 10 rows
when you run report
– Best Practice: If you want a single row, then need a parent in hierarchy.
 Drillthrough to GL: Only on data cells, not on formula cells.
– Best practice: Have a parent in the hierarchy
 Display Member Name or Alias (or both)
– Alias will show ‘Value + Description’ out of the box. Can be changed to
description only. See profile option - GL: Set Cube Alias to Segment Value
Description.
 Use Expansions on rows/columns

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Formulas – Best Practices
 In General, since natural sign (debit and credit) is in the cube:
– Any row and column sum is a ‘plus’
– ‘Minus’ is used only for ‘Actual less Budget’ and ‘$ Variance’
 Other:
– Use Row Formula first, then Column Formula ‘before cell formula’ where
possible
– Syntax is in on-line help (each formula is slightly different)
– Always use space after +, -, *, /
– Always select ‘Green Checkmark’ (and wait .5-1 seconds as best practice)
– Updates automatically for inserted rows/columns
– Does not copy and paste like excel (you can copy and paste text and then
green checkmark

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Functions on Member Selection – Best Practices
 FR has many different functions (Children of, Descendants of, Sibling
of, Relative Member, Range from Relative Member, etc)
 Can be used on row, column, page
 Often reference ‘Current User POV’

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Text Functions – Best Practices
 Textboxes are inserted for header/footer
 Put User POV and Grid POV elements in footer (or header if preferred)
– Because for printed reports (User POV bar will not print)
 Syntax from On-line Help

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Formatting – Best Practices
 Variances
– Unique for debits (assets and expenses), unique for credits (liabilities,
equity and revenues), unique for $ Variance, unique for % Variance
 Decide font types, font sizes, coloring, underlining beforehand (there
are not ‘theme templates’ in financial reporting)
 Format grid first, then row or column before cells (if possible)
 Make sure all images (logos) and textboxes are fully within ‘header’ or
‘footer’ as applicable
– Otherwise, suppression on ‘Pages’ will not work correctly
 Can use Inherit Formatting feature
 Can do Conditional Formatting

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Installation of Financial Reporting Studio
 Installing Financial Reporting Studio (on your pc)
– First uninstall previous version (if any) from Windows Control Panel
 Also, delete existing directory structure: For example (could be
different): C:OracleMiddlewareproductsFinancial Reporting Studio
– Download version from that environment’s Workspace->Tools->Install-
>Financial Reporting Studio->Save to pc (do not run automatically)->Run
As Administrator from .exe file
– Must install latest Studio version in the following conditions:
 After patching
 When changing between environments on different patch set levels
– NOTE: You can’t write an FR report on a higher version level, and
export/import to a lower version level. Report may not work

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Migrating and Backing Up Reports
 Migrating Reports between environments
– Workspace->File->Export/Import
 For same environment
– For different environment: Use the Setup Manager Utility
 Backup reports frequently (if same environment: From Workspace-
>File->Export/Import)

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Tip: When FR Studio is Not Responding
 FR looks like it is not responding
 You think you have to Control + Alt + Delete to shut it down
– Wait
 The member selector window is open in the background
 This happens when working in Studio, open member selector, and then
go check email (or any other application). Alt tab back to Studio and it
looks like it is not responding
 Only way around this is to ‘Alt Tab’ back to the ‘Null window’
 FR Studio will start responding again