The Feature

The Feature Is 10 Weeks Old

It has been ten weeks since I started this blog and published my first post, so I thought this would be a good moment to look back and reflect a little. Do you still remember being in a new relationship? Everything is so new and exciting… Well, blogging still feels that way to me. It is very exhilarating, overwhelming and exhausting. When I first started, I set a goal for myself to publish at least one post a week. Sixty two posts later I realize that I cannot possibly keep this up and write about everything I want. That is especially the case if I also want to keep my day job, not blog during business hours, be a good husband and dad, and get some sleep at night.

I feel embarrassed I did not see earlier the power and benefits of blogs in a consulting job. What a great way to keep track of everyday activities, ideas, links, documents, and demonstrate expertise and passion for what you do. And what a great way to network and connect with peers, colleagues and customers. I admit it still feels like I only write my posts for other bloggers, since the general public perceives blogs as I did just three months ago: trash. My hope is that as the blogging hype recedes and people start finding the information they need on smart blogs, more of them will realize the blogs are for real. There is a lot of room for good content on the internet in general, and Oracle Applications in particular. Just look at the site statistics for the two and half months: 1,250 unique visitors, 4,300 visits, and 51,000 visited pages. And we barely started.

Since we are looking at the stats, let me give you the Feature’s top 5 posts that attracted most of your attention:

• How To Setup Oracle iExpenses
• 10 Questions for Eddie Awad from Eddie Awad’s Blog
• 7 Guaranteed Questions from New Oracle Users
• Welcome AppsZone.com - A New Business Applications News Service
• Oracle Project Billing - Show Me the Money!

Returning visitors may have noticed some changes at the site. First of all, the name - I really liked the original It’s a Feature! but try to use it in a sentence! It is impossible. So let’s call it The Feature - the same idea and url (http://itsafeature.com/). Hope you like the new theme and colors (the similarity with the colors of a certain software giant is strictly coincidental ) and new add-ons: Tag Cloud, Smart Archives, AppsZone news etc. I am planning on installing the polls feature so that we can have some fun with that too. Let me know what else you would like to see.

In future, I will try to do a better job on recruiting new authors and contributors to keep the information coming. I have received several emails with questions and tips for new stories. I will try to publish new posts as quickly as I can. I encourage you to send fewer emails and post more comments with ideas on how to make the blog better. You are always welcome to post an article about anything you want, and about Oracle Applications in particular, if you have something interesting to say.

Thank you for reading!

Marian

What To Remember Not To Forget When Transferring Knowledge

Let me post this while I remember not to forget. The PeoplesoftConer posted a smart little piece with a list of tasks I always forget to remember when in the middle of knowledge transfers. Since the list is applicable to any software package, I will try to remember not to forget it:

• Contact list with roles and responsibilities
• Architecture Diagram for Dev, Test and Production that shows the servers and various PeopleSoft Internet Architecture components
• Server List with description/purpose, IP addresses, memory, CPU, and disk capacity
• Database Instances and corresponding PS Environments
• Documentation index - what documentation exists and where it is
• Password lists, including server, application and database accounts
• Customization lists
• Issues list
• Current tasks and projects that the person you’re replacing is involved with
• Access to servers, applications
• Remote access software and instructions for using it
• Interface diagram
• Time reporting procedures
• Production Change Management procedures
• Migration procedures

Thanks PeopleSoft Corner!

Welcome AppsZone.com - A New Business Applications News Service

It is with great pleasure when I announce the arrival of AppsZone.com - news aggregating service from syndicated business applications blogs and related sources. Find all your favorite blogs and news about ERP, CRM, Oracle, SAP, Peoplefost, JD Edwards, Siebel and more in one convenient place.

The inital set of featured blogs and sources include:

• Bona tempora volvantur–by Guy Kawasaki

• Creating Passionate Users

• CRMchump

• Implementing Oracle CRM

• In Search of Business Value & ROI: Achieving IT Benefits Realization

• Koch’s IT Strategy

• Mark Rittman’s Oracle Weblog

• Movers and Shakers

• Net Effect

• New Trends & Techniques in Managing CRM & SAP Projects

• Oracle Magazine

• OracleAppsBlog

• Parallax : Calculating Technology’s Future

• PeopleSoft Corner

• Practical Innovation

• Oracle Profit - The Business of Technology

• Tech LinkLetter

• The Feature

• The Numbers Never Lie

• The Fusion Guy

• Venture Watch

If you maintain a web log or other news site that focuses on Oracle, Peoplesoft, JE Edwards, Siebel, SAP or related topics, and your site is syndicated through one or more RSS or Atom feeds, we invite you to submit your site for inclusion in AppsZone.

AppsZone is not owned or sponsored by any of the aforementioned corporations. The opinions expressed on this site are those of individual contributors.

AppsZone is an XML feed aggregator that allows readers to monitor application-related sources in one place. Some of the features that make AppsZone unique include:

• AppsZone aggregates feeds from blogs and other related news sources

• Only summarized posts are displayed (the first 500 characters only). To read the full post, just click on its title.

• Original authors of the syndicated posts are displayed, getting full credits and recognition for their contributions.

• Archives my month, author, and source (category) are available all posts. The archives are fully searchable.

• Both Atom and RSS are supported.

Special Thanks

I would like to thank Charles Johnson for creating a FeedWordPress plugin, Eddie Awad for inspiring me with OraNA and providing answers and advice, Steve Eyre for creating the Redbar theme (which was selected by my family after seeing more than 450 themes!), Dustin Luther of RainCityGuide for his never waning support, and everybody at WordPress for making blogging easy.

Blog, read, get in a zone!

Marian Crkon

Oracle Project Billing - Show Me the Money!

Oracle Project Billing is another core application in the Oracle Projects Suite 11i.10. It provides the ability to define revenue and invoicing rules for your projects, generate revenue, create invoices, and integrate with other Oracle Applications. It enables you to enter project customers and contacts with whom you have negotiated and contracted project work, define customer agreements (purchase orders, service agreements, contracts, etc.) from your customers and fund projects with those agreements. It provides ways to generate revenue using various methods including time and materials, percent complete, and cost plus, and create draft invoices from detail transactions and milestones for online approval by your project or accounting managers. Project Billing can automatically generate accounting entries for your revenue and invoices, and interface revenue to Oracle General Ledger and invoices to Oracle Receivables while maintaining a detail audit trail.

What it Can Do…

Billing Configuration

• Set up billing information, including customer, billing cycles, sales credit receivers, and retention terms
• Define billing methods for different contract projects or by top task for invoicing
• Set up bill rates for time and materials projects
• Define employee, job title and non-labor bill rates
• Assign and override bill rates and discounts

Agreements and Funding

• Define agreement types and templates
• Fund at project or task level
• Fund different projects across operating units
• Revaluate funding to match currency fluctuations
• Control billing by project or top task
• Define Customers by project or top task
• Enter agreements, bill rates, and events in any currency
• Configure hard and soft funding (revenue budget) limits
• Define currency conversion attributes
• Funding Multiple Projects and Tasks

Revenue Accruals

• Accrue revenue using time and materials, cost reimbursable, and fixed price methods
• Accrue revenue for a single project or range of projects
• Calculate potential revenue by percent spent or percent complete
• Accrue costs in the same period that that revenue is generated
• Review and adjust revenue accrual online

Invoice Generation

• Generate invoices based on defined milestones
• Use flexible invoice line formats to summarize invoice lines by different attributes
• Review and adjust invoices online
• Create Discounts, credit memos and write-offs
• Drill down from invoice to detailed transactions online
• Generate inter-project invoices to share costs and revenue between projects

Billing Analysis

• Create and view billing review reports
• Create and view billing process flow reports
• Invoice Flow Detail and Summary Reports
• Potential Revenue Summary Report
• Project Billing Status Report
• Revenue Flow Detail Report
• Analyze Billing Status in Funding Inquiry

Integration

Oracle Project Billing integrates with other Oracle applications including General Ledger, Payables, Project Contracts, and Receivables, as well with third-party applications through open, standards-based architecture.

What Works Great…

• AutoAccounting generates revenue and invoice accounting entries based on pre-defined rules to hidden from end users. It’s great to have an ability to define separate rules for different accounting functions.

• Integration with Other Applications is definitely a strength. Once you define your rules, integration with Project Costing, General Ledger and Receivables is effortless.

• Inter-Company and Inter-Project Billing is very useful for companies who need it.

• Multi-Currency Support for costing and billing is great.

• Online and Self-Service Inquiries including Funding Inquiry, Review Revenue, Invoice Review, and Project Status Inquiry make it easy to review project billing balances at glance. I noticed the Search button (Flash Light) does not work consistently in all Find windows.

• Potential Labor Revenue Report is a great way to see what labor revenue will be recognized, or needs to be fixed before it can be recognized.

• Billing Extensions provide a great way to extend the functionality of Project Billing. I also like the fact that more and more extensions are becoming the standard billing functionality.

• Revenue Audit Report is very helpful when reconciling project revenue to General Ledger.

• Unbilled Receivable/Unearned Revenue Views are great for reconciling revenue and receivable balances.

… and What Could Work Better

• Agreements Upload It is great to have the new API to upload agreements; but a new WebADI upload integrator would even better.

• Events Upload Same as above, the new API is great, but a WebADI upload integrator is still needed.

• Find Agreements The Agreements form needs a Find window with Customer, Agreement Number, Agreement Type, and Project Number as parameters.

• AutoAccounting is a great feature, but there are also several limitations, which sometimes make it frustrating to use. For example:

• Lookup Sets Having no validation in lookup sets provides great flexibility and maintenance nightmare. Just imagine a business with several hundred to several thousands departments. Imagine you change hundreds department names in HR. Since there is no API, or interface, you have to replicate all name changes in your lookup sets manually. Why not build parameters into lookup sets similar to AutoAccounting Rule parameters? You could store intermediate values based on value IDs, not actual values, so that any changes would be automatically reflected in lookup sets.
• Receivable Accounts could use more parameters to be able to create more robust rules.
• Error Reporting during revenue and invoice generation processes could be better. The “Invalid AutoAccounting” error just doesn’t provide enough detail.

• Billing Rates Upload and Maintenance Bill Rate Schedules could use a new API and WebADI upload integrator. Typically you maintain several hundreds rates in a typical rate schedule (e.g. by job title).
• Revenue Reporting There are no revenue reports (similar to expenditure detail and expenditure summary) by revenue type, revenue category, etc.
• Unbilled Expenses Reporting It would be useful to have a report showing what billable expenses are to be billed (similar to Potential Labor Revenue report).

For more information about Oracle Project Billing, refer to other Oracle resources:

• Oracle Project Billing Data Sheet with an overview and summary of key features.

• Oracle Project Billing User Guide 11i (OTN login is required)

How To Get a List of Project Billing Rates

Sometime you may need to get a list of previously used billing rates (e.g. during the last year) in order to determine the future rates. Since there is no standard report in Oracle Project Billing 10i.10 that provides that information, here is a simple query to accomplish the task.

Bill Rates by Job Title Query

7 Guaranteed Questions from New Oracle Users

I love novice Oracle Applications users. They help me keep my perspective fresh and remind me that things are not always seen by others the way I see them. Like anyone else involved in this business for a long time, I have developed an “operational blindness” where I avoid certain pitfalls by memorizing the ways around them. Here are few sample questions you are guaranteed to hear when introducing new users to the applications. Go ahead to add your fun user experiences as comments below.

• How do I get in the system? You are thinking that’s silly but you’d be amazed in how many different ways users get to Oracle Applications: desktop icons, instance maps, links on company intranets, links sent via email, bookmarks saved in browsers, and even browser’s recent addresses…
• How do I change the date format? Once a new user gets in the system, that’s the guaranteed next question. I realize Oracle sells applications in a hundred or so countries, so it is impossible to have a common format that fits everybody.
• How do I get to my stuff? Thank goodness for those menus. They make those who can navigate them look like geniuses. I understand there are some major UI improvements coming up in Release 12. All I can say is: keep it simple!
• Why do I see things I don’t need? That’s the price you pay for out-of-the-box applications. There is some flexibility to remove menus and functions, and when available, use folders to customize the forms any way you want. But in general, there will always be fields that others use and you don’t.
• Where is my report? This is my favorite. There may be a 100+ standard reports in each Oracle module, but it always comes down to this question and you have to produce that one report that users are familiar with.
• How do I get my data into Excel? Whether we like it or not, Excel is THE tool of our times. We can argue that the data is available online or on the web, but somehow, it always ends up in Excel. It is good to see that Oracle acknowledged the fact and keeps providing easier integration with Excel (WebADI, Folders, XML Publisher).
• Is this an entry mode or query mode? We have all seen the “%” records people entered assuming they were in a search mode. It takes some time before that CTRL-F11 becomes second nature. A related question: How do I stop that run away query submitted by accident…?

How To Find Unbilled Project Expenses

Here is a couple of tips on how to find unbilled project expenditures in Oracle Projects (11i.10). There is an excellent online Expenditure Inquiry screen, which lets you submit searches with a whole lot of parameters and define your own folders to export expenditure transactions into Excel.

But if the volume is too big to export, or you need to find unbilled expenditures across broader parameters like Project Type, Project Organization, Customer, or Expenditure Type Classes, use an ad-hoc SQL query. I provided a sample below.

Unbilled Project Expenditures

No Buzz at the Oracle Applications Day in Seattle

I attended the Oracle Applications Day in Seattle today and I can summarize the event in two words: no buzz. I left with a feeling that everyone was tired of the status quo. There isn’t really much to talk about until the Release 12, due in late 2006. Oracle spent a good part of the day reassuring everyone that everything is going according to the plan, and delivering the official message:

• Oracle Fusion is the next application release after Release 12, not a project.

• Oracle Fusion is not a code merge, in contrary to what the competition would have you believe.

• Oracle Fusion is EVOLUTION, not revolution. Customers can choose to upgrade when they are ready.

• Current releases of Oracle, Peoplesoft, JD Edwards and Siebel applications will be supported until 2013.

• Oracle will give customers compelling reasons to upgrade before that.

I thought the most exciting presentation of the day was the XML Publisher: Applying Concepts delivered by Tomas Milowski from the Oregon Health and Science University.

10 Questions for Eddie Awad from Eddie Awad’s Blog

We continue in our 10 Questions series with Oracle users, consultants, and bloggers with ten questions for Eddie Awad, an Oracle programmer, active Oracle blogger and a creator of the Oracle News Aggregator, which aggregates all Oracle-related blogs and news into one convenient super-blog. Thank you Eddie!

How did come to learn Oracle?

Eddie AwadIt was in 1994. I was a COBOL programmer working in Saudi Arabia. The IT management decided to replace COBOL with Oracle. So, I had to learn SQL, PL/SQL, Oracle forms and reports. If I remember correctly, it was Oracle version 7 running on VAX/VMS. I have been developing Oracle applications since then and I do not regret it at all.

How are you involved with Oracle currently?

Currently, I work as a senior application developer. My main focus is Oracle SQL and PL/SQL in addition to web development and E-commerce using Macromedia ColdFusion and Microsoft BizTalk. No matter what tool I use, Oracle is always the backend database. We are also a big Oracle E-business suite customer, so I’m involved a little bit with that as well.

What inspired you to start blogging?

At first, I started a personal blog to share thoughts and pictures with my family and friends. After trying it for a while on a personal level, I felt that I would have a lot more topics to talk about that are related to what I do on a daily basis, and a lot more people to share my daily work experiences with. So, I moved my focus from personal to professional/technical blogging. I do, however, blog about anything I find interesting, which may or may not relate to Oracle.

Are there any special topics or issues that you enjoy covering?

Primarily, everything related to Oracle, specifically SQL and PL/SQL tips, tricks and, most importantly, forgotten features as well as new features. Usually my blog posts are a result of something I read in a book, stumbled on a website, blog or a forum, or something I researched at work or was the result of my own experiences.

What have you done to personalize your blog?

My blog’s title is Eddie Awad’s Blog. That’s the first personalization and the most obvious one. I use many plugins to personalize the look of my blog. I use plugins to fight spam, display related posts, give the ability to subscribe to comments and offer many other functions; Even the display theme of my blog is a plugin.

Do you have any favorite posts?

All my posts are my favorites, otherwise I won’t write them. However, if by favorite you mean the post that generated the most comments, that would be Char or Car. If by favorite you mean the post that generated the most inbound links, that would be the Oracle Firefox search plugin and Oracle Docs Firefox Extension.

What are some of your favorite blogs (Oracle or otherwise)?

I have created OraNA to keep track of all my favorite Oracle Blogs. They are too many to list here. For non-Oracle I read lifehacker.com, 43folders.com, and Creating Passionate Users among others.

What tools/websites do you find most helpful in putting together your blog?

My blog is powered by WorPress. I love WordPress. It is highly and easily customizable using themes and plugins found on wordpress.org and elsewhere on the net. As far as blog tips and tricks, I have found the following two blogs very helpful: problogger.net and performancing.com.

How does blogging fit into your job or your business?

Blogging does not actually fit into my job, rather it is the other way around, my job fits into my blogging. What I do for a living is often the subject matter of my blog.

What do you think business blogging will look like 3 years from now?

Just recently, Oracle officially launched blogs.oracle.com to host Oracle employees blogs. A lot of other companies, especially big ones, are trying to formalize the blogging activities of their employees and put procedures and policies in place to basically control what gets blogged about by employees. I believe that “business” blogging is still growing and will play a greater role in establishing a company’s image.

Thank you very much for your time, Eddie!

Find this and other similar articles in Conversations.

Sample DataLoad Templates for Oracle Projects

I was little harsh on DataLoad in my last DataLoad story so here is to redeem myself. I use DataLoad anytime I have to create or update more than 10 records. Usually, DataLoad is an excellent option when other options like Web ADI are not available, feasible or practical, and the volume of data to upload isn’t too big (under 1,000 records). Last week for example, we had to update a couple of attributes on 200 project tasks. The volume was too small to justify creating a custom script and use the Oracle API, and too big to do it manually. So the DataLoad came to the rescue!

Below are several sample DataLoad templates for Oracle Projects I used before with descriptions and navigation instructions. Note that these are only samples. You may need to modify the spreadsheets based on your application configuration. The blue columns represent DataLoad commands, the yellow columns is where you paste your data. Hope you will find the templates useful.

Create Project Roles

Create Project Roles used in project Key Member assignments.

Navigation: Project Billing Super User: Projects > Setup > Projects > Roles

Start Field: Name

DataLoad: Create Project Roles

Create Project Tasks

Use this DataLoad for creating a small volume of project tasks. I use it all the time when creating Project Templates. Use CREATE_TASK or UPDATE_TASK APIs with a custom script to create larger volumes of tasks.

Navigation: Project Billing Super User: Setup > Project Templates > Tasks

Start Field: Task Number

DataLoad: Create Project Tasks

Create Agreements

Navigation: Project Billing Super User: Billing > Agreements

Start Field: Customer Name

DataLoad: Create Agreements

Baseline Projects in Funding Inquiry

Note that you can baseline funding in the Funding Inquiry screen only if the Baseline Funding Without Budget option is enabled for your projects.

Navigation: Project Billing Super User: Billing > Funding Inquiry.

Start Field: Project

DataLoad: Baseline Project in Funding Inquiry

Create Labor Costing Overrides Define labor rate overrides by employee. These rates are used by the labor distribution process to calculate labor costs.

Navigation: Project Billing Super User: Setup > Costing > Labor > Labor Costing Overrides.

Start Field: Employee Name

DataLoad: Create Labor Costing Overrides

Create Transfer Price Schedules

Define the transfer price schedule lines for your cross-charge rules. Manually define schedule name and description, and start the DataLoad at Line Number field.

Navigation: Project Billing Super User: Setup > Costing > Cross-Charge > Transfer Price Schedules

Start Field: Line Number

DataLoad: Create Transfer Price Schedules

Create Non-Labor Rate Schedule

Define non-labor bill rates and markups used by the revenue and invoice generation processes in Oracle Project Billing. Manually define the schedule header, click on Non-Labor tab, and start at Expenditure Type field.

Navigation: Project Billing Super User: Setup > Expenditures > Rate Schedules

Start Field: Expenditure Type

DataLoad: Create Non-Labor Rate Schedule

Create Project Employee Bill Rate Overrides

Define project specific employee billing rate overrides used by the revenue and invoice generation processes in Oracle Project Billing.

Navigation: Project Billing Super User: Projects > Options > Bill Rates and Discount Overrides > Employee Bill Rate and Discount Overrides

Start Field: Employee Name

DataLoad: Create Project Employee Bill Rate Overrides

Create Project Lookup Set

Define project lookup sets used in AutoAccounting rules or Account Generator. Manually define lookup set Name, and start at the Intermediate Value field.

Navigation: Project Billing Super User: Projects > Setup > AutoAccounting > Lookup Sets

Start Field: Intermediate Value

DataLoad: Create Project Lookup Set

Update Project Lookup Set

Similar to the DataLoad above, but this one updates the existing lookup sets values.
Navigation: Project Billing Super User: Projects > Setup > AutoAccounting > Lookup Sets

Start Field: Intermediate Value

DataLoad: Update Project Lookup Set

Create Contingent Worker Expenses as Pre-Approved Batch

The preferred option for upload project transactions is the Transaction Import WebADI Integrator. However, as of the release 10.5.10, it does not distinguish between Person Types, and does not successfully upload Contingent Worker transactions.

Navigation: Project Billing Super User: Expenses > Pre-Approved Batches > Enter

Start Field: Employee Name

DataLoad: Create Contingent Worker Expenses as Pre-Approved Batch

Create Percent Complete Amounts

Navigation: Project Billing Super User: Project Status Inquiry > Percent Complete

Start Field: Project Number

DataLoad: Create Percent Complete Amounts

Visit DataLoad website for product information, free downloads, user guides and more sample spreadsheets.