FlexField runs one time, changes your data, and then is removed from the E-Business Suite instance. FlexField transforms an existing accounting flexfield’s segment structure, values, code combinations, and CCIDs according to your mappings, and applies the new code combinations and CCIDs. It propagates the change throughout your existing E-Business Suite data, everywhere the accounting flexfield is used. It removes the old code combinations and CCIDs, and aligns the new Chart of Accounts (COA) so that all balances belonging to a single CCID are summarized into a single line.
Your E-Business Suite looks like the new COA has been in use since you first implemented Oracle. The database is functionally and technically consistent and correct.
Yes. FlexField can be used for these E-Business Suite releases: 10.7, 11.0, 11i, and R12 (all current versions).
In most situations as of mid-2009 we suggest that customers change their COA in 11i and go into production prior to the upgrade. Alternatively, the COA change can be the first step in the upgrade project, or the last.
FlexField has no impact on normal E-Business Suite operations, patches, or upgrades.
Yes, and there are no setup forms or programs in E-Business Suite to do that. FlexField software provides additional capabilities not in Oracle’s product. There are many independent software products that extend or augment what the E-Business Suite does. Customer IT departments and independent consulting firms also enhance the Oracle-provided functionality. Oracle does provide guidelines for doing so, and FlexField follows the guidelines.
None of our customers has told us that Oracle has stopped providing support. In other words, Oracle continues to provide E-Business Suite support to all FlexField software customers. Oracle does stop providing support if the customer changes the E-Business Suite source code, but the FlexField software does not change source code or data structures.
If you think that the problem is related to the accounting flexfield, please contact us. We will help you isolate and define the problem. When you contact Oracle, they may require you to recreate the problem and you may need to do that in an environment or with data that has not been transformed by FlexField. This is the normal problem solving process with any ISV software component or CEMLI (customization, extension, modification, localization, integration). Note though that while CEMLIs are active software, FlexField is a one-time transformation program and there is no active software or processing logic added to your E-Business Suite instance.
We know of one situation. When the company created their new COA, they numbered the segments as 10,20,30, and so on, instead of 1,2,3…. Some E-Business Suite reports were not working properly. The customer created a new accounting flexfield numbered as 10, 20, and 30 the same way, recreated the problem, and Oracle pointed them toward a Metalink entry that said that the segment numbers could not have any gaps and that a 10,20,30 numbering schema would not work for many reports. When the customer renumbered their segments as 1,2,3… everything worked properly.
There is no official Oracle policy about FlexField software. A high level executive in applications development at Oracle is aware that customers in the real world do carry out data mapping and migration projects and have a need for software to assist them, particularly when the software was developed by ex-Oracle Consulting experts at an Oracle Partner ISV. Oracle Sales has an internal knowledge repository and they have listed FlexField as a recommended solution for these situations. One prospective FlexField customer told us that while discussing his need to change the COA at a customer briefing at Oracle headquarters in Redwood Shores, an Oracle representative told him about FlexField.
No. We requested certification but Oracle declined, primarily because there is no organization that has a mission to see whether a Partner ISV data conversion, migration, and mapping product leaves the database correct and consistent. FlexField is not software that runs within or in conjunction with the E-Business Suite, so there is nothing to certify.
Our customers go through the usual change management testing processes, usually an abbreviated version. They focus on summary account balances, individual transaction records, and a few representative business flows.
We believe it should be easy. Our customers tell us the most time-consuming or difficult part is for the finance and accounting team to agree on what the new COA should look like and do, and what the values should be. They also must inform the business Users about the new COA so they’re not surprised. Some upstream and downstream elements of your IT environment, and some things within the E-Business Suite will need to be changed.
If there are interfaces to other business applications, business rules, reports, and programs that are based on the old COA structure, and data values or ranges, then you will have to adjust them manually to reflect the new COA. Examples (not a complete list) are:
Hard-coded account values in:
Rules that use business logicCross Validation Rules:
Anything that uses a Range:
Configurations:
There hasn’t been customer demand for training. The User Guide is sufficient. We work remotely via a web session with the customer on the first run and thereafter as long as the customer needs product support help.
We usually review and comment informally on the customer’s COA change, including the new COA during their planning and decision making. We have experience with over 1,000 re-designs, so we are familiar with many business and technical facets of re-design. We don’t offer a formal or fee-based service, but we do have our own and third party written material on designing a COA.
A system administrator / DBA installs the software, and no special skills or new techniques are needed. It usually takes a half hour start to finish. The actual FlexField user is often an accounting or finance person, or a business system analyst. They should be familiar with elementary Excel. FlexField gives them a spreadsheet containing the existing COA segment or code combination values, and that’s where they add and document the new values and mappings.
Please contact us at sales@eprentise.com or call 1-888-943-5363. Visit our websites at www.flexfieldexpress.com and www.eprentise.com.
“flexfield” is a special type of data field Oracle uses in the application, and where appropriate, people sometimes capitalize the term, such as in “Accounting Flexfield”. “FlexField” is the formal registered trademark name of our product.
