OraccleFinancialsInterviewQuestions 56-1242

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Background

Rate Yourself on the following applications with 1 being that you have heard of it and 10 being that you have implemented many times and are an expert. -------------------------------AP - Accounts Payable GL - General Ledger I-Expenses Fixed Assets Cash Management AX - Global Accounting Engine European Localisations What is AX Global Accounting Engine and what are the main features?

-Should be 7+ for GL, AP & Localisations - AX not essential for Eastern Europe - I-exp can be at a user level as config is standardised - Fixed Assets & CE are nice to have as they are out of scope for Europe

AP = GL = I-Exp= FA = CE = AX = Localisations =

AX

Localisations

List the European countries you have implemented in along with modules and roles.

Provided by Oracle to meet the Fiscal Requirements of Southern European countries such as Italy & Spain. It sits between the sub-ledgers ( AP, AR & INV ) and the General Ledger. Main features are as follows and they should get 3 of these. - Accounting events. - Legal sequences - Allows dual posting for Mgnt & Fiscal GL's - customer/supplier account balances - Fiscal reports such as Libro Giornale & VAT regs. - Detailed assignment of sequences to categories Looking for hands on experience with Central Eastern Europe, but anything outside UK is worth noting. Also looking for a hands on configuration role with Gap Analysis and matching of corporate and statutory requirements. Find out how many consultants they worked with and what their specific role was. I'd be cautious about how hands on a project manager would be.

Describe some of the specific tax requirements for AP processing that Should include half ( 2/4 )the following ( Or there own examples ) you have come across in the past. - Multiple VAT codes & rates - Deductible / Non-Deductible VAT - Offset Taxes and/or Self Invoicing ( Also known as Autofatture ) - Witholding Tax Talk through a specific example of an Oracle localisation in AP, and Possible examples could include : Localisations - Withholding tax localisation, uses WHT tax codes, and some supplier specific This is difficult to grade as there are so many how it impacts transaction processing. setup. WHT is applied at either Inv. Validation or Payment examples but some common ones are give. Localisations

- Use of Descriptive flexfields on the suppier, invoice or invoice distributions to track country specific data that is then picked up in a localisation report. - Use of detailed AP tax codes & special VAT registers that need to be defined annually ( eg, Spain & Italy ) - Inter-EU Purchase reports. User has to flag country of origin on invoice entry, or indicate if the purchase is a service or goods related 1- What are the key things that determine if two companies can share 1 - Should name all three of 'Chart of Accounts', Currency, Calendar. GL 2 - Document Sequencing. Oracle sequences are assigned by books, so in ( If they don't get the first part of this then you a Set of Books ? 2- Is there anything apart from the three key things that may countries where legal sequencing is important you need multiple books even if might as well end the interview ) necessitate multiple sets of books, particularly in European three 'C's' mentioned above are the same. If they get part 2, then that shows a good understanding of European Implementations Implementations. GL They should know this in general accounting terms if not in Oracle terms.

Explain the difference between Cash & Accrual accounting and how it - Accrual accounting is where you account for non-cash movements such as is dealt with in Oracle. sales & purchase invoices, and hold debtors & creditors accounts.

Explain the difference between Revaluation & Translation GL Not essential to know, but would be worried if they did not know the difference.

- Cash accounting is where only transactions that involve a cash movement are recognised, so for example on the purchasing side you would only account for the payment ( Dr Exp, Cr Bank ) Revaluation - Most companies will perform a monthly revaluation of cash or near cash accounts on the balance sheet that are held in a foreign currency to ensure that the functional currency balance is revalued at the month end rate. Translation - This is the restatement of the entire Trial Balance from functional currency to a foreign curency. This is typically used for global consolidation reporting.

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GL - FSG If they say yes to 1) and don't get 2) then end the interview as this is basic GL. Getting part 3) would be a bonus as it shows they have used them in a multi-country environment GL - Security They should get this one right

1- Have you written FSG reports before ?

1- ____________________________________

AP

2- Name 3 FSG components.

2- Should name Row set & Column Set, and then one of Row order, Content Set or Display set. 3- What determinies if you can see data for other sets of books within an FSG. 3. The other books must share the same chart of accounts. Can you explain the difference between Cross Validaton Rules - CVR's are rules to determine how the various segments of the chart of account (CVR's) and Security Rules can be used with each other. For example all P&L entries must have a group code. - Security rules are applied to a responsibility/logon to determine who can see and post to particular accounts values. Talk through the AP batch payment process Steps as follows and they should get most of this: - Create a bayment batch - ( selecting method, pay through date, pay from bank account ) - Build the payment batch - this is an auto process in background - Review Preliminary payment register - Make any adjustments by adding / removing vendors or invoices manually in the payment screen - Confirm payment batch - Final Payment register

Give the Dr & Cr accounting Entry for a tax invoice and payment AP Not essential to get 100% in an interview, but a good sign if they can.

INVOICE : Dr Expense Account 1000 Dr Tax Account 200 Cr AP Liability 1200 PAYMENT Dr AP Liability Cr Bank

1200 1200

AP Not that important, but shows that they have been hands-on in the applications for a long time. AP This is basic AP so they should get this one right.

What major change to AP was introduced with R11i ?

If they have been consulting in AP for more than 4-5 years then they should know that Oracle added the accounting lines and payables accounting process. Prior to that the invoice lines were sent directly to GL.

You've come to close an AP accounting period and the period won't close. What could be wrong ?

When you try and close an AP period the system checks for any unaccounted or errored transactions, end before you can close these must be properly accounted or 'swept' to the next period.

Data Conversion

Describe how you would perform a conversion of AP & GL data & any AP Conversion - Can be manual entry, dataload or use AP open interface particular issues to look out for ? depending upon volume, GL - ADI spreadsheet load is the most common method, and usually load prior month YTD or Prior Year balances, and then monthly PTD movements for currenct Year. - Watch out for double accounting with AP conversion & GL conversion. Usually use a clearing account with either either the invoices or the GL so that it nets to zero. For example the GL conversion would be . Dr. Expense & Cr. Clearing Account then the AP invoices are entered as Dr. Clearing & Cr. AP Liability so that the Clearing account nets to zero. Any mention of how to deal with the double accounting is sufficient.

Configuration

SQL

The solution team do not have access to production, so all config has to be documented and performed by the service desk team. What methods of documentation would you use to ensure that they can perform this as accurately and efficiently as possible ? 1 -This role is for a functional consultant but do you have any SQL writing skills ?

Common answer is Oracle AIM, but this is notoriously cumbersome. They should be able to speak about other methods such as using what is appropriate for the config, whether that be screenprints, or spreadsheets or a mixture. 1 ____________________________________

2 - Anything that they can talk about in the following areas is of interest : 2- Without going into the detail of the actual code can you give AP Invoices, Payements, GL Balances, GL Journals, Sys-Admin users, examples of the types of queries you have written in the past and how responsibilities, Security rules, Profile Options. they were used.?

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Functional Spec

There is a requirement in one of the offices for a new tax report to detail the VAT code & amount by expense account for AP invoices. How would you write a functional specificiation for this to be developed by a non-Oracle financials.developer.?

They should mention 4/8 of the following as part of the functional spec - Background to requirements -Example of report layout, either from legacy or written in excel - List of report headings & column headings - Details of pagebreaks & totals - Report parameters - Report selection criteria ( VAT Codes, Invoice Types, Expense Accounts etc. ) - Ideally they would be able to include the basic select statement for the developer to package up. - Test Scenarios.

DATALOAD

If you had 500 sequence assignments to enter as config are there any They should have heard of dataload and say that it could be used, but they might tools that you could use to speed this process up ? say you could do a direct SQL load or FND load. If so ask them if they have ever used dataload and used it.

DATLOAD

You have prepared a datalaod file for the Service Desk to release into Should mention 2 or more of the following. production. It ran fine in test but keeps falling over in production. - Try a 'Convert to Keystrokes' What could you try to get it working again. - Slow it down with Sleeps & Pauses - Try different methods of navigating the screen such as picklists or menus or shortcut keys or tabbing manually. - Try a different PC, or a Citrix PC. - If the user is in a poor network area try running from somewhere with a better network connection.

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