Oracle Financials-Operational Analysis Questionnaire_1.0

Oracle E-business Suite Implementation Operational Analysis Questionnaire Oracle Financials (GL, AP, AR, FA)

ORAERP.com - The Knowledge Center for Oracle ERP Professionals Looking Beyond the Possibilities

Creation Date: 02-Jan-2010 Last Updated: 09-Sep-2010 Version: O-1.0

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The Knowledge Center for Oracle ERP Professionals - Looking Beyond the Possibilities

Oracle E-business Suite Implementation Operational Analysis Questionnaire - Oracle Financials (GL, AP, AR, FA) Release O-1.0 By: Kashif Manzoor Kamyana Email: [email protected] The information contained herein is subject to change without notice and is not warranted to be error-free. If you find any errors, please report them to us in writing at [email protected] The theme is Upload, Share & Discuss, The ORAERP Oracle Documents (Tutorials), a forum allows members to share files with other users - your own groups, or make files public and viewable by all - documents, white papers, case studies and images. Discover and review new files, discuss them on-line and send a personal message to the owner or author. Use of Materials ORAERP.com is offering free of charge services only to promote Oracle Technology. You may download, store, display on your computer, view, listen to, play and print Materials that oraerp.com publishes on the Site or makes available for download through the Site subject to the following: (a) the Materials may be used solely for your personal, informational, noncommercial purposes; (b) the Materials may not be modified or altered in any way; (c) the Materials may not be redistributed; and (d) the material may have the respective writer/vendor/company right and are only to share with the oracle consultants. Force Majeure You agree that oraerp.com shall not be liable for any and all losses, (including loss of data) damages, costs, claims and other liabilities which arise as a result of any delay or interruption in, or any non-delivery, or missed delivery or failure of the Equipment and/or Services due to circumstances beyond our or any of our suppliers' reasonable control (including, but not limited to, fire, lightning, explosion, war, disorder, flood, industrial dispute, sabotage, weather conditions or acts of local or central Government or other competent authorities). Disclaimer ORAERP.com has made every reasonable effort to ensure that the information contained within the Community Forum is up to date and accurate. The Oracle Document (tutorials) provided here are "as-is"; ORAERP.com disclaims all express and implied warranties, including, the implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular use. ORAERP.com shall not be liable for any damages, including, direct, indirect, incidental, special or consequential damages for loss of profits, revenue, data or data use, incurred by you or any third party in connection with the use of these materials The forum may include links to third party Internet websites which are controlled and maintained by others. These links are included solely for the convenience of users and do not constitute any endorsement by ORAERP.com of the sites linked or referred to, nor does ORAERP.com have any control over the content of any such sites. There is no guarantee that the Site will be free from infection by viruses or anything else that may be deemed harmful or destructive.

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Send Us Your CommentsOracle E-business Suite Implementation Operational Questionnaire - Oracle Financials (GL, AP, AR, FA) AnalysisORAERP.com welcomes oracle professionals' comments and suggestions on the quality and usefulness of this document. Your feedback is important, and helps us to improve this document. If you find any errors or have any other suggestions for improvement, then please let us know on [email protected] Our goal is More You Share More You Learn.

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ContentsOracle E-business Suite Implementation Operational Analysis Questionnaire Oracle Financials (GL, AP, AR, FA) Release O-1.0............................................2 By: Kashif Manzoor Kamyana.........................................................................2 Email: kashifkamyana@yahoo.com................................................................2 The information contained herein is subject to change without notice and is not warranted to be error-free. If you find any errors, please report them to us in writing at info@oraerp.com...................................................................2 The theme is Upload, Share & Discuss, The ORAERP Oracle Documents (Tutorials), a forum allows members to share files with other users - your own groups, or make files public and viewable by all - documents, white papers, case studies and images. Discover and review new files, discuss them on-line and send a personal message to the owner or author. ..................................2 Use of Materials.............................................................................................2 ORAERP.com is offering free of charge services only to promote Oracle Technology. You may download, store, display on your computer, view, listen to, play and print Materials that oraerp.com publishes on the Site or makes available for download through the Site subject to the following: (a) the Materials may be used solely for your personal, informational, noncommercial purposes; (b) the Materials may not be modified or altered in any way; (c) the Materials may not be redistributed; and (d) the material may have the respective writer/vendor/company right and are only to share with the oracle consultants....................................................................................2 Force Majeure................................................................................................2 You agree that oraerp.com shall not be liable for any and all losses, (including loss of data) damages, costs, claims and other liabilities which arise as a result of any delay or interruption in, or any non-delivery, or missed delivery or failure of the Equipment and/or Services due to circumstances beyond our or any of our suppliers' reasonable control (including, but not limited to, fire, lightning, explosion, war, disorder, flood, industrial dispute, sabotage, weather conditions or acts of local or central Government or other competent authorities).................................................2 Disclaimer......................................................................................................2 ORAERP.com has made every reasonable effort to ensure that the information contained within the Community Forum is up to date and accurate. The Oracle Document (tutorials) provided here are "as-is"; ORAERP.com disclaims all express and implied warranties, including, the87592598.doc Page 5 of 55

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implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular use. ORAERP.com shall not be liable for any damages, including, direct, indirect, incidental, special or consequential damages for loss of profits, revenue, data or data use, incurred by you or any third party in connection with the use of these materials..............................................................................................2 The forum may include links to third party Internet websites which are controlled and maintained by others. These links are included solely for the convenience of users and do not constitute any endorsement by ORAERP.com of the sites linked or referred to, nor does ORAERP.com have any control over the content of any such sites. There is no guarantee that the Site will be free from infection by viruses or anything else that may be deemed harmful or destructive......................................................................2 Copyright oraerp.com is not affiliated to Oracle Corporation. To visit Oracle Corporation go to www.oracle.com................................................................3 Send Us Your Comments................................................................................4 Contents........................................................................................................... 5

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PrefaceIntended Audience This guide is intended for Oracle e-Business suite Implementers. During an operational analysis phase of an ERP implementation project you need to establish a detail project scope and business requirements. In this document you will find sample questionnaires for Oracle Financials modules that may help you to conduct discussions with your business process owners about how to implement Oracle e-Business Suite applications. Use the document as baseline/samples to define your own list of questions. We would like to thanks, Kashif Manzoor Kamyana for sharing us such a good document for Oracle Professionals. You can reach on email [email protected]

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ERP Project Scope Scope is the logical set of self contained business processes that can be enabled by a standard software solution. To ensure that the principal business objectives that contribute to the goals of the Business Flow implementation project are met, it is critical to define the specific scope and staging of the project ERP systems can define scope by: Module each module contains business processes (e.g. in AIM the Business Process Mapping (BF)). ERP Requirements Environment: Multiple stakeholders concurrently engineer the requirements and the architecture design to create a solution based on pre-existing ERP components. To manage implementation complexity divide ERP project into phases based on the modules and identify interfaces between modules, negotiate interface requirements. Requirements Gathering Methods:

Sampling of existing documentation, forms, and databases Research and site visits Observation of the work environment Questionnaires Interviews Prototyping

Oracle ERP Requirements Gathering: One of the most important steps of any Oracle ERP project, especially the choice of an ERP system, is to gather requirements. You need to know what is required, what is wanted, and what you can do. You need to have an idea of what to look for in a complicated system. You also need to have an idea of how you are going to be ready for the new system and what abilities you have or will need to implement the new system. Like Football, An ERP Implementation is A Game of Inches, But Where Is The Goal Line?

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www.oraerp.com Eric Kimberling


is a huge fan of professional football (American football). Perhaps the

thing that fascinates him most about the sport is how much each play matters, and how within each play, every little thing matters. If an offensive lineman protecting the quarterback is just one inch too far off his position on just one play, it can be the difference between a touchdown and the quarterback being sacked for a loss. When an offense is moving down the field, one key block that pushes a defender just one inch further downfield can be the difference between keeping the drive alive with a first down or having to punt to the other team. And weve all seen many episodes of Sports Center where the receiver makes a spectacular catch in the end zone, only to have one foot just one inch too far over the line. 90 minutes may seem like a long time to play a game (especially if you dont like football), but its often not enough time to overcome one mistake of inches from earlier in the game. Just as in football, ERP implementations are much the same way. The average deployment takes 18 months from start to finish, which seems like plenty of time to make and overcome a mistake or two. But that is not the case. Every little thing counts, from the way you choose your software to the way you design your system to the way you communicate changes to employees. Weve seen projects fail because the project team forgot to define that one little critical requirement during the ERP selection process, only to find that the software they chose couldnt handle the functionality. This creates a domino effect of customization, cost overruns, and ultimate project failure. Had the company just remembered that one little requirement early in the process, that may have made the difference between success and failure. And just like football, an ERP implementation is a brutal contact sport. Facilitating business changes, managing organizational resistance, controlling project scope creep, and ERP software that doesnt always fit your exact needs can take its toll. By the end of the game, youre just glad to have survived the whole thing in one piece. ERP projects may be like football games in many cases, but they are different in one way: football has a clearly defined goal-line and scoring process, while no one has created a universal definition for ERP implementation success. In other words, where is the goal line and when do we declare victory? How do we define go-live? Are we done once the system is up and running? Which business processes do we have to have addressed in the new ERP software before we call it a day? How do we know 87592598.doc Page 9 of 55

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when the business has fully adopted the software? And how will we know that the business has realized a strong ROI from the investment? The problem is that most people in your company, including the ones running the project, probably dont have answers to these and other key questions, which can lead to big problems later on. There are often complex processes outside of the Oracle ERP system. Business processes may entail activities to be completed in the ERP system, but chances are, there are also processes that touch other systems or manual processes. These nonERP processes need to be incorporated into the overall workflows in order for employees to better understand them. When you are looking at acquiring a new Oracle ERP application, you need to know what you want. The definition of Oracle ERP is very loose, and could include modules that you dont need, or not include modules that you will eventually want. Before you look at new Oracle ERP systems, you need to take an internal look at your own company and document your requirements. Do you need manufacturing? How about accounting? CRM? Is a data warehouse important? Most of the time, employees are too busy and too close the problem to accurately document what is needed. Oracle Consultants are great at gathering requirements because they have general knowledge of systems, and know how to talk to the people in your company, who can best describe your desires. Where an employee cant see the forest for the trees, a consultant usually keeps the big picture in focus while still understanding the details. Gathering requirements has numerous phases. First the person or team responsible will identify the knowledge experts to interview everyone who might be important to the project. Some consultants will have a checklist or a set of questions already created to aid in the process. Once the discussions have occurred, the next stage is analysis. The requirements need to be evaluated and prioritized. Priorities are important for people to come back to during the life of the project. To ensure the full use of these priorities, the requirements must be properly documented. They must contain very specific information so no one would be confused.

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The documented requirements should be as specific as possible. Any vague descriptions or goals could lead to problems down the line. Some people may know exactly what they want, but if it is not described exactly they risk not getting what they want. They could also get a system that matches the requirements but doesnt fulfill the needs of the company. Being as technically precise as possible is a key characteristic of good requirements. Once the requirements are created, they should be validated. A team of employees or management should sign off on them. Having more people review the documents will lead to fewer disagreements down the line. Finally, the requirements need to be managed. Once everyone knows what they want, it wont work to put the documents on a shelf. They should be a living document that changes as new knowledge is gathered. Keeping the documentation current will allow parties to stay on the same path. There are many ways to get a set of requirements done. You can use prototyping, storyboards, modeling, state transition diagrams, use case analysis, or just plain text to describe what you want. No matter which way you choose, there are plenty of examples in the market to give you a template to begin. Guidelines for Conducting Requirement Gathering sessions: Do not unreasonably deviate from the agenda Stay on schedule Ensure that the scribe is able to take notes Avoid the use of technical jargon Apply conflict resolution skills Allow for ample breaks Encourage group consensus Encourage user and management participation without allowing individuals to dominate the session Make sure that attendees abide by the established ground rules for the session

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Poor requirements specification is often a problem in many IT projects. In a study of 67 SAP implementations about 13.5% appeared successful from an engineering perspective but did not meet the real needs of the organization (Daneva 2003). ERP Requirements Best Practice: Balance Technical and Business aspects:

Both sides (functional and technical) need to cooperate and have input into the Oracle ERP project.

User Involvement:

Users can help identify and resolve potential issues early, thereby improving implementation quality.

less likely to resist change Opportunity for management to better gauge and influence user expectations.

Who Defines Requirements? ASAP approach has business team members work side-by-side with

implementation consultants to define business process requirements. The risk is the consultants are biased to define requirements based on what is most convenient to configure as opposed to what is best for the organization.

This is a type of conflict of interest.

Below are the templates for Requirement gathering for Oracle e-business suite Financials module.

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Oracle General LedgerNo1 1.1 1.1.1 1.1.2 1.1.3 1.1.4

Questions/QueryGeneral About Your Business What type of industry are you in? What products and services do you provide? Number of employees? What business areas and/or operations are targeted for improvement? Which of these business areas and/or operations is high, medium and low priority? Can you provide a systems flow diagram of connectivity between your core business applications? What is your organizational structure? How many businesses are in Your Company? What is the structure or relationships of these businesses? On how many sites are these companies located? What are these sites?

Response

Revisit

1.1.5

1.1.6

1.1.7 1.1.8 1.1.9 1.1.10

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No1.1.11 1.1.12 1.1.13 1.1.14 1.1.15 1.1.16 1.1.17

Questions/QueryDo all the locations have the same chart of accounts? Do all the locations have the same calendar? Do all the locations have the same functional currency? Do you use more than one Set of Books? Do all the businesses have assets? Are assets assigned to cost centers. What is your accounting calendar?

Response

Revisit

1.2 1.2.1

Security Do you have any security policies around access to General Ledger? Is this documented?

2 2.1 2.1.1 2.1.2

Financial Management Chart of Accounts What does your current chart of accounts look like? Do you plan to have a new chart of accounts?

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No2.1.3 2.1.4 2.1.5 2.1.6 2.1.7 2.1.8

Questions/QueryAre your account values in any order or range pattern? What are the account parent or grandparent structures? Do you use unique accounts to capture statistics? Who is going to maintain the segment values once entered? Is there a need for a mapping from an old COA to a new COA? Are certain segment values only valid with specific other segment values?

Response

Revisit

2.2 2.2.1 2.2.2 2.2.3 2.2.4

Consolidation Do you require financial consolidations? How often do you perform financial consolidations? What is the COA mapping during the consolidation? Do you perform consolidation between various businesses that use different currencies?

2.3

Currency

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No2.3.1 2.3.2 2.3.3 2.3.4

Questions/QueryDo you use multiple currencies in your business? How many currencies do you use and what are they? What is your policy on changing currency rates? What is the primary currency you have?

Response

Revisit

2.4 2.4.1 2.4.2

Budget Preparation Does Your Company prepare budgets? What types of budgets do you prepare? (for example, revenue & expenses, balance sheets, capital, project, and so on). Do you do any budget allocations? Do Your Companys key performance indicators drive the budgets? How many budgets do you prepare for an individual fiscal year? Do you prepare more than one budget per Set of Books? What is the range of accounting periods for each budget? At what organization level (for example, cost center, division, or region) do you budget?

2.4.3

2.4.4 2.4.5 2.4.6 2.4.7

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No2.4.8

Questions/QueryDo budgets require approval? What levels of approvals are required? How many budget "organizations" do you have (Budget Organization is an entity, which owns the budget in Oracle General Ledger)? What are the budget organizations and what is the convention or rule behind their names? Have you developed security procedures to prohibit access to certain budget organizations? Will budget organization security be required in the future? Do you create new budgets based on existing budgets (for example, new budget = 10% decrease from previous budget)? At what natural account level do you currently budget? Is this the same level of detail as actuals are captured? Is your budgeting process centralized or decentralized? Are reorganizations likely to affect how budgets should be prepared and/or reported? Do you only budget in dollars, or are statistics budgeted also (for example, headcount)? Do you require consolidated budgets (budgeting across sets of books)?

Response

Revisit

2.4.9

2.4.10

2.4.11

2.4.12 2.4.13

2.4.14

2.4.15 2.4.16

2.4.17

2.4.18

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No2.4.19 2.4.20

Questions/QueryAre all budgets prepared in the same currency? Do you use Lotus, Excel, or another spreadsheet program to prepare budgets? Which spreadsheet products and which version do/will you use? How do you close or "freeze" a budget once it is approved?

Response

Revisit

2.4.21 2.4.22

2.5 2.5.1 2.5.2

Forecasting Do you derive any type of forecast from budgets? Does Your Company prepare financial forecasts? What types of financial forecasts does Your Company prepare? Is the financial forecasting process documented?

2.5.3

2.6 2.6.1 2.6.2

Maintenance How do you maintain your General Ledger data? How do you audit your General Ledger data?

2.7

Performance Monitoring

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No

Questions/Query

Response

Revisit

2.7.1 2.7.2

How do you monitor profitability? Do you monitor profitability/analysis by Organization (cost center, division, region)? Do you monitor profitability/analysis by Business Line or Function Do you monitor profitability/analysis by Skill/Job? Do you monitor profitability/analysis by Revenue Category? Do you monitor profitability/analysis by Activity? Do you monitor profitability/analysis by Employee? Do you use projects to track Overhead activities and/or Product Development efforts? Is activity-based costing an issue that is important to Your Company? Do you monitor profitability/analysis by Industry/Market Sector? Do you monitor profitability/analysis by Customer/Customer Type? How do you determine whether indirect labor costs, such as

2.7.3

2.7.4 2.7.5 2.7.6 2.7.7 2.7.9

2.7.10

2.7.11

2.7.12

2.7.13

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No

Questions/Queryoverhead, are actually recovered through your billing practice?

Response

Revisit

3 3.1 3.1.1 3.1.2 3.1.3 3.1.4 3.1.5 3.1.6

Transaction Processing General Ledger Transactions Do you track journal sources? What types? Do you track journal categories? What ones? Do you enter statistical accounts regularly? How often? Do you use batches to enter journals? Do you reverse journals on a regular basis? Explain. Do you have standard journals that recur with the same accounting information (but changing amounts)? Provide examples. Do you use control totals when entering journals? How often do you post journals to your General Ledger balances? What are the procedures you use to post these journals? Who posts the journal batches? Who approves the posting?

3.1.7 3.1.8

3.1.9 3.1.10

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No3.1.11

Questions/QueryDo you allow for posting out of balance journals into a suspense account? Do you import journals from spreadsheets Do you have any input documents that you currently use? Do you have any audit requirements that might be unique?

Response

Revisit

3.1.12 3.1.13 3.1.14

4 4.1 4.1.1 4.1.2 4.1.3 4.1.4 4.1.5

Period Processing Periods When is the beginning of your year? What is the period type? How many periods in your year? Do all the companies have the same calendar? Explain. Do you have a naming convention for the periods? What accounting periods are in your quarters?

4.2 4.2.1

Period Close What is your period-end reconciliation process?

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No4.2.2 4.2.3 4.2.4 4.2.5 4.2.6 4.2.7

Questions/QueryWhen closing at year end do you use a 13th period? How do you close an accounting period? Is the schedule to close an accounting period documented? How long does it take to close an accounting period? How are adjustments to closed periods handled? Who performs the tasks associated with closing an accounting period? Where in your accounting cycle do you run standard reports and statements? Do sub-ledgers have their own calendar?

Response

Revisit

4.2.8

4.2.9

4.3 4.3.1 4.3.2 4.3.3 4.3.4

Period Open How do you open an accounting period? Is the schedule to open an accounting period documented? How long does it take to open an accounting period ? Who performs the tasks associated with opening an accounting period?

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No

Questions/Query

Response

Revisit

5 5.1 5.1.1 5.1.2

Reporting Financial Reporting Describe your Financial Reporting. Provide samples of your standard financial reports - Balance Sheet, Cash Flow Statement, Income/Operating Statement, Trial Balance, etc How long are reports kept on-line or are they re-run if needed again? Do you have online account balance lookup? If needed, which accounts and how often? Please enclose a list of all reports used in the General Ledger area. Please annotate the report list with each report's name/number, description, the type of users, frequency on which these reports are generated.

5.1.3

5.1.4

5.1.5

6 6.1 6.1.1

Miscellaneous What else needs to be discussed? How do you handle taxes?

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No

Questions/Query

Response

Revisit

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Oracle Payables:No. 1 1.1 1.1.1 Questions/Query General Overview Describe at high-level your Accounts Payable processes Answers Revisit

1.2 1.2.1 1.2.2 1.2.3 1.2.4 1.2.5 1.2.6 1.2.7 1.2.8 1.2.9

Supplier Management Do you have single or multiple bill-to locations? What is the basis for your vendor category breakdown? Do you have a single consolidated vendor list? Do you have vendors listed in your files multiple times? How do you handle vendors with multiple addresses? Do you have preferred vendors? How do you identify them? How do you handle vendor numbering? Do you put employees as vendors? If not, how do you pay employee expenses? Do you have a standard naming convention for vendors when the name is like "John Smith"? Is it "Smith John" or "John Smith"? Do you have shared vendors between companies? How many?

1.2.10

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No. 1.2.11 1.2.12 1.2.13 1.2.14 1.2.15 1.2.16

Questions/Query What type of vendor analysis do you perform? Are vendors categorized for reporting purposes? Are vendors categorized for financial tracking purposes? Is there a requirement to define vendor sites which can receive payments and sites which cannot receive payments? Who adds and maintains vendor in the system? How many active vendors are there? (Lets assume active is any vendor with at least one invoice in last 12 months.

Answers

Revisit

1.3 1.3.1 1.3.2 1.3.3 1.3.4 1.3.5 1.3.6 1.3.7 1.3.8

Employees Is there a requirement to process employee expense reports? Is there a standard employee expense claim form? What is the current process to generate expense payments to employees? How frequently are employee expense claims processed? How many employee expense claims are processed? Are these expense claims assigned a special pay priority - high or low? (Before/after other vendor payments for example.) What is the current procedure for employee advances? How are these reconciled when the expense claim is submitted?

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No. 1.3.9 1.3.10

Questions/Query Do your employees have company credit cards? How are company credit cards handled?

Answers

Revisit

2 2.1 2.1.1 2.1.2

Invoice Processing Purchase Orders Do you wish to prevent purchase orders being sent to Vendors that are on hold in Accounts Payable? Are there non-payment vendor sites, not defined in Accounts Payable, that need to be defined for Purchasing to order goods/services? Are the non-payment vendor sites, not defined in Accounts Payable, that need to be defined for Purchasing, "RFQ Only" sites? Are there payment terms, not defined in Accounts Payable, that need to be defined for Purchasing to order goods/services? Will tax names and rates, defined in Accounts Payable have to be revised in any way?

2.1.3

2.1.4 2.1.5

2.2 2.2.1 2.2.2 2.2.3

Invoicing Do you require batch control to manage invoice entry? Who enters invoices and how often? Do you receive invoices at a central location?

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No. 2.2.4 2.2.5 2.2.6 2.2.7

Questions/Query How do you physically store invoices once entered into the computer? Are invoices billed to distinct companies, cost centers or other? How many invoices per period do you enter? Do you have security requirements on who can enter data (invoice processing, payment processing, and check processing)? How are invoices identified (numbered)? How many liability accounts do you use? Can you identify any frequently used expense distributions within your current system (for example, rent or telephone payments)? Do you have any recurring invoices?

Answers

Revisit

2.2.8 2.2.9 2.2.10

2.2.11

2.3 2.3.1 2.3.2 2.3.3 2.3.4

Matching and Approval Do you match your AP invoice with the PO's? How do you match purchase order information to AP invoice information? How do you match vendor information to your fixed assets system when purchasing assets? Is there a requirement to match invoices to related purchase orders?

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No. 2.3.5 2.3.6 2.3.7 2.3.8

Questions/Query Will some invoices never have purchase orders? Should invoices be matched completely, partially or both? Do you perform 2-, 3-, or 4-way matching of invoices? Do you currently have any tolerance levels for matching? (Price Tolerance, Quantity Ordered Tolerance, Quantity Received Tolerance, or Tax Tolerance?) Would you like to approve your invoices on-line, by batch or have both options? What is the internal approval process for an invoice in your organization at present? Are there situations where an invoice needs to be placed on hold and then manually released? Describe the approval process when invoices need to be placed on hold and manually released? Where an invoice needs to be placed on hold and then manually released, can these invoices be "posted" to the General Ledger? Do you accrue your receipts to the General Ledger?

Answers

Revisit

2.3.9 2.3.10 2.3.11 2.3.12 2.3.13 2.3.14

3 3.1 3.1.1 3.1.2

Payment Processing Payment Processing What are the requirements for reporting tax payments? How do you record taxes within the GL?

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No. 3.1.3 3.1.4 3.1.5 3.1.6 3.1.7 3.1.8 3.1.9 3.1.10

Questions/Query Is there a requirement to support multiple bank accounts? Is there a requirement to support foreign currency bank accounts? What disbursement (document) types are currently processed through these bank accounts? How are your current payment terms structured? Do you use percentage due or amount due? Are due dates calculated based on a specific day of the month or on a number of days from the payment terms date? Is there a provision for discounts within the current payment terms? How are discount dates calculated - based on a specific day of the month or on a number of days from the payment terms date? Is there a requirement to use multiple discount levels at present or in the future? How many different sites issue checks? How many checks do you write/produce per period? Is there a requirement to use computer generated checks? What is your policy to cancel checks? Is there a requirement to use Electronic Funds Transfers? Is there a requirement to use Wire Transfers?

Answers

Revisit

3.1.11 3.1.12 3.1.13 3.1.14 3.1.15 3.1.16 3.1.17

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No. 3.1.18 3.1.19 3.1.20 3.1.21 3.1.22 3.1.23 3.1.24 3.1.25 3.1.26 3.1.27 3.1.28 3.1.29 3.1.30 3.1.31 3.1.32 3.1.33

Questions/Query Is there a requirement to process Automatic Payments? Is there a requirement to process Manual Payments? If so, is a separate bank account used? Is there a requirement to process Partial Payments? Is there a requirement to process Pre-Payments? Is there a requirement to process Recurring Payments? Is there a requirement to process Quick Checks? Do you have a priority system for payments? Would you use a priority system for payments? What is your current payment cycle? (How often do you print checks?) If recurring payments are used, what is the normal period cycle for these payments? Are all invoices paid in local currency? Is/will there be a requirement to use multiple currencies? Do check payments have to be approved before they are run? Do you have a minimum or maximum payment amount per check? Do you have a minimum or maximum payment amount per run? What is the current check layout for computer generated

Answers

Revisit

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No.

Questions/Query checks? How many formats do you have?

Answers

Revisit

3.1.34 3.1.35 3.1.36 3.1.37 3.1.38 3.1.39 3.1.40 3.1.41 3.1.42 3.1.43 3.1.44

Do you print the check number on the check/remittance or is it pre-printed? Should a remittance advice note be produced, and when? How should an overflow situation be handled? Is there any special sequencing of checks when printing? Is there a dedicated printer for checks? What type of printer is used for checks? Where are the pre-printed checks stored? Is there a requirement to restrict the access to the check printing function? What are the policy/procedures for handling stop payments? What are the policy /procedures for handling void payments if they have been recorded? What are the policy /procedures for handling void payments if they have not been recorded?

3.2 3.2.1 3.2.2

Banks/Cash Management Who do you bank with. List all of your bank accounts and their purpose. Describe your cash management (bank reconciliation) process

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No.

Questions/Query

Answers

Revisit

4 4.1 4.1.1 4.1.2 4.1.3 4.1.4 4.1.5 4.1.6 4.1.7

Period Processing Open/Close Periods How often do you "post" information to your General Ledger? Do you use Cash or Accrual Based Accounting? Do you post (or wish to post) in detail or in summary to the General Ledger? When do you start your AP close? Do you have any documentation on your AP close? Please provide. Do you allow posting invoices back to prior periods? If you have multiple organizations, do they all close at the same time or separately?

5 5.1 5.1.1 5.1.2 5.1.3

Reporting Reporting For the purpose of Invoice Aging Reports, what aging periods are currently in use? Is there a requirement to produce Key Indicators Reports to review productivity and pinpoint problem areas? Is there a need to define any additional aging periods?

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No. 5.1.4

Questions/Query Please enclose a list of all reports used in the Accounts Payable area Please annotate the report list with each report's name/number, description, the type of users, frequency on which these reports are generated.

Answers

Revisit

6 6.1 6.1.1 6.1.2

Miscellaneous What else needs to be discussed? Other Applications used by AP. Expede Interface

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Oracle Receivables:No. Questions Answers

1 1.1 1.1.1 1.1.2

Customer Management Customer Information Who maintains customer information? Do you default other information (payment terms, shipping, tax) at the Customer Level? Can this information be changed and updated at the time of invoice entry? Do you have a central registry of customers which supports more than one business units? What types of customers do you have? How do you group your customers for credit limits/credit checks? How do you group your customers for statements? How do you group your customers for interest charges for late payments? How do you group your customers for payment rules?

1.1.3

1.1.4

1.1.5 1.1.6

1.1.7 1.1.8

1.1.9

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No. 1.1.10 1.1.11 1.1.12 1.1.13 1.1.14

Questions How many customers do you have? What type of payment terms do you provide? Do you provide split term payment terms? Do you provide discount payment terms? Do you use customer agreements/contracts to manage specific price lists? Do you use customer agreements/contracts to manage specific discounts? Do you use customer agreements/contracts to manage specific payment terms? Do you use customer agreements/contracts to manage specific invoicing policies? How do you track customer contact people? Do you automatically number new customers as they are created? Do you automatically number customer business purposes as they are created? Do you track and record relationships between customers for example, franchises, subsidiaries, and so on?

Answers

1.1.15

1.1.16

1.1.17

1.1.18 1.1.19

1.1.20

1.1.21

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No. 1.1.22

Questions Do you create reciprocal customer relationships whenever you create a relationship between customers for tracking purposes? Do you send customer statements? Do you have multiple "remit to" addresses? How are multiple "remit to" addresses determined for each customer? What credit information is tracked for each customer? Do terms and conditions of customer agreements and/or payment terms change based upon the status of their accounts? How do you maintain/audit your customer data? Do you have a prospect system separate from the receivables customers? Who has access to your customer database? Do you have the same customers repeated multiple times in the data files or the same customer for different operating units? How do you track customers with different or multiple bill-to and ship-to addresses?

Answers

1.1.23 1.1.24 1.1.25

1.1.26 1.1.27

1.1.28 1.1.29

1.1.30 1.1.31

1.1.32

1.2

Sales

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No.

Questions

Answers

1.2.1 1.2.2 1.2.3

How do you maintain and assign salespeople to customers? Do you track Sales Territory Information? How is Sales Territory Information for tracking purposes derived? (for example, customer, salesperson, and so on) Does your sales order cycle involve product shipment?

1.2.4

2 2.1 2.1.1 2.1.2

Billing Process Invoicing Please describe you invoicing process. How do you link the specific products/services that you sell with general ledger accounts at invoice entry? Do you regularly invoice customers for the same items? Do you use standard invoice lines with default pricing and default accounting information? Do you ever use invoice forms and/or the invoice entry process for transactions other than billing customers?

2.1.3 2.1.4

2.1.5

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No. 2.1.6 2.1.7

Questions Do you use Customer Account Credit Memos? How are Customer Account Credit Memos used? Why are Customer Account Credit Memos used? What items appear on Customer Account Credit Memos? Do you enter invoices in batches? How are batch invoices defined? Do you use batch controls, such as counts and amounts? What are the units of measure you use when you bill customers for products and/or services? Do you require taxes to be established for use when preparing invoices? Do you validate the tax rate against a Customers Ship To address when preparing invoices? Do you have any subsidiaries that bill customers in a foreign currency? Are there any other foreign currency issues regarding invoice generation? How many invoice types do you have? How frequently do you invoice your customers?

Answers

2.1.8 2.1.9

2.1.10 2.1.11

2.1.12

2.1.13

2.1.14

2.1.15

2.1.16 2.1.17

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No. 2.1.18 2.1.19

Questions How do you number your invoices? How do you receive notice to create/generate an invoice to bill a customer?

Answers

2.2 2.2.1

Project Billing Typically, how many project-related payments do you receive a month? Do you use standard invoice lines with default accounting information? Do you have any subsidiaries that bill customers in a foreign currency? Are there any other foreign currency issues regarding invoices and/or payments?

2.2.2

2.2.3

2.2.4

3 3.1 3.1.1 3.1.2

Payment Processing Payments Describe your cash applications process. Do you enter your payments in batches? How are batches identified?

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No. 3.1.3

Questions How do your customers generally pay invoices? (Single check, single invoice/single check, multiple invoices/multiple checks) Do you use batch control counts and amounts? Do you use more than one bank account and/or cash account? Do you have customers who pay other customers invoices? Do you use lockboxes? How many lockboxes do you use? Do you receive deposits and/or prepayments? Do you receive non-customer related payments? How are non-customer related payments accounted for? How do you handle payments without remittance information? What are your policies and procedures about adjusting payments? What are your policies and procedures about reversing payments? How many payments do you receive in a month? How many checks are returned by the bank in a period?

Answers

3.1.4 3.1.5 3.1.6 3.1.7 3.1.8 3.1.9 3.1.10 3.1.11 3.1.12 3.1.13

3.1.14

3.1.15 3.1.16

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No. 3.1.17 3.1.18 3.1.19 3.1.20

Questions What are the reasons for checks being returned by the bank? Who applies cash? How is cash applied? Do you create charge backs (Debit Items) for customer deductions?

Answers

3.2 3.2.1

Collections How do you enter/manage a credit amount owed to the customer by your company? How do you enter/manage a credit amount owed to your company by the customer What does your aging look like? Do you send dunning letters to customers? Do collectors actively call customers on delinquent items? What is the process for tracking actions to collect on delinquent accounts? Is the process for tracking actions to collect on delinquent accounts automated?

3.2.2

3.2.3 3.2.4 3.2.5 3.2.6

3.2.7

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No. 3.2.8

Questions Do terms and conditions of customer agreements and/or payment terms change based upon the status of their accounts? Do you monitor performance of your collectors? What metrics are used to monitor collections performance? Do you do cash-flow requirements forecasting? What sort of buckets do you use for cash-flow requirements forecasting? (For example, 30, 60, 90...)

Answers

3.2.9 3.2.10 3.2.11 3.2.12

3.3 3.3.1 3.3.2 3.3.3 3.3.4

Reconciliation Do you reconcile payments with the bank? How do you reconcile payments with the bank? How often do you reconcile payments with the bank? How are bank reconciliation errors handled?

4.0 4.1

Accounting and Period End Processing Revenue

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No. 4.1.1

Questions Do you ever recognize revenue from a single transaction over multiple periods? When do you recognize revenue? How many General Ledger revenue accounts do you distribute to? When do you create or recognize outstanding receivables? Do you distribute earned and unearned revenue? What are the GL accounts? Do you have unbilled receivables? Is revenue assignment associated with sales people information? Do you assign non-revenue credit to sales people? Do you have special revenue recognition for long-term agreements?

Answers

4.1.2 4.1.3

4.1.4 4.1.5

4.1.6 4.1.7

4.1.8 4.1.9

4.2 4.2.1 4.2.2

Period Close What is the process to open and close AR periods? How are adjustments to closed periods handled?

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No.

Questions

Answers

5 5.1

Reporting Reporting Please enclose a list of all reports used in the Account Receivable area Please annotate the report list with each report's name/number, description, the type of users, frequency on which these reports are generated.

6 6.1 6.1.1

Miscellaneous What else needs to be discussed?

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Oracle Fixed AssetNo. 1 1.1 1.1.1 1.1.2 Questions Asset Setup General What system do you use presently to do your Fixed Assets? What systems do you use to track and inventory your fixed assets? Does your current system track asset possession by employee, department, or cost center? What property types do you use (Personal 1245, Real 1250, and so on) How many different companies in your organization own fixed assets? In what countries are your fixed assets located? Who tracks financial and tax information in each country? Explain the accounting structure and reporting methods used to consolidate your asset cost and depreciation expenses? Do you post your asset financial information in summary or detail to your general ledger? Yes Answers Revisit

1.1.3

1.1.4

1.1.5

1.1.6 1.1.7 1.1.8

1.1.9

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No. 1.1.10

Questions How many corporate depreciation books do you maintain? If more than one, why? How many different tax depreciation books do you maintain in each of your companies? How are they used? Do you adjust depreciation in your tax books? Do you maintain any other types of depreciation or asset valuation books? What are your capital budgeting requirements? How often do you calculate depreciation for corporate accounting, tax, and capital budgeting purposes? How many fixed assets does Razorfish own? How are they numbered? Do you need to track fixed assets that are not depreciated? What is your expense/depreciation limit? Do you track different information for different types of fixed assets? What basic information about each asset do you store? How do you number your fixed assets? Do you have physical tags on your fixed assets?

Answers

Revisit

1.1.11

1.1.12 1.1.13

1.1.14 1.1.15

1.1.16

1.1.17

1.1.18

1.1.19 1.1.20 1.1.21

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No. 1.1.22 1.1.23

Questions Do you track leased assets? What is your oldest date placed in service for your fixed assets? Do you have standard depreciation methods for your fixed assets? Do you associate your fixed assets with vendors? Do you use multiple currencies when purchasing, depreciating, reporting or posting financial information about your fixed assets? Where are your fixed assets located? How do you report property values for tax purposes? Do you have special names for each location (aliases)?

Answers

Revisit

1.1.24

1.1.25 1.1.26

1.1.27 1.1.28 1.1.29

1.2 1.2.1

Security Do you have security requirements on who can enter data for Fixed Assets? (for example, by company? by cost center?) Do you have security reports on who can run Fixed Assets reports? (by company, by cost center, and so on)

1.2.2

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No.

Questions

Answers

Revisit

1.3 1.3.1 1.3.2

Asset Categories How do you categorize your fixed assets now? Are your asset categories unique for each combination of asset cost account in your general ledger, depreciation method, useful life and prorate convention? Are fixed assets which use the same asset account in your general ledger, ever split into more than one group for accounting or tax depreciation purposes? Do you group fixed assets which use different asset accounts for reporting purposes? Do you have a special name (alias) for each category?

1.3.3

1.3.4

1.3.5

1.4 1.4.1

Other Which operations/processes do you want to streamline for Fixed Assets? Which operations/processes do you want to eliminate for Fixed Assets? Are there any time-intensive Fixed Assets operations/processes that need to be addressed?

1.4.2

1.4.3

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No.

Questions

Answers

Revisit

2 2.1 2.1.1 2.1.2 2.1.3

Transaction Processing Data Conversion How is your corporate and tax information stored now? Do you have your location information in electronic form? What systems are you using to store asset, vendor, employee and location information now? What is the current accuracy of your asset information?

2.1.4

2.2 2.2.1

Transactions How many fixed assets do you purchase each accounting period? How often do you transfer large numbers of fixed assets from one person, cost center, or location to another? How often, and for what reasons, do you change fixed asset depreciation method or life for a single asset? How often do you change the useful life, depreciation method, or prorate convention of all fixed assets in a category?

2.2.2

2.2.3

2.2.4

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No. 2.2.5 2.2.6

Questions How many retirements do you do per period? Do you amortize adjustments made in the prior period over the remaining useful life of the asset or do you expense the catch- up depreciation in the current period? Do you want your fixed assets automatically added from your feeder Accounts Payable system? Do you ever retire fixed assets in the same period they were purchased? How often do you perform physical inventories of your fixed assets? Do you cycle count your assets?

Answers

Revisit

2.2.7

2.2.8

2.2.9

2.2.10

3 3.1 3.1.1 3.1.2 3.1.3 3.1.4

Depreciation and Period-End Processing Depreciation What are your prorate conventions? What are your depreciation methods? What are your useful lives? How do you account for prior period additions, retirements or other transactions in your general ledger?

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No. 3.1.5 3.1.6

Questions Do you use ITC for any fixed assets still in service? Do you depreciate leased items, or leasehold improvements? Does any department or departments receive the depreciation expense for assets used by another department? If so, do these expenses eventually get redistributed to asset users?

Answers

Revisit

3.1.7

3.2 3.2.1 3.2.2

Period Close How do you close an accounting period for Fixed Assets? Is the schedule to close an accounting period for Fixed Assets documented? How long does it take to close an accounting period for Fixed Assets? Is closing an accounting period for Fixed Assets a hard close or a soft close? How are adjustments to closed periods for Fixed Assets handled?

3.2.3

3.2.4

3.2.5

4

Reporting

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No. 4.1 4.1.1 4.1.2

Questions Asset Reporting What are your monthly reporting requirements? What business performance statistics do you monitor for Fixed Assets? What are your Fixed Assets reporting requirements with respect to functional vs. foreign currencies? What are your Fixed Assets reporting requirements with respect to summary or detail formats? What reports do you currently generate to meet your Fixed Assets reporting requirements? Provide examples of each. Include source (could be manual), user, frequency, or number of copies. Is there any Fixed Assets reporting requirement that your current set of reports does not meet? Are Fixed Assets reports standard across multiple Sets of Books, for example, subsidiaries? Are Fixed Assets reports standard across multiple levels within a Set of Books, for example, divisions? What account codes and/or descriptions are required on Fixed Assets reports? What Fixed Assets reports are grouped together on a regular basis and printed in one print run?

Answers

Revisit

4.1.3

4.1.4

4.1.5

4.1.6

4.1.7

4.1.8

4.1.9

4.1.10

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No.

Questions

Answers

Revisit

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Endnotes: Gathering ERP Requirements by Todd Boehm An article on ERP implementation by Eric Kimberling Oracle questionnaire by Marian Crkon ERP Requirement management by Professor Duane Truex, Georgia state university.

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Oracle Financials-Operational Analysis Questionnaire_1.0

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