Top 42 Oracle General Ledger (GL) Interview Questions You Must Prepare 19.Mar.2024

No. Once a segment qualifier has been designated for a specific segment and has been saved, it will permanently have the attributes with that qualifier.

For example, you accidentally designate the cost center segment as the natural account segment. Even though you do not compile this, the system saves the changes. And once it has been saved, it will have all the attributes designated for the natural account qualifier, even after it has been changed back, resaved with the correct qualifier and compiled. This is the inherent functionality of the software.

Unfortunately, there is no real easy solution for this issue. The only option is to create a new chart of accounts and attach a new set of books.

  1. Functional Currency Jv: This Journal, we enter Local Currency traction purpose.
  2. Foreign Currency Jv: this Journal, we enter other than local currency traction purpose...before we define exchange rates
  3. Suspense Jv: this Journal, whenever debit is not equal to credit that time, we enable in set of books window Suspense button, then it works otherwise it's not working
  4. Tax Jv: this Journal, calculate taxation of Purchased items
  5. Reverse Jv: this Journal whenever we enter recurring journal, at the time of we using..We have two methods...one is Debit to Credit and second one is sign (+ to -)
  6. Recurring Jv :this one is We define one template, we use Periodically, these are 3 types
    1.Standard 2.Skeleton 3.Formula
  7. Mass Allocation Jv :Set of Expenses or Set of Revenue allocate different parts using Formula A*B/C
    A is Total Cost Pool..B is Usage Factor...C is Total Usage Factor...
  8. Batch JV: Group of Journal we enter at a time, We Define Control Amount
  9. Stat JV: This JV we have one side of Amount either debit or Credit.....

Gl_Interface is the primary interface table of General ledger. It acts as an interface between data originating from other modules such as AP,AR, Legacy data and the Gl Base tables.

The plan for the future expenses is planning budget. It is a paper work. There is no funds requirement. It does not require journals. There are no restrictions for estimating of funds.

Revaluation is used to determine the position of foreign currency debtors, creditors etc at the end of month; and it created revaluation journal entries.

While Traslation is a functionality used to convert all balances including functional currency (say INR) balances in a given foreign currency (USD). Then, Trial Balance in that currency(USD) can be generated. It is used whenof a subsidiary or branch (INR) are required to be merged with another company reporting in different currency (USD).

One can define budgetary control for n number of years however, one year can have maximum of 60 fiscal periods7.

A little flexible, for example, depending upon the value in a field, we can make  either Field1 or Field2  to appear in DFF. 

Unlike AP and AR, where period cannot be closed unless all tractions are processed; GL period can be closed even if there are unposted journals. So, it gives no error as such.

A funding budget is a budget for which 'Require Budget Journals' check box is checked. Funding budget can be used to control expenses if budgeting control is enabled at Set of Books (SOB) level.

Two Types:

  1. Expenditure Budgets
  2. Revenue Budgets.

Journal import is an interface used to bring journal entries from legacy systems and other modules into the General Ledger.(Specifically Journal Import gets entries from legacy data into the GL base tables.

The tables populated during journal Import are

GL_JE_BATCHES,
GL_JE_HEADERS,
GL_JE_LINES,
GL_IMPORT_REFERENCES

Retained Earnings represent the undistributed profits of a company i.e. profits retained. The retained earning account is a mandatory account to be given at the time of defining Set of Books (SOB).

GL calander allows for 1 to 366 periods per year. And two periods cannot overlap unless one of them is an adjustment period.

Consolidation is a period-end process of combining the financial results of separate business subsidiaries with the parent company to form a single combined statement of financial results.

Financial statement generator feature helps us to generate reports such as balance sheets and income statements with out programming. It also provides a high degree of control on the rows, columns, contents and calculations on the report. Different components such as row set, column set, content set, row order, display set have to be defined before a statement is generated, of which row set and column set are mandatory.

Security Rules are defined to control the access of a flexfield segment value (Financial information) at a responsibility level.

The Average Balance feature of Oracle General Ledger provides organizations with the ability to track average and end-of-day balances, report average balance sheets, and create custom reports using both standard and average balances. Average balance processing is particularly important for financial institutions, since average balance sheets are required, in addition to standard balance sheets, by many regulatory agencies. Many organizations also use average balances for internal management reporting and Profitability analysis.

The difference between an average and standard balance sheet is that balances are expressed as average amounts rather Than actual period-end amounts. An average balance is computed as the sum of the actual daily closing balance for a balance sheet account, divided by the number of calendar Days in the reporting period .

GL_BUDGET_INTERFACE 
GL_DAILY_RATES_INTERFACE 
GL_IEA_INTERFACE 
GL_INTERFACE 
GL_INTERFACE_CONTROL 
GL_INTERFACE_HISTORY 

In addition to enabling Journal Approval flag at SOB level; Require Journal Approval flag at Journal Sources level for journals to require approval.

Trlation is a process used to convert functional currency to other reporting currencies at the account balances level.

Actual flag represents the Journal type.

A-Actual
B-Budget
E- Encumbrance.

This depends on the number of attribute columns in the table that screen uses. Also, those columns must be flagged as DFF enabled in DFF Registration screen. Don't need to worry much about this because all the ATTRIBUTE columns are by default flagged for their DFF usage.

Five type of accounts are maintained in GL

  1. Expense (E)
  2. Revenue (R)
  3. Asset (A)
  4. Liabiltiy (L)
  5. Owner's Equity (O)

While defining the Natual Account segment values, in the segment qualifier we specify the nature of account. The type of account for a Code combination is stored in GL_CODE_COMBINATIONS

Expense and Revenue accounts represent expenses/losses and Revenues/Gains respectively. And these accounts have a ZERO balance at the start of the year. This point has to be taken care of while developing reports where Opening Balance is calculated rather than using GL_BALANCES table.

Owner's Equity represent Share Capital and includes retained earnings and reserves, if any. Owner's Equity along with Asset and Liability Balances are carried forward at the end of year.

Primary ledger: The primary ledger acts as the primary accounting representation

Secondary Leger: Secondary ledgers represent the primary ledger's accounting data in another accounting representation that differs in one or more of the following ways: 

  • chart of accounts
  • accounting calendar/period type combination
  • currency
  • subledger accounting method
  • ledger processing options

Use secondary ledgers for supplementary purposes, such as consolidation, statutory reporting, or adjustments for one or more legal entities within the same accounting setup. For example, use a primary ledger for corporate accounting purposes that uses the corporate chart of accounts and subledger accounting method, and use a secondary ledger for statutory reporting purposes that uses the statutory chart of accounts and subledger accounting method. This allows you to maintain both a corporate and statutory representation of the same legal entity's tractions in parallel. 

Assign one or more secondary ledgers to each primary ledger for an accounting setup. 

The secondary ledgers assigned can only perform the accounting for the legal entities within the same accounting setup. 

iSetup is the Oracle product that provides supported APIs to load values into Oracle Applications flexfields.

To load code combinations ADI may be used. Uploading zero amount journals will create new code combinations.

In this case Dynamic Insertion should be enabled and all account segment values need to exist before the new account code combinations will be dynamically created.

DFF is a mechanism that lets us create new fields in screens that are delivered by Oracle.

Yes you can do so, reason being budget journal is not linked with your accounting period. Once you have open the budget period then you can book budget journal for that whole period.

Indeed, this happens because for each field that you create using DFF will be mapped to  a column in Oracle Applications.

Spot Rate: An exchange rate which you enter to perform conversion based on the rate on a specific date. It applies to the immediate delivery of currency.

Corporate Rate: An Exchange rate that we define to standardize rates for our company. This rate is the standard market rate determined by the senior financial management for use through out the organization.

User Rate: Conversion rate that is defined by the user.

EMU Fixed Rate: An exchange rate that is provided automatically by the General Ledger while entering journals. It uses a foreign currency that has a fixed relationship with the euro.

Traction Calendar: Defines the business days and holidays for any calendar.

Accounting Calendar: Defines different types of calendars namely Fiscal, Federal Fiscal, Month etc.

A budget against which accounting tractions are checked for available funds when budgetary control is enable for your set of books.

There is no supported way to delete a segment value. Segment values can only be disabled not deleted.

Posted Journal cannot be modified. They can only be reversed.

CVS – Cross validate segments – Allows only valid code combinations.

ADI – Allow dynamic inserts. – Allows any code combination irrespective of validity.

ADI would prevail if both of CVS and ADI are checked.

Oracle GL supports three type are balances which are:

  • Actual
  • Encumbrance
  • Budger

It is a process of Reservation of funds for anticipated expenditure from a budget. Encumbrance integrates GL, Purchasing and Payables modules.

If you attach a value set to the field(at time of setup of dff), then field will no longer be free text. The entered value in the field will be validated, also a list of valid values will be provided in LOV. 

GL data is secured at Set of Book level. Subledger module data is secured at Responsibility level (i.e., at Operating Unit Level).

It is process used to revalue assets and liabilities denominated in foreign currency into functional currency based on period end exchange rate we specify. Unrealized gains/losses are resulted because of exchange rate fluctuations which are recorded in unrealized gain/loss account in GL.

Not really. Oracle delivers a predefined list of columns for each table that are meant for DFF usage. Only those columns can be mapped to DFF segments. These columns are named similar to ATTRIBUTE1, ATTRIBUTE2, ATTRIBUTE3 ETC. Usually Oracle provides upto 15 columns, but this number can vary.

There is no limit on number of periods that can be concurrently open GL; however, it is advised to keep the number of GL Open periods to minimum.

Summary of key facts:

  1. Common COA Structure used for Primary and Secondary Ledgers
  2. Ledger shared by Multiple Legal Entities
  3. Specific Balancing Segment Values assigned to Specific Legal Entity (Overlap not allowed)
  4. Specific Legal Entity Vision Operations Assigned to Payables Manager OU for Legal Entity Context
  5. User preference set to Access Vision Operations OU by Default in Payables

Conclusion and Findings:

  1. Balancing Segment Value Assignment to the Multiple Legal Entities, sharing the same Ledger does not seem to restrict the user of these Balancing Segment Values in the Feeder, Operating Unit specific Modules Like AP, wherein Legal Entity Context is passed to the OU through the link of the Primary Ledger.
  2. However, access to these Balancing Segment Values could be controlled through Security Rules being assigned to the Value Set and the Respective Responsibility
  3. The Key question is: If Legal Entity having the context to the Operating Unit that shares the common Ledger does not have assignment to it, what impact it has on the integrity of data when this access is otherwise allowed, except through Security Rules?