DATA ROLE AND DATA ACCESS SET IN ORACLE FUSION APPLICATIONS

In this training article we will learn about system generated Data Roles and Data Access set in Oracle Fusion Applications to access newly created Ledger and we will also see how to add Data Roles and Access Set to the user. Let’s first understand briefly about Data Role and Data Access Set-

Data Roles

A data role defines components of data within which a job is performed. The data role inherits the job role that describes the job. For example, a data role entitles a user to perform a job in a business unit and data roles are implemented as job roles for a set of data. The data role inherits abstract or job roles and is granted data security privileges. Data roles carry the function security privileges inherited from job roles and also the data security privilege granted on database objects and table rows.

Let’s understand by this example- an accounts payables specialist in the UK Business Unit may be assigned the data role Accounts Payables Specialist - UK Business Unit. This data role inherits the job role Accounts Payables Specialist and grants access to transactions in the UK Business Unit. Data roles are created and maintained using data role templates in the Authorization Policy Manager (APM). 

Data Access Sets

Data access sets define a set of access privileges to one or more Ledgers or Ledger Sets. The information on Ledgers that are attached to data access sets are secured by function security. Users must have access to the segment values associated with the data access sets to access the corresponding GL account.

In the security reference implementation, the IT Security Manager job role hierarchy includes the Data Access Administration Duty role, which is entitled to manage data access sets (the entitlement is Define General Ledger Data Access Set). This entitlement provides the access necessary to perform the Manage Data Access Sets task in General Ledger.

Security in Oracle Fusion Applications is based on integrations with Oracle Identity Management in Fusion Middleware, security features in the database, and Governance, Risk, Compliance, and Controls, additional resources in support of performing security tasks include the following-

• Authorization Policy Manager (APM) is available in Oracle Fusion Applications through integration with Oracle Identity Management (OIM). Authorization policy management involves managing duty roles, data role templates, and data security policies.  

• Oracle Identity Management (OIM) is available in Oracle Fusion Applications through integration with Oracle Fusion Middleware and involves creating and managing user identities, creating and linking user accounts, managing user access control through user role assignment, managing enterprise roles, and managing workflow approvals and delegated administration.
• Oracle Fusion Applications is certified to integrate with Applications Access Controls Governor (AACG) in the Oracle Governance, Risk and Compliance Controls (GRCC) suite to ensure effective Access & Segregation of Duties (SOD)

Feature of Data Access Set-

Data Access Sets secure access to ledgers, ledger sets, and portions of Ledgers using primary balancing segment values. If primary balancing segment values are assigned to Legal Entity, then we can use this feature to secure access to specific Legal Entities.

• Secures parent or detail primary balancing segment values.
• Secures the specified parent value as well as all its descendents, including midlevel parents and detail values.
• Requires all Ledgers assigned to the data access set to share chart of accounts and accounting calendar.

When a Ledger is created, a data access set for that Ledger is automatically created, giving full read and write access to that Ledger. Data access sets are automatically created when we create a new Ledger set as well. We can also manually create data access sets to give read only access or partial access to select balancing segment values in the Ledger.

We can combine Ledger and Ledger Set assignments to a single data access set as long as all Ledgers share a common chart of accounts and calendar. When a data access set is created, data roles are automatically created for that data access set. Following five data roles are generated for each data access set, one for each of the Oracle Fusion General Ledger roles-

• Chief Financial Officer
• Controller
• General Accounting Manager
• General Accountant
• Financial Analyst

The data roles then must to be assigned to specific users before they can use the data access set.

As mentioned above, you will find Roles created for Chief Financial Officer, Controller, General Accounting Manager, general Accountant and Financial Analyst.

• Full Ledger Access: Access to the entire ledger or ledger sets. For example, this could mean read only access to the entire Ledger or both read and write access.

• Primary Balancing Segment Value: Access one or more primary balancing segment values for that Ledger. We can specify read only, read and write access, or a combination of the two for different primary balancing segment values for different ledgers and ledger sets.

 Function and Data Security

This helps to secures features and data with privileges that are mapped to roles. Access through the Define Security from the Setup and Maintenance work area or your implementation project.

• Use Oracle Identity Manager (OIM) to manage user and user-role assignments.
• Use Authorization Policy Manager (APM) to manage data roles and duty roles.

Functions and data are inaccessible to users unless they are provisioned with the roles necessary to gain access. Function Security Consists of privileges unconditionally granted to a role and used to control access toPage or a specific widget or a functionality within a page, including services, regions, and flows.

Data Security Consists of privileges conditionally granted as data security policies carried by roles, or granted as Human Capital Management (HCM) security profiles, and used to control access to data-

•  Within a business object such as a business unit.
•  Based on user profiles.
•  Based on privacy policies.

 For example- A job role can give view access to the functions needed to access invoices, but a data role that inherits the job role gives limited view access to the invoice data within a business unit, such as the data role Accounts Payable Manager - UK which inherits the job role Accounts Payable Manager for performing accounts payable duties for the UK business unit only.

Assign to your user the data role that contains the data access set your user needs with the job role that provides the required functional access level.

• Optionally, assign Segment Value Security Rules to data roles.
• Assigned multiple data roles to a user, if needed.

How to assign Data Roles to User-

 A user needs to add these system generated Roles to their User in Oracle Identity Manager as shown below- First of all search for your User in Oracle Identity Manager-

next step is

and Finally-

After completing these steps now again log in with your user and you should be able to access Ledger or Ledger Sets you created-

LEGAL ENTITIES IN ORACLE FUSION FINANCIALS

Introduction

Before we dive into the details of Legal Entities let’s acknowledge a fact….when it comes to large organizations, one size doesn’t fit all. For example if a bank has three arms, i.e. Investment Banking, Home Loans & Retail Banking….and If the Home Loans division is not performing well but Investment Banking & Retail Banking is doing well, then the bank would want to shut down just the Home Loans division. The legal obligations to staff, any contractual obligations or law cases or tax implications of shutting down Home Loans division must not impact Investment Banking or Retail Banking, In such case, the bank will create three different Legal Entities, so that each operation has its own legal umbrella. Also, an organization can be present in different countries, with each country having its own legal responsibilities to government with different laws in different countries. In such case, you create separate legal entities.

CREATING LEGAL ENTITY AND JURISDICTION IN ORACLE FUSION FINANCIALS

By going through this Oracle Fusion Financials Training article, user will understand all about Legal Entity in Oracle Fusion General Ledger, so that you get to the grips of... Legal Jurisdictions, and Legal Authorities along with roles of individual legal entity. In the later part of this articles readers will be able to understand set up steps to define Legal Entity screen by screen with proper navigation.

Let us first understand different terms-

What is Legal Jurisdictions?

Legal jurisdiction is where a particular piece of legislation applies for a group of countries or state of particular legislation that apply to legal entities operating in different countries' jurisdictions. Legislation or statutory law is a law which has ability to regulate, authorise, sanction, grant, and declare or to restrict something. In some of the countries, the different jurisdictions are defined at the same geopolitical level and share the same legal authority.

While implementing Oracle Fusion Financials, for the purpose of tax calculation for Oracle Fusion Payables and Oracle Fusion Receivables, Legal Jurisdictions and Authorities are very relevant to define.When we create a legal entity, Oracle Fusion Legal Entity Configurator automatically creates a registration for the new legal entity as well as creating a main legal reporting unit along with its registration. 

Identifying JurisdictionAn identifying jurisdiction is the first jurisdiction we must register with to be allowed to do business in a country. For each legal entity, we need to select an identifying jurisdiction. If there is more than one jurisdiction that a legal entity needs to register with to commence business, select one as the identifying jurisdiction. Most commonly the identifying jurisdiction is the one we use to identify our legal entity.

Income Tax Jurisdiction is another type of jurisdiction which impose taxes on financial income generated by all entities within their jurisdiction. This is being created to properly report and remit income taxes to the legal authority.

What is a Legal Authorities?A legal authority is a government or legal body that is charged with powers to make laws, levy and collect fees and taxes, and remit financial appropriations for a given jurisdiction. For example, the Internal Revenue Service is the legal authority responsible for collecting taxes and the interpretation and enforcement of the Internal Revenue Code of the United States.
Legal authorities are defined in the Oracle Fusion Legal Entity Configurator and Tax authorities are a subset of legal authorities which are defined using the same setup flow.

Managing Legal Entities-A legal entity is a recognized party with rights and responsibilities given by legislation. A legal entity has the right to own property, the right to trade, the responsibility to repay debt, and the responsibility to account for themselves to regulators, taxation authorities, and owners according to rules specified in the relevant legislation. A legal entity's rights and responsibilities may be enforced through the judicial system. A legal entities for each registered companies is defined to record asset, liabilities, expenses and income, to pay taxes or to perform intercompany transactions. A legal entity must comply with the regulations of jurisdictions in which they register. To support local reporting requirements, legal reporting units are created and registered.

A Legal Entity helps to-

• Facilitating local compliance.
• Complying with corporate taxation within local jurisdictions.
• Preparing for acquisitions or disposals of parts of the enterprise.
• Isolating one area of the business from risks in another area. For example, your enterprise develops and leases properties. You can create separate legal entities for development and leasing. This would minimize cross-line of business risk.

The Role of Individual Legal Entities is to -

• Own the assets of the enterprise.
• Record sales and pay taxes on those sales.
• Make purchases and incur expenses.
• Perform other transactions.

Transactions between legal entities require accounting. Accounting for transactions between legal entities under common control is called intercompany accounting. Legal entities can be identified as legal employers. In Oracle Fusion Financials, the employees employed by the legal employer can be assigned as users.

Creating Legal Jurisdictions, Addresses and Authorities: Examples

Let us now see how to define legal jurisdictions and related legal authorities to support multiple legal entity registrations, which are used by Oracle Fusion Tax and Oracle Fusion Payroll.

To create a Legal Jurisdiction follows these steps:

1. Navigate to the Manage Legal Jurisdictions page from the Setup and Maintenance work area by querying on the Manage Legal Jurisdictions task and selecting Go to Task.
2. Select Create.
3. Enter a unique Name, A2F Income Tax.
4. Select a Territory, Argentina.
5. Select a Legislative Category, Income tax.
6. Select Identifying, Yes. Identifying indicates the first jurisdiction a legal entity must register with to do business in a country.
7. Enter a Start Date if desired. You can also add an End Date to indicate a date that the jurisdiction may no longer be used.
8. Select a Legal Entity Registration Code, EIN or TIN.
9. Select a Legal Reporting Unit Registration Code, Legal Reporting Unit Registration Number.
10. Optionally enter one or more Legal Functions.
11. Select Save and Close.

Legal Addresses for Legal Entities and Reporting Units 

To create a legal address for legal entities and reporting units, follows these steps:

1. Navigate to the Manage Legal Address page from the Setup and Maintenance work area by querying on the Manage Legal Address task and selecting Go to Task.
2. Select Create.
3. Select Country.
4. Enter Address Line 1, Parkview Street.
5. Optionally enter Address Line 2, and Address Line 3.
6. Enter or Select Zip Code, 123-456.
7. Select Geography
8. Optionally enter a Time Zone.
9. Select OK.
10. Select Save and Close.

Legal Authorities

Create a legal authority by following these steps:

1. Navigate to the Manage Legal Authorities page from the Setup and Maintenance work area by querying on the Manage Legal Authorities task and selecting Go to Task.
2. Enter the Name, Argentina Tax Authority.
3. Enter the Tax Authority Type, Reporting. Create an address for the legal authority.
4. Select Create.
5. The Site Number (in this example 2001) is automatically assigned.
6. Optionally enter a Mail Stop.
7. Select Country, Argentina
8. Enter Address Line 1
9. Optionally enter Address Line 2, and Address Line 3.
10. Enter or Select Zip Code, 123-456
11. Select Geography
12. Select OK.

Creating Legal Entity

 Let us create a legal entity by following these steps:

1. Navigate to an implementation project that contains the Define Legal Entities task list from the Setup and Maintenance work area.
2. Select Go to Task for the Define Legal Entities task list 
   Following message appears:
   You must first select a scope value to perform the task.
      Select and add an existing scope value to the implementation project.
      Create a new scope value and then add it to the implementation project. 

3. Select Create New.
4. From the Manage Legal Entities page select Create.
5. Accept the default Country, Argentina.
6. Enter Name, Apps2fusion Legal Entity
7. Enter Legal Entity Identifier, Argentina0011.
8. Optionally enter Start Date. When the start date is blank the legal entity is effective from the creation date.

11. Optionally, if your legal entity has employees, select the Legal employer check box.
12. Optionally, if this legal entity is not a payroll statutory unit, select an existing payroll statutory unit to report payroll tax and social instance on behalf of this legal entity.

13. Accept the default Identifying Jurisdiction, A2F Income Tax.
14. Search for and select a Legal Address, Parkview Street, SANTA CRUZ Argentina.

This complete creation of legal Entity “Apps2fusion Legal Entity”

15. In the Legal Entity choice list in the implementation project (just below the implementation project name and code), click Select and Add Legal Entity to choose the legal entity that you just created, and set the scope for the remainder of your setup.
16. Search for and select your legal entity from the Manage Legal Entities page.
17. Select Save and Close.

Legal Entity Registrations

A legal entity registration with the same name as that of the legal entity will be created by default. To verify this, locate the Manage Legal Entity Registrations task and then select Go to Task. To create another registration for the legal entity follow these steps:

1. Navigate to your implementation project from the Setup and Maintenance work area. Verify that the parent Legal Entity scope value is set correctly.
2. Expand the Define Legal Entities task list within the implementation project.
3. Select Manage Legal Entity Registrations Go to Task.
4. Select Create.
5. Enter Jurisdiction.
6. Enter Registered Address.
7. Enter Registered Name.
8. Optionally enter Alternate Name, Registration Number, Place of Registration, Issuing Legal Authority, and Issuing Legal Authority Address, Start Date, and End Date.
9. Save and Close.

Legal Reporting Unit

When a legal entity is created, a legal reporting unit with the same name as that of the entity is also automatically created. To create more legal reporting units or modify the settings follow these steps:

1. Navigate to your implementation project from the Setup and Maintenance work area. Verify that the parent Legal Entity scope value is set correctly.
2. Select Go to Task for the Define Legal Entities task list within the implementation project.
3. Select Create.
4. Enter Territory, Argentina
5. Enter Name.
6. Optionally enter a Start Date.
7. Enter Registration Information.
8. Search for and select Jurisdiction.

In the above screens as we see, we have successfully created Legal Entity name “Apps2fusion Legal Entity” with legal jurisdiction and other relevant details.

Readers, please leave your comments/suggestion if any. Thanks

OVERVIEW OF FUSION FUNCTIONAL SETUP MANAGER AND FUSION MULTI ORG STRUCTURE

Introduction

This article will helps to understand basic overview of Fusion Financial Applications and Functional Setup Manager along with key offerings in Fusion Financial Cloud. We will also try to understand Multi-Org structure in Fusion Financial and will understand enhancement in Fusion multi org. Oracle acquired many products in past and took best feature of these in Fusion Apps. Oracle Fusion Application offers 7 pillars and these are- 

1.       Financial

2.       Human Capital Management

3.       Procurement

4.       Projects

5.       Customer relationship Management

6.       Supply Chain management

7.       Governance Risk and Compliance

We will restrict ourselves to Oracle Fusion Financial Cloud and below is the details of offering under Oracle Fusion Financial Clouds- 

  

Key Feature of Fusion Application-

• Most of the concept started in R12 are still available in Fusion Apps with extra features.
• Reporting is now integrated with Hyperion which helps to get various analysis and quick reporting of GL balances.
• Role based dashboard helps to identify priority task and issues to which needs quick attention.
• Charts and graph with different colors helps to analyze trend for example quick decision can be made if graph shows sales is going down.
• No need to take help of third party tool for image integration of supplier invoices. This will helps to minimize cost of managing third party.
• Simultaneous accounting of multiple reporting requirement and user can reports in GAAP or IFRS.
• Based on GL balance, user can create reports in smart view which is an excel add in Fusion where we can drag and drop different account or options to generate reports.
• At the same time user can drill down to transaction/journals level to see details of transactions.

 Key Benefits of Fusion Applications-

Integration with Hyperion in Fusion helps to generate real time data. As soon as we post journal in Fusion General Ledger, at the same time this is also posted in Hyperion. A user can see the latest available balance at any given time in Fusion General Ledger. No need to wait for any other process to complete to see the updated balance, latest data/ balance is available for analysis immediately.

Reporting can be generated in different reporting requirement and if there is any exceptions, that are visible in home page which need quick attention to solve error.

Oracle Cloud services are available for Fusion Apps and no need to worry about Hardware/Software management. Customer will have options to opt for on premise or Cloud services. If customer feels that cloud services or Premise option is not suitable, they can  switch between the options with minimal efforts.

Functional Setup Manager (FSM)-

• All functional task are set up in Functional Setup Manager which are just like set up pages or form in 11i/R12.
• All the configurational task are performed in FSM.
• Date effective hierarchy can be defined for a specific date range and reports can be run for a particular hierarchy by choosing from different options.
• COA instance can be attached with different values set which differs from COA structure value set.
• Roles based access control can be defined which is similar to responsibility.
• Essbase Cube helps to generate reports with flexible reporting option to make quick analysis.
• Setup and maintenance is the area through which we can navigate to FSM in Fusion.

A user need not to switch between the responsibility as there is a dashboard on the Homepage to the business function you have access to according to your roles. Under the navigator, a user can see entire Dashboards (equivalent to responsibility in EBS)

Multi Org Structure in Fusion Application-

Multi-org is different from EBS multi org, Business Group name is now known as Enterprise. Operating unit in Fusion is now Business Unit and each business unit will have some function to perform in Business Function like payable, receivable or order management. These Business functions are attached to the Business Unit.

Multiple Legal entity can be assigned to a Ledger and if multiple Legal Entities are assigned to Ledger than we need to map balancing segment to Legal entity not to Ledger. Segregation can be done now on Business unit level which is not applicable in EBS at operating unit level (equivalent to Business unit in Fusion)

             Diagram explaining Multi-org structure in Fusion Application.