The Financial Services moniker was always misleading because there is nothing specific to the Financial Services industry in the product, now this has been fixed and the official name is Financials Accounting Hub. So that one is cleared up.
I have had a number of people asking for more details on this product, you can start with Oracle’s data sheet or the link above to the oracle.com FAH site. There is a nice article introducing FSAH and SLA on the Oracle Consulting Solutions site by Sven van Leemput, this is a a good read. There is also presentation on slideshare from capgemini and kpn telecom about their experience with the Accounting Hub, nice to see some practical examples, even if it is at a high level. I have not done a metalink search recently, but I am sure there is plenty of information there too for those with access to metalink and of course there are the OTN forums.
Anyone else have any good sources of information – please share them via the comments.
Author: David Haimes
I'm Senior Director in the Oracle Research and Development Organization, with close to 20 years working in various roles on the development of the Financial Management product suite. Since the summer of 2016 my focus is exclusively on working with customers and longer-term design work, particularly around next-generation functional and technical architecture. My task is to figure out NOW what the financial management system of the next 3, 5 or more years should look like and start working toward it. At the moment the majority of my time is spent working on Blockchain or Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLT), leading the effort for all of SaaS applications. I'm also interested in AI, Machine Learning and new UX and interaction paradigms such as chat bots.
I started out in Oracle UK and found my way out to Oracle's Redwood Shores, California HQ in May 2000. My previous role was product owner for Fusion Accounting Hub, General Ledger, Intercompany and Legal Entity products in Oracle Fusion Financials and eBusiness Suite General Ledger. I have also worked on EMEA Globalizations, Federal and Public Sector Financials, XML Payments and a variety of projects on other products down the years.
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Enterprise Applications by David Haimes 
Hello David:
What is the relationship between FSAH and HFM from Hyperion? Both seem to be fighting in the same space since both
1. consolidate
2. apply series of rules
3. are used for reporting.
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I am not an expert on HFM(it’s on my list to investigate further, it is tough to keep pace with the acquired technologies and functionalities) but I certainly think the spaces are distinct.
Here’s my take. The three points you list may be correct, but it is what the consolidate, apply rules to and report on that is different.
1)Consolidate
FAH – consolidates transactions from multiple transaction systems into a single accounting system.
HFM – consolidates accounting entries from multiple accounting systems
2)Apply Rules
FAH – rules are rleated to how to account for a transaction based on it’s attributes
HFM – Rules are around how to consolidate, e.g. % ownership, etc
3)Used for reporting
FAH – Subledger reports
HFM – Financial reports, consolidate income statement etc.
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David,
Thanks a ton for the information on AGIS. I am currently working on an AGIS implementation and have to confess that I use your blog as my ‘bible’ on the product. The UG comes next :)
Apologies for posting this question on the FCH topic, but didnt know if you responded to comments on AGIS threads anymore.
On GIS, we had the ability to derive the recipient’s accounting from the initiator’s accounting (copy from functionality). This seems to be missing in the AGIS product. I believe i have looked all the options under the SLA engine (Trn A/Cing defns) for a method to do this without much success. Is this functionality available in AGIS? If not, what is the rationale in removing a functionality in the newer version of the product?
rgds
Hari
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Hi Hari,
Thanks for the kinds words on my blog, I do try to answer comments on all posts quickly and certainly monitor them daily, so feel free to comment on any post.
As for the move to SLA Transaction Account Builder in AGIS, this was a decision to take advantage of the very powerful rules definition and derivation available in SLA and also to have a more standardized and centralized way to define rules for accounting. We did not want to upgrade or create a new account derivation featue that users have to know about.
I will ask around about how to get the effect you’re asking about to see if there is a way it can be done – or any other readers feel free to share your experience in these comments…..
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Hi,
I am very well aware of the Oracle SLA module(Subledger Accounting). I was also going thru the Oracle FAH (financial accounting hub) but surprisingly I find that it is exactly similar to the SLA in every single feature, I mean regarding the AMB, TAB etc. I see all the tools,features like application accounting defn, application method builder, the entity model etc in both the products.
I am not sure what is the difference between these two products. If someone can please point out the difference, no matter how subtle that would be really helpful.
Thanks,Lucky.
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Hi Lucky,
The technology leveraged by FAH and SLA is indeed exactly the same. The difference is within the way you’re allowed to use the technology.
SLA offers seeded Event Models (including Event Class Options) and Application Accounting Definitions for E-Business Suite subledger applications. With SLA you can build customized Subledger Accounting Methods (including customized JLTs, ADRs, JLDs, AADs,…) for E-Business Suite subledger applications, while you are not allowed to make any changes to the seeded Event Models / Event Class Options. In case you do come across a requirement in this last area (e.g. an additional Source is needed), then Custom Source functionality can be used for that.
FAH requires an additional license, and basically FAH is standalone SLA: you get the SLA technology but you don’t get any seeded building blocks, because FAH is intended to create accounting based on data which resides in external (non-E-Business Suite) applications. So with FAH you create the Event Model(s) and AAD(s) for external applications entirely from scratch.
Summary: SLA deals with the E-Business Suite subledger applications, while FAH deals with external applications.
Hope that clarifies.
Regards,
Sven
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Hi
Can you give me an example of a requirement where you used FAH.
I assume that it should be a custom applicaiton that writes to the GL interface table directly.
If you need to build a custom logic to get the accounting based on the transactions of this custom applicaiton , then we need to use FAH.
Can you please confirm.
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Ganesh,
The accounting hub is intended to use the Subledger Accounting (SLA), which is a rules based accounting generation process to create the accounting for transactions from a custom application and then SLA will interface that to the GL Interface table, (or often interface it to a PeopleSoft GL.). You do not build custom logic, you define rules in the SLA UI for the accounting transformations.
Thanks,
David
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FAH is a uptake of SLA.
It is basically standalone Subledger Accounting (SLA), it allows you to use Oracle SLA and GL to perform the accounting for third party applications.
Using AMB Tool, SLA standard application accounting definations are copied and modified to map SLA application accounting defination with Source Application Accountinbg Events,
Accounting events of source application is mapped and stored in the SLA tabels.
External/Source Application’s accounting events’s infor,accounting attributes and transactions supporting references are kept in FAH transactions objects.
When user sumbits accounting program,
1) Accounting program fetches the applicable accountng events which are eligible for processing from SLA Tables.
2) Load FAH transactions objects and apply modified application accounting definations on sources of FAH Transactions Objects.
3) SLA journal entries are created and stored in the SLA Tables.
4)SLA journal entries are transferred to GL using standard Oracle Transfer to GL Program.
Using FAH, you can drill down from GL to FAH and FAH to External Source/Legacy Application like/similiar to drill down from GL to Standard Oracle Subledger (AP, AR etc..) .
Using FAH, you can get the balances in GL by source/external application’s transactions. Therefore reconcilliation becomes easy between the external application and Standard Oracle GL.
FAH keeps the source transaction’s accounting attributes and key transactions references. Therefore it is used to keep the audit trial.
Cheers,
Himanshu Gosain
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Thanks for adding that color. Have you done a lot of work with FAH?
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Hi David,
Thanks for taking time to answer my question.
We are on 12.0.6 and my requirement is to have a liability line for each expense and tax line with some segment values coming from the expense line distribution account.
I was able to achieve having one liability line for each expense line and tax line using SLA (custom account derivation rules, custom JLD,custom AAD and custom SAM) . I was able to derive
some segments of the liability lines associates with expense lines sucessfully but not able to get the same values on the liability lines associated with the tax lines.
I created one AP invoice with 3 lines and associated 3 VAT Tax codes with different tax percentages for each expense line , which creates 3 different tax distributions in AP before the “create
accounting process”
On the AP Invoice distributions.
No. Type Entity Account Cost Center Interco Project Equity
1 Charge XCOA xxxxxxx 72OXLFTG 0000 XXXXXX0001 C001
2 Charge XCOA xxxxxxx 72OXLFTG 0000 XXXXXX0001 C002
3 Charge XEID pppppppp 72OXLFTG 0000 XXXXXX0004 C008
4 Tax XCOA zzzzzzzz 00000000 0000 XXXXXX0001 C001
5 Tax XCOA zzzzzzzz 00000000 0000 XXXXXX0001 C002
6 Tax XEID zzzzzzzz 00000000 0000 XXXXXX0004 C008
After running the create accounting process, with custom ADR, I was able to get the project and equity segments from the expense lines to the liability lines associated with the expense
lines.
No. Type Entity Account Cost Center Interco Project Equity
1 Charge XCOA xxxxxxx 72OXLFTG 0000 XXXXXX0001 C001
2 Liability XCOA yyyyyyyy 00000000 0000 XXXXXX0001 C001
3 Charge XCOA xxxxxxx 72OXLFTG 0000 XXXXXX0001 C002
4 Liability XCOA yyyyyyyy 00000000 0000 XXXXXX0001 C002
5 Charge XEID pppppppp 72OXLFTG 0000 XXXXXX0004 C008
6 Liability XEID yyyyyyyy 00000000 0000 XXXXXX0004 C008
I want to derive project and equity segments from the expense lines to the liability lines associated with the tax lines but it is not working though both tax liability and expense liability lines
use the sama JLT (from xla_distribution_links table) as shown below.
7 Tax XCOA zzzzzzzz 00000000 0000 XXXXXX0001 C001
8 Liability XCOA yyyyyyyy 00000000 0000 0000000000 0000
9 Tax XCOA zzzzzzzz 00000000 0000 XXXXXX0001 C002
10 Liability XCOA yyyyyyyy 00000000 0000 0000000000 0000
11 Tax XEID zzzzzzzz 00000000 0000 XXXXXX0004 C008
12 Liability XEID yyyyyyyy 00000000 0000 0000000000 0000
Thanks for your help,
Shree.
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Hi :
We have already implemented 12.0.4 and autoaccounting in AR is set up to use ‘Standard Line’ derivation for the natural account segment. This means for inventory based items the account segment is derived from sales account set up at item master. However for certain types of credit memos (Warranty Return) we want to use a different account. We were able to achieve this by setting up an ADR and using in SLA configuration. However by using this the Trxb=n distribution has a different account than the SLA and GL. We want Trxn dist = SLA = GL. Can this function be achieved by using Transaction Account Builder??? I heard Transaction Account Builder cannot be used in Receivables. It is only used in AGIS ??
Thanks
Murali Angappa
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Hi Murali,
TAB is a feature offered by SLA and to use it in a module (e.g. Receivables), the module needs to uptake the TAB feature. AGIS was indeed the first module to make use of the TAB feature and as far as I know no other modules have in the meantime started using the feature (you could ask your Support Engineer to confirm this directly with Receivables Development ).
But why do you need TRX = SLA = GL?
Regards,
Sven
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Nice post,good information. Thanks a lot =)
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I admire Mr.Lawrence Joseph Ellison in every way.
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He must have been extra busy , but if he would not mind helping me get through
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I sent my work(sho) and the photograph of my work(urushi)to Oracle head office.
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It may be that he doesn’t get my photos and works.
Could you help me?
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Could you help me?
Thank you so much for your kind reply.
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Hi David
New to this so I’m not sure how to start a new discussion. Hopefully you see this.
I have a scenario where I have 3 custom applications in FSAH and use xla_events_pub_pkg.create_bulk_events to create my custom events.
What I have to do at the movent is use this API and the xla_events_int_gt interface table to create my events and then I need to do a select from xla_events to update my source table with the event_id I just created with the API.
Question: Can I read from the xla_events_int_gt table or do I need to read from xla_events or have you come across any other way to do this?
Thanks in anticipation
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Hi Nicki,
Personally I’ve only seen xla_events being used, and not the GT table.
An alternative you could explore is to register a view as your Transaction Object.
In this view you join your source table with xla_entity_events_v (join on the source_id_… column(s)).
xla_entity_events_v already contains the event_id from xla_events so this way you avoid having to write back the event_id directly on the source table.
Hope this helps.
Regards,
Sven
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Brilliant idea. Thanks so much, I’ll try and update just for info.
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Hi David,
Have you seen instances where SLA and FAH have been used together ? Where EBIZ subledgers are flowing thru SLA, and external entities flow thru FAH ?
Are / is there a toolkit that you can take rules from SLA and export them to FAH ?
Mark
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Hi Mark,
Yes SLA and FAH are being used simultaneously. They both use the exact same technology and tables meaning you don’t need to perform any special / additional steps in order to use them together compared to if you would be using either of them standalone.
There are seeded import/export concurrent programs – see page 131 of the Subledger Accounting Implementation Guide: http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/B34956_01/current/acrobat/120xlaig.pdf but if you are thinking of exporting rules from SLA to FAH then that’s not necessary because both the SLA and the FAH rules are by default sitting together in the same place.
Regards,
Sven
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Hi all,
This is a great work from David. I am very new to Oracle apps and i find this site very helpfull especially the basics
Now I am working on R12 SLA and have a problem when I submit the XLA_EVENTS_PUB_PKG.XLA_BULK_EVENTS. It says:
An internal error has occurred in the program xla_events_pkg.create_bulk_events(blk). ORA-01400: cannot insert NULL into (“XLA”.”XLA_EVENTS”.
I am inserting all the required fields (APPLICATION_ID, LEDGER_ID, LEGAL_ENTITY_ID, ENTITY_CODE, EVENT_TYPE_CODE, EVENT_DATE, SOURCE_ID_INT_1)
into the XLA_EVENTS_INT_GT table before the API is called.
Can anybody help me on this.
Thanks in advance.
Dinesh
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Hi,
I working on conversions and interfaces in Finance modules. I would like to know what are the conversions/interfaces (STD) available in FAH module of Finance.
Thanks,
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Hi,
I have a doubt on customizing the SLA. Can we customize the SLA for choosing different Liability accounts for a vendor transaction.
For Example,
My Client has liability codes for broker commission payable, claims payable, and a liability accounts.
I have a vendor who is a broker for whom we can attach the broker commission payable as his liability account at the site level.
Requirement is
When we pay claims to the same vendor, system should pick the claims payable liability account.
Standard Approach, we can create one more site for the vendor. but we have 20 operating units and creating 20*4 sites for a vendor will be a big task for maintenance.
I would like to know whether we can customize the SLA to pick the Liability code according to the expense code?
Your response will help me to go for customization
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Umangts – SLA allows you to pick the liability account from DFF. You need to store the liability account values in DFF against the selected vendor at invoice and payment level. You could also use lookup to link vendor and liability account.
Hope this help.
Vishal Parikh
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Hello,
Does FAH have separate reporting?
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A collaboration of this two will make a good impression in both field of finance and accounting! dealing with this matter is very interesting especially with students taking up accounting.
Jamie Dingman
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Hi David,
I have a query on FAH upgrade from 11i to R12.
FAH is defined in 11i and now we plan to upgrade to R12. Will the rules get upgraded to R12 into SLA or am I required to define the rules all over using the SLA configuration?
Thanks,
Venkata
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Hi Venkata
I’m not sure I understand the question. I assume that by FAH you mean Fusion Accounting Hub and this does not exist in 11i.
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Hi David,
Thanks for the update
By FAH I mean Financial Services Accounting Hub (FSAH) in 11i. Now looking for a R12 upgrade. Will these get upgraded to R12 / SLA?
Thanks,
Venkata
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Apologoes, there was a typo in my reply above, I meant Financial Services Accounting Hub, (aka Financial Accounting Hub), NOT Fusion Accounting Hub. It is product introduced in R12, there was some controlled release in 11i if I recall correctly. If you are one of those customers you should contact support about an R12 upgrade.
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Hi David,
I must say that your work is amazing and help people like me a lot!!
I have a question for you,right now weare struggling to see the fitment of FAH in our landscape.We have most of the checks which are needed for FAH like Multi applications other than oracle, Need to modify accounting due to IFRS,
I would like to know that the exact amount to be posted or interfaced for any Accounting needs to be avaiable in Source table or it can be derived based on rules by FAH
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Hi David,
We are in the planning phase of our FAH implementation and are struggling to find a clear answer as to wha or how much IT involvement there is in the implementation concerning the interfaces…we currently have this setup…source systems feed legacy GL’s (all non-Ebiz apps) these feed a staging area (we call The Landing Zone) the landing zone then interfaces to GL. The plan is to retire/decommission the legacy GL’s and have the source systems feed The Landing Zone and then interface to the FAH which in turn will feed the GL. Question is does IT need to write all of the interfaces from legacy source systems all the way to GL, or do we just need to write intefaces to The Landing Zone and from their the FAH takes over based on business users rules? Thanks for your feedback.
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Hi All,
Could you please tell me what are the advnatages of using FAH instead of APIS or interface tables.
I mean what benefits client get if they shift to FAH…
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Using FAH you have all your accounting transformation rules in one place and the accounting is generated in a consistent and transparent manner and can be maintained by a functional accounting department user.
If you use write code to push data directly push to GL, all your rules to generate accounting are contained in custom code, no transparency and very difficult and high risk to change or modify.
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Hi David,
Also, how can we install the FAH ? As of now when we go to any subledger like AP, AR… we get SLA menus there but not FAH menu. what is the way to bring FAH menus in to picture please ? Is there some kind of installation required as this is a licensed product ?
Best regards,
Anshul
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David,
Great post!
I really admire and appreciate your contribution to the Oracle world.
My question is around the use of SLA without FAH and the ability to apply rules to transactions from non-oracle subledgers (mainly manual GL entries/adjustments and interfaces from external systems).
1. secondary ledger with different COA
2. want to have SLAM account ALL transactions (including manual entry and external sources) in a different representation for only a select group of companies.
Would it be possible to make manual adjustments at the SLA table and import the external system data to the SLA table using WebADI, and have the established SLAM rules apply to those as well as the Oracle subledgers (all without FAH license)?
Thanks,
Paul
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Paul,
If you want to have external systems act as a source for you to define rules and have SLA create accounting, then that is FAH and you need a license.
Manual GL Journals will not have SLA rules applied to them, they are accounting entries already.
If you want to integrate directly into GL, the GL_INTERFACE is still available.
Also there is a manual SLA Journal concept, so you could manually enter SLA Journals and they would go into the SL tables, but they are entered manually and the accounting is not generate from the SLA rules and accounting engine.
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Hi David
This is a great blog and gives lots of useful information on FAH.
We are currently starting an eBS upgrade from 11i to R12.2. We are looking at the benefits of implementing FAH and trying to come up with a business case for it.
We currently have many interfaces from other systems to EBS GL. Most of these do the accounting mapping and transformation at source and we essentially do an import to GL_INTERFACE and call journal import. In this scenario it is difficult to see a justification for FAH purely from the point of view of existing GL interfaces.
How would you recommend one go about the analysis while evaluating FAH?
What parameters should you look at? Should the business have certain Supporting References already defined?
FAH states one of its benefits as supporting multi GAAP. How does this differ from Localisations?
Thanks
Sandeep
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One of the big benefits of FAH is that instead of the rules of the accounting transformation being buried in code, they are defined in the FAH application and are auditable, easy to change, consistent and transparent.
Also you will not need to maintain multiple different transformations to GL with bespoke code for each system, you are doing it with product which is performant, predictable etc.
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Hi David,
I have a query on Financials Accounting Hub.
1. In CBS: accounting entry are generated for each transaction so if a bank does not have an FAH system in place => all accounting entries will generated in CBS. CBS does not support multiple rule engine
2. If a FAH is in place, all accounting entries comply with different accounting standard will be generate concurrently in FAH. for example: 1 deposit transaction could be generated 2 entry: 1 comply with local standard, 1 comply with international standard
3. Here is my question: in order to generate accounting entries comply with multiple rule in FAH. data upload from CBS to FAH must be AT TRANSACTIONAL LEVEL. so is there any PERFORMANCE ISSUE with the system since for banking operation branch network is really huge and number of daily transactions are quite a lot.
4. If a batch must be run at the end of each day to generate the trial balance (accounting report) which I believe all bank in the world must do. and all transaction happen in the entire bank will be upload from CBS to FAH on a daily basis. then is it possible? considering the bank has around 230 branches/ transaction office.
5. Let me know the solution please. Many thanks
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Performance is a consideration when we are talking of the huge transaction volumes financials institutions generate.
Oracle takes performance very seriously for Accounting Hub and we do have some quite impressive benchmarks that show we can handle these kinds of throughput.
So Yes it is possible.
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