A few GL R12 Ledger FAQ

Here are a few questions about R12 I have been asked a number of times, and if a few people asked me, I am guessing that even more people are searching from Google, (or maybe even Yahoo or Bing) looking for answers.

1) What is a Ledger?  What happened to my Sets of Books?

Your 11i Set of Books is now an R12 ledger, any 11i sets of books you had will be a ledger after you run the R12 upgrade.

2) Why did you change the name?

I am not fully aware of the history of the decision, but a Ledger is a much better description and matches the business terminology more closely.  Also with the introduction of Ledger Sets in R12, we’d have had a clumsy  ‘Set of Books Sets’ term to deal with.

3) Does the new table gl_ledgers replace gl_sets_of_books table.

Yes.

4) So what about my custom reports that query gl_sets_of_books table or gl_sets_of_books_v view

No need to change those.  For backward compatibility we created a view gl_sets_of_books which references the gl_ledgers table.  gl_sets_of_books_v is also modified to reference gl_ledgers table.

5) What happens to the sob_id, are these primary keys preserved?

Yes, the sob_id from 11i will become the ledger_id you see in R12

6) I see Ledger_id in the gl_interface table, do I have to update all my feeder programs that write to that to populate ledger_id instead of sob_id?

No.  GL_INTERFACE is backward compatible, the sob_id column is still there and ledger_id is optional, if Journal Import does not find any value in ledger_id it will use the sob_id

I have not got into any of the powerful new functionality that is introduced as part of the Ledger Architecture, or discussed what you can do with Ledger Sets, those items are for another day.  If you want to read about those now you should look at the document below.

Oracle Financials and Oracle Procurement Functional Upgrade Guide: Release 11i to Release 12 (Part No. B31543-01)

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.

7 thoughts on “A few GL R12 Ledger FAQ”

  1. I think this is a great introduction to the hundreds of FAQ regarding R12 architecture changes for Oracle EBS General Ledger. As part of OAUG GL SIG, we are planning to distribute a FAQ document at the SIG Meeting in April 2010. Will reach out to you for guidance and advice. Thanks!

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    1. Mohan,

      Thanks for the comment, I agree these are just a few of many questions, they are some of the more common ones I have heard that have straightforward answers. Will be interested to see the list from the SIG.

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  2. Is there a place in Oracle Ledger where it captures posted by. Meaning user id of the person who posted the journal. I did not find in GL_JE_HEADERS for posted by. We would like to track Created By and Posted BY for Audit purpose. I can see most of the time Posted by and last update by would be same but it is not always same.

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    1. You could use the FND audit feature on the table to track every update and the history of last update column.

      In Fusion GL we do have this audit out of the box and visible on the UI but that is not in R12.

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  3. Need urgent Help:
    Hi David
    I’m a consultant reviewing ledger architecture of a global company. They are on R12. Each country has one primary ledger in USD currency. They then use reporting currency ledger in the local currency (at detail level). There are no secondary ledgers. The model being used is 1:1:1.

    I find it peculiar to have USD as the accounting currency for each ledger, and don’t know the reasoning behind this setup, but was told that it was decided by Treasury to avoid hedging needs.

    Q1: What may be the impacts of having USD as accounting currency for each ledger?
    Q2: What are the Pros and cons of having primary ledger in local currency as compared to having primary ledger in USD.

    I’m trying to evaluate:
    Option1:
    Each primary ledger in USD and reporting currency in local currency
    Opton 2:
    Each primary ledger in local currency and reporting currency in USD

    Q3: Would you know details behind the hedging/treasury requirements that have driven this setup (done 8 yrs ago)

    Thanks for any help you can provide
    Regards
    Raj

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