Oracle General Ledger Interview Questions

Question 1 In the multi-org structure, at what level does GL operate?
Answer General Ledger operates at  SOB level.  

Question 2 What are the various statuses of GL Periods? And in which table this information is stored?
Answer The statuses of GL periods are are below:

• Open
• Closed
• Future - Entry
• Permanently Closed
• Never Opened 

The information is maintained in GL_PERIOD_STATUSES.
 
Question 3 If Journal Approval flag is checked while defining Set of Books (SOB) then all journals will necessarily require approval. Is this statement correct?
Answer In addition to enabling Journal Approval flag at SOB level; Require Journal Approval flag at Journal Sources level for journals to require approval.


Question 4 Does GL support Accrual or Cash system of accounting?  
Answer GL is a central repository and all the journal entries from sub-ledger flow to GL. And there is no option to specify which method of accounting is allowed. So, such an option is available only at sub-ledger level; at GL level, users are free to entry either type of entries.  Hence, we can say that GL supports both methods of accounting.  

Question 5 Journal can be entered only in Open Periods. Is this statement correct?
Answer No, journals can be entered both in Open and Future-Entry periods. However, journals can be posted only in Open periods.

Question 6 Can a GL period be opened after the period is being closed? Can the period be opened after the closure of Financial Year?  
Answer Yes, a GL period can be opened any time after it is closed; even after financial year is closed (though not recommended). However, once a period is permanently closed it cannot be re-opened.  

Question 7 What happens when the Posted journal are changed?  
Answer Posted Journal cannot be modified. They can only be reversed.

Question 8 What is the difference between Revaluation and Translation?  
Answer
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).

Question 9 What is the meaning of Retained Earning? Where the retained earning account given?
Answer  
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).

Question 10 Can the GL period be closed when there are unposted journals in the period? What error will it give?  
Answer Unlike AP and AR, where period cannot be closed unless all transactions are processed; GL period can be closed even if there are unposted journals. So, it gives no error as such.

Question 11 What are the maximum number of period that can be open in GL?

 Answer 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.  

Question 12 What are the key tables of GL module? 
Answer The tables that store the information of GL journals are - GL_JE_BATCHES - GL_JE_HEADERS - GL_JE_LINES While the summary of balances is stored in GL_BALANCES. And the GL interface table is GL_INTERFACE.

Question 13 What is the difference FSG report and D2k report?
Answer Financial Statement Generator (FSG) is a functionality GL which can used to develop financial reports based on data in GL only (i.e. sub-ledger details cannot be displayed in the report) and FSG reports can be developed by functional users. However, to develop a D2K report knowledge of table structures and SQL (may be even PL/SQL) would be required. And using D2K report can be build for any module or extract data from multiple modules based on user requirement.

Question 14 What are the various type of balances supported by GL?
Answer Oracle GL supports three type are balances which are:
- Actual
- Encumbrance
- Budger

Question 15 What are the various type of accounts in GL? And at what point is the type of account identified? And explain the nature of accounts.
Answer Five type of accounts are maintained in GL
 - Expense (E)
 - Revenue (R)
 - Asset (A)
 - Liabiltiy (L)
 - 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.

Question 16 Explain the concepts of PTD, YTD, QTD and PJTD in GL?
Answer All the below are various ways of calculating balances and each indicate the starting point since when the balance is calculated

PTD - Period To date (i.e. from the start of period till date)
YTD - Year to date
QTD - Quater to Date
PJTD - Project to Date (i.e. from the start of the project and it can span multiple years)

Question 17 What is a funding budget?  And what is its purpose?
Answer 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.

Question 18 What is the maximum number of periods allowed in a year while defining GL calander? Can you two periods in GL calander overlap?
Answer GL calander allows for 1 to 366 periods per year. And two periods cannot overlap unless one of them is an adjustment period.


Question 19 When entering a Code Combination in Journals screen, user is getting the error - Please choose an existing combination.
How can this issue be resolved? Can any changes be done so that this issue doenst doesn't arise again? 
Answer The issue can be instantly resolved by defining the combinations to be used in GL Accounts screen. And to prevent re-occurence of this issue, 'Allow Dynamic Inserts' check-box should be enabled while defining the Chart of Accounts.