Oracle Applications Interview Questions (FAQS)

Q1. What does the Account Generator process do? 

A: The Account Generator process builds charge, budget, accrual, and variance accounts for each purchase order, release, and requisition distribution based on the distribution’s destination type. It is a synchronous Workflow process. 

  

Q2. What are the Pre-requisites to use Account Generator?

A: Before using the Account Generator you must: 
- Define your Accounting flexfield structure for each set of books. 
- Define flexfield segment values and validation rules. 
- Set up Oracle Workflow. 
- Decide whether you want to use the Account Generator processes as seeded in Oracle Purchasing, or you need to customize them to meet your accounting needs. 

  

Q3. What are the workflow item types used in Account Generator?

A: For Purchase Orders: POWFPOAG 
For Requisitions: POWFRQAG 
Each Account Generator item type contains the following -level workflow processes: 
Generate Default Account 
Generate Account Using Flex Builder Rules 
If you are upgrading from 10.7, and you have been using the flex builder to generate the accounts, you have an option of upgrading your existing flex builder rules to Account Generator. In which case, you should use the “Generate Account Using Flex Builder Rules” process. 

  

Q4. I have been using the Flex builder rules in Release 10.7 to build the accounts. Can I continue using the same setup in account generator in 11.x also?

A: Yes. The same setup can be used with account generator also. To achieve this, the following actions should be performed on up gradation to account generator.
- Run the program in $FND_/bin/FNDFBPLS. This will create a PL/SQL package that will contain all the flex builder rules.
- Apply the newly created PL/SQL file to the database. This will create a package called PO_PO_CHARGE_ACCOUNT / 
PO_REQ_CHARGE_ACCOUNT
- Verify that the package is created successfully and that it is valid in database.
- Choose the Account Generator  level process as Generate Account Using Flex Builder.
- Test the account generator.

  

Q5. The flex builder rules package PO_PO_CHARGE_ACCOUNT is being overwritten whenever I apply a family pack. Why?

A: The family pack will contain POXWFB1S.pls and POXWFB1B.pls, which contains a blank definition of the PO_PO_CHARGE_ACCOUNT for compilation purpose. This will override the already existing PO_PO_CHARGE_ACCOUNT 
package created from flex builder rules. So the Client must take a backup of the Flex builder rules package before applying the patch, and revert back the package PO_PO_CHARGE_ACCOUNT using that file. 

  

Q6. What are the steps to generate the WFSTAT output for Account Generator?

A: 1. Set the following profiles: 
- Account Generator: Run in Debug Mode=> Yes 
- Account Generator: Purge Runtime Data=> No 
PO: Set Debug Workflow On => Yes 
2. Make sure that the concurrent program "Purge Workflow Obsolete Runtime Data" is NOT running. 
3. Open Purchase Order/Requisitions form, go to the distributions window, enter necessary fields and click on charge account field to start generating the charge account. After the account generator has done building the account, or errors out, do the following from the toolbar (DO NOT exit the form or navigate to any other block or record, otherwise this information would be lost): 
Help=> Diagnostics => Examine 
Enter in 1^st field => parameter 
Enter in 2^nd field => charge_acc_wf_itemkey 
Then tab out. The Item key will appear in the third field. 
4. Now save the purchase order/requisition. If you are not able to save, then clear the distribution record and navigate back to the shipment window and save the form. Saving the form is must, because a commit is required to save the workflow information in tables, for generating the wfstat output. 
5. If step#3 could not give you an item key, then use the following query to identify the relevant item key: 
Select item_key, item_type, begin_date 
from wf_items 
where item_type = '&item_type' 
order by begin_date desc; 
For PO, use 'POWFPOAG' item type in above query, and for requisition, use 'POWFRQAG'. 
6. To generate the WFSTAT output, 
Run the sql in $FND_/sql/wfstat.sql with above item_type and item_key. Spool the output. 
7. To get the wf debug information, run the following query: 
SELECT item_key, item_type, debug_message 
FROM po_wf_debug 
WHERE item_key = '&Item_key' 
ORDER BY execution sequence; 

  

Q7. What exactly does profile option "Account Generator: Run in Debug Mode" do? 

A: This profile option controls whether the account generator workflow process runs in synchronous mode (workflow-on-a-fly) or asynchronous/persistent mode (save the runtime data).
When this profile is NULL or "No", the workflow runs in synchronous mode and it will NOT store any runtime data in database. So you cannot generate the wfstat etc for debug purposes. However once you set this profile option to "Yes", then the process would run in persistent mode, thereby the runtime data would be stored in database. Now you can generate the wfstat etc. 

  

Q8. Will the account generator build the charge account based on project information?

A: No. By default, the Account Generator process as seeded in Oracle Purchasing would not consider the project information to build the account. To achieve this functionality, you should customize the Account Generator to consider the project details. There is a dummy sub process 'Build Project Related Account' seeded in the Account Generator workflow, available for customization. You would also have to modify function PO_WF_PO_CHARGE_ACC.IS_PO_PROJECT_RELATED to return a value of "True". 
For more information on how to customize the Account Generator, please refer to the manual Oracle Purchasing Account Generator Workflow Customization Example. 

  

Q9. Will the account be generated for amount based/one time item lines?

A: No the Account will not be generated if you are using the Account Generator as seeded in Oracle Purchasing. Either the account should be manually entered or the account generator should be customized. 

  

Q10. When the charge account field is non updateable?

A: In the following cases the charge account field is not updateable: 
1. If the destination type code is INVENTORY or SHOP FLOOR. 
2. If the distribution is already encumbered. 
3. If the PO is created from a encumbered Requisition 
4. If the destination type code is Expense and 
If the project is entered and the profile option PA_ALLOW_FLEXBUILDER_OVERRIDES is set to NO 
If the expense accrual code= RECEIPT 

  

Q11. If the account generator process raises a blank error message, what does it mean?

A: Check the invalid objects in the database. Recompile the invalid objects.