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!"#$%&'()*+ !"#$!%&'$(%)*+,-.)/ Introduction

Physical inventory is a critical business process through which a successful enterprise periodically inspects its assets to protect its large capital investments and to comply with auditing requirements. Oracle Assets is a worldwide best practice tool which automates the physical inventory process minimizing administrative costs. This paper discusses how to use Oracle Assets to ensure that the assets in your database match the assets in your inventory. Release 11 now includes Physical Inventory functionality which allows you to upload the results of an asset stock take into temporary tables in Oracle Assets, and compare these against the assets in your Asset workbench. The Physical Inventory functionality can be extended by use of mobile devices, such as a scanner or palm device, to electronically collect asset details during the stock take. Use of bar code labels to identify assets has the added advantage of making the stock takes faster and even more accurate. Manual entry of stock take results into Oracle Assets Physical Inventory screens is also available. The Physical Inventory comparison process facilitates conducting a staggered asset inventory by allowing you to narrow down comparisons by location, category, or both. The process highlights the differences found as a result of the stock take comparison, and you manually adjust the assets accordingly. Various reports exist for reconciliation of the inventory, and to aid in location of missing assets. All of this is now possible with version 6 of the Oracle Applications Desktop Integrator (ADI) which assists with loading normal asset additions into Oracle Mass Additions, and stock take results into the Physical Inventory interface tables. The new Physical Inventory reports are run from the Request Centre.

An Integrated Solution for Asset Stock Takes

Labelling your assets with bar codes facilitates the use of technology such as mobile scanners or palm devices with infra-red for faster, more accurate stock takes. These scanners are used to collect basic asset inventory details - such as asset number, units and physical location. Data is usually input using just the laser reader or via a combination of the laser reader and the device keypad. The keypad acts as a back up in the event the bar code is damaged. Even locations as defined in your Oracle Assets can be transformed into bar code labels and used as input in the stock take process. When a location or branch has finished scanning their assets, they connect the device to their PC and upload the information. From here the file (usually text or Excel) can be emailed to the Asset Manager in Head Office for loading into Oracle Assets via Oracle Applications Desktop Integrator (ADI). A bar code printer completes the solution depicted in Figure 1 below, allowing you to print or re-print your own asset labels as required.

Oracle Assets Physical Inventory Management

Oracle ADI Remote Scanner

Workstation Bar code Printer

Figure 1. An Integrated Asset Stock Take Solution.

Oracle Fixed Assets Application Set Up

Two new fields have been created in Oracle Release 11 to enable Physical Inventory comparisons. When setting up your asset categories, you will need to decide whether an asset category should be included by default in Physical Inventory comparisons. Mark the new check box labelled Physical Inventory. This is only a default for a new asset, which can be overridden during individual asset setup. Typically assets such as buildings and land would not, by default, be included in Physical Inventories, whereas computers and mobile phones would be included. The other new field is in the asset definition screen. When adding your new assets, through either Quick Additions or New Asset, choose whether to change or keep the default for the In Physical Inventory value. If you upgrade from version10.7 or from another legacy asset system, one of your conversion tasks will be to nominate the In Physical Inventory defaults for your asset categories, and then to manually adjust this for any assets that do not match the category default settings.

Entering a Physical Inventory in Release 11

The new main menu option - Physical Inventory - houses two activities. The first Enter allows you to manually enter asset stock take results. The second option Comparison allows you to run the comparison of Oracle Assets against the Inventory and then view the results.

You can load physical inventory data into Oracle Assets using several different methods. You can: manually enter data in the Physical Inventory Entries window; import data from an Excel spreadsheet using ADI; import data from a non-Oracle system using SQL*Loader. The first two of these options are discussed in detail below.

To enter a Physical Inventory manually, the first step is to create a physical inventory name in Oracle Fixed Assets. Use the menu path Physical Inventory /Enter. Give your inventory a name, and a start date. Click Open.

Figure 2. Physical Inventory Header

,(-& ".*& )(/& .*"0%& #(& *)#*.& %(-.& 1$%+23"4& 2)5*)#(.%& 0*#"24+6& 7+& "& 82)28-8& %(-& 8-+#& *)#*.& 7++*# 9-8:*.& (.& ;"<& 9-8:*.& (.& =*.2"4& 9-8:*.>& ?(3"#2()& ")0& @)2#+6& ;$*& A(44(/2)<& +3.**)& +$(/+& #$* B$%+23"4&C)5*)#(.%&*)#.%&A(.86

Figure 3. Entering Physical Inventory Results

Importing Inventory data from an Excel spreadsheet using Oracle ADI

D."34*&7EC&5*.+2()&F6G&1.(520*+&"&A"3242#%&#(& 3.*"#*& #*814"#*& +1.*"0+$**#+& A(.& 8(52)<& 0"#"& :*#/**) HI3*4&")0&D."34*>&")0&#*814"#*&#*I#&A24*&4"%(-#+&#(&8(5*&0"#"&A.(8&#*I#&A24*+&2)#(&HI3*4&#*814"#*+6&,(8-+#&:*&3())*3#*0&#(&"&0"#":"+*&#(&-+*&#$*+*&A*"#-.*+6 ;(&3.*"#*&")&"++*#&+#(3J&#"J*&#*814"#*>&+#".#&HI3*4&")0&D."34*&7EC6&!())*3#&#(&#$*&.*K-2.*0&0"#":"+* *)52.()8*)#6&@+*&#$*&7EC&7++*#+&L*)-&(1#2()&M*3(.0&B$%+23"4&C)5*)#(.%&#(&+*#-1&"&+1.*"0+$**#&/2#$ #$*&)*3*++".%&3(4-8)+&A(.&.*3(.02)<&%(-.&"++*#&2)5*)#(.%&0*#"24+6 ,(-&+#244&)**0&#(&+*#&-1&"&1$%+23"4&2)5*)#(.%&$*"0*.&.*3(.0&2)&D."34*&7++*#+>&+(&A(44(/&#$*&A2.+#&1".#&(A #$*&+#*1+&02+3-++*0&1.*52(-+4%&2)&NL")-"44%&*)#*.2)<&"&B$%+23"4&C)5*)#(.%O6&,(-&/244&#$*)&:*&":4*&#( +*4*3#&#$2+&2)5*)#(.%&2)&#$*&M*3(.0&B$%+23"4&C)5*)#(.%&7EC&(1#2()>&"+&+$(/)&:*4(/6

Figure 4. Selecting an Inventory Name First, select the Inventory Name you created in Oracle. Once you choose OK, this will create a default ADI template, as shown below. If the fields on the default template are not what you need, than you can create a new layout by clicking on the pencil icon and choosing New.

Inventory Name: Database: Location Upl Asset Number

Text

AHS INV Q1 2000 AHS Test

List - Text:

NSW.MRD Messages

Units
Value

Description
Text

1 Total: Note: This is not the end of the Inventory worksheet. Unprotect the sheet and insert as many rows as needed.

()89"&':;'<&=#9%.',<2'.&>?%#.&

Creating a New Asset Stock Take Template

If the fields on the default template (Figure 5) are not what you need, than you can create your own layout. Figure 6 is our desired layout. Figure 7 shows how the 3 fields Location, Units and Asset Number have been dragged and dropped from the available fields list into the into the Lines Box to achieve the layout in Figure 6. The Header section remains empty in this example. You can however put fields that contain all the same value in the header. For example, if this stock take was for a single location, then the location column could go into the header section, and only needs to be completed once.

Inventory Name: Database: Upl Location

List - Location

AHS INV Q1 2000 AHS Test Units

Value

Asset Number
Text

Messages

Total: Note: This is not the end of the Inventory worksheet. Unprotect the sheet and insert as many rows as needed.

()89"&'@;'A5+)=)&+',<2'B&>?%#.&

Figure 7. Creating a Custom ADI Template.

Once you save this template you are now ready to either key your asset stock take results, or import them from a text file into the template.

Importing a Text File into an Asset Stock Take Template

The mobile scanning devices mentioned earlier as part of the integrated stock take solution should be able to output the results of a stock take into a text file. This text file can then be imported into a template in ADI. You usually will have specified what fields the mobile scanner will be collecting such as Asset Number, Units, and Location. Oracle Assets ADI offers a graphical, easy to use facility to import your text file into the spreadsheet. The instructions below demonstrate how to complete this step. Choose Import text file from the ADI Assets menu. Remember you must be connected to a database to perform this step. Select your source text file. The screen will show the contents of the selected source file to assist you in creating a map file. In our example we will specify Comma as the delimiter, and that the first row in the text file does not contain field names.

If no map is available, create a new map by clicking on the pencil icon. In the following two diagrams, you can see the before and after desired status for setting up the mapping screen. Drag and drop Field 1, Field 2 and Field 3 (which is the data from the first row of our text file) into Location, Units and Asset Number respectively. Click OK to Save the Layout. Click OK on the main Import Text File screen to import your text file.

Figure 8. Before using an ADI text file Mapping Template.

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Upload Your Asset Data from Excel to Oracle

Once your data is in Excel (from a text file or by keying manually) you are ready to upload your data to the Physical Inventory forms in Oracle. Use the ADI Assets menu Upload File. Specify all rows to be uploaded, unless you are re-uploading as the result of an error. In this case specify to upload only flagged rows, as shown in Figure 9 below. The upload will indicate if rows are found to be in error. Look in the right hand Messages column for the source of the error. Correct it and re-upload the remaining rows. You can choose to run the inventory comparison and view the results from ADI the reports will be available in the ADI Request Centre. Otherwise you can run the comparison and view the results from within Oracle, using the Fixed Assets responsibility.

Figure 10. ADI Inventory Upload Form To view your data from within Oracle navigate to Physical Inventory / Enter and query up your inventory name (in our example - AHS INV Q1 2000). You will be able to view and edit the records that have been uploaded.

Running the Physical Comparison

From within the Fixed Assets Responsibility, navigate to Physical Inventory / Run. You must enter the name of the physical inventory being compared. Oracle allows you to narrow the search criteria: you can enter the location, the category, or both. If you do not enter either of these parameters, the comparison program compares all assets in the physical inventory with the assets in your production system. The status of the match is recorded in the underlying inventory tables eg Reconciled, or Non Inventorial, or No Asset Number. When you run the Physical Inventory Comparison program, Oracle Assets updates the UNIT_RECONCILE_MTH field in the FA_INV_INTERFACE table with a code which indicates whether the

asset needs an adjustment in the number of units stored in Oracle Assets, and if so, the type of unit adjustment needed eg Location Adjustment if an asset was found to be in a different location to that recorded in Oracle.

Viewing Physical Comparison Results

To view the results online navigate to Physical Inventory / Comparison View. The differences are highlighted, NEW and NOT UNIQUE records are not shown. Alternatively you can run the Physical Inventory Comparison Report NEW and NOT UNIQUE records are included. This report is a Report eXchange Report, so you can only run this from the ADI Request Centre. Note: both allow narrowing of search criteria to Location or Category.

Figure 11. Physical Inventory Comparison Screen.

The Location column underneath the Oracle Assets heading (as seen in Figure 10 above) shows where your assets are located according to Oracle. The Location column underneath Physical Inventory heading shows where your assets are located according to your stock take. Under the Adjustments heading it suggests what transaction to perform to correct the difference either a location transfer or unit transfer (if the number of units differs between Oracle and the stock take).

Reconciliation and Reporting

Reconcile your assets by making the necessary adjustments in the Asset Workbench. You can then transfer assets that are recorded at the wrong location, retire assets that could not be found, and reinstate assets that were retired incorrectly. Unfortunately, the changes cannot be made automatically from the stock take results without some custom development work in Assets.

When you are finished with reconciling your physical inventory, you can run the Physical Inventory Missing Assets Report to determine if there are any assets in your production system that could not be found during the physical inventory process. When you have finished with the stock take data, you can purge the records. Navigate to Physical Inventory / Enter, query up your inventory name and enter the end date for this inventory. You must specify an end date before you can close and purge the physical inventory data.

Bar Code Label Considerations

If you are thinking of using Bar Code labels to assist with your stock takes, there are some aspects to consider before hand. You need to decide what style of bar code you will use. The style Code3of 9 is popular and readable by most scanning devices. You will also need to consider the type of label media that best suits your companys operations. Label paper ranges from tough metallic formats that are difficult to remove from assets, to cheaper Indestructible Vinyl that is reasonably durable. You should decide how many scanning devices you will require if your operations are spread out between cities or states, or you may decide to send a single device around to various regions when it is their turn to perform an asset stock take. You then need to consider printing of the labels. There are many companies that will pre-print your labels with asset numbers for you. Alternatively you may decide to purchase your own bar code printer, and design a custom report in Oracle Reports to print a range of numbers. A bar code is printed by sending a series of escape characters to a special printer, which decodes the escape characters and converts them to bar codes. It is easy to include your company name, and the actual asset number on the label for further identification. The appropriate escape characters are usually listed and explained in the printer manuals. The following picture shows a reasonably simple, but effective bar code.

ABC Company |||||||||||||||||||||||| 100098

Figure 12. Sample Bar Code Label

Loading Assets into Mass Additions Using Oracle ADI

Using the Mass Additions feature Oracle Assets lets you create asset additions from information in other systems, in addition to creating assets from invoice lines in Oracle Payables. Oracle ADI provides you with the ability to load asset details into the Mass Additions interface (the FA_MASS_ADDITIONS table). This is particularly useful in the conversion of data from legacy asset systems into Oracle Assets. This feature may also be used to bridge Oracle Assets with a third party Payables application. The process to load Assets into Mass Additions is similar to that used to load Asset stock take results into Physical Inventory, discussed earlier in this paper. ADI has a separate menu option Create Assets that helps you build your Excel templates. You can create a new template if the default template does not suit your requirements. You must select the fields marked with an Asterisk at a minimum. For those fields that will not change value, for example if all assets will be of type Capitalized, then position these fields in the header of the template, and you will only need to enter them once. Figure 13 shows a customised template for creating assets.

Corporate Book: Database:

AHS AHS Test

Date:

Accounting Date Asset Type Depreciate In Physical Inventory Upl Description State Location
Text List - Location

Capitalized Yes List - Text: Yes

List - Text: List - Text:

Major

Minor

Units
Value

Cost
Value

Co

C/C Acct Proj Co

C/C Acct Proj

List - Category

List - Expense Account

List - Clearing Account

Total: Note: This is not the end of the Asset worksheet. Unprotect the sheet and insert as many rows as needed.

()89"&'DE;'7"&#.&',--&.-',<2'B&>?%#.& When you have entered your assets into the template, use the ADI Menu option Upload to Interface to transfer your assets. You can choose whether your assets go into the mass additions table with a status of New, On Hold or Post. If you have all the information for your assets, you can submit the Mass Additions posting program from within ADI, by ticking the check box Create Assets Now (Post). Otherwise load you assets with a status of new or post, and add the remaining asset details from the Mass Additions form in Oracle Assets. Any errors encountered during your upload will be displayed in the Messages column. Fix the error, and attempt to upload again.

Conclusion
Asset Stock takes are the bane of most Finance departments. However with Oracle Assets Release 11 Physical Inventory functions you can make the chore of asset stock takes less onerous. The Physical Inventory comparison program will not update incorrect assets for you, but it will make the task of identifying those assets that need to be changed, much easier. An integrated solution combining mobile scanning devices and assets identified by bar codes makes the stock take process even faster and more accurate. The technology is cost effective, simple to use and easy to integrate with Oracle Assets using Oracle ADI. Copyright @2000 Cathy Jones

About the Presenter

Cathy Jones is a consultant with Red Rock Consulting. She has over 10 years experience in the consulting industry, and 2 years experience with Oracle Applications. The majority of her work with Oracle Applications has focused on Fixed Assets, Receivables and Cash Management. The Oracle Assets physical inventory bar code and scanning extension arose in response to our customers needs to simplify and make more accurate the asset stock take process. Cathy is currently involved in a large project that aims to use an existing head office Oracle Financials implementation to offer a customised business systems solution to a network of 72 regional offices around Australia. The flexibility of Oracle Applications interfaces, and the new Oracle Release 11i portal technology is the key enabler in this important business solution.