1. Adjusted current earnings (ACE) information
2. Budget data
3. Mass additions of Assets
4. Production Information which is typically related to depreciation
5. Physical Inventory data.

Budget Data

The budget information can be entered manually, or it can be maintained in another system and the information uploaded using the budget interface. The budget information is prepared and analyzed on any feeder system and then automatically transferred into Oracle Assets. This information can be used to project depreciation expense for the capital budgets and to compare actual and planned capital spending in Oracle Assets.

• Manual Loading of the Budget Data

Manual loading of Budget Data is achieved by the following five step process: Open the Capital Budgets window. Choose the budget Book, asset Category, and general ledger Expense Account for which you want to budget. Enter or update the budget amounts for this period. The budget amount is the amount you plan to spend on new assets in this category in this period for this expense account. Save your work. Review the capital budget for the year using the Budget Report

• Automatic Loading of the Budget Data:

Transfer of Budget information is achieved by transferring the data using a file transfer method. The Budget information from various systems is first copied into an ASCII file which is transferred into the Budget interface file FA_BUDGET_INTERFACE. This file is used to load the Budget data into the Oracle Assets system.
Uploading budgets from other systems (such as a spreadsheet on a personal computer) into Oracle Assets is a five step process.

A file transfer program is used to upload the ASCII budget file from any personal computer to the computer where Oracle Assets resides. SQL*Loader is then used to move the budget data into the Budget Interface. The Upload Capital Budget window is used to move the budget into the Budget Worksheet. 'Delete Existing Budget' needs to be checked if replacing an existing budget. The Capital Budgets window can be used to review or change the budget. The Capital Budget window is then used to move the budget into a budget book.

Oracle Assets looks at the asset's financial information in either the Alternate Minimum Tax(AMT) or the federal book to determine new ACE information. If an asset is depreciating in the federal tax book using ACRS, Oracle Assets uses the federal book information.

If the asset is depreciating in the federal book using MACRS, Oracle Assets uses the AMT book information. Oracle Assets automatically updates your assets when you run the Update ACE Book program.
For transferring the ACE information from the legacy system, it can either be entered manually, or it can be calculated by the Oracle Assets program. The difference is the process of populating the ACE interface table.

• Automatic population of the ACE conversion table

Manually, create an ACE tax book with ACE depreciation rules. Using the Mass Copy program, the assets are copied into the ACE book from the corporate book. The ACE conversion table (FA_ACE_BOOKS) is populated using the Populate ACE Interface Table program. The Update ACE Book program is then run to update the information in the ACE conversion table.

• Manually Loading the ACE conversion table

Manually, create an ACE tax book with ACE depreciation rules. Using the Mass Copy program , the assets are copied into the ACE book from the corporate book. The ACE conversion table is populated by loading the table manually with the ACE information from the previous system. The Update ACE Book program is then run to update the information in the ACE conversion table.

Mass Addition of Assets

The mass additions process lets the addition of new assets or cost adjustments from other systems to your system automatically without reentering the data. For example, new assets can be added from invoice lines brought over to Oracle Assets from Oracle Payables, or from CIP asset lines sent from Oracle Projects. Oracle Assets is already integrated with Oracle Payables; and it can easily be integrated with other payables systems. The mass additions process can also be used to convert assets from an outside system to Oracle Assets. Assets data can be transferred in one of the following three methods, depending on where the source is located.

• Creating Assets From Oracle Payables

The Create Mass Additions program creates mass additions from invoice information in Oracle Payables. The concurrent process places the new mass additions in a holding area (the table FA_MASS_ADDITIONS) interface tables, so that the mass additions are reviewed and approved, before they become asset additions.

• Creating Asset Additions From Another Payables System

To integrate Oracle Assets with another system, a program is created to add mass additions to the FA_MASS_ADDITIONS table. This new Custom Concurrent process has to be defined and added to the Oracle Assets menu in order to run it, when needed.

• Converting Assets From Other Systems

Oracle Assets allows the conversion of assets data from non-Oracle asset systems by using mass additions. Instead of loading the asset information into multiple Oracle Assets tables, the information is loaded into the FA_MASS_ADDITIONS table and the mass additions process is used to simplify the work.

Production Information

Typically, production information relates to the depreciation of assets in a production environment, where assets are depreciated depending on the number of units produced by the asset.
The production information can be entered manually, or it can be maintained in another system and the information uploaded into the Oracle Assets, using the production interface. Oracle Assets uses the information to calculate the depreciation of the units of production assets.

• Automatic Loading of the Production Information

The automatic loading is achieved in the following 4-step process:

1. An import program or utility is used to export data from the feeder system to populate the FA_PRODUCTION_INTERFACE table.
2. The Upload Production program is run to move the production information into Oracle Assets.
3. The Production History report is run to review the status of all imported items.
4. The Periodic Production window can be used to review or change the production information.

• Manual Loading of the Production Information

The manual entry involves the following tasks: Open the Periodic Production window; Find assets within a corporate Book for which you the production information is being entered; Enter the from and to date and the total Production for an asset; Optionally enter production for multiple non-overlapping date ranges within a single period; Save your work.

Physical Inventory

Physical inventory is the process of ensuring that the assets a company has listed in its production system match the assets it actually has in inventory. A company takes physical inventory by manually looking at all assets to ensure they exist as recorded, are in the appropriate locations, and consist of the recorded number of units. The Physical Inventory feature in Oracle Assets assists in comparing and reconciling your physical inventory data. The physical inventory data can be loaded into Oracle Assets using one of the following methods:

• Importing data from an Excel spreadsheet using ADI

The physical inventory data is entered into an Excel spreadsheet and exported to Oracle Assets using the Applications Desktop Integrator (ADI). ADI is a spreadsheet-based application that allows the user to format data inside a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet and then upload into Oracle Applications. ADI uses Wizards and Templates to simplify the data entry.

• Entering data in the Physical Inventory Entries window

Data for each asset is entered directly into Oracle Assets using the Physical Inventory Entries window. The limiting factor is that data for only one asset can be entered at a time when using this method

• Importing data from a non-Oracle system using SQL*Loader

SQL Loader is used to import the Physical inventory data in the following way: A single interim table it be used, if possible. Multiple tables may be used if the data exists in multiple tables or files in the system from which data is being loaded. In either case, the data must eventually be placed in a single table, the FA_INV_INTERFACE table.

If preferred, data can be loaded directly into the FA_INV_INTERFACE table, but it is more difficult due to the complexity of the table SQL*Loader is used to import information from outside the Oracle database. SQL*Loader accepts a number of input file formats and loads the physical inventory data into the interim table. If the data already resides within an Oracle database, there is no need to use SQL*Loader. The physical inventory information is consolidated in the interim table using SQL*Plus or imported by any other method.