Value Sets for Charts of Accounts

A value set is a collection of account values that are associated with a segment of a chart of accounts structure instance.

When creating values sets, consider the following critical choices:

• Module Designation

• Validation Type

• Format Assignments

• Security Rules

• Value Definition

Module Designation

The module designation is used to tag value sets and sets the value sets apart during upgrades and other processes. When creating value sets for a chart of accounts, the module can be specified as General Ledger to distinctly identify its intended use in an accounting flexfield, basically a chart of accounts.

Validation Type

Assign one of the following validation types to chart of accounts value sets:

• Independent: The values are independently selected when filling out the segments in an account combination.

• Table: The values are stored in an external table to facilitate maintenance and sharing of reference data.

Caution: You must use Independent validation only for the Accounting Key Flexfield value sets. Other validations prevent you from using the full chart of accounts functionality, such as data security, reporting, and account hierarchy integration. Dependent values sets aren't supported.

Format Assignments

Value sets for chart of accounts must use the Value Data Type of Character. The Value Subtype is set to Text. These two settings support values that are both numbers and characters, which are typical in natural account segment values. Set the maximum length of the value set to correspond to the length of the chart of accounts segment to which it's assigned. Best practices recommend restricting values to Upper Case Only or Numeric values that are zero filled by default.

Security Rules

If flexfield data security rules are to be applied to the chart of accounts segment associated with the value set, the Enable Security option for the assigned value set must be selected. In addition, assign a data security resource name to enable creation of a data security object automatically for the value set. The data security object is used in the definition of flexfield data security rules.

Value Definition

Once these basic characteristics are defined for the value set, values can be added to the set on the Manage Values page.

1. Enter the value and description. Set the value to conform to the value set length and type.

2. Indicate whether the value is enabled and specify the start and end dates.

3. Assign the following attributes: Summary, Allow Posting.

   Note: The Allow Budgeting attribute is reserved for future use.

4. If the value set is used with a natural account segment, you must set the Account Type attribute. Select one of the following options: Asset, Liability, Owner's Equity, Revenue, or Expense.

   Caution: Assign account types carefully. If you assign an incorrect account type to a natural account segment value, accounting entries are recorded incorrectly and financial statements are inaccurate. Misclassified accounts are also potentially handled incorrectly at year end, with actual balances either getting zeroed out to retained earnings, or accumulating into the next year.

5. Other attributes that you can set are Third Party Control Account, Reconcile, and Financial Category, which is used with Oracle Transactional Business Intelligence reporting.

   The Third Party Control Account attribute enables you to maintain detailed balances by third party for an account combination. Valid third-party information must be associated with the journal line if the account is a third party control account. General Ledger prevents manual journal entries from posting to third party control accounts. This ensures that journal lines that post to control accounts such as the supplier liability account and the customer receivables account, are associated with valid third-party information in the respective subledgers.

   You can select one of the following options:

   • Customer Control Account: Customer information is required when such accounts are used in subledger transactions or subledger journals.

   • Supplier Control Account: Supplier information is required when such accounts are used in subledger transactions or subledger journals.

   • Third Party Control Account: Third-party information is required when such accounts are used in subledger transactions or subledger journals.

   • Restrict GL Manual Journals: Third-party information isn't required when such accounts are used in subledger transactions or subledger journals.

   • No: Not a control account.

   Caution: Don't enable the third party control account type for exchange gain or loss accounts because third-party information is required when a control account is used and this information isn't available for exchange gain or loss journal lines.

   General Ledger prevents manual journal entries to all of the accounts whose Third Party Control Account attribute is set to a value other than No.

   Note: If you change the Third Party Control Account attribute setting for a segment value, then run the Inherit Segment Value Attributes process to replicate the changes to the account combinations that contain that segment value.

Tip: Best practice is to define value set values after the value set has been assigned to a chart of accounts structure instance. Otherwise you can't define the required value attributes, such as the summary indicator, the posting allowed indicator, and the account type for natural account segments. The attributes must be added after the value set is assigned to a chart of accounts structure instance.

Tip: Run the Publish Chart of Account Dimension Members and Hierarchies to Balances Cubes process with the Publish Detail Values Only parameter set to Yes before you post journals to accounts with newly created value set values. The process creates and updates chart of accounts dimension members and hierarchies for GL balances cubes.