While flexfields do not require programming, they do allow you to perform significant customizations to the Oracle E-Business Suite, so they do require enough explanation for you to get the most out of the features they provide. Also, once you learn how to plan and set up one Oracle E-Business Suite feature that is built using a flexfield, you will find it much easier to set up any other Oracle E-Business Suite feature that uses a flexfield.

There are two main types of flexfield information: generic information on planning for and setting up any flexfield, and specific information on the particular Oracle E-Business Suite features that are built using flexfields. For example, the chapter "Planning and Defining Key Flexfields" applies to all key flexfields and describes setup procedures such as which forms you need to use. For specific information on setting up a particular flexfield for a product, see that product's documentation for detailed information. For example, if you are designing and setting up the Accounting Flexfield, refer to the Oracle General Ledger Implementation Guide. If you have not set up a flexfield before, you should be sure you read and understand both of these types of information thoroughly.

This guide also contains information for more advanced flexfield-related customizations. For example, you may want to write custom reports that access flexfields tables and information using flexfield routines. Or, you may want to write custom reports that use flexfields as report parameters. Finally, you may want to write a Standard Request Submission report that has several special report parameters (Standard Request Submission uses descriptive flexfields to provide pop-up windows for users to enter choices such as values they want to report on).