Project accounting periods (PA periods) track Oracle Projects data on a periodic basis. Your PA periods may be more frequent than your GL accounting periods. You can use PA periods for budgeting and forecasting, and for accounting for cost and revenue. You set a current PA reporting period for Oracle Projects to summarize project amounts and to track project status. See: Setting the PA Reporting Period.
If you want to report project information more frequently than your GL periods allow, you can define PA periods that are shorter than your GL periods. For example, you can define weekly PA periods and monthly GL periods. You can also create PA periods that match existing Oracle General Ledger accounting periods (GL periods).
For more information about financial and reporting periods, see Financial Accounting and Date Processing, Oracle Projects Fundamentals.
You assign effective dates to each PA period. The effective dates signal the beginning and end of the PA period.
Note: After a transaction is posted to a PA period from any operating unit, the General Ledger Accounting Calendar window will not allow changes to the period date range.
You specify a status for each PA period. The status must be of one of those described in the following table:
| Status | Description | Entry Allowed | Interface Transactions | Reopen Period |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Never Opened | New periods that are in the future, and in which you do not want to allow entry. | No | No | n/a |
| Future | Future periods in which you allow entry and interface of transactions. | Yes | Yes | n/a |
| Open | Current periods. | Yes | Yes | n/a |
| Pending Close | Use for correcting unprocessed items. You can set a period to this status without checking for unprocessed items. | No | Yes | n/a |
| Closed | You cannot close a period if unprocessed items exist. A closed period can be reopened at any time. | No | No | Yes |
| Permanently Closed | You cannot permanently close a period if unprocessed items exist. Once a period is permanently closed, you cannot reopen it. | No | No | No |
At least one PA period must be specified as Open or Future in order for Oracle Projects processes to process transactions. The PA Period with a status of Open or Future that includes a project transaction date is the PA Period for the transaction. However, if the transaction date falls in a period that is not Open or Future, Oracle Projects will find the next Open or Future PA Period and use it as the PA Period for the transaction. Oracle Projects will reject the transaction if it cannot find a PA Period for the transaction.
If you plan to use period-phased budgeting and forecasting, you must define the future PA and GL periods in which you want to budget or forecast. The periods must first be defined in Oracle General Ledger in the calendar associated with your ledger and then copied using the Maintain PA Period Statuses window.
Define PA periods in Oracle General Ledger in the calendar associated with your ledger. PA periods are copied from GL calendar when you select the Copy From GL button in the PA Periods window. See: Period Types and Adding Periods to a Calendar, Oracle General Ledger Implementation Guide.
Set up implementation options. See: Implementation Options.
Suggestion: Define your PA periods for a full year when you implement Oracle Projects. Keep the number of Future or Open periods to a minimum to improve system performance on costing and revenue accrual
Navigate to the Maintain PA Period Statuses window.
Choose Copy from GL to copy a set of PA Periods from a GL Calendar according to the PA period type indicated in the Oracle Projects Implementation Options.
Fremont Corporation tracks all project accounting data weekly. Since Fremont begins their expenditure week on a Monday, they also start their PA periods on a Monday. Fremont's implementation team defines weekly PA periods for a full year. They assign the first two periods as having a status of Open, the next two with a status of Future, and all other future periods as Never Opened.
To change the status of a PA period:
Navigate to the Maintain PA Period Statuses window.
Query the PA period for which you want to change the status.
Enter or select the new status.
Save.
You must specify a current PA Reporting Period for Oracle Projects to summarize project amounts and to track project status.
Navigate to the Maintain PA Period Statuses (PA Periods) window.
Choose Set Reporting Period.
In the Next box, enter or select the PA period you want to set as the new current PA reporting period.
Choose OK.
When you attempt to set the PA Reporting Period to an earlier period than the current PA Reporting Period, the system checks to see if any projects have been accumulated in a PA period later than the new PA Reporting Period. If this is the case, a message is displayed indicating that if you change the PA Reporting Period you must run the Refresh Project Summary Amounts process. You have the option to cancel the change or proceed with the change.
Note: Setting the PA reporting to a prior period may result in a large volume of additional processing if the change requires you to refresh the project summary amounts for most of your projects.
To see which projects would be affected by a PA Reporting Period change, you can run the Summarization Period Exceptions Report. See: Summarization Period Exceptions, Oracle Projects Fundamentals.
If you proceed with the change to an earlier PA Reporting Period when projects have been accumulated in a later PA period, you need to run the PRC: Refresh Project Summary Amounts process before viewing information in the Project Status Inquiry (PSI) window. See: Refresh Project Summary Amounts, Oracle Projects Fundamentals.
In a multi-organization environment, each operating unit maintains its own PA period status. You use the Maintain PA Periods Status window to maintain the period status and the current reporting period.
Note: In a single organization environment, all projects in your implementation of Oracle Projects share the same PA Reporting Period.
The availability calculation looks for defined GL Periods and PA Periods, as well as defined Forecasting Options.
In order for the availability of a resource to be calculated, you must have both GL Periods and PA Periods defined for the availability duration. Because the availability of a resource is recalculated every time an assignment is added, this can be a moving target.
Therefore, a suggested formula for determining how far in advance to set up these periods is to double the value you have entered for the PA: Availability Duration profile option. For example, if you have defined this profile option with a value of 2 (for 2 years), then define GL and PA Periods for 4 years out.
If you have resources that have a start date prior to the system date, the system calculates resource availability one year prior to the current system date. This availability is used solely for timeline displays for the prior year. These displays are useful if you are converting and tracking assignments that started in the previous year. GL Periods and PA Periods must be established for the prior year. If these periods are not defined, then any resource with an HR assignment start date earlier than the current system date will not be considered a valid resource.
The forecast options must be defined for each operating unit. These forecast options define your preferences on handling resource utilization and financial forecasting. Some of this information is also used for calculating resource availability. For more information, see: Forecasting Implementation Options.
Other Sources
Period Types, Oracle General Ledger Implementation Guide
Adding Periods to a Calendar, Oracle General Ledger Implementation Guide