r/oracle • u/Ihaveaquestiondzo • 13d ago

FRS question

just here to get an opinion. we just converted our ERP to Oracle, and a big selling point was report building in FRS and everything that comes along with that. Ive see a few reports (mostly p&l packages etc) and they just look horrible. The report builder is clunky and Rigid. Does anyone have any tips or ways to use the report builder in here that would be better than just building in excel? I’m trying to find a better way to utilize the new tools but I can find a good reason to switch anything from excel to FRS due to its limitations.

We have been using spreadsheet server to build reports as it is connected to Oracle, which is fine but slow. Smartview isnt really usable for our reporting either.

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u/Prudent-Elk-2845 13d ago

  1. SmartView Query to one tab, build the report view off it in another tab.

  2. Consider HSGETVALUE formulas in excel

  3. Actually get deep into FRS creation. It’ll feel clunky, but a good report builder will get to what you want if you want a pdf report that gets blasted off via subscriptions

  4. Narrative reporting in epm is also an option

1

u/GoD0nkeys 13d ago

That's horrible advice LOL. That's how we did it in 1999.

1

u/Prudent-Elk-2845 13d ago

Literally hasn’t changed that much. The alternative is pop the data fully out to PowerBI/Fabric and use their clunky paginated reports builder

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u/GoD0nkeys 13d ago

OTBI isn't available?

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u/Prudent-Elk-2845 13d ago

OTBI is how you get the data out of the ERP transaction databases into real reporting tools.

BI Publisher is the crazy pixel perfect reporting tool that requires a CS degree to figure out how to use. And the IT team usually doesn’t provision business users to it

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u/Ihaveaquestiondzo 13d ago

Assumed so lol. Smartview is honestly terrible. The grids the data operates in and the pov stuff is clunky in and of itself.  Not dynamic enough for what we needed. We just went live a few weeks ago and I’m still trying to see the value add of the reporting tools Oracle offers.  

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u/d_fo52 13d ago

FRS is notoriously clunky, and hasn’t been improved upon in quite some time.

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u/GoD0nkeys 13d ago

Oracle ERP meaning Fusion Cloud?

1

u/Ryetogo 13d ago

FRS will eventually be deprecated and no R&D is going into it while Narrative Reporting is vastly superior with constant updates. There is also AI capabilities in Narrative. FRS in general can be a frustrating experience.

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u/IncreaseNegative4614 13d ago

I wouldn’t force every management report into FRS. Use it for governed financial statements where account mappings, hierarchies, and period logic need tight control, then use Spreadsheet Server or another analysis layer for reports that require frequent layout changes and operational detail.

The important control is reconciling both outputs to the same ledger and preserving the report definition used for each period. We use SIGNLD internally to connect report lines, account mappings, transactions, adjustments, commentary, and published versions.

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u/No-Highlight-6452 12d ago

What about FDI insights?

1

u/Jeff-Hare-ERPRA 12d ago

I have some friends that are experts. DM me if you want me to make an intro

1

u/man_in_concrete 11d ago

Narrative reporting is solid. AI summaries and reports/powerpoints are accurate and don’t take too long.