Under the Covers with

Subledger Accounting

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Under the Covers with Subledger Accounting

Author: Helene Abrams

www.eprentise.com

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Under the Covers with Subledger Accounting

The major change in R12 is that there are no Sets of Books. Instead, there are subledgers that handle the
transaction processing from other modules (AP, AR, FA, etc.). The Set of Books is replaced by the term
Ledger. The column SET_OF_BOOKS_ID has been replaced with LEDGER_ID in all GL tables. The Subledger
Accounting tables are in the XLA schema. The table GL.GL_Ledgers stores the information about the 4 C’s:
Currency, Chart of Accounts, Calendar, and [Accounting] Convention for each ledger. Subledger
Accounting (SLA) uses a rules-based accounting engine that creates the GL accounting entries from
transactions and events. Journal entries are created in the Subledger accounting and then transferred to
the Oracle® General Ledger.

Each subledger transaction that requires accounting is represented by complete and balanced subledger
journal entry that is stored according to the common data model. The subledger accounting includes a
posting engine that sums the contents of subledger tables and posts them to general ledger to provide a
clear audit trail. The subledger accounting service is applicable to all products in R12 and succeeds other
accounting engines including the Global Accounting Engine and Autoaccounting. Subledger accounting
provides subledger tables and reports designed for compliance and accounting reconciliation that will
replace “distribution” tables for these purposes. Distribution tables in Receivables, Assets, Project, and
Procurement remain available and are deployed for other purposes.

The following entity diagram adapted from the Oracle Subledger Accounting Technical Reference Manual
demonstrates the relationships between the transactions and the accounting ledgers.

All accounting is performed before the transfer to the General Ledger. The user defines rules and events
to create the accounting entries. The subledgers post activity to the General Ledger through the Create
Accounting process. The Distribution Link creates the accounting by applying accounting rules and loads
the SLA and GL tables. Create Accounting can be done in Draft or Final mode. Create Accounting transfers
the Final accounting journal entries to the GL from each process that calls it.

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Under the Covers with Subledger Accounting

As a part of Subledger Accounting, new SLA tables XLA_AE_HEADERS, XLA_AE_LINES, and

XLA_DISTRIBUTION_LINKS have been introduced. This means that an additional layer has been added at
the subledger level. The Create Accounting process at the subledger level posts the data to the SLA
tables.

The process looks like this:

The XLA.XLA_ HEADERS table stores subledger journal entries. There is a one-to-many relationship
between accounting events and journal entry headers. The XLA_ LINES table stores subledger journal
entry lines. There is a one-to-many relationship between subledger journal entry headers and subledger
journal entry lines. XLA_DISTRIBUTION_LINKS stores the link between transactions and subledger journal
entry lines. There is a one-to-many relationship between the subledger lines and distribution links. The
transaction is stored in the XLA_DISTRIBUTION_LINKS table in the columns UNROUNDED_ENTERED_DR,
UNROUNDED_ENTERED_CR, UNROUNDED_ACCOUNTED_CR, and UNROUNDED_ACCOUNTED_DR.
XLA_DISTRIBUTION_LINKS also determines whether supplicate subledger journal lines are merged and
whether the accounted amounts are calculated by the SLA or passed through.

Curious?
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