Hi All,

I've been using Focus/WF for many years but I have never done much
with FML. I've been asked to develop some financial reports using WF
and I would like to get some advise from the experts. Would anyone
be kind enough to share some knowledge and help me(and others) get
started down the right path in using FML.

What skills/tools are really needed to create good looking and
sometimes fairly complex financial statements?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Jim

Jim

FML is used mainly for reports on General Ledger systems.

So if you want to do that here too, I would like to know if you also need to create an hierarchy master.
If so, start looking at the master that comes with training tabels like the "CENTSTMT.MAS"

FILE=CENTSTMT, SUFFIX=FOC
SEGNAME=ACCOUNTS   ,SEGTYPE=S1
  FIELD=GL_ACCOUNT,           ALIAS=GLACCT,  FORMAT=A7,
        TITLE='Ledger,Account', FIELDTYPE=I, $
  FIELD=GL_ACCOUNT_PARENT,    ALIAS=GLPAR,   FORMAT=A7,
        TITLE=Parent,
        PROPERTY=PARENT_OF, REFERENCE=GL_ACCOUNT, $
  FIELD=GL_ACCOUNT_TYPE,      ALIAS=GLTYPE,  FORMAT=A1,
        TITLE=Type,$
  FIELD=GL_ROLLUP_OP,         ALIAS=GLROLL,  FORMAT=A1,
        TITLE=Op, $
  FIELD=GL_ACCOUNT_LEVEL,     ALIAS=GLLEVEL, FORMAT=I3,
        TITLE=Lev, $
  FIELD=GL_ACCOUNT_CAPTION,   ALIAS=GLCAP,   FORMAT=A30,
        TITLE=Caption,
        PROPERTY=CAPTION, REFERENCE=GL_ACCOUNT, $
SEGNAME=CONSOL, SEGTYPE=S1, PARENT=ACCOUNTS, $
  FIELD=PERIOD, ALIAS=MONTH, FORMAT=YYM, $
  FIELD=ACTUAL_AMT, ALIAS=AA, FORMAT=D10.0, MISSING=ON,
        TITLE='Actual', $
  FIELD=BUDGET_AMT, ALIAS=BA, FORMAT=D10.0, MISSING=ON,
        TITLE='Budget', $
  FIELD=ACTUAL_YTD, ALIAS=AYTD, FORMAT=D12.0, MISSING=ON,
        TITLE='YTD,Actual', $
  FIELD=BUDGET_YTD, ALIAS=BYTD, FORMAT=D12.0, MISSING=ON,
        TITLE='YTD,Budget', $

To start you only need that first segment.

If you do not need an hierarchy, you can build a report on just the GL table.

Please let me know what you're up to.

Hi Frank,

I would be creating financial reports from our Lawson GL system.

In order for this to work, I would have to duplicate the hierarchical
structure of our chart of accounts in Lawson into a hierarchical structure that WebFocus
understands. I would always have to be able to show the accountants that any report produced
via Lawson would match the reports produced via WebFocus.

Keeping the hierarchical structure in Lawson in sync with the structure in WebFocus would be
required and hopefully something that could be automated.

Does this help?

Jim

Frank,

I will take a look at the CENTSTMT file and do some research.

I do most of my coding by hand and am currently on version 5.x of WF.

We have version 7.x in test mode. A couple more questions.

Has much changed from version 5.x to 7.x that would make a big difference
in a project like this? Would you recommend using the GUI for any of this?
Are there any other products/features from IBI that maybe I'm not even aware of that
is critical for creating financial reports via WF?

Thanks
Jim

Jim

As said in one of the discussion here (with Bethany) we use CODA as GL system.
They have an hierarchy that is the basic for our Focus Hierarchy Table.
I use an ETL proces to extract this hierarchy once a week into the Focus table, so we keep this table in line with the coda database.

I do not know if a lot has changed from 5.* to 7.*, I started with FML after we upgraded to 7.

Jim

Today I joined a course at IBI on FML.

The trainer told us there are scripts available at IBI to build hierarchies on several well known GL systems.
He mentioned GD Edwards and Lawson.

There is also a very nice HTML tool available called "Quick Hierarchy" that can help you on this, you have to ask for it at your local support desk.