Rules of Thumb

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Saving & Investing rules of thumb

1. What should be my asset allocation or how much equity should I have?

This is the most common rule of thumb which is used in investment world. Rule saysEquity percentage in your portfolio should be equal to 100 minus your age or in other words debt should be equal to your age. For eg if you are 30 you should have 30% of your investments in debt & 70% (100 – your age) in equity. This doesn’t take care of riskappetite, risk tolerance or how far your goals are.

2. How much emergency fund I should have?

Emergency Fund helps people in case of sudden loss of income, medical emergency etc. Thumb rule says one should have emergency fund equal to 3 to 6 months of monthly expenses. You can keep it at 3 month if you are a government servant but in case of private job or profession you should keep it on the higher side of the range. Make sure you don’t use this amount for day to day needs/wants. For retired person emergency fund should be equal to 1 year of expense.

Retirement rules of thumb

3. How much money will I need in retirement or how much corpus I should build?

You should have 20 times your income saved for retirement and plan to replace 80 percent of pre-retirement income. But here retirement means a retirement at age of 60 & life expectancy of 80 – and a conservative lifestyle. But now things have changed & you would have dream/planned lot of things for retirement.

4. How much I need to invest every month to achieve retirement goal?

“Indians are great savers” sorry “Indians were great savers”.  New generation is in some different mood they would like to enjoy the present & have no idea about future. If you have just started to work & would like to have a very simple lifestyle & retirement at age of 60 you can do it with saving (read investing) 10% of your income. If you are planning for an early retirement start with 20% savings. Other rule says if you are in early 30s Save 10% for basics, 15% for comfort, 20% to escape. If you are late by decade add 5% more in each category.

Insurance rules of thumb

5. How much insurance should I have?

Here insurance means insurance. Rule says one should have sum assured of 8-10 times of his yearly income. I think this rule is far from perfect but still can be used as starting point. This does not take care of any of your goals, liabilities & even complete expenses. Some modified version of this rule says that if you are in early 30s insurance should be 12-15 times of your annual income & if you are in 50s take 6-8 times.

Loan/liability/home rules of thumb

6. How big should be my House?

The value of house should be equal to 2-3 times of your family annual income. So if you & your spouse are earning total Rs 20 lakh – you should buy a house in Range of Rs 40-60 Lakh.

7. Maximum EMI that I can have?

Ideally 0 will be the best answer but few of the big assets like home require some loan to buy them. Experts agree that your EMIs should not be more than 36% of Gross Monthly Income at any point of time. It should be even lesser when you are close to your retirement. If you want to talk about home loan EMI, it should not be greater than 28% of your gross income. Now TENURE of loan is missing here – for tenure read No. 6 & 8 rules of thumb.

8. Rules of thumb for buying a car

This is one of the biggest purchases after your home. And this is depreciating asset – today morning you purchase a car for Rs 10 lakh & by the evening it will be worth Rs 8-9 Lakh. After 5 years it will not be even of half value but still you keep buying cars regularly – buy at 10, sell at 4 & loose 6. (repeat the cycle) There are few rules that you can follow:

• Value of car should not be more than 50% of the annual income of the owner.
• Purchase a used car or buy a new & use it for 10 years.
• While buying car with loan stick to 20/4/10 – Minimum 20% down payment, loan tenure not more than 4 years & EMI should not be higher than 10% of your income.

Rate of return Rules of Thumb

9. In how many years my amount will double?

It’s a very simple & most common rule – if you divide 72 by rate of return you will get the number of years in which your money will double. For Eg. If you expect a rate of return of 12% you money will double in 6 years (72/12=6) & what about if rate of return is 8% – 72/8=9 years. This can also be used in reverse order at what rate your money will double in 5 years – 72/5=14.4%

Rules similar to rule of 72:

Rule of 114 & 144

These can help you in how many years your money will be triple (114) or quadruple (144) at some rate of returns.

Rule of 70

You know it or not but inflation is your biggest enemy – rule of 70 will tell you in how many years value of money will be half. You just need to divide 70 with rate of inflation so if rate of inflation is 7% – 70/7=10 years. So in 10 years your Rs 100 note will be worth Rs 50.

10. Rule 10/5/3

This is a US rule of thumb which says in long term you can get 10% return from equity, 5% return from bonds (let’s say FDs) & 3% from the t-bills (liquid funds – these returns are more or less close to the range of inflation). Indian economy is growing at some different pace & even inflation numbers are different. Can we safely say if inflation is 6% (t-bill rates) we can get 8% from the fixed deposits & 12% from the equity or in other words – in long term equities will deliver twice the return of inflation. Try combining Rule of 72 with this rule – you will get some amazing numbers.

Some time Rules of thumb will give you false sense of security or wrong guidance – so take them with pinch of salt.

Workflow Activity Status

http://oracleapps4u.blogspot.in

The combination of order type/line type/item type determines the line workflow.
If you leave Item Type blank, the workflow applies to all item types for the line type (unless they have a specific assignment in this form).
In Process Name, select the workflow that Oracle Order Management should use for the order type/line type/item type combination.
If you do not assign a workflow to a configured item type, the configured item does not use a workflow.
You can perform all standard processing including orders, returns, drop-ship orders, Orders for configured items, and orders for assemble-to-order items using seeded workflows.



Check Order line Workflow Activity Status
  SELECT COUNT (1)
        INTO ln_completed_lines
        FROM wf_item_activity_statuses a,
             wf_process_activities b,
             oe_order_lines_all c
       WHERE a.process_activity = b.instance_id
         AND b.process_item_type = 'OEOL'
         AND b.activity_name = <‘Activity_Name’>
         AND activity_status = 'COMPLETE'
         AND item_key = TO_CHAR (c.line_id)
         AND c.header_id = pin_order_header_id


Submit the OEOH & OEOL (Header & line workflow) from database:
BEGIN
wf_engine.Background (itemtype=>'OEOH', -- ‘OEOL’
                      minthreshold => NULL,
                      maxthreshold => NULL,
                      process_deferred => TRUE,
                      process_timeout=> FALSE,
                      process_stuck => NULL);
END;
When an order header workflow is error out, how to retry the workflow for the order?
Go to workflow administrator, provide the item key (header_id) and submit to retry the WF for the corresponding order.

Good Fiction to Read

Called To Arms by Walter Turner

RICE/CEMLI Terminology

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RICE/CEMLI Terminology

In my Oracle career I often hear confusion over RICE/CEMLI terminologies, what they stands for ? what is the meaning of...blah blah blah....so with the help of my very good friend Charan, I have decided to write my take on this.

AIM (Applications Implementation Methodology) => During packaged ERP(enterprise resource planning) implementations, Clients often have additional requirements apart from the existing (standard) business process, for which they need to create/change theVanila system (Unchanged ERP Implemented system) processes, and its these changes that come under RICE/RICEW components. AIM is the methodology/standards/published guidelines, which Oracle suggests it's Clients to follow while developing
RICE/RICEW components for their business requirements.

RICE stands for Reports, Interfaces, Conversions, Enhancements / Extensions
-----
 > Sometimes extended to FRICE > F for Forms
                                         -------
                                        OR 
                                        RICEW > W for Workflow.
                                         -------

Forms/Reports/Workflows : Create/Change existing forms/reports/workflows available in  ERP system to  meet the Clients business requirements.

Interfaces : Linking (Programs) between other systems to ERP system in order to synchronize the Data.They can be Manual, Batch or Real-Time. Interfaces can be either outbound or inbound. An outbound interface reads data from Oracle Apps tables and usually creates output files in the third party tool specified format. An inbound interface reads data from flat files (usually) and calls Oracle APIs to upload data into Oracle Apps.

Conversion : It is converting the data structure and data design of legacy system data to satisfy the customer’s business rules before importing it into Oracle .It is like a one time run of an inbound interface except that the amount of data processed during conversion could be potentially huge since all the required data from the legacy system would be transferred to Oracle.

Enhancements/Extensions : Please see below.

>> In R12 RICE components have been extended to CEMLI components.
                                                                             --------

CEMLI Stands for Configurations/Customization, Extension, Modification, Localization, and Integration.


Configurations : Configure the existing, pre-built application features according to your client's requirement.Changing setups and profile values can be the example of configurations.

Customization : Customization means altering/changing the standard objects or creation of custom object to meet client's business need. It may be Extensions or Modifications.

Extensions : Extension means creating custom code from scratch, existing objects (views, packages and java classes etc) can be used. It is having different behaviour from seeded one.

Modifications : Modifications is enhancing/changing the existing code to meet the client's requirements. It is the modification of seeded behaviour.

Localization :  It is to define the different legislative support provided by oracle Applications based on country/region/language requirements.

Integration : It can be Data Integration or Application Integration, options for these two are Open Interface tables, APIs, EAI(Enterprise Application Integration Tools), BPEL, AQ, EDI etc.

             >> Apart from these there is one more term and that is Personalization.

Personalization : Tailoring the layout or visibility of page content to meet client requirements is Personalization. Changing the user interface (UI) look-and-feel, making any field visible/enabled/disabled/mandatory/non mandatory comes under Personalization.

Windows re install

A clean reinstall is often better than getting a new computer since most PC's come larded with sponsor's bloatware and useless factory utilities that have much better versions built into Windows 7. For this reason many tech enthusiasts clean reinstall using the Product Key on the COA sticker affixed to the machine. 

Download the latest official Win7 installer ISO with SP1 for your licensed version, burn to DVD or write to flashstick using Windows 7 USB-DVD Download Tool.

Back up your files externally, make your Recovery Disks so you have a path back to factory condition, or save a Backup Image of the entire HD first. Run an audit of hardware and software including Product Keys using Belarc Advisor. Gather your program installers.

Boot the Windows 7 installer, choose Custom Install, then Drive Options (Advanced) to Delete all partitions not needed, repartition as desired following illustrated steps given here: Clean Install Windows 7. If you don't have a partition scheme in mind, just click Next after deleting to let the installer create and format your installation partition for you.

The installer is mostly driver-complete, with newer arriving quickly via optional Windows Updates. Just in case, have your Wireless or Ethernet LAN driver on flash stick or CD so you can install it to get online quickly. Thenenable hardware driver auto-updating and check for optional Updates.

Any drivers still missing in Device Manager after several rounds of Updates can be found on the Support Downloads webpage for your model computer or device, along with possibly needed hotfixes which you can also wait to see if you need. Driver Install - Device Manager 

Install updates and then programs slowly over time to gauge performance changes after each. Don't let any programs write themselves into msconfig>Startup as they slow startup, become freeloaders on your RAM/CPU and can spy on you. Uncheck everything except AV and gadgets in msconfig>Startup, then after reboots do the same in msconfig>Services after checking Hide All MS Services. Check back periodically to see if anything writes itself back in and turn it off in its Program Preferences or Uninstall it. Startup Programs - Change 

Use a lightweight free AV like Microsoft Security Essentials which works perfectly with Windows 7 Firewall. 

Activation at Control Panel>System may require a robocall to MS the first time to record your hardware signature in their servers. 

When finished, clean and order the HD perfectly using state-of-the-art free CCleaner "Run Cleaner" button and Registry tab, then Puran boot-time defragger + Full Disk Check after checking Intelligent Optimizer on Additional Operations tab:

Finally save a Windows 7 Backup image externally so you never have to reinstall again, just reimage the HD or it's replacement using DVD/Repair CD with the stored image. 

Source

Consignment Inventory – A different approach to handle

“Consignment Inventory is inventory that is in the possession of the customer, but is still owned by the supplier. In other words, the supplier places some of his inventory in his customer’s possession (in their store or warehouse) and allows them to sell or consume directly from his stock. The customer purchases the inventory only after he has resold or consumed it. The key benefit to the customer should be obvious; he does not have to tie up his capital in inventory. This does not mean that there are no inventory carrying costs for the customer; he does still incur costs related to storing and managing the inventory.”

So the real question is how to handle this in Oracle Applications. Here in this article, imagine you are tasked to implement this solution for you customer who plays role of “supplier” in the above example. The basic requirements usually are:

1. Ability to capture a sales order so that the goods can be shipped to customer site with documentation
2. Inventory value of these products should still be seen in the supplier’s accounting books.
3. We should not be invoicing the customer at the time of shipping as it is still supplier’s inventory.
4. Optionally ability to track these assets (location details). If there is an issue with the product, we should be able to send a technician to fix it and capture the service history.
5. If the cutomer either buys it or resells it, we should be able to generate COGS and create an invoice for the customer thus generating revenue.
6. Also if this product that is in “display” and needs to be depreciated, we ahould be able to create this as a financial asset.

To achieve this, we used start the process flow using internal requisition. The reason why we use internal requisition is that we can autocreate internal sales order which can be shipped with documentation like any other shipment. This makes life of logistics easy, because, there is no difference between this order and any other sales order as far they are concerned.

In order to be able to capture this value in accounting books, usually we either create a subinventory or one inventory organization (or sometime even a locator under a common subinventory called Consignment) to represent a customer’s location. I think subinventory approach wins over organization. The reason for this is, cost of the item. If organization approach is used, we have to make sure to keep the cost current in that organization as well.

And when this internal sales order is shipped, material only moves from supplier’s warehouse to logical warehouse or subinventory (which represents customer’s location) depending the way it is setup. Since the material is in that subinventory or organization material value can be seen in the accounting books and quantity also can be tracked.

Earlier Installed Base lacked asset life tracking features. In the absence of such features we could never provide asset tracking (we know it is in subinventory but where is not known (address details)) functionality. Hence sending a field service technician is not easy when a service call is logged. For that matter, replacing that product takes significant amount of time to research. Regarding depreciation, it is even more difficult in those days.

So far all sounds good. But one issue here is creation of internal requisition to start with. A number of times I have seen that users were not happy with that. Think of it: it is the same department that enters normal sales orders, manages these consignment orders as well. Now when you tell them to enter an internal requisition for the consignment orders and not sales order, they tend to be put off. If there is no choice they have to gulp it.

But are there any choices to make the users life easy? So I thought what if users always create sales orders only and we take care of converting them into internal sales orders rather than other way around. With the goal of finding a way to convert any sales order into internal sales order, I started exploring. In no time,to my surprise,I found a way right under my nose.

There is a procedure called auto_create_internal_req in a database package called oe_delayed_requests_util (available even in 11.5.9). It takes order header id as a parameter and converts into internal sales by creating internal requisition and updating the order with source information. That is it. Kicked off writing small piece of code to test. After sometime code was ready (just assembled the code taking snippets from here and there). Guess what, the solution turned out to be a good one. I have written only pl/sql code here. This can be used to plug into workflow.

This is how the new process flow looks like after the code. As you can see in the absence such flow, picking and shipping processes may have to be extended to move the material into a subinventory rather than debiting the COGS at the time of shipping consignment material.

Sometimes there is a need to create an asset when the material is in possession of customer. This helps to capture depreciation till the customer actually buys it. Asset Tracking has capabilities to create assets for the items that are in inventory and also for normal items that are issued to either field locations or projects. This product features can be exploited to achieve this requirement (for this some extension may be required to be written).

 This piece of code does the following:

1. Creates a location with customer’s ship to address (taking it from salesorder header)
2. Creates a subinventory and assigns this location to this subinventory
3. Updates the customer’s ship to site with this location (so that we can create internal reqs for this address).
4. Creates a row in the po_location_associations_all (this is where the link between customer’s ship to site and HR location is established. Done automatically by the code which updates in step 3)
5. Creates an Approved Internal requisition and updates the order with the source details.

You can download the code here. I tested this in 11.5.9 as well as 12.0.4 and works pretty well.

Citibank

CITI0000002