Finessensual

Finessensual is a python script that allows the conversion of Oracle financial transaction reports into an overview that is useful for research groups (around one or more PIs). Its name is contraction (or you might call it a contraption) of ‘finance’, ‘essential’ and ‘UA’.

• A. Installation
• B. Using the package
• C. License
• D. Warranty

A. Installation

1. Install the prerequisites

• When on GNU/Linux, UNIX or MAC:

  Install:

  • libreoffice (e.g. on Ubuntu: 'sudo apt-get install libreoffice')

  • a python 3 interpreter (e.g. on Ubuntu: 'sudo apt-get install python3')

  Make sure the libreoffice executable and the python3 executable can be found based on your PATH environment variable.

• When on MS-Windows:

  Install:

  • libreoffice Go to the https://libreoffice.org, download the latest version and install it. (don't install libreoffice from the microsoft store, or those b@s!@rds will charge you for it!)

  • python Go to https://www.python.org/downloads and Download the latest Python package (using the orange button. Click on the python (.exe) installer (in your Downloads folder) and then:

    1. check the box ‘Add python.exe to PATH’
    2. choose “Install Now”

2. Install the package itself

The finessensual code can be found on PyPI.

• When on GNU/Linux, UNIX or MAC: If you have a python interpreter installed on a GNU/Linux, BSD-like or UNIX-like workstation that is all you need. You can install the package from the command line as follows:

$ pip install –upgrade finessensual

• When on MS-Windows On this platform, unfortunately, users have unlearnt how to install software and how to use the command line). Therefore, I spent one of my weekends making you a finessensual installer executable that will perform the installation and make a desktop icon for you. It is called 'DMW-Finessensual-2025-3.exe'. Send an e-mail to the author to obtain it.

B. Using the package

1. Download all financial files from oracle

Start your oracle java application to consult “Financiële gebruikersrapporten” (below this will be abbreviated as FG) from . If we say ‘download’ below, we mean save in one and the same folder.

• Download the information on Vlottende Budgetten:

  FG > Werk voor derde en derdengeld > Forfaitaire project, BOF, IOF en activiteiten > Vlottende Budgetten

  Download all ‘vlottende budgetten’ (like: AK, AO, RA, WD, WO) in excel format and name them ‘VBTransacties-’ + nummer + ‘.xls’. As an example: ‘VBTransacties-AK160007.xls’

• Download ‘Budgets and transactions’ related to the PIs that are part of the financial overview in excel format

  FG > Werk voor derden en derdengeld > Verantwoordingsprojecten > Budgetten en transacties

  Select the PI you want to cover.

  Select ‘excel’ as format. This will leave only three buttons active in the rightmost row:

  • Budgetten : download this file and name it UB-<PI-name>.xml
  • Vastleggingen : download this file and name it UV-<PI-name>.xml
  • Uitgaven : download this file and name it UU-<PI-name>.xml

  As an example: UB-DMW.xml, UV-DMW.xml, UU-DMW.xml

• Download ‘Project transactions’ for FFI and FFP projects, per project (for all accounting years) in excel format

  FG > Tansactierapporten > Transacties meerdere jaren

  Download these as ‘Transacties-<PROJNR>.xls’ As an example: ‘Transacties-FFI230414.xls’

  Remember to set the date range to cover all applicable years! The OZ projects are not needed!

• Download ‘Budgetboekingen’ for the FFP and FFI projects in excel format (has to be done in the year of the start, or you can select ‘over meerdere boekjaren’)

  FG > Tansactierapporten > Budgetboekingen

  Name these: ‘Budgetboekingen-<PROJNR>.xls

  As an example: ‘Budgetboekingen-FFI230414.xls’

• Download ‘Transacties lonen’ per PI in excel. Select ‘alle boekjaren t.e.m. boekjaar’.

  FG > Tansactierapporten > Transacties lonen

  Name these: ‘Lonen-Transacties-<PI-name>.xml’

  As an example: ‘Lonen-transacties-STJ.xml’

2. Complete the input files yourself

• Projects.xlsx : contains an overview of all projects
• Persons.xlsx : contains an overview of all the employees you want to track
• Planning.xlsx : contains an overview of the planning as you maintain it

If the first two do not exist in your folder with all oracle files, then the first invocation of* finessensual *will create empty versions of these files. Finessensual will also complain about missing data in those files. Complete them based on the hints you get.

The latter file is an excel file that you can create by copying the ‘Personnel’ tab blad from the overview that has been generated to a separate file and update that.

3. Run finessensual

This can be simply done, by dragging the folder that contains all (a) all oracle-generated files and (b) your project, persons and planning files, onto the finessensual icon that the installation procedure has planted on your desktop. You will see that the script starts running and informs you about its progress.

After the script completed, the result file *‘financial-overview.xlsx’ *will be present in the original folder.

Open it, and enjoy!

C. License and copyright

Copyright (c) 2025-present Walter Daems walter.daems@uantwerpen.be

`finessensual` is distributed under the terms of the MIT-license.

MIT License

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

D. Warranty

None!