Since older versions of the Oracle eBusiness Suite, named ERP in versions prior to 11i, it has always been made of the profile options.
This is a mechanism to associate an instance (a site in the eBS vocabulary), application, responsibility and / or user, a value that will be operated by the application to provide an ergonomic enriched a default entry, activation of a trace and / or other possible behavior to secure, enhance, facilitated the use of ERP.
For example here is a range of opportunities through some profile options:
– Java Color Scheme: Set the color scheme applicable to panels Forms
– Concurrent:Request Priority: set the priority of a quote from a simultaneous treatment
– SLA: Enable Diagnostics: Enable diagnostic mode during a transaction SLA
– Signon: Audit Level: specifies the level for which the audit of connection is activated
The main difficulty that faces all those involved on the eBS is that there is not an Oracle official document containing all the profile options, and because there are more than 9 000 standard in the application.
Be found in the user guides and implementation of each module reference (rarely exhaustive) list of profile options available.
In fact there is a simple way to find a profile option and an early explanation of its purpose: search the tables where they are stored !
Here is a SQL script that will allow you to generate CSV extraction profile options per module (GL, AP, FA, etc …) and language (US, FR, IT, etc …):

-- Run this script with APPS/APPS by using SQLPlus with the following command line :
-- ENV> ...\SQLPLUS APPS/APPS@eBSInstance
-- SQL> start ...\fnd_profile_options.sql

SET TERMOUT ON

ACCEPT APPL_PRODUCT_CODE PROMPT 'Enter the Product Code or Application Short Name (AP, FA, PA...): '
ACCEPT LANGUAGE PROMPT 'Enter the language code like US, FR, DE... (none for all languages): '

-- This code build a file .csv with the expected information
SPOOL FND_PROFILE_OPTIONS.csv

SET HEADING OFF
SET FEEDBACK OFF
SET VERIFY OFF
SET LINESIZE 900

PROMPT PRODUCT_CODE;APPLICATION_SHORT_NAME;APPLICATION_NAME;LANGUAGE;PROFILE_OPTION_NAME;USER_PROFILE_OPTION_NAME;DESCRIPTION;
SELECT FAPP.PRODUCT_CODE  ||';'||
FAPP.APPLICATION_SHORT_NAME  ||';'||
FAPP_TL.APPLICATION_NAME  ||';'||
FPO_TL.LANGUAGE     ||';'||
FPO_TL.PROFILE_OPTION_NAME  ||';'||
FPO_TL.USER_PROFILE_OPTION_NAME ||';'||
FPO_TL.DESCRIPTION    ||';'
FROM      APPLSYS.FND_PROFILE_OPTIONS FPO,
          APPLSYS.FND_PROFILE_OPTIONS_TL FPO_TL,
          APPLSYS.FND_APPLICATION FAPP,
          APPLSYS.FND_APPLICATION_TL FAPP_TL
WHERE     FPO_TL.PROFILE_OPTION_NAME = FPO.PROFILE_OPTION_NAME
AND       FPO.APPLICATION_ID = FAPP.APPLICATION_ID
AND       FAPP.APPLICATION_ID = FAPP_TL.APPLICATION_ID
AND       FAPP_TL.LANGUAGE = FPO_TL.LANGUAGE
AND       UPPER(FAPP.PRODUCT_CODE) LIKE UPPER('%&&APPL_PRODUCT_CODE%')
AND       UPPER(FPO_TL.LANGUAGE) LIKE UPPER('%&&LANGUAGE%')
ORDER BY  FAPP.PRODUCT_CODE,
          FPO_TL.LANGUAGE,
          FPO_TL.PROFILE_OPTION_NAME
/

SPOOL OFF

PROMPT
PROMPT The file FND_PROFILE_OPTIONS.csv has been generated, please check it
PROMPT Send any comment to noel.schneider@easyteam.fr
PROMPT

Here is an example for the FA module and language US:

It will be observed in the results obtained in the Description column provides an indication, however short, on the subject of the profile option.
I suggest you take the training Oracle Applications 12.x: Fundamentals of the administration system to understand in detail the setting profile options and their creation.