Oracle Payables Invoice Approvals Workflow

AME Introduction

AME is a self-service web application which lets users define business rules governing who should approve transactions that originate in other Oracle applications like in SSHR. It mainly provides the following services to the calling application,

- A centralized rules repository for defining and sharing rules.

- Based on specific transaction date, it provides an execution engine to evaluate the rules.

- It provides the List Management capabilities.

- It also provides the history of approval status.

Announcing Approvals Management Mini pack AME.B (4428060). This release sees the adoption of OAF (Applications Framework) in place of the mod pl/sql UI previously available within AME.

Announcing Approvals Management Mini pack AME.B rollup patch (4873179). This fixes some issues with AME.B as well as introducing some functionality for future uptake by integration teams. AME.B patch is the OAF version of AME. Please note that the version of AME in R12 is equivalent to AME.B (up to its rollup) and hence all the documents for AME.B are also applicable for R12 with some minor change.

Knowing AME.B

In AME B, the UI has moved to new OAF tech. With this, the old AME Application administrator responsibility is end-dated and instead we have the following two responsibilities;

- Approvals Management Business Analyst

- Approvals Management Administrator

Assigning these responsibilities directly to a user will NOT work. From AME.B onwards RBAC (Role Based Access Control) is used. So, for the responsibilities to work, AME roles should be assigned and data grand has to be provided to the users. This is explained in detail in following sections.

For the Existing users, you can run the ‘Approvals management Post Upgrade Process’ concurrent process, which will attach the new responsibilities to the existing AME Users. Using the System Administrator Responsibility, you can attach the concurrent program to System Administrator Reports Request Group.

The migration is implemented as a concurrent program with Switches. To migrate users, pass 'MIGRATE_USERS' as parameter. To migrate item class usages, pass 'MIGRATE_ITEM_CLASS_USAGES' as parameter. To migrate both pass 'MIGRATE_ALL' as parameter. Ensure that concurrent manager and workflow BES are up before running the program. Also, please ensure that the port is bounced once the CP has been executed/run successfully

AP Invoice Approval Introduction

Payable Invoice Approval is a workflow process that enables you to automate the approval process. It helps in customizing and setting approval methodology based on

o Approver

o Sequence of approval

o Criteria for approval

In what cases Invoice Approval workflow will not apply

· When the Expense Report is imported

· In the case of Recurring invoices, if approval is not required as  per the template

· For those invoices before this feature is enabled

Structure of AME

AME is a framework of well-defined approval rules constructed using the following 5 components for a given

1.Transaction Type

2.Attributes

3.Conditions

4.Actions

5.Approver Groups

6.Rules

1. Transaction Type:

Transaction Type is a distinct set of approval rules used by certain category of transactions in an integrating Application

2. Attribute:

Attributes in AME are placeholders for transaction data elements. They are basic elements of an AME rule.

Attributes can be static (fixed value) or dynamic (SQL Query based). AME comes with several seeded attributes for each of the transaction types in the system. If the seeded attributes cannot be used for approval rules, then organizations can define their own attributes.

Attributes can be shared across various transaction types. Attributes can be defined at 3 different levels Header, Line Item and Cost Center level.

 3. Condition:

The “Condition” component is used to tell AME engine to trigger an AME rule if the result of the condition is TRUE.

One or more attributes are used to define a condition. In the condition setup, an attribute is associated with a value or range of values. At runtime, the transaction type value is evaluated against the attribute value. If the value transaction type value qualifies with the attribute value, the outcome of the condition is TRUE and the AME rule is eligible to trigger. Otherwise, the condition will yield FALSE and the rule shall not apply.

Ex: This condition states if the payable Invoice   Total is >= 100 and <= 500000 and the currency is “USD”, then tell AME to enable the rule associated with this condition to fire.

 

4. Action Type:

An Action Type is a collection of one or more Actions having similar functionality. An Action tells AME how to modify a transaction’s approval process in a certain way.AME provides several seeded action types or one may define a custom action type. The seeded Action Types available in AME can be used to ascend organization hierarchies. Seeded Actions Types available in AME cannot be used with any transaction type.

<![if !supportLists]>5.    <![endif]>Approver Group:

Approver Group is used to fetch approvers from Oracle Applications (HRMS). Approver Group can be static or dynamic in nature.

Static approver group, the approvers are constant, added at the time of Approver Group setup and will be listed as Group Members.

Dynamic approver group, the approvers are generated at run time using an SQL Query in the approver group setup and are later identified as Group Members at run time.

Approver Group may have a voting method assigned such as Consensus, First Responder Wins, Order Number and Serial. The voting method assigned to an approver group determines the order in which the Group Members are notified and also how the decision of the group’s approval.

Approver Group – Voting Regimes

• Serial – Members are notified one after the other according to their member order (ties broken arbitrarily). All members must approve.

• Consensus – Members notified in parallel. All must approve.

• First-Responder-Wins -  Members notified in parallel. First responder = group’s decision.

• Order-Number – Members notified according to order, ties notified in parallel. All must respond.

 6. Rule

A Rule (also called as “Approval Rule”) in AME is used to transform the business rules into approval rules to specify approvers in the transaction’s approval list.

Rule is the last component step in AME configuration process. A rule is constructed using the following components: Rule Type, Item Class, Category, Conditions and Actions

List-Creation

If invoice amount > $1000 INR (condition), THEN require approval one job levels above requestor.

List-Creation Exception

If invoice amount > $500 INR and pay group = Employee, THEN require approval two job levels above requestor.

List-Modification

If any approver = Sam Clark, THEN grant final authority.

Pre and Post

If expenditure category = Computers, THEN require approval from IS department.

 

Pre – Requisites

Step1 : For invoice approval, Manger should be assign to requester(Panchineni, Hanumanth).

 

Setting up AME Responsibilities

AME responsibilities in 11i.AME.A are assigned directly to the users.  However, In R12 or 11i.AME.B and higher, AME responsibilities are assigned indirectly to users through roles.  The roles are assigned to the users by the SYSADMIN user using the User Management responsibility.  Once the roles are assigned, the AME responsibilities are automatically available to the users without specifically assigning the AME responsibilities to the users

 

Assigning the “Approvals Management Business Analyst” responsibility to application user

1. Login as SYSADMIN user (or a user that has full User Management functionality).

2. Switch the responsibility to User Management and Navigate to the Users function

3.Query with RCHINTHAPATLA user and click on Go.

4. Click on the update  action from the result table.

5. Click on the Assign Roles  button.

6. Change the “Search By” field from “Roles and Responsibilities” to “Roles”

7. in the search window, query for Approval%

8. Following five roles will be displayed.

9. Select only the “Approvals Management Business Analyst” role.

10. After selecting the Roles, provide the Justification for the role and the effective date and click on Apply.

Granting Access  to AME Responsibilities :

AME restricts access to transaction types using Data Security.  Grant users access to the transaction types using the Grants page AME restricts access to transaction types using Data Security.  Grant users access to the transaction types using the Grants page

11. Now switch the responsibility to Functional Administrator.

12. Click on create grants under the grants sub-tab.

13. Enter a Grant Name and provide an effective date.

14. Navigate to the security Context region and select the Grantee Type as ‘Specific User’

15. In the Grantee field select the above User(RCHINTHAPATLA)

16. In the Data Security region select ‘AME Transaction Types’ as the Object.

17. Clicking Next will take you to the ‘Select Object Data Context’ page’.

18. You have a default value of ‘All Rows’ in the Data Context Type, leave it as it is, and navigate further.

19. In the ‘Object parameter and Select Set’ page, enter ‘AME Calling Applications’ as the value in the Set field.

20. Clicking Next will take you to the Review page.

21. Verify the information and submit the transaction.

Enabling the “Use Invoice Approval Workflow” option to initiate the AP Invoice Approval workflow after invoice validation

22. Go to Payables Option select Approval (T), should be enable “Use Invoice Approval Workflow”, “Allow Force Approval” and also enable “Require Validation Before Approval”.

Nav : Payables Manager, Vision Operations (USA) àSetup àOptions àPayables Option àApproval(T)

Demonstration of Setups in AME

Login with RCHINTHAPATLA user

You should be able to see the following responsibilities:

a. Approvals Management Business Analyst

Click on Approvals Management Business Analyst responsibility.

Transaction Type : The first step in the approval setups process is to select the transaction type for which we need to create approval setups. AME is designed to provide approval logic for many transaction types.

Select the transaction type as Payables Invoice Approval

Create Attribute

Click on the attribute link

Click on Create button

Enter the below details and click on Validate button

Name                         XXAA_EMPLOYEE_SUPPLIER_INVOICE_AMOUNT

Item Class                 Header

Description               AME Approvals for EMPLOYEE vendor type suppliers

Data Type                 Currency

Approver Type        None

Value Set                 

Usage Type               Dynamic

Value                          select

fnd_number.number_to_canonical(ai.INVOICE_AMOUNT)

,nvl(ai.Invoice_Currency_Code,asp.Invoice_Currency_Code)

,nvl(ai.Exchange_Rate_Type,'Corporate')

from ap_invoices_all ai, ap_system_parameters_all asp

where 1=1

and ai.org_id = asp.org_id

and ai.invoice_id = :transactionId

Once it is valid then click on Apply button

Condition

Create a condition with above attribute

Click on Create button

Select the above attribute and enter the amount value and click on apply

Action Types

Click on Use Existing Action Types

Select the Supervisory level and click on continue

Click on Finish

Create Rule:

Create Rules with the help of condition and action.

Click on create button

Enter the Name and remaining values are default and click on next

Click on Add Condition

Select the condition and click on continue

Click on Next

Select the Action Type as “Supervisor level” and Action as “Require approvals up to the first two supervisors” and click on Next

Click on Finish

Testing AP Invoice Workflow Process:

Step 1 : Create invoice

Nav : Payables Manager, Vision Operations (USA) à Invoices àInvoice Batch

Enter the invoice batch name and then click on invoices button

Enable the Requester field

Nav : Folder àShow field à Requester

Enter supplier (Supplier as Employee), invoice details and amount should be greater than 5000 and select Requestor name.

Note: Approval status should be as Required

Step 2 : Validate invoice

Click on Validate: Actions à Check the Validate

Invoice is validated

Step 3 : Initiate the Invoice approval

Click on Actions and check the Initiate Approval

Now the approval status is changed to Initiated

Step 4 : Check the Approval workflow

Reports àView Invoice Approval History

Approver 1:

Login with OPERATIONS user and click on the notification link

Check the invoice details and click on Approve button

Check the approval history

Reports àView Invoice Approval History

Approver 2:

Login with CBROWN user and click on the notification link

Check the invoice details and click on Approve button

Check the approval history : Reports àView Invoice Approval History

Requery the invoice, Invoice approval status is changed to Worlflow Approved