invoice approval workflow using ame (1)

7/26/2019 Invoice Approval Workflow Using AME (1)

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Oracle/Client Confidential - For internal use only

Oracle Applications White Paper

White Paper on Invoice Approval

Workflow Using ApprovalManagement Engine in R12Author: Meha Agrawal and Rupali Ghosh

Reviewed By: Sanjay Prasad

Creation Date: February 6,2015

Last Updated: February 8,2015

Version: 1.0

Status: FINAL




Contents

1 OVERVIEW ........................................................................................................................................................................... 3

2 OBJECTIVE ........................................................................................................................................................................... 3

3 SCOPE/OUT OF SCOPE........................................................................................................................................................ 3

4 TERMS USED ........................................................................................................................................................................ 4

5 BUSINESS CASE ................................................................................................................................................................... 4

5.1 METHODOLOGY ................................................................................................................................................................. 4

5.2 BUSINESS EXAMPLES ........................................................................................................................................................ 4

6 INITIAL SETUP ..................................................................................................................................................................... 5

6.1 PAYABLES OPTION ............................................................................................................................................................ 5

6.2 SYSTEM ADMINISTRATOR SETUP ................................................................................................................................. 6

7 BUSINESS FLOW ................................................................................................................................................................. 7

CASE 1: APPROVAL OF FOREIGN CURRENCY INVOICES ............................................................................................... 7

CASE 2: APPROVAL OF PO MATCHED INVOICES ........................................................................................................... 14

CASE 3- APPROVAL FROM THE SUPERVISOR OF THE REQUESTER .......................................................................... 23

CASE 4 - APPROVAL BASED ON LEGAL ENTITY ............................................................................................................ 31

8 TROUBLESHOOTING INVOICE APPROVAL WORKFLOW ......................................................................................... 38

9 TECHNICAL ASPECT ........................................................................................................................................................ 39

10 LINE LEVEL APPROVAL IN R12 ..................................................................................................................................... 41

11 PARALLEL APPROVAL .................................................................................................................................................... 41

12 REFERENCE ........................................................................................................................................................................ 42

13 CONCLUSION ..................................................................................................................................................................... 42




1 OVERVIEW

Organizations prefer to have approval process configured for the Payables before the invoice is paid off. This is useful from an

Audit perspective as well as it eliminates mistakes made by data entry clerk. It also leaves very little chance of an unauthorized payment as approvers might question Corporate Finance team of the organization if some invoice looks out of the ordinary. If the

data entry clerk makes a mistake during entering the invoice, the invoice might be paid off before the mistake is spotted. To avoid

these scenarios organizations might implement AP invoice approval process.

The Invoice Approval Workflow automates your invoice approval process. Based on rules you define (using the Approvals

Management Application), the workflow determines if an invoice needs approval, who the appropriate approvers are, and in what

order approvers should approve payment of the invoice. The workflow then sequentially asks each approver in the approval list to

approve invoices online.

2

OBJECTIVE

Objective of this white paper is to improve reader’s understanding of Invoice Approval workflow using Approval management

Engine in R12.This white paper demonstrates few business cases on how invoice is sent for approval using rules defined in

Approval management engine.

3

SCOPE/OUT OF SCOPE

This white paper will cover

1.

Setup steps in System Administrator, HRMS, Payables, Approval Management Business Analyst for Invoice Approval

Workflow.

2. Test Cases to initiate invoice for approval using different AME rules.

3. Troubleshooting Invoice approval workflow.

4. Brief description on parallel approval.

This whitepaper will not cover

1. Workflow details.

2.

How to add AME responsibility to users And AME setups for different Transaction Types.

3. Purchase order creation and PO approval.

4. Use of different Action types in AME.

5. Creation of custom attributes in Approval management business analyst.




4

TERMS USED

Approval Management Business Analyst: AM Business Analyst

Transaction Type Id: APINV (Payables Invoice Approval)

Operating Unit: OU

5

BUSINESS CASE

5.1 METHODOLOGY

The Invoice Approval Workflow automates invoice approval process. Based on rules

defined in AME, the workflow determines if an invoice needs approval, identify approvers, and order in which approvers should

approve the invoice. The workflow then sends approval in a serial order to each approver defined in the approval group. There

are four different business scenarios discussed in this White paper.

5.2 BUSINESS EXAMPLES

BUSINESS FLOW 1 - Approval of foreign currency invoices. Consider the ledger currency of the organization is USD, and

Invoice is entered in EUR (which is the Transaction currency). Approval is required for the invoices which are entered in

currency different than the ledger currency.

BUSINESS FLOW 2 - Approval of PO matched Invoices

BUSINESS FLOW 3 - Approval of invoices from the supervisor of requester.

BUSINESS FLOW 4 - Approval of invoices based on Legal Entity.




6 INITIAL SETUP

6.1 PAYABLES OPTION

In order to send invoices for approval the “ Use Invoice Approval Workflow “ should be enabled. Once you enable this option,

all the Invoices entered in a specific Operating unit can be initiated for approval.

You also have an Option to Force approve the invoices. Enable “Allow Force approval” to get this functionality. Force approval

is required in cases where the payment is approved manually by a hard copy signature. When you force approve the invoice, the

approval status of the invoice is changed to “Manually Approved”. Force Approval of an Invoice can be done through Invoice

workbench=>Actions=>Force Approval.

If user wants to validate invoices before approval, enable “Require Validation Before Approval”. If this check box is checked in

payables option, then approval can be initiated only after invoice has been validated.

Following navigation is used to do setup changes in Payables option:

a) Go to Payables Super User Responsibility => Setup=> Options=> Payables Options.

b) Query the OU for which you want to enable the Invoice approval workflow

c) Navigate to Approval Tab.




6.2 SYSTEM ADMINISTRATOR SETUP

Register FND USER as an Application User .

Navigation: System Administrator -> Security -> User -> Define

Note : While defining a FND USER it is not necessary to associate any person or customer.




7 BUSINESS FLOW

DISCLAIMER : Audience for this document are the one who knows AME setup in generic.

CASE 1: APPROVAL OF FOREIGN CURRENCY INVOICES

Organizations enter invoices in currency different than their ledger currency. This scenario explains how to send foreign currency

invoices for approval.

For example:

Ledger currency of the organization is USD, Transactions are entered in EUR. Approval is required for the invoices which are

entered in “EUR” currency. Following different activities would be performed in sequence:

a. Create a condition based on attribute SUPPLIER_INVOICE_BASE_AMOUNT.

b. Create an approval group with list of approvers who would be approving invoice

c. Create an AME rule.

d. Create a foreign currency invoice ( Currency not equal to ledger currency)

e. Initiate Approval

f. Approvers receives the notification in Serial order

g. Approve the Invoice

Note the Rule will be triggered based on the Functional amount of Invoice.

For example:-

Invoice amount (in entered currency) = 50

Functional amount (in ledger currency) = 150

The rule will be triggered based on Functional amount 150

SET UP STEPS

1. Create Condition in AME using Oracle seeded attribute SUPPLIER_INVOICE_BASE_AMOUNT

a) Navigation : AM Business Analyst =>Transaction Type Id: APINV =>Condition => Create

b) Select attribute as SUPPLIER_INVOICE_BASE_AMOUNT

c) Specify amount range and click Apply.




2. Create Approver group

a) Navigation : AM Business Analyst =>Transaction Type Id: APINV =>Approver group => Create

b) Enter Approver group name

c) Specify Order number as 1

d) Specify Voting method as Serial

e) Select the approver type as FND USER and associate list of approvers




3. Create AME Rule

a) Navigation : AM Business Analyst =>Transaction Type Id: APINV =>Rules => Create Rule

b) Enter Rule name: APPROVAL FOR FOREIGN CURR

c) Select a condition created above.

d) Select the action type as “Approval Group Chain of authority”

e) Select the approver group defined above.




TRANSACTIONAL STEPS

1. Create invoice with currency different than ledger currency. Navigation: Payables Super user=>Invoices=>Invoice Entry

NOTE : Invoice Curr is EUR, Functional Currency is USD and Approval status of invoice is “Required”.

2. Navigate Actions > Select Initiate Approval > Click Ok




Once user clicks “OK”, approval status changes to initiated.

3. View the approval history of the transaction. Navigation : Invoice Workbench Tool Bar=>Reports=>View invoice approval

history

Note: Here approval goes to “MEAGRAW” and “RUGHOSH” as defined in Approval group.




4. User “MEAGRAW” reviews the worklist to approve the invoice. Navigation: Payables Super User -> Workflow -> Worklist

Once transaction is approved by ‘MEAGRAW’, approval notification goes to ‘RUGHOSH’.

Review the Invoice approval history after MEAGRAW approves the invoice

Navigation: Payables Super user=>Invoices=>Invoice Entry=> Invoice Workbench Tool Bar=>Reports=>View invoice approval

history




5. User ‘RUGHOSH’ reviews worklist to approve the invoice. Navigation: Payables Super User -> Workflow -> Worklist

Once ‘RUGHOSH’ approves , the approval history will be as below:


history

6. To check the final Status of Invoice, navigate to Invoice Workbench= >General Tab and review Approval Status. It should

be “Workflow Approved”




CASE 2: APPROVAL OF PO MATCHED INVOICES

PO already requires approval in purchasing. Thus when a PO matched invoice is created in payables, the status of such invoice

changes to "Not Required". Based on the business requirement, if users want approval for PO matched invoice, following

mandatory setups are required:

a) End date the existing AME rule: “INVOICE HEADER MATCH CHECK” and “INVOICE LINE MATCH CHECK”.

b) Create a new Rule with condition APPROVE_MATCHED_INVOICES as True and

SUPPLIER_INVOICE_MATCHED as ‘Y’.

SET UP STEPS

1.

End Date Oracle seeded AME Rule.

a) Navigation : AM Business Analyst =>Transaction Type Id: APINV =>Rules

b) Query “Invoice Header Match Check ”, Click on update icon and enter “End Date”.

c) Query “Invoice Line Match Check”, Click on update icon and enter “End Date”.




2. Create Condition based on oracle seeded attribute “APPROVE_MATCHED_INVOICES” and

SUPPLIER_INVOICE_MATCHED


b) Select attribute as APPROVE_MATCHED_INVOICES, Enter value as ‘True’ and apply.

c) Select attribute as SUPPLIER_INVOICE_MATCHED, Enter value as ‘Y’ and apply.






b) Enter Approver group name

c) Specify Order number as 1

d) Specify Voting method as Serial

e) Select the approver type as FND USER and associate list of approvers




4. Create AME Rule


b)

Enter Rule name: PO matched invoice for approval

c) Select a condition created above (Step-2).


e) Select the approver group defined above (Step-3).

When an invoice is matched to PO, attribute APPROVE_MATCHED_INVOICES is set to True. Once the rule is setup with

condition APPROVE_MATCHED_INVOICES = True, this rule will then be applicable to all the PO Matched invoices.




TRANSACTIONAL STEPS

1. Create Purchase Orders

Navigation: Purchasing Responsibility> Purchase Orders> Purchase Orders

Create a Purchase Order (PO) using a supplier and get it approved

Note: The PO number is 6147 and Status is “Approved”

2. Create an Invoice and match to PO 6147

Navigate to Invoice workbench to create a matched invoice.

Navigation: Payables Responsibility> Invoices> Entry> Invoices/Invoice Batches

Note: The invoice is matched to PO number 6147




3. Review the status of the Invoice

Note: The Approval status of Invoice is “Required”


Once user clicks “Ok”, approval status changes to Initiated.




5. View the approval history of the transaction

Navigation: Invoice Workbench Tool Bar=>Reports=>View invoice approval history

Note: Here approval goes to “MEAGRAW” and “RUGHOSH” as defined in Approval group.

6. User “MEAGRAW” reviews the wor klist to approve the invoice. Navigation: Payables Super User -> Workflow -> Worklist




Once transaction is approved by ‘MEAGRAW’, approval notification goes to ‘RUGHOSH’.

Review the Invoice approval history after MEAGRAW approves the invoice. Navigation:

Payables Super user=>Invoices=>Invoice Entry=> Invoice Workbench Tool Bar=>Reports=>View invoice approval history

7. User ‘RUGHOSH’ reviews worklist to approve the invoice. Navigation: Payables Super User -> Workflow -> Worklist




Once ‘RUGHOSH’ approves , the approval history will be as below:


history






CASE 3- APPROVAL FROM THE SUPERVISOR OF THE REQUESTER

Every organization has supervisor associated to an employee. There can be business requirement, wherein invoice needs an

approval from the supervisor of the employee.

In this scenario “Requester” becomes a mandatory field to be entered while creating invoice. When approval is initiated

workflow engine will look for the supervisor assigned to the Requester in Human Resource Responsibility.

SET UP STEPS

1. Create an Employee (Requester) and assign supervisor in HRMS.

a) Registering Employee in HRMS, Navigate: HRMS responsibility=>People=>Enter and Maintain




b) Define a Supervisor for Employee (Requester).

Navigate HRMS responsibility=>People=>Enter and Maintain.

Click on Assignment button. Navigate to Supervisor tab and associate supervisor

Note: For detailed explanation on how to register an Employee in HMRS, refer Oracle HRMS user guide

2. Register the employee as an Application User

a) Navigation: System Administrator=>Security=>User=>Define

b) Create an user for the Employee

c) In the list of value for ‘PERSON’ , select the employee created in HRMS (E.g. Agrawal,Meha)




3. Register the supervisor as an Application User

b) Navigation: System Administrator=>Security=>User=>Define

c) Create a user for the supervisor.

d) In the list of value for ‘PERSON’ , select the supervisor associated to employee created in HRMS (E.g. Arora, Mr.

Rajiv)

4. Create Condition as per business requirement. In below example SUPPLIER_INVOICE_AMOUNT is considered


b) Select attribute as SUPPLIER_INVOICE_AMOUNT

c) Specify amount and click Apply.




5. Create AME Rule


b)

Enter Rule name: Approval required from Supervisor

c) Select a condition created above (Step-4).

d) Select the seeded action type as “Supervisory Level”

e) Select the action as “Require approvals up to the first superior”.

Note: The supervisory-level action type ascends the HR supervisory hierarchy, generating a chain that has a fixed number of

approvers in it. For more details refer to Implementing Oracle Approvals Management Guide. In HRMS Employee, “Agrawal,

Meha” has been assigned supervisor “Arora, Rajiv”.

Rajiv Arora (Manager)

Meha Agrawal (Employee)

Note: As per above rule if supplier_invoice_amount is greater than 20000 USD, then approval will go to supervisor of requester.




TRANSACTIONAL STEPS

1. Create an invoice in Payables, Navigation: Payables Super user=>Invoices=>Invoice Entry. Enter the “Requester ” field.

Here requester is the employee.

Note: The Approval status of Invoice is “Required”


Once user clicks “Ok”, approval status changes to Initiated.





history

Note: Here approval goes to “Arora, Rajiv” supervisor of Requester “Agrawal, Meha”

4. Supervisor “RKARORA” reviews the work list to approve the invoice. Navigation: Payables Super User -> Workflow ->

Work list




Once ‘R KARORA’ approves , the approval history will be as below:


history




CASE 4 - APPROVAL BASED ON LEGAL ENTITY

Organization can have multiple legal entities assigned to a Ledger. There can be business requirement where invoice approvals

are sent based on Legal Entity of transaction.

For example:

If an Invoice is created for Legal Entity-1, approval is sent to Approval Group-A

If an Invoice is created for Legal Entity-2, approval is sent to Approval Group-B.

This business case explains the implementation of AME rule to achieve the requirement.

SET UP STEPS:

1. Create a custom attribute to derive the Legal Entity of transaction. Custom attribute is created when there is no seeded

attribute available to create required AME condition. Following step explains the same.

a)

Navigation : AM Business Analyst =>Transaction Type Id: APINV =>Attribute => Create

b) Enter Name of the attribute.

c) Enter Item Class “Header”

Note: An attribute item class determines the class of items having value for the attribute. Attributes belonging to the

header item class are sometimes termed header-level attributes. Attributes belonging to subordinate item classes are

sometimes termed line-item-level attributes or cost-center-level attributes.

d) Enter description

e) Enter Data Type as Number.

f) Enter Approver Type as ‘None’.

g) Enter Usage Type as ‘Dynamic’.

h) In Value parameter, Enter the Query to retrieve Legal Entity

“ Select legal_entity_id from ap_invoices_all where invoice_id =:transactionId “

i) Apply and save the changes.

For more details on custom attribute creation refer to Implementing Oracle Approvals Management Guide




2. Create a condition based on custom attribute


b) Select custom attribute ‘TEST_LEGAL_ENTITY_ID’ created in Step-1

c) Specify legal_entity_id.

d) Apply and save.






b)

Enter Approver group name .

c) Specify Order number as 1.

d) Specify Voting method as Serial.

e) Select the approver type as FND USER and associate list of approvers.

4. Create AME Rule


b) Enter Rule name: MEAGRAW Test Legal Entity

c) Select a condition created in Step-2 .


e)

Select the approver group defined in Step-3.




TRANSACTIONAL STEPS

1. Create invoice in Legal Entity 204 (used in this business case) .Navigation: Payables Super user=>Invoices=>Invoice

Entry.

Note: The legal_entity_id can be checked using below navigation

Navigation: Invoice workbench=>Help=>Diagnostic=>Examine

In Field Select LEGAL_ENTITY_ID




Review the Status of the Invoice.

Note: The Approval Status of Invoice is “Required”

2. Initiate Approval. Navigate Actions > Select Initiate Approval > Click Ok




Once User Clicks OK, the approval Status changes to “Initiated”.


history

Note : Here approval is sent to ‘MEAGRAW’ as defined in approval group of AME rule.

4. User “MEAGRAW” reviews the worklist to approve the invoice. Navigation: Payables Super User -> Workflow ->

Worklist..




Once transaction is approved by ‘MEAGRAW’ , approval status is changed to Approved.

Review the Invoice approval history after MEAGRAW approves the invoice


history


be “Workflow Approved”.




8

TROUBLESHOOTING INVOICE APPROVAL WORKFLOW

1. To check the rules which are triggered when you initiate invoice for approval, below steps can be followed:

a)

Navigate to AM Business Analyst Responsibility,

b) In transaction Type select "Payables Invoice Approval" and Click on Test workbench,

c) Run Real Test Transaction.

d) Enter Transaction_id as Invoice_id(which is having issue) and click on Run Test Case (2).




e) Review the Applicable Rules for that particular transaction and the list of Approvers

2. Invoice approval status stuck in “ Initiated" status and no approval notification sent to approvers

(Notification stuck in the WF_DEFERRED queue)

a) Start the Workflow Agent Listener by doing the following in Payables:

Other -> Request -> Run

b) Select Workflow Agent Listener from the list.

c) For Agent Name, select WF_DEFERRED from the list.

d) Submit this request.

e) View Requests to make sure it completes normally.

Note: This can also be scheduled to run automatically.

9 TECHNICAL ASPECT

Once the invoice approval work flow is initiated, invoice document approval history can be viewed through “View Invoice

approval history” tab under reports in invoice workbench. This window following details:-Approver name, future approver,

Amount reviewed, Action date.

“View Invoice approval history” is enabled only when we navigate to Headers region of invoice workbench. Data shownin approval history window is based on data from table AP_INV_APRVL_HIST_ALL.

In R12, invoice approval work flow mainly involves the following concurrent programs, work flow and tables:

a) Package: AP_WORKFLOW_PKG (aphanwfs.pls, aphanwfb.pls)

b) Concurrent Program : AP Invoice Approval Workflow (APINVAPR) - apfhanwf.wft

c) Table : AP_INV_APRVL_HIST_ALL, AP_APINV_APPROVERS




The Figure below describes the workflow process for the Invoice Approval

The following are the main points to note:

1. The Approver can either Approve or Request the lines in the notification.

2. If the Approver fails to respond, an escalation notification will be sent to his/her Supervisor as setup in HR.

3. This process Ends in statuses ‘Approve’ or ‘Reject’, which in turn is used in the main process to either continue the

workflow process or to stop it (i.e., Approval stops at the first Rejection).

Note: The workflows shown above are based on the latest available AP_WORKFLOW_PKG (120.64.12010000.56) and

workflow file apfhanwf.wft (120.36.12010000.15)




10 LINE LEVEL APPROVAL IN R12

With introduction of Invoice Lines in R12, Invoice approval workflow has been enhanced to include Invoice lines approval also

based on rules setup for Payables Invoice Approval Transaction Type in AME. The workflow determines if the invoice Header(Invoice document) needs approval or invoice lines need approval or both.

Invoice document and all lines requiring approval should be approved before the invoice can be paid. If both invoice lines and

document need to be approved, all the lines of the invoice requiring approval must be approved before the invoice document can

be approved.

Invoice approval status is derived from approval status maintained at invoice header level and approval status maintained at

invoice line level.

The item class provided in defining rule in AME would determine whether this rule effects the invoice document approval or

invoice line approval. If item class is given as Header, this rule would govern the invoice document approval and if given as Line

Item, would govern the invoice line approval. Rest all setups in AME are same as the setups in R11i.

View Invoice approval history is enabled only when we navigate to Headers region of invoice workbench. Data shown in this

form is based on data from table AP_INV_APRVL_HIST_ALL.

View Line approval history is enabled only when we navigate to lines region of invoice workbench. This form shows the line

level approval context of respective lines. Data shown in this form is based on data from table AP_APINV_APPROVERS.

Note: Line-level approval is available for invoices that are matched to a purchase order. The line level approval work-flow is

designed to work for PO matched lines only. For detailed explanation on Line level approval, please refer to AME

Implementation guide.

11

PARALLEL APPROVAL

Invoice approval workflow now supports parallelization at the invoice header level on 12.1.x and 12.2.x.The main advantage for

this change is to shorten the processing time for an invoice to get approved.

The parallel approval process imposes a hierarchical (tree) structure on the transaction’s approver list and enables each par t of the

tree at a given level to progress through its notification-approval cycle asynchronously. This enables the approval process of each

item in the transaction to continue irrespective of the progress of approval process of other items in the transaction and reduces

the transaction's approval process time.

If user selects the parallel ordering mode, the approval notifications will be sent to all approvers at the same time. The invoice

may get approved when one or all approvers approve the invoice, depending on the voting regime that is set up.

The available voting regimes are serial, consensus, first-responder-wins and order number.

This enhancement is available with 12.2.4 and can be added to 12.1.x by the application of patch 19608529:R12.AP.B



12 REFERENCE

This paper is intended to supplement the following reference materials, which should also be studied for a full understanding of

the topic.

a) Implementing Oracle Approvals Management.

b) Oracle Payables User Guide

c) Oracle HRMS User Guide

13

CONCLUSION

The goal of this document is to help you learn and understand the flow of Invoice approval workflow using AME rules. For a

more detailed explanation, please refer to Implementing Oracle Approvals Management and Oracle Payables User Guide.

invoice approval workflow using ame (1)

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