oracle approvals management (ame) case studies for...

Oracle Approvals Management (AME) Case Studies for AP, PO and HR

Updated Feb-2017

Presented By

Susan Behn

VP, Oracle Practice

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Copyright © 2017 Infosemantics, Inc. All Rights Reserved . Any other commercial product names herein are trademark, registered trademarks or service marks of their respective owners.

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About the Speaker

■ Oracle Ace

■ Over 20 years E-Business Suite development and support

■ Member-Oracle Proactive Support Customer Advisory Board

■ Chair-Oracle E-Business Suite User Management SIG

■ Chair-Texas-Louisiana Oracle User Group TLOAUG

■ Treasurer – Dallas Oracle Users Group – DOUG

■ Board Member – Customizations and Extensions SIG

■ Over 100 presentations on E-Business Suite

■ Co-author for multiple books on E-Business Suite■ The ABCs of Workflow for E-Business Suite Release 11i

■ Release 12 and The Release 12 Primer – Shining a Light on the Release 12 World.

■ Established in 2001

■ SBA 8(a) Small Business disadvantaged company

■ GSA Schedule contract GS-35F-0680V

■ Texas State HUB vendor

■ For more information, check out our web site at www.Infosemantics.com■ R12.1.3, R12.2.5, OBIEE

public vision instances▸ 12.2.6 by March, 2017

■ Posted presentations on functional and technical topics

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Copyright © 2017 Infosemantics, Inc. All Rights Reserved . Any other commercial product names

herein are trademark, registered trademarks or service marks of their respective owners.

http://www.infosemantics.com/

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Agenda

■ AME Overview

■ Setup examples

■ Testing Workbench and Sample Business Case Scenarios

■ Payables

■ Purchase Requisitions

■ Human Resources – iRecruitment Vacancy Approval

■ Migration with FNDLOAD

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What is AME?

■ Purpose is to find approvers based on business rules

■ AME generates the approver list

■ AME returns the next approver to calling application

■ Request for next approver re-generates approver list to return next approver to calling application

■ Integrated with multiple E-Business applications such as HR, PO and AP

■ APIs allow integration with 3rd party apps

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AME and Approval Workflows

■ Approval routing is controlled by AME rules via workflow

■ Workflow sends request to AME to find approvers

■ AME rules determine next approver and sends person_id, user_id, position_id, etc… back to workflow (id based on approver type

■ Workflow sends notification to approver identified by AME

AME

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Advantages of AME

■ Reduces approval cycle time

■ But some workflow approvals have functionality to reduce cycle time

■ Approval Rules can be developed by business users with minimal development assistance

■ Approver Lists leverage off existing Oracle hierarchies (e.g. HR supervisor, HR position)

■ Approver Lists can also leverage off custom hierarchies

■ AME responds to changes such as organization hierarchies or rule changes

■ Alternative is workflow customization

■ Requires significant development expertise

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Planning for AME

■ Gain support from the management team and users

■ Plan for all corporate rules using flow charts or decision trees

■ Provides basis for testing

■ Improves overall logic by identifying combinations

■ Identifies alternatives

■ Speeds implementation process

■ Identifies potential problems

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Setups for some Transaction Types

■ Setup requirements vary by transaction type

■ Refer to the user guide for the application

■ Will cover the following as examples

■ iExpenses

■ Payables

■ Purchasing

■ GL Journals

■ HR iRecruitment

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iExpenses AME Setup

■ Profile option “AME: Installed must be set to “Yes” at the Application level for Payables to use AME for iExpenses

■ This has no impact on approvals for payables invoices

■ For additional details see Oracle Internet Expenses Implementation and Administration Guide – section “Setting Up Approval Rules”

■ For line level approvals, define Cost Center orgs and Approval Managers

▸ See MOS note 261362.1

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Payables Invoices AME Setup

■ In SetupOptionsPayables Options Approval Tab

■ Check “Use Invoice Approval Workflow”

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Purchasing AME Setup

■ SetupPurchasingDocument Types■ Query the document Type

■ Enter the approval transaction type for the document type to use AME. ▸ PURCHASE_REQ for Purchase Requisition Approval

▸ INTERNAL_REQ for Internal Requisition Approval

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General Ledger AME Setup

■ Check the Enable Journal Approval check box on the Set of Books window■ Whether to use JE Approval is set per Ledger■ Once selected, default is Employee / Supervisor

■ Check the Require Journal Approval check box for each journal source that should be subject to approval

■ Create employee supervisor hierarchy in HR■ New for 12.1.3 and later – AME – profile option set at

application level, but doesn’t force ledgers not marked for JE Approval to use approvals – see MOS note 2038960.1

■ Set profile option “GL: Use Approval Management (AME) for journal approval” to yes

■ Optional: Update the profile option “GL: Number of journal lines to display in AME journal approval notification”■ Default is 5

■ Set up AME rules

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iRecruitment Vacancy Approval AME Setup

■ iRecruitment Vacancy Approval is delivered with seeded rules

■ If different rules are needed, create a custom transaction type for iRecruitment

■ Change the profile option IRC: Vacancy Approval Transaction Type to the new transaction type name

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AME Access

■ AME uses Oracle Role Based Access Model (RBAC) to access AME components

■ Functional Administrator Responsibility■ Grant access to data – (who can see what transaction type)

■ User Management Responsibility■ Login in as the SYADMIN user

■ Grant access to roles▸ Approvals Management Business Analyst - define business cases

▸ Approvals Management Administrator - add transaction types, add approver types and view logs

■ User Management Presentations with Details ■ http://www.infosemantics.com/presentation-downloads/

EBS User Management for Dummies – Current requirements and features including Grants, Permissions,

RBAC and Proxy users

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http://www.infosemantics.com/presentation-downloads/

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Business Analyst Dashboard

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Administrator Dashboard

■ See exception log to resolve errors, create transaction types and enable approver types

Users, Employees, Positions,

TCA Parties, Etc…

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AME Building Blocks

■ Approver Types

■ Configuration Variables – Global defaults or per transaction type■ General Variables

■ Rule Priority Modes

■ Forwarding Behaviors

■ Transaction Types

■ Attributes

■ Conditions

■ Actions/Action Types

■ Approver Groups

■ Rules

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Approvals Management Administrator Tasks

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Administrator Dashboard - Approver Types

■ Verify approver types needed are enabled or click the button to add an approver type from the list

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Configuration Variables - General

■ Control runtime behavior

■ Default applies to all transaction types

Change for

specific

trans. type

Change for

specific

transaction

type

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Rule Priority Modes■ Scroll down the configuration variables page to set the rule priority mode

for each rule type■ Options are disabled, relative or absolute

■ For absolute or relative, enter a numeric threshold (1 is highest priority)■ Threshold is compared to the rule priority during run time

▸ Absolute – if the evaluated priority value < rule priority mode, rule is processed▸ Relative – processes the highest number of rules = the threshold value

■ Details on how this works is explained in MOS Id: 225672.1

https://support.oracle.com/epmos/faces/DocContentDisplay?_afrLoop=337673845945457&id=225672.1&_afrWindowMode=0&_adf.ctrl-state=bidpzmr1q_114

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Forwarding Behaviors

■ Scroll down the configuration variables page to set forwarding behaviors

■ Determines how AME treats both the forwarder and forwardee when request for approval is forwarded

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Forwarding Behavior Choices

■ Ignore – treats as approval

■ Forwardee Only – add forwardee to approver list

■ Forwardee then Forwarder – add both to approval list

■ Skip Forwarder – extend chain of authority starting with forwardee, but skip forwarder

■ Repeat Forwarder – extend chain of authority starting with forwardee and include forwarder

■ Remand – add to approver list all approvers between the forwardee and the forwarder including the forwarder

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Transaction Types

■ What will be approved

■ Invoice, requisition, salary change…

■ R12.2.6 has 251 transaction types

■ Custom transaction types can be created

■ For the next few slides, query Payables Invoice Approval and click the pencil to edit

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Transaction Type - Item Classes

■ Page 2 shows levels at which approval rules can be configured

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Transaction Type - Mandatory Attributes

■ Some values can be changed


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Approvals Business Analyst Tasks

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Transaction Type

■ Query transaction type, then click the setup icon to edit attributes, conditions, action types and approver groups

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Attributes

■ Variables used to build rules (e.g. invoice amount, supplier, etc.)

■ Can be static (constant value) or dynamically retrieved at runtime (SQL query)

■ Basic attributes seeded for all transaction types

■ Existing attributes can be modified

▸ SUPERVISORY_NON_DEFAULT_STARTING_POINT_PERSON_ID – Update to start with a different person

■ Create additional attributes for anything linked to transaction id for header (invoice id, requisition id)

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Seeded Attributes

■ Examples from the Payables Invoice Approval transaction type

■ Description makes this very intuitive to utilize

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Create Attribute for Sales Tax Approval Rule

■ Attribute to return the number of sales tax lines that exist

Lookup

code = TAX

Tax code

name =

SALES TAX

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Conditions

■ Represent the IF part of an approval rule

■ Attributes are evaluated runtime

■ This is why AME adjusts immediately to changes

■ Result can either be true or false

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Condition Types

■ Ordinary■ Compare attribute to value or range

■ Exception■ Same as ordinary but can only be used in List Creation

Exception Rule Types

■ List Modifier■ Checks for presence of specified approver

▸ The action will determine what happens when this approver is encountered

Any Approver

Or

Final Approver

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Actions/Action Types

■ Represent the Then part of an approval rule

■ Provide instruction to AME when an approval rule has been satisfied

■ Determine the approvers and number of approvers

■ Action Types are grouping of actions

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Action Types

■ Grouping of Actions

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Action Types – Use Existing Action Type

■ If action type needed does not appear, click the “Use Existing Action Type Button”

■ Next, choose the rule Type

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Action Types – Use Existing Action Type

■ Select action type to add

Symbol denotes

action types already

available for use

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Actions for Chain of Authority Rule type

■ Example of Action Types and Actions for Chain of Authority Rule Type

Available Action Types

Actions for Absolute

Job level selected type

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Action Type Examples

Action Type Description Example

Absolute-job-level ~Ascends HR

supervisor hierarchy

~Based on specific job

level

Require approvals up

to at least job level six

•Specific purchase

types

Relative-job-level ~Ascends HR


~Based on job level

relative to requester’s

job level

Require approvals at

least four levels up

•Pay changes

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Manager-then-Final-

Approver

~Ascends HR


~Supervisor and final

approver are required

to approve

Require approval up

to first supervisor and

level six final approver

•Capital with CFO

approval

Supervisory-Level Ascends HR

supervisor hierarchy a

specified number of

levels


to three supervisors

•Expenses

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HR-Position Ascends HR position

hierarchy up to a

specified position


to Accounting

Manager

•HR approvals

Approver-Group

Chain-of-Authority

~Ascends custom

approver hierarchy

~Builds chain-of-

authority type

approver list

If transaction item is

related to a project

•Approver groups

based on project roles

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Final-Authority Grants final authority

to an approver by

ending the approval

chain when target

approver is reached

If Approver is Susan

Behn, allow final

approval

•VP Approval

Pre and Post Chain-

Of-Authority

Approvers are added

before or after normal

chain-of-authority list

build for a transaction

Require IT pre-

approval for hardware

purchase

•Accounting and

Technical

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Create New Approver Group

■ Dynamic approver groups are better than static due to maintenance requirements due to employee turnover

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Dynamic Approver Group

■ Get key members with role “Project Manager” for each project on invoice distributions

Will return

multiple project

managers if

more than one

project

referenced in

lines

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Voting Method

■ Serial – one-at-a-time, if order number same then AME breaks tie arbitrarily, all must approve

■ Consensus – parallel, all must approve■ First Responder Wins – parallel, first response determines

response for group■ Order Number – notified in sequence of order number, if

order number same then notified in parallel, all must approve

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Rules

■ Represent the translation of an organization business approval rule in AME

■ Associate one or more conditions to a rule

■ When the rule applies

■ Select an action type to build approver list

■ What to do when the conditions are met

■ Can have multiple rules each yielding a different list of approvers

■ Rules re-evaluated during each approval iteration

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Rule Types

■ List Creation

■ Generate Chain-of-Authority Approver Lists

▸ IF INVOICE_AMOUNT > $500K , THEN REQUIRE APPROVALS UP TO 2 SUPERVISORS

■ List-Creation Exceptions

■ Uses one ordinary condition and one exception condition

▸ IF INVOICE_AMOUNT < 1000 AND (Exception) SUPPLIER_TYPE IS IN (‘UTILITY’) THEN REQUIRE APPROVALS UP TO 1 SUPERVISORS

■ Combination

■ Combination of actions

▸ IF REQUESTER IS ‘JOHN DOE’, REQUIRE PRE-APPROVAL FROM TEAM LEAD, POST-APPROVAL FROM AP MANAGER

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Rule Types

■ List-Modification■ Used to extend or reduce final approver authority

▸ IF INVOICE_AMOUNT > 5000 AND PAYGROUP IS ‘COMPEQUIP’ AND ANY APPROVER IS GERALD JONES GRANT FINAL AUTHORITY

■ Substitution■ Allows an approver on approver list to be substituted for

another person

■ Alternative for vacation rules▸ IF ANY APPROVER IS GERALD JONES, THEN SUBSTITUTE

SUSAN BEHN FOR THE APPROVER

■ Pre- and Post-List■ Approvers are inserted either before or after the normal chain-

of-authority approver list▸ IF LINE-TYPE IS ‘TAX’, THEN REQUIRE PRE-APPROVAL FROM

TAX DEPARTMENT


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Testing Workbench and Business Cases

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Testing Workbench

■ 11i.AME.B provides a testing workbench to allow defined business rules to be evaluated and tested against transactions

■ Testing workbench allows user to verify various aspects of setups

■ Are attribute values, particularly custom attributes, retrieving values correctly?

■ Does the invoice satisfy the appropriate rule?

■ Is the proper approver chain being generated for the transaction based on the rule chosen?

■ Examples will be shown in Business Cases later in this presentation

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Business Case 1- Payables

■ For project related invoices, require pre-approval from key project members in the following roles:

■ Project Manager

■ Require approval for project related invoices as follows:

■ 500 - 10K Go up supervisor hierarchy 1 level

■ >10K Go up supervisor hierarchy 2 levels

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Business Case 1– AME Components ■ Transaction Type = Payables Invoice Approval■ New Conditions

■ SUPPLIER_INVOICE_AMOUNT >= $500 and <= $10,000■ SUPPLIER_INVOICE_AMOUNT > $10,000

■ Actions/Action Types – use existing action types – not new■ Supervisory Level – Require approvals up to the 1st, 2nd or 3rd

supervisor■ Pre-chain-of-authority approvals – pre-approval from approver groups

■ New Dynamic Approver Groups to find employee in key role■ SB_PROJECT_MANAGER – example on slide 48

■ New Rules■ Option 1 ***This options shown in example on following slides

▸ Combination Rule for $500 to $10,000▸ Combination Rule > $10,000

■ Option 2▸ Pre-Approval Rule▸ Supervisor Rule

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Business Case 1 - Conditions

■ SUPPLIER_INVOICE_AMOUNT >= 500 and <= 10K

■ SUPPLIER_INVOICE_AMOUNT > 10K

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Business Case 1 - Actions

■ Use existing actions and select pre-chain-of-authority-approvals

■ Approval Groups will be available as actions

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Business Case 1 - Combination Rule for Project Invoices 500 – 10K

Matched POs

would already

be approved

Can have

different rules

by ledger,

operating unit,

etc…

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Business Case 1 - Combination Rule for Project Invoices > 10K

■ Only difference is this one goes to two superiors

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Business Case 1 - Test

■ Create Invoice with a Project number

■ Invoice Amount $6000 related to Project

■ Susan Behn is Requester, Pat Stock is Susan’s Supervisor

■ Casey Brown is Pat Stock’s supervisor

■ Pat Stock is also Project Manager for FP201

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Testing Workbench

■ Get the ID of the transaction using HelpExamine or query

■ Click the test icon

■ Run real transaction test

■ Enter transaction id and click ‘GO’

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Testing Workbench

■ Scroll down to view values of all attributes

■ Click Run Test Case to see test results

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Testing Workbench

■ Use to show details for rules and approvers

■ View Approval Process Stages to view additional details

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Testing Workbench - Expand Rule Details

■ Rule details expanded

■ Shows rule applied, applicable conditions met and resulting actions

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Testing Workbench - Suppress Repeated Approvers

■ Pat Stock is repeated (Supervisor and Project Manger)

■ Repeated approvers are suppressed - Pat will only get approval request once

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View Approval History from Invoice

■ After initiation of approval

■ After Pat Stock approves

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Business Case 2 - Purchasing

■ Requisition approvals are based on supervisor level approvals based on total requisition amount

■ 0 to 25K 1 Supervisor

■ 25K to 50K 2 Supervisors

■ 50K to 100K 3 Supervisors

■ > 100K 4 Supervisors

■ New vehicle purchases must be approved by a director level with an approval authority job level = 5

■ Pre-approvals are required for some requisitions based on item category

■ Computer PC purchases must be pre-approved by the IT manager

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Business Case 2 – AME Components ■ Transaction Type = Purchase Requisition Approval

■ Attributes■ None – attributes used in this rule are seeded

■ New Conditions■ ITEM_CATEGORY = AUTOMOTIVE.VEHICLE

■ ITEM_CATEGORY = COMPUTER.PC

■ REQUISTION_TOTAL – Create conditions for each range

■ Approval Groups■ IT Approver - approval group for IT purchases

■ New Rules■ Supervisor rules based on requisition total

■ Pre-Approval rule for computer purchases

■ Absolute Job Level rule for vehicle purchases

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Business Case 2 - Conditions

■ Item Category Conditions

■ Vehicle

■ Computer Equipment

■ Requisition Total Conditions

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Business Case 2 – Approval Group

■ Approval Group for IT Purchases

■ Try to avoid static approvers due to maintenance

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Business Case 2 – Rules

■ Requisition Total Rules■ Rule 1 shown

■ Create rules 2-4 similar with different ranges and action

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■ Pre-Approval Rule for Computer Purchases

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■ Set the Approval Authority SetupPersonnelJobs

■ Approval authority = absolute job level in AME

■ Absolute Job Level Rule for Vehicle Purchases

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Business Case 2 – Test 1

■ Create Requisition for New Car■ Category = AUTOMOTIVE.VEHICLE – (need job level 5 or above

approval)

■ Amount = $45K

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■ Susan’s Supervisor is Pat Stock

■ Pat Stock’s Authority

■ Pat Stock’s Supervisor is Casey Brown

■ Casey Brown’s Authority

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■ Vehicle Purchase Rule and third Amount Based Rule apply

■ Repeated Supervisors are suppressed

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■ Create Requisition for Computer Purchase

■ Category = COMPUTER.PC – (need IT pre-approval)

■ Amount = $3K – (need approval from 1 supervisor)

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■ Computer Purchase Rule and Amount Base Rule 1 apply■ Mary Palmer from approver group

■ Casey Brown(Pat Stock’s supervisor)

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Business Case 3 – iRecruitment Vacancy Approval

■ A FYI Notification should be sent to the hiring manager when a requisition has been created on their behalf (i.e. Recruiter)

■ Requisition is sent to the hiring manager’s VP for approval

■ If there is no VP then it should go to the Division Controller

■ If VP approves requisition it goes to the Controller for this hiring manager

■ If Division Controller approves it goes to the Hiring Manager’s SVP which is based on the people group

■ There may not be a SVP. If not, go to the next level

■ If SVP approves it goes to the Hiring Manager’s EVP or CFO, COO or President also identified by the people group

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■ This example is to show how powerful AME can be if needed

■ However, make an effort to simply approval processes before building AME rules

■ Question the value of this level of complexity

■ Complex logic was all be accomplished with dynamic sql approver groups

■ SQL statements

■ SQL statements calling packages

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■ Custom approver groups were used to determine the various VPs and controllers

■ The dynamic query in this case calls a package to handle the advanced logic

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■ More dynamic approver groups

■ These are just sql statements where a complex package was not needed

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AME Setup Migration

■ See MOS note 1168883.1

■ Uses FNDLOAD

■ Available for

■ Attributes amesmatt.lct

■ Conditions amesconk.lct

■ Approval Groups amesappg.lct

■ Action Type Usages amesaagc.lct

■ Action Types amesaatc.lct

■ Rules amesrulk.lct

■ Rule Actions amesactu.lct

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Tips and other issues

■ Workflow timeout processing- MOS note 421904.1

■ It is common practice for calling applications to send a "No Response" status back to AME in the case of a timeout

▸ AME will use the Surrogate functionality (often the Supervisory hierarchy) to try and get a response before moving to the next approver as per defined rules

▸ Handle with vacation rules to avoid surrogate functionality default processing

▸ Modify workflow to handle timeouts differently for AME

■ Timeout and last approver in chain

▸ Workflow errors “No surrogate approver exists” – See enhancement request Bug 3092952

▸ Create an exception rule but you could end up in a loop in this case

■ Profile option AME: Append to List option on Approvers region

▸ If set to "no“, the "Append to List" option is not available

https://support.oracle.com/epmos/faces/BugDisplay?parent=DOCUMENT&sourceId=431815.1&id=3092952

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References

■ Oracle Support Document 2083817.2 ( Information Center: Oracle Approvals Management (All Application Versions))

■ Oracle Support Document 1168883.1 (How To Migrate AME Setups From One Instance To Another)

■ Oracle Support Document 1207863.1 (Master Reference For AME Based Requisition Approval In R12)

■ Oracle Support Document 431815.1 (Oracle Approvals Management (AME) Frequently asked Questions (FAQ))

■ Oracle Support Document 1316098.1 (R12: Purchasing PO Approval Chain Diagnostic Test)

https://support.oracle.com/epmos/faces/DocumentDisplay?id=2083817.2





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Questions?Comments

Susan Behn

[email protected]

Thank You!!!

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