Oracle Internet Procurement Release 11.0.
3: Don't Leave Work Without It
Cynthia Bruno
Philip Merlano
Michael V. Milano
Oracle Corporation
Introduction
You can streamline your procure-to-pay
process by implementing a procurement card
program in which your employees purchase
items directly from suppliers using a credit
card. The credit card issuer then sends
transaction files directly to you (the employer).
You can import credit card transaction files
from your card issuer directly into Payables.
Then, you can automatically generate
transaction accounting distributions and create
invoices to pay the card issuer. This will help
you reduce transaction costs and eliminate
low-amount invoices.
This paper walks you through the minimal
setup steps required to begin processing
Procurement Card and Credit Card
transactions. It then discusses the procedures
involved in processing the credit card input
file received from your credit card issuer.
Scope
I. Procurement and Credit Card Setup
II. Corporate (Travel) Credit Card Setup
III. Procurement Card Processing
IV. Corporate (Travel) Credit Card
Processing
V. Troubleshooting Tips
I. PROCUREMENT CARD SETUP
A Procurement Card system involves issuing
numerous credit cards throughout an
organization to be used for small purchases.
The intent is to establish a large-scale petty
cash system and reduce the workload within
an Accounts Payable department.
Procurement cards should not be confused
with a corporate (travel) credit card.
Corporate (travel) credit cards usually involve
travel expenses as opposed to small purchases
using a petty cash system like Procurement
Cards.
It is not required to implement the Self-Service
Human Resources part of Procurement Cards
to use the core part of the Procurement Card
functionality. However, the feature was really
designed to work with the web and workflow
since the big benefit is getting the cardholders
and managers to review and approve the
receipts. For additional flexibility, your
employees can use Self-Service Human
Resources to verify transactions and to
override default transaction accounting.
A. Prerequisites
There are a few prerequisites to setting up the
credit card program.
1) The first is to make sure that you have the
requisite agreements in place with your card
issuer.
2) You then need to create a SQL*Loader
program that uses the flat file provided by the
card issuer containing the credit card
transaction details you want to transfer into the
AP_EXPENSE_FEED_LINES_ALL table.
For detailed information on this table and
process, refer to the Oracle Payables
Applications Technical Reference Manual and
Appendix J of the Oracle Payables User’s information on these codes at
Guide, Volume 2. http://muse.mse.jhu.edu:8001/research/bus
iness/sic.htm.
3) You will need to enter your card issuer as a
supplier. Include all information including
payment terms and supplier site. If you pay
with electronic payments, enter supplier bank
information. This is done by navigating to
Supplier->Entry.

4) Navigate to Employees->Enter Employees

in Oracle Payables to set up your employees
who will be cardholders. Enter complete
employee information, including employee
name, home and/or office address, supervisor,
default expense account, and cost center.

2) In the Credit Card Programs window, you

define you credit card program that
includes the card issuer, card type, and
credit card code set. In this window you
also specify transaction statuses for which
you will not create invoices.

5) You will also need to assign the Credit Card

responsibility and the Workflow responsibility
to your employees in System Administrator.

B. Setting up a Procurement Card Program

All of the following steps are specific to Credit

Cards. 3) You can then define GL account sets. A
GL account set is a list of values that
1) You will need to create Credit Card Code cardholders can use to change accounts when
Sets by navigating to Setup->Credit Cards- validating their transaction notification.
>Credit Card Code Sets. This requires
entering Standard Industrial Classifications
(SIC) codes. You can find out more
4) In the Credit Card Profiles window, you
attach the Credit Card program, GL account
sets, define the default GL account, the
exception clearing account, employee
verification options, and manager approval
options. You can also restrict credit card
codes.
5) In the Credit Card window, you tie the all
previous setup steps together. You choose a
Credit Card program (which includes the
Credit Card Code Set) and a Credit Card
Profile (which includes the GL Account Set).
You also assign the card to a cardholder.
6) The predefined Credit Card Transaction
Employee Workflow and Credit Card
Transaction Manager Workflow, available
with the Self-Service Web Application, will
allow you to verify and approve credit card
transactions without customization. If you
have special processes, you would need to
customize the workflows at this point. The
Credit Card Transaction Employee Workflow
determines if the employee needs to be
notified and then notifies the employee of
transactions that have been posted to their
accounts. Similarly, the Credit Card
Transaction Manager Workflow determines if
the manager needs to be notified and then
notifies the employee’s manager, if necessary.
You specify whether these notifications will be
sent out on the Credit Card Profile form.
7) If you use Web Employees, you can then
configure Web Employees credit card
functions using Web Applications Dictionary.
At this point you are ready to begin processing
transactions.
II. CORPORATE (TRAVEL) CREDIT
CARD SETUP
A. Prerequisites
Before you can import credit card data you
must make a single modification to the control
file that imports your corporate (travel) credit
card data. To make this modification, you first
identify the CARD_PROGRAM_ID of your
credit card program, and then add this number
as a constant to a control file. You can obtain
the CARD_PROGRAM_ID by navigating to
the Credit Card Program window. Query the
card program in question. Click Help->Tools-
>Examine. Select the field
CARD_PROGRAM_ID. Note the number that
appears in the Value field. Enter this number
in the control file.
NOTE: You set up the import control file once.
You do not have to repeat the procedure every
time you load credit card data files.
The control files are located in the following
directory: $AP_TOP/bin. There are four
control files that come seeded with the
application:
• American Express (apxamex.ctl)
• Diner's Club (apxdiner.ctl)
• GE Capital MasterCard (apxgecmc.ctl)
• US Bank Visa (apxusbv.ctl)
To modify the control file:
1. Open the control file in a text editor.
2. Replace the number for credit_card_id
constant so it matches exactly the
CREDIT_CARD_ID number you
identified from the Credit Card Program
window.
3. Save your work and close the control file.
When you receive your data files from your
credit card provider you must save these files
in your system. Due to SQL*Loader
constraints, US Bank Visa and GE Capital
MasterCard date files require pre-formatting
before they are loaded into the
AP_CREDIT_CARD_TRXNS_ALL table. If
your credit card provider is US Bank Visa or
GE Capital MasterCard you must:
• Save your credit card data files in the
directory path listed by the
UTL_FILE_DIR parameter in your
init.ora file
• Include the directory path specified by the
APPLPTMP variable in the
$APPLTOP/APPLSYS.env file as a
directory path in the UTL_FILE_DIR
parameter in your inti.ora file.
If your credit card provider is American
Express or Diner's Club, you do not have to
save your credit card data files in a directory
path listed in the UTL_FILE_DIR parameter
in your init.ora file.
NOTE: You modify the init.ora file once. You
do not have to repeat the procedure every time
you load credit card data files.
To modify your init.ora file:
1. Locate the init.ora file for the application
database. This file should be located in the
$ORACLE_HOME/dbs directory, but may
have a different name as the administrator
may have copied and created a special file
for the application database.
2. Using a text editor, open the init.ora file.
3. Search for the UTL_FILE_DIR parameter.
4. Add the new directory path to the
UTIL_FILE_DIR parameter and copy your
credit card data file to this directory. You
can also copy your credit card data file to
an existing directory listed by the
UTL_FILE_DIR parameter.
5. Add the directory path specified by the
APPLPTMP variable in the
$APPLTOP/APPLSYS.env file to the
UTIL_FILE_DIR parameter.
NOTE: When completed, the Oracle DBA
must stop and restart the database before the
database recognizes these values. To verify
whether these values are present in the
database, query V$PARAMETERS.
B. Setting up a Corporate (Travel) Credit
Card Program
When defining your Credit Card Program you
select the Card Type of "Travel". In addition,
the Card Code Set is grayed out and cannot be
updated. The reason Code Sets are not used for
Travel Card Programs is that Travel Credit
Card transactions are reported by employees
on their expense reports. Therefore, the GL
accounting for travel credit card transactions
comes from the expense report template used
for the expense report and the default GL
expense account associated with the employee
record.
In the Credit Card window you tie the
employee to the Credit Card Program. You
choose a Credit Card Program and assign the
card to a cardholder.
Note: The Credit Card Profile is grayed out.
The Credit Card Profile associates the Credit
Card Program with default accounts. This is
also where GL Account Set Names are
associated with the Credit Card Program.
Neither of these default accounts are used by
corporate (travel) credit cards. They are used
for Procurement Cards only. GL Account Set
Names, Credit Card Code Sets and Credit Card
Profiles are not setup for corporate (travel)
credit cards.
III. PROCUREMENT CARD
PROCESSING
1) Procurement Card Processing begins when
you receive the Credit Card output file from
your institution. You then process the output
file by running your custom SQL*Loader
program to populate the
AP_EXPENSE_FEED_LINES_ALL table.
2) The Procurement Card Transaction
Validation and Exception Report identifies
exceptions in the data such as undefined credit
card numbers, invalid transaction or posted
currency codes, and invalid credit card codes.
For records in the
AP_EXPENSE_FEED_LINES_ALL table
where the CREATE_DISTRIBUTION_FLAG
is Y, the report creates distributions with
proper accounts in the
AP_EXPENSE_FEED_DISTS_ALL table.
This program builds the default GL accounts
for the transactions based on options you
selected when setting up your credit card
programs and credit card profiles.
You can also use this report to review existing
accounting distributions for transactions that
have already been validated.
3) Once you have verified that your
transactions have successfully been validated
in the Procurement Card Transaction
Validation and Exception Report, the Credit
Card Transaction Employee Workflow is run
to determine if the employee needs to be
notified and if the employee needs to reply to
the notification. The status of the transaction,
stored in the STATUS column in the
AP_EXPENSE_FEED_LINES_ALL table,
determines if a notification needs to be sent to
the employee and/or manager. The STATUS
is contingent upon the setup of the Employee
Notification Method (ENM) and the Manager
Notification Method (MNM) on the Credit
Card Profiles form. If the ENM is set to none,
meaning the employee is not notified at all,
then the transaction will not be selected by the
process and is already set at a status to proceed
in processing. If the ENM is set to
Notification Only the status is set during the
process of the workflow to allow it to proceed
and the employee is notified of the transaction.
If verification is required on the Credit Card
Profiles form, then the employee can set the
transaction to Hold, Personal, Disputed, or
Verified.
4) The Credit Card Transaction Manager
Workflow is used to notify a manager of
transactions if it is determined that a manager
must be notified and/or a manager must
approve the transaction. If the MNM is set to
None or Notification Only, then the status of a
Verified transaction is automatically set to
Approved. If Manager Approval is required,
then the manager sets the transaction status to
either Approved or Rejected.
5) You can use the Credit Card Transactions
window to review and update credit card
transaction distributions. When you load
transactions from the card issuer, each
transaction has one distribution. You can use
this window to split a transaction distribution
into multiple distributions, which you can then
process separately. For example, an employee
receives a bill for a ream of paper. Instead of
charging the $100 discount rate, the supplier is
charged $130. You can create two
distributions for the transaction, one for $100,
and one for $30. You can assign a status of
"Disputed" for the $30 transaction and process
the $100 distribution as usual. To prevent
payment of a transaction distribution with a
status of "Disputed", you also need to check
the Disputed checkbox in the "Don't Pay If
Status" region of the Credit Card Programs
window.
6) After the employees and managers verify
and approve the transactions, you submit the
Procurement Card Invoice Interface Summary
to import the data into the Payables Open
Interface tables and optionally summarize the
data by GL Account (CCID). This program
creates invoices for your credit card issuers in
the Payables Open Interface tables. This
program selects all records for a given date
range in AP_EXPENSE_FEED_DISTS with a
status of at least Validated, i.e. the transaction
has gone through the employee and manager
workflow successfully. The program will not
select any statuses that you have specifically
excluded from payment in the Credit Card
Programs window. Also, the program will not
select any records that have been previously
selected by the program. If you choose to
summarize the transactions, the system will
create a single invoice for each unique CCID
and Tax Name combination. In addition, if you
summarize the transactions, the report will
display only the Line, Account, and Amount.
7) You can then submit the Payables Open
Interface Import Program to create invoices
from the data. The invoices are ready for
accounts payable approval and payment.

Note: To obtain this functionality for release
11.03, you must apply patch 934168.
IV. CORPORATE (TRAVEL) CREDIT
CARD PROCESSING
A) When you receive your data files from your
credit card provider you must save these files
in your system. Due to SQL*Loader
constraints, US Bank Visa and GE Capital
MasterCard data files require pre-formatting
before they are loaded into the
AP_CREDIT_CARD_TRXNS_ALL table.
You do this by running the "Credit Card
Transaction Loader Preformat" concurrent
process.
B) Corporate (Travel) Credit Card Processing
begins when you receive the Credit Card
output file from your institution. You then
process the output file by running one of the
four seeded loader program to populate the
AP_CREDIT_CARD_TRXNS_ALL table.
• US Bank Visa Transaction Loader
• GE Capitol MasterCard Transaction
Loader
• Diner's Club Transaction Loader
• American Express Transaction Loader
C) The Credit Card Transaction Validation
Report identifies exceptions in the data
such as:
• Duplicate Transactions
• Invalid Billed Amounts
• Invalid Billed Currency Codes
• Invalid Billed Dates
• Invalid Card Numbers
• Invalid Merchant Names
• Invalid Posted Currency Codes
• Invalid Transaction Amounts
• Invalid Transaction Dates
At the end of the report are the total number of
transactions processed, the total number
rejected and the total number validated.
D) Once you have verified that your
transactions have successfully been validated
in the Procurement Card Transaction
Validation and Exception Report, you should
be ready to create a Self Service Web Expense
Report.
To include a credit card transaction on an
expense report:
Create a Self Service Expense report. In Self
Service Web Expenses, navigate to: Expense
reports -> Create New Expense Report. Select
your expense template and cost center and
overriding approver (if necessary). Click the
"Enter Receipts" button. Enter your receipt
information. Click the "Get Credit Card
Transactions" button to view a list of available
credit card transactions. Select a credit card
transaction and hit continue.
Note: When you use a credit card transaction
for a receipt, Web Expenses populates the
Justification field with: "Credit Card
-- Merchant Name". This enables you to see at
a glance that the receipt is for a credit card
charge and what the charge was for. However,
if you want to enter a justification for a receipt,
you can modify or delete this credit card
information.
Reducing the Total Amount of a Credit
Card Transaction
When you include a credit card transaction on
an expense report, Web Expenses uses the
amount of the credit card transaction
as the total amount of the receipt. If you do
not want to be reimbursed for the total amount
of the credit card transaction, you
can decrease the receipt amount. For example,
if you used your credit card to pay a bill that
contains reimbursable and
non-reimbursable charges, you can include the
credit card transaction on your expense report
and then reduce its total amount
by the amount of non-reimbursable charges.
To reduce the total amount of a credit card
transaction:
1. Click "Get Credit Card Transactions" to
view a list of your credit card charges.
2. Select a credit card transaction and press
Continue.
3. In the Enter Receipts window, reduce the
total amount of the receipt.
Distributing a Single Credit Card
Transaction over Multiple Receipts:
You can distribute the total amount of a single
credit card transaction over multiple receipts.
For example, if you used your credit card to
pay a hotel bill that included charges for your
room, meals, parking, and so on, you could use
that credit card transaction to populate receipts
for each different charge on the hotel bill.
To distribute a single credit card
transaction over multiple receipts:
1. Click Get Credit Card Transactions to view
a list of your credit card charges.
2. Select a credit card transaction and press
Continue.
3. In the Enter Receipts window, reduce the
total amount of the receipt.
4. Click the New receipt button.
5. Click Get Credit Card Transactions to view
a list of your credit card charges.
6. Select the same credit card transaction and
press Continue.
7. In the Enter Receipts window, reduce the
total amount of the receipt.
8. Continue this process until you have
populated the number of receipts you want.
E) You can then submit the Payables Import
Program to create invoices from the data. The
invoices are ready for accounts payable
approval and payment.
V. TROUBLESHOOTING TIPS
If the Procurement Card Transaction
Validation Report does not show exceptions,
you may need to apply patches 817026,
914049 which are prerequisites patches for the
Self-Service 11.03B patch (914049).
Currently there is no Procurement Card Purge
for records stored in the
AP_EXPENSE_FEED_LINES_ALL table.
With regard to entering credit card numbers,
the validation reports will not pick up credit
card numbers unless spaces are used as
delimiters. An example might be 5500 6600
7700 6205.
In order to get a correct Count and Total on the
Procurement Card Transaction Validation
Report, you must populate the reference
number.
About the Authors
Cynthia Bruno is a Technical Analyst with the
Oracle Support Financials group. She has
been working for Oracle Support for over a
year.
Philip Merlano is a Senior Technical Analyst
with the Oracle Support Financials group. He
has been working for Oracle Support for 2
years.
Michael Milano is a Technical Analyst with
the Oracle Support Financials group. He has
been working for Oracle Support for 2 years.
Procurement Card Process from file to invoices

Procurement Card data file

SQL Loader program

AP_EXPENSE_FEED_LINES_ALL

Procurement Card
Transaction
Validation

AP_EXPENSE_FEED_DISTS_ALL

Yes
Employee Run Distribute Employee
Verification Card Transaction
Required? Verifications

No

Yes Run Manager Card

Manager Transactions
Approval Approvals
Required?

No

Procurement Card
Invoice Interface
Summary
Process

AP_INVOICES_INTERFACE &
AP_INVOICE_LINES_INTERFACE

Payables Open
Interface Import

AP_INVOICES_ALL
Credit Card Process from file to invoices

Credit Card data file

SQL Loader program

apxamex.ctl : American Express
apxdiner.ctl : Diner’s Club
apxgecmc.ctl : GE Capital MasterCard
apxusbv.ctl : US Bank Visa

AP_CREDIT_CARD_TRXNS _ALL
Validate_code = ‘N’

Credit Card Transaction

Import and Validation

AP_CREDIT_CARD_TRXNS _ALL
Validate_code = ‘Y’

Create new Expense

Report in Internet
Expenses and use ‘Get
Credit Card

AP_EXPENSE_REPORT_HEADERS_ALL &
AP_EXPENSE_REPORT_LINES_ALL

Payables
Invoice
Import

AP_INVOICES_ALL