Using Oracle Approval Management for Creating Invoice Approval Process (AME)

(Internal Use Document)

Prepared By Reviewed By Creation Date Last Update Date Version Number

Adham Ibrahim 13-Aug-2008 13-Aug-2008 1.00

Contents
Introduction to AME Prerequisites Assigning Approval management Responsibilities to an application user Granting access for transaction types to an application user Selecting existing transaction type Selecting Attributes Defining Conditions Selecting action type Approval Group creation Defining a rule Testing the rule

Introduction to AME AME is a responsibility that is used to control the behavior of certain workflows; in AME you define rules that instruct the workflow to perform certain activities.

Workflow

Transaction Type

Rules

Evaluation Part

Actions To Be Taken

Attributes

Condition

Action Type

Approval Group (Action )

The figure above shows the components of the AME for certain workflow; for instance if we want to use AME to implement the following user requirement:

"We want the payables invoice to require supervisor X approval if the invoice amount is over 1000; otherwise approval is not needed"
To implement such requirement we need to map the requirement to AME terms; if we will do so then the following facts will emerge: Workflow is APINV; the APINV workflow is responsible for the approval of payables invoices The transaction type that exist for APINV is Payables Invoice Approval Attribute: Invoice amount Condition: over 1000 Evaluation part will be "Invoice amount over 1000" Action type will be approval group chain of authority. Approval group (action) will be supervisor X Action to be taken will be approval chain of authority with one approval group containing supervisor X

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At the end the resultant rule will be "If the invoice amount is over 1000 then use the approval chain of authority with the approval group containing supervisor X to approve the invoice" Prerequisites Before using AME you shall do the following:

1)

Apply the AME.B rollup patch (4873179) and AME patchset (4428060)

2) Submit the request "Approvals management Post upgrade Process"; the request is responsible of migrating the user's information to AME; without running this request the users will not be available when creating approval groups. When submitting the request make sure that the parameter MIGRATION_TYPE is set to "Migrate all"; the request is available under system administrator responsibility. Assigning Approval management Responsibilities to an application user In order to create rules that controls workflows behavior; you need to have the "approval management business analyst" responsibility; in order to give such responsibility to an existing user do the following: 1) login as system administrator

2)

navigate to user management responsibility users

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3) Search for the user you want to add the "approval management business analyst" responsibility to.

4)

Press assign rules button

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5)

Check the approval management administrator check box

6)

Enter justification and press save

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Granting access for transaction types to an application user To enable the user to manipulate existing transaction types; he shall be given access to the existing transaction types; in order to do so you have to do the following:

1)

Go to functional administrator responsibility Grants tab

2) 3)

Press the "create Grant" button Set the following:

a) Name : any name you want b) Description : description why you need to create this grant c) Effective from : set it as system date
4) set the following in the security context: a) Grantee type: set it as "All users" if you want to grant access to all users with business management system analyst; set it as "Specific user" if you want to grant it to certain users. b) Grantee: set it as the user name you want to add the grant to. 5) set the data security object to "AME transaction type" and press next

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6) Set the data context type as "All Rows" to grant the user access to all transactions types and press next.

7)

In the set field enter as AME admin identifier

8)

Press finish

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Note: from this point till the end of the document we will implement the rule mentioned in the introduction section ( If the invoice amount is over 1000 then use the approval chain of authority with the approval group containing supervisor X to approve the invoice ) using AME. Selecting existing transaction type To start adding rules to existing transaction types you shall do the following: 1) Connect as your user (the user have the approval management business analyst and proper grants). 2) Go to approval management business analyst responsibility. 3) Under the select the transaction type prompt; set the field value as the transaction type that you want to add rules to. 4) Press tab

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Selecting Attributes In order to create a rule within the transaction type; you have to create the components first then you can gather them in a rule; the first component that you shall give attention to is the attributes; in most of the seeded transaction types you will find a pre-defined attributes that covers your business needs. In order to select an existing attribute for a given transaction type; do the following: 1) Under the "define the components prompt"; select the attributes link.

2)

Press the "using existing attribute" button

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3) Search for the attribute you want to add to an evaluation part; in our case we will search for the supplier_invoice_amount attribute.

4)

Press continue and finish

Note: selecting the attribute activity is not a mandatory one; as in many seeded transaction types you will find out that most of the available attributes are pre-selected for the concerned transaction type. Defining Conditions To create a condition that adds an evaluation term to an existing attribute; do the following: 1) Under the "define the components prompt"; select the conditions link.

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2)

Press the create button

3)

Select the attribute you want to use in the evaluation part.

4)

5)

Set the expression as " is greater than or equal " Enter the amount as 1000

6)

Press apply

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Selecting action type In our example we want the actions to be taken to be an approval from certain employees; to do so we will set the action type first; to do so you have to do the following: 1) Under the define the components; select the action types link

2) Press the "use existing action type" button

3) 4)

select "Approval-group chain of authority" press continue and finish

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Approval Group creation In the approval group you define the set of employees who are concerned in the approval of the invoice; in our case we will define an approval group containing the following employees: 1) Senior Accountant 2) Accounting manager In order to create an approval group; do the following: 1) Under the define components prompt; select the approve group link.

2)

Press the create button

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3) a) b) c) d)

Enter the approval group information: name Description Order number: the order number is unique over the transaction type Leave the rest blank

4)

In the group members section; press add another row button

5) 6) 7)

Set the approver type as HR people Set the Approver as the person concerned in the approval process The order number tells the workflow the notifications order

In the above screen shot the workflow will notify the senior accountant then the accounting manager.

8)

Press apply

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Defining a rule The rule is the container for all the subsequent components defined above; in a rule the following shall be defined: 1) 2) 3) the condition (including the attribute) the action type the action (including the approval group to be used)

In order to define a rule; you have to do the following: 1) Under the "define the approval rules" prompt; press the rules link.

2)

Press the create button

3)

Enter the rule name and press next

4)

Press the add condition button

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5) next

Select the condition you define in the "defining condition" section and press

6) The action type will be defaulted from the action type added in the "selecting action type" section.

7) In the action select the approval group name you defined in the "approval group creation"

8)

Press next and finish

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Testing the rule The rule we created above shall be tested to check if its working in the desired manner; in order to do so AME provide a testing workbench to check if the rule created is fine. Before testing in AME you shall create a real transaction in the application; in our case we will create an invoice with a value over 1000; such invoice meets the evaluation part of the rule accordingly the action to be taken shall start notifying the persons in the approval group. In order to create a real transaction; do the following:

1)

Go to payables manager invoice batches 2) Enter the invoice header; make sure that the requestor field is filled and that the invoice amount is over 1000 3) Enter invoice distribution

4) retrieve the invoice_id value as it will be value used in the testing; you can get by doing the following:

a)
b) c) d)

go to help diagnostics examine provide apps password in the field select the invoice_id the invoice_id value shall appear

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After the real transaction creation we can use AME to check if this invoice shall go through the approval of the persons in the approval group; in order to test invoice 10062 using AME do the following: 1) Under the "Test workbench" prompt press the test workbench link

2)

Press the "run real transaction test(1)" button

3)

In the transaction id field enter the invoice_id and press go

4)

The system will show the invoice relevant information

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5) Press "run test case (2)" 6) system will show the applicable rules over the invoice; and if any rule is applicable it will show the members of the approval group assigned to the rule

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