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Major changes in Purchasing/iProcurement – R12

1. Requisition Creation:

• In R12 iProcurement, users can see a new button for Managing Approval Routing lists in create requisition page under Approvals stage. The functionality remains the same as in 11i, but users can add/delete approvers and can make changes in the routing sequence in iProcurement itself.

• New country field is required when entering a “one-time” ship to address on create requisitions page.        
          
• Oracle has introduced a new feature for Internal Requisitions and Internal Sales Orders. If preparer makes changes for approved Internal Requisition it will be reflected in Internal Sales Order and vice versa.

Oracle supports this feature only for few particular fields.

For Internal Requisition Oracle supports changes to the following attributes:
1. Quantity
2. Need By Date

If preparer updates any of these values, the changes will be reflected in Internal Sales Order.

Similarly, for Internal Sales Order Oracle supports changes to the following attributes:
1. Order Quantity
2. Request Date
3. Schedule Date
4. Arrival Date

If user updates any of  these values in Internal Sales Order, the requester of Internal Requisition will get notification and quantity and Need by Date in Internal Requisition changes automatically.

• In addition to this, if user cancels the Internal Requisition line, the corresponding line in Internal Sales Order will also be cancelled and vice versa.

• And finally, the urgent flag on the internal requisition line will flow onto the internal sales order line as the shipment priority, based on a profile option.


Set ups required:

To get the new functionality, processing constraints need to be disabled for internal sales orders in Order Management.
1. For ‘Update Ordered Quantity’ – Disable the Condition where Validate Template is “Internal Order”.
2. For ‘Update Requested date’   – Disable the Processing Constraint.

2. iProcurement non-Catalog Request:

• In 11i, for a Non-Catalog Request, when requester describe the purchase, there is a chance that it may not be classified into an existing commodity hierarchy. This increases the misclassification of spend information, contract leakage, lower compliance and internal controls.

• In R12, requester creating Non-Catalog requests will have the option of category being predicted for the purchase being made. After the requester clicks on “Add to Cart” they will be able to view a “suggested best fit” category with a list of categories that could be alternate possibilities.

• With this new feature,  all the unstructured requests will be categorized appropriately to aid the downstream spend analysis.
                                      
• So with the new features organizations can analyze the spending according to the Purchasing Category, which helps to easily identify the categories of items that they purchase.

Set ups required:

This feature takes the category value from Oracle Spend Classification(A new module of the Oracle BI Applications). Oracle Spend Classification is a pre requisite to get use of the new feature. Once we set up Oracle Spend Classification, when user clicks on “Add to Cart” they can see the category list for non-catalog items.

This option is not mandatory.

3. Realms:

In R12 realms are replaced by Content Security Management.

Realms from prior releases are converted to content zones.  The new Content Security model allows administrators a more flexible method to control and adjust iProcurement Content (items) available for requisitioning users. It replaces and enhances functionalities previously provided by Realms, System Profiles, Catalogs, and the Extractor.

4. Communication Process:

Oracle R12 supports FYI notifications. So, FYI notifications can be enabled for the viewers to avoid reports and alerts.

FYI notifications set up has to be done in AME. The Set up process is as follows:

1) The first step is to turn on the FYI Approver capability for the “Purchase Requisition Approval” transaction type. The navigation for this is :

1. Choose “Approvals Management Administrator” responsibility
2. In the upper right Quick Links region choose “Configuration Variables”
3. Enter the Purchase Requisition Approval transaction type and click Go
4. At the “Transaction Type” level set variable “Allow For Your Information Notifications” = Yes
5. Click Apply

2) Now go to the “Approvals Management Business Analyst” responsibility . From here choose the “Purchase Requisition Approval” transaction type and we can modify existing Rules or when we create new Rules,there will be a Category field that is now available, where we can choose “For Your Information”.

For any Rule with this choice, the approvers that are returned are FYI and their approval response is not required. They are only notified with FYI notification.

This feature is available only at the Rule level. So to have FYI notifications and regular response required Approval Notifications send to other approvers, multiple AME Rules have to be created.

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Cash Pooling in Cash Management – R12

Cash Pooling Techniques are used by the Organizations to optimize the funds by consolidating bank balances across multiple bank accounts.

Benefits of Cash Pooling Techniques:

– Minimizes the idle funds by consolidating balances
– Helps to decrease external borrowing costs and increase investment returns
– Allows users to group bank accounts into pooling structures to manage funds effectively

Oracle supports following types of cash pools:

1. Self-Initiated Physical Cash Pools:

When Organizations want to monitor individual bank account balances manually and then physically move cash to or from their accounts based on their preferences, Self-Initiated Physical Cash Pools structure can be used.

We can define the rules in pool definitions, to automatically determine when bank account transfers should be made and for what amounts.

2. Bank-Initiated Physical Cash Pools, or Zero Balance Accounts(ZBA’s):

Bank-Initiated Physical Cash Pools are used When Organizations want to sweep all end-of-day balances automatically to or from the main accounts.

This kind of services will leave zero balances at the end of way. That is the reason, Bank-Initiated Physical Cash Pools are often called as Zero Balance Accounts.

3. Notional Cash Pools:

If Organizations want to track the net balances across all accounts along with individual accounts, then Notional Cash Pools will be used.

In 11i, this functionality was available to Oracle Treasury users, but now it is supported by Oracle Cash Management in R12.

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Types of Invoices in Oracle Payables

Types of Invoices in AP:

The different types of invoices available in Payables are:

1. Standard Invoices: Standard invoices are the invoices issued by a supplier to the buyer, representing the amount due for the products or services the supplier has provided to the buyer.

Standard invoices can be either matched to a purchase order or not matched.

A standard invoice must be positive amount.

2. Mixed Invoices: Mixed invoices are the invoices which can have either positive or negative amounts and can be matched to both purchase orders and invoices.

For example, if there is a mixed invoice for $-1000, you can either match it to an invoice with $-1000 or to a purchase order with an amount $1000.

3. Credit Memo: Credit memo is an invoice raised by the supplier to the buyer with negative amount. It reduces the supplier balance and reduces the liability.

For example the customer has returned some of the goods that he purchased, the supplier sends a credit memo to the buyer to adjust the balance.

4. Debit Memo: Debit memo is an invoice raised by the customer to supplier with negative amount.

The functionality of Debit Memo is same as Credit Memo. Both are to reduce the liability.

The purpose of Debit Memos is to record a credit for a supplier who does not send you a credit memo.

Unlike in AR, both Credit memo and Debit memo are with negative signs in Payables.

5. Prepayment: Prepayments are the invoices raised to record advance payments to a supplier or employee.

6. Expense Reports: Expense reports are the invoices that represent amount due to an employee for all his business related expenses.

7. Retainage Release Invoices: Retainage release is the act of releasing, or paying, that portion of a payment that was withheld until a substantial portion or all of the service procurement work is completed. The amounts retained during the life of the contract must be released and paid to the supplier or sub-contractor once all or a substantial portion of the work is completed.

Oracle Payables uses the Retainage Release Request to create a type of invoice called Retainage Release. A retainage release invoice has lines, which are copied from the original standard progress invoices, which show an amount left to be released.

Retainage release invoices can only be entered manually in the Invoice Workbench window.


8. Withholding Tax:  After you apply withholding tax to an invoice, you can optionally create invoices to remit withheld tax to the tax authority.
                          
Payables can automatically create withholding tax invoices, or you can perform this
task manually. If you choose to automatically create withholding tax invoices, you must choose whether to do this during Invoice Validation or during payment processing.


9. PO Price Adjustment Invoices:  PO Price Adjustment Invoices are used for recording the difference in price between the original invoice and the new purchase order price.

For example, If a supplier sends an invoice for a change in unit price for an invoice you have matched to a purchase order, PO Price Adjustment Invoices can be used to adjust the invoiced unit price of previously matched purchase order shipments or distributions without adjusting the quantity billed.

PO price adjustment invoices can be matched to both purchase orders and invoices.

10. Quick invoices: Used for quick, high-volume invoice entry for invoices that do not require extensive validation and defaults. After entry, you import these into the Payables system. Validation and defaulting occur during import

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Accounting setup in Oracle General Ledger – R12

Accounting setup is used to set up the accounting structure which controls transaction processing across Oracle Financial Applications . With Accounting setup manager we can define and maintain the accounting setup for Legal Entities,

              Ledgers,
              Operating Units,
              Subledger Accounting,
              Intercompany and Intracompany Balancing, and
              Reporting Currencies
Responsibility:   General Ledger
Navigation:       Setup : Financials : Accounting Setup Manager → Accounting Setups
Click on Create Accounting setup to setup the Accounting structure.
There are three steps in Accounting setup process.
1. Assign Legal Entities: 
Here we may create or assign existing LE to the accounting structure. We need not assign legal entity if there is no legal entity context.

If legal entities are involved, we need to define separate accounting setup for each legal entity, which require it’s own primary ledger. So ledgers have to be defined for each legal entity separately.

The need for other legal entity depends on Chart of Accounts, calendar, Currency, Accounting Method and Ledger processing options. If a legal entity requires any one of the above attributes to be different, a separate primary ledger is required.

Chart of accounts refers to the number of segments that a Chart of accounts structure consistes of.
Calendar refers to the type of accounting calendar that a legal entity uses. Ex: Monthly or Quarterly Calendar.
Currency refers to the primary currency that a legal entity belongs to.
Accounting Method refers to the subledger accounting methods based on the different accounting standards that a legal entity operates.
Ledger Options refers to the options that control how journals and transactiones are processed for a ledger.
Ex: Journal approval, Suspense account, Average balances, Intracompany balancing option, etc.

If we assign Legal entities to the accounting structure, we must assign specific balancing segment values to legal entities to identify and secure transactions by legal entity.

2. Define Accounting Representations: 
Here we need to define Primary and Secondary ledgers to make the Accounting representation.

Primary Ledgers are mandatory. We need to define the primary ledger for each legal entity and accounting setup.

Secondary ledgers are optional.  Secondary ledgers have to be assigned to the accounting setup or primary ledger to maintain multiple accounting representations for the same legal entity. A secondary ledger can differ in one or more of the following attributes from primary ledger.
Chart of Accounts,
Currency,
Calendar,
Accounting Convention

Secondary ledgers can be maintained at different levels such as:
Subledger level
Journal level
Balance level
Adjustments

In this step we can map the ledgers to  chart of accounts and assign currency, calendar, subledger accounting method and reporting currency.

Reporting currencies have to be assigned when you want diferent currency representation to primary or secondary ledgers.  Reporting currencies must share same chart of accounts,calendar,accounting method and ledger processing options as their source ledger. Reporting currencies can be assigned at different levels.
Subledger level
Journal level
Balance level

We can not use subledger level reporting currencies for secondary ledgers.

3. Save Accounting structure: This step is to review and complete the accounting setup.
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Purchasing Concepts in R12

Purchasing provides you the features you need to satisfy the following purchasing needs. You should be able to:
  • Review all of your purchases with your suppliers to negotiate better discounts
  • Create purchase orders simply by entering a supplier and item details
  • Create standard purchase orders and blanket releases from both on-line and paper requisitions
  • Quickly and effectively manage procurement in a global business environment using global agreements that can be shared across the entire enterprise
  • Create accurate and detailed accounting information so that you charge purchases to the appropriate departments
  • Check your funds availability while creating purchase orders
  • Review the status and history of your purchase orders at any time for all the information you need
  • Communicate purchase orders to suppliers flexibly using a number of options
  • Inform your suppliers of your shipment schedule requirements
  • Record supplier acceptances of your purchase orders. You always know whether your suppliers have received and accepted your purchase order terms and conditions
  • Create your purchase orders by providing a quantity and price for each item you are ordering. Alternatively, you should also be able to create your purchase order simply by providing an amount if you are ordering a service that you cannot break down by price and quantity
  • Create purchase orders that leverage flexible pricing structures or implement complex pricing from Oracle Advanced Pricing

Purchase Order Types

Purchasing provides the following purchase order types: Standard Purchase Order, Planned Purchase Order, Blanket Purchase Agreement, and Contract Purchase Agreement. You can use the Document Name field in the Document Types window to change the names of these documents. For example, if you enter Regular Purchase Order in the Document Name field for the Standard Purchase Order type, your choices in the Type field in the Purchase Orders window will be Regular Purchase Order, Planned Purchase Order, Blanket Purchase Agreement, and Contract Purchase Agreement.

Standard Purchase Orders

You generally create standard purchase orders for one-time purchase of various items. You create standard purchase orders when you know the details of the goods or services you require, estimated costs, quantities, delivery schedules, and accounting distributions. If you use encumbrance accounting, the purchase order may be encumbered since the required information is known.

Blanket Purchase Agreements

You create blanket purchase agreements when you know the detail of the goods or services you plan to buy from a specific supplier in a period, but you do not yet know the detail of your delivery schedules. You can use blanket purchase agreements to specify negotiated prices for your items before actually purchasing them. Blanket purchase agreements can be created for a single organization or to be shared by different business units of your organization (global agreements). You can encumber funds for a blanket purchase agreement.

Global Blanket Agreements

You may need to negotiate based on an enterprises’ total global purchase volume to enable centralizing the buying activity across a broad and sometimes diverse set of businesses. Using global agreements (a special type of blanket purchase agreement), buyers can negotiate enterprise-wide pricing, business by business, then execute and manage those agreements in one central shared environment. Enterprise organizations can then access the agreement to create purchase orders that leverage pre-negotiated prices and terms. You can encumber funds for a global agreement.

Blanket Releases

You can issue a blanket release against a blanket purchase agreement to place the actual order (as long as the release is within the blanket agreement effectivity dates). If you use encumbrance accounting, you can encumber each release.

Contract Purchase Agreements

You create contract purchase agreements with your suppliers to agree on specific terms and conditions without indicating the goods and services that you will be purchasing. You can later issue standard purchase orders referencing your contracts, and you can encumber these purchase orders if you use encumbrance accounting.

Global Contract Agreements

You can use global contract agreeements (a special type of contract purchase agreement) to centralize a supplier relationship. Buyers throughout the enterprise can then leverage this relationship by referencing this global contract agreement in your standard purchase orders.

Planned Purchase Orders

A planned purchase order is a long-term agreement committing to buy items or services from a single source. You must specify tentative delivery schedules and all details for goods or services that you want to buy, including charge account, quantities, and estimated cost.

Scheduled Releases

You can issue scheduled releases against a planned purchase order to place the actual orders. If you use encumbrance accounting, you can use the planned purchase order to reserve funds for long term agreements. You can also change the accounting distributions on each release and the system will reverse the encumbrance for the planned purchase order and create a new encumbrance for the release.

Purchase Order Types Summary

  Standard Purchase Order Planned Purchase Order Blanket Purchase Agreement Contract Purchase Agreement
Terms and Conditions Known Yes Yes Yes Yes
Goods or Services Known Yes Yes Yes No
Pricing Known Yes Yes Maybe No
Quantity Known Yes Yes No No
Account Distributions Known Yes Yes No No
Delivery Schedule Known Yes Maybe No No
Can Be Encumbered Yes Yes Yes No
Can Encumber Releases N/A Yes Yes N/A

Reference: http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E18727_01/doc.121/e13410/T446883T443953.htm
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