Sie sind auf Seite 1von 5

Invoice Approval Workflow

Michael V. Milano
Oracle Corporation

Abstract workflow allows for additional constraints to


be applied to an invoice before it’s approved
Improve your understanding of invoice for payment. It is not meant to replace
approval workflow. This paper provides an validation. It is meant to enhance the approval
overview of invoice approval workflow. process.

II. OVERVIEW OF APPROVAL


Scope WORKFLOW
I. Review of AP Setup The Invoice Approval Workflow automates
II. Overview of Approval Workflow your invoice approval process. Based on rules
III. Overview of the Invoice Approval you define, the workflow determines if an
IV. Sample Test Case invoice needs approval, who the approvers are,
and in what order approvers should approve
I. SETUP
payment of the invoice. The workflow then
Install and setup Oracle Approvals sequentially asks each approver in the approval
Management (OAM). You must apply AP list to approve invoices online. For example,
patchset I and 2198768, 2220334, 2228792, you can define a rule so invoices over
2257526, 2271164 and 2274701. $100,000 require CFO approval and then CEO
approval.
Note: OAM and its setup are supported by
Accounts Payables Support. OAM setup will If you use Invoice Approval Workflow, then
be covered in an upcoming white paper. every invoice that requires approval must be
approved before you can pay it. Payables
The setup in Accounts Payable is fairly indicates that an invoice requires approval by
straightforward. Navigate to Payables Options. setting the value in the Approval
In the ‘Invoice’ tab, enable ‘Use Invoice status field in the Invoices window to
Approval Workflow’. There are two additional Required.
options, ‘Allow Force Approval’ and ‘Require
Validation Before Approval’. ‘Allow Force When you use this feature, all invoices require
Approval’ allows the Accounts Payable user to approval, with the following exceptions.
force the invoice to an approved state. The Payables sets the Approval status of the
‘Require Validation Before Approval’ option following invoices to Not Required:
requires that the ‘old’ approval process (now • expense reports imported through the
called validation) must be run prior to the Payables Expense Report Import Program
invoice approval workflow. Validation as it is (because these expense reports have
now called, is still the process that will place already been through an approval process)
holds on invoices and automatically create tax • recurring invoices if the recurring invoice
distributions and invoice price variance template did not have the Approval
calculations. The new invoice approval Workflow Required option enabled
(because recurring invoices are often nightly so you can closely monitor your
approved in advance) rejected invoices.
• invoices that existed before you enabled
the feature Note: If you have ‘Allow Force Approval’
• Invoices that completed the Invoice enabled, it will also override the ‘Require
Approval Workflow process and the Validation Before Approval’.
Invoice Approval Workflow process
determined that according to the rules set You can review the approval status of an
up in Oracle Approvals Management that invoice that has started the Invoice Approval
no one needs to approve the invoice. Workflow in the following ways:
• Invoice Approval History window.
You can set up your system to request and • Invoice Approval Status Report.
receive approval through the approver’s e–
mail, through the approver’s Oracle Workflow Invoice Selection Criteria
Notifications Workflow web page, or both. You can submit the Invoice Approval
Workflow for an invoice either from the
Approvers can approve or reject the invoice. Invoice Actions window, or from the Submit
• If an approver approves the invoice, then Requests window. An invoice must meet all of
the invoice goes to the next person in the the following criteria to be processed:
approver list until all required people • If the Require Validation Before Approval
approve the invoice. Payables option is enabled, then the
• If an approver rejects the invoice, then the invoice must be validated.
workflow program ends. • The Approval field value in the Invoices
• If an approver does not respond within the window must be:
time you specify, then Workflow will
request approval from that person’s 1. Required, if you submit the workflow
manager. program from the Submit Requests
window.
If an approver rejects an invoice, then you can 2. Anything except Initiated or Manually
perform one of the following actions from the Approved, if you submit the workflow
Invoice Actions window: program from the Invoice Actions window.
• Use the Force Approval option to manually 3. The invoice amount must equal the
approve the invoice (if enabled in Payables distribution total.
Options). 4. The Ready for Approval check box in the
• Use the Initiate Approval option to Invoices window must be enabled.
resubmit the invoice to the Invoice
Approval Workflow after correcting any Approval and Validation
issue that caused the approver to reject the The Invoice Validation process and Invoice
invoice Approval Workflow Program can be submitted
• Use the Cancel Invoice option to cancel the in any order for an invoice, unless the Require
invoice Validation Before Approval Payables option is
enabled. You might want to enable this option
Suggestion: We recommend that you schedule if you enter invoices that require the Invoice
the Invoice Approval Status Report to run Validation process to create tax distributions
for you. If your approvers need to review tax
details before they approve an invoice, then we
recommend that you enable this option.
III. WORKFLOW PROCESS FLOW
Handling Exceptions
• If the workflow program fails, then the The first step in the Invoice Approval
workflow sends an e–mail or workflow Workflow is to enter and invoice in Payables
notification (or both) to a designated (Invoices Entry Invoices).
person such as your system administrator.
This person can abort the workflow Once the invoice has been entered, select the
program, retry the failed workflow activity, ‘Actions’ button from the invoice workbench.
or resolve the problem that caused the error Select the ‘Initiate Approval’ option. Click
to occur. ‘OK’. The approval field should now display
• If you want to override the Invoice ‘Initiated’. Note the original value of this field
Approval Workflow for an invoice, a when the invoice was entered was ‘Required’.
Payables user can force approve it. You
might want to use force approval if there is Once the invoice approval is ‘Initiated’, a
a problem with the Workflow program and request is placed in the WF_DEFERRED
you need to pay an invoice immediately. queue. You can log into the self-service web
To force approve an invoice, select it in the application ‘Workflow Administrator Web
Invoices window, then in the Invoice Applications responsibility. Select ‘Event
Actions window choose the Force Queue Summary. Select WF_DEFERRED
Approval option. This stops the workflow Queue.
program for the invoice and sets the
approval status to Manually Approved. In the System Administrator responsibility, run
This invoice status cannot be updated, even the ‘Workflow Agent Listener’ (Requests
if the pending approver subsequently Run). This launches the Invoice Approval
approves or rejects the invoice. Also, you Workflow and moves the request from the
cannot resubmit the Invoice Approval WF_DEFERRED queue.
Workflow for an invoice that has a status
of Manually Approved. The Workflow checks to see if the invoice is
• If you want to resubmit an invoice for matched to a purchase order. This activity is
approval then you can resubmit Invoice disabled by default because a constant value of
Approval Workflow from the Invoice ‘No’ is seeded for the Exclude PO Matched
Actions window. You can resubmit the Invoices attribute in workflow. When this
invoice if the approval status is Required, activity is enabled, if all distributions on the
Not Required, Rejected, or Approved. invoice are purchase order matched, then this
Because the workflow program selects activity sets the Invoice Approval status to Not
only invoices that require approval and Required.
have never started the approval process
(approval status is Required), you can’t use Note: To enable this function, bring up the
the Submit Request window to resubmit workflow builder. Select attributes. Open the
approval for an invoice. attribute ‘Exclude PO Matched Invoices’. Set
• You cannot delete an invoice if the Invoice the default value to ‘Yes’. Save the changes to
Approval Workflow is processing or has the database.
processed it. (bug 2386392).
Workflow calls OAM to get the identity of the approval type (i.e. group approvals before
transaction’s first approver. OAM compiles a chain of authority). Start date is today’s date.
list of all the approver’s who need to approve a End date is NULL.
transaction. OAM sends each approver a
notification to approve the transaction. Click on the Groups tab. Enter a name and
description for the group (i.e. Test Approval
If no first approver is found, the workflow Group, Test Approval Group respectively).
ends and the approval field is update to ‘Not Add a member to the group (i.e. Michael
Required’. Milano, James Norton).

If the first approver is found, a notification is In Accounts Payables, enter and invoice with
sent to the approver. The approver can either an amount between 0 and 1000 USD (this is
approve or reject the transaction. within the condition defined with the rule
created in OAM).
If rejected, an update is made to Approval
History and the approval field changes to Click the ‘Actions’ button on the invoice
‘Rejected’. workbench.

If approved, an update is made to Approval Select ‘Initiate Approval’. Approval field


History and workflow calls OAM to get the should now say ‘Initiated’.
next approver in the approval list.
Log into the self-service web application
If no other approvers exist, then the workflow Workflow Administrator Web Applications.
ends and the approval field is updated to Select Event Queue Summary. Select the
‘Approved. WF_DEFERRED queue. The Item Key is the
invoice id. Verify the invoice id appears in the
If the next approver is found, then this queue.
approver is sent a notification to approve or
reject the transaction. They’re actions are Log into the System Administrator
updated in Approval History. This continues responsibility and run the ‘Workflow Agent
until there are no approvers in the approval list Listener’. This launches the workflow.
who have not been notified. If all approvers
approve the transaction, the approval field is Log into the self-service web application
changed to ‘Approved’. Workflow Administrator Web Applications as
the approver. Select ‘Find Notifications’. Click
IV. SAMPLE TEST CASE on the notification. Approve the invoice.

Log into the self-service web application’s Back in Payables, query the invoice and verify
AME Application Administrator the approval field has changed to ‘Approved’.
responsibility. Select Approvals. Click ‘Add
Rule’ button. Enter a description. Do not enter You can also test to OAM as a standalone
any constraints. Enter a condition (i.e. process.
0USD<=SUPPLIER_INVOICE_AMOUNT
<=1000USD). Enter approval (i.e. Require Log into self-service web application AME
Pre-Approval From Approval Group). Enter an Application Administrator.
Click ‘Approvals’. Select the ‘Test’ tab.

Select ‘Create a Test Transaction’.

Choose ‘Person’ as Test-Transaction


Requestor Type’.

Search for the requestor.

If the approver is found you should get a list


the test transaction attribute values.

Make any necessary changes to the values and


click the ‘View Approval Process’ button. If
an error appears the error is within OAM. If
the approval completes without any errors,
then OAM is setup correctly.

Conclusions

It is my desire that this paper has helped you


understand the fundamentals of Invoice
Approval Workflow. I hope that you are now
better equipped to troubleshoot problems and
determine what needs to be done to resolve the
issue.

In addition, if you encounter a problem that


requires assistance, please remember to call
Oracle Support. They may have seen the issue
before and may already have a solution for the
issue!

About the Author

Michael Milano is a Technical Analyst with


the Oracle Support financials group. He has
been working for Oracle Support for
approximately 4 1/2 years.

Das könnte Ihnen auch gefallen