Guidance on AME Rules Setup for Oracle General Ledger Journal Approvals

This chapter provides guidance on Oracle Approvals Management (AME) rules setup for the Oracle General Ledger Journal Approvals process. It is assumed that you have already completed setup steps 1-5 (step 6 is optional) and 7a as outlined on pages 4-6 in this white paper.

Setup Steps to Create a GL Journal Approval Rule in Oracle Approvals Management type

» Navigate to “Business Analyst Dashboard” and click on the setup for “GL Journal” Approval transaction 

» Select the “GL Journal Approval” transaction type and click on Setup.

» Navigate to Conditions tab and setup a new condition to enable the rule for AME

» Click on “Create” to create new AME Conditions and enter details.

The screenshot below shows an example of one of the conditions defined.

Select “Action Types” tab to create new Actions.

» Create new “Approver Groups” in case you want to use Static or Dynamic approvers.

The example screenshot below is for an Approver Group with Static Approvers

If the approver level needs to be Dynamic or Static, than you need to create a new “Approver Group” and select the Usage Type field as “Static” or “Dynamic” (refer to setup step 5h on page 6 in this white paper)

» If the usage type selected is “Dynamic”, then you must write a SQL Query to derive the approver list.

» If the usage type selected is “Static”, then the Approver Type will need to be updated.

Worked Examples of Oracle General Ledger Journal Approval Rules in AME

To help you get started quickly with definition of journal approval rules utilizing Oracle Approvals Management a number of worked examples are outlined below. The worked examples assume you have completed setup steps 1-5 (step 6 is optional) and 7a as outlined on pages 4-6 in this white paper.

1.  Journal approval with more than one approver and all approvers must approve

This first worked example illustrates a simple journal approval process where a journal must be approved by multiple approvers before the journal approval process completes.

» Navigate to “Business Analyst Dashboard” and click on the setup for “GL Journal” Approval transaction type

» Select the “GL Journal Approval” transaction type and click on Setup.

» Define Approver Group

» Navigate to Approver Groups region and add an Approver Group

·    Create a dynamic approver group “GL_JRNL_AMOUNT2” to derive the approver based on authorization limits set in Oracle General Ledger by writing a SQL query

» Define the Action Types and ensure that:

» Ordering mode is set to “Parallel”

» Voting Method is set to “Serial”

» The Approver Group “GL_JRNL_AMOUNT2” is assigned

» Define Rule

» Navigate to Conditions region and add a condition

·    Use the seeded AME attribute GL_JOURNAL_RUNNING_TOTAL_DEBIT to define a condition for any amount greater than 50 and less than 5,000

» Navigate to Actions region and add an Action Type after adding the condition to the new rule:

·    Assign the AME seeded approval-group chain of authority Action Type for Approver Group “GL_JRNL_AMOUNT2”

Now that the setup is complete, you can test the journal approvals process. To ensure that the AME rules satisfy the conditions and actions you can create a journal and then test it using the AME Test Workbench before submitting the journal for approval.

Validate that when one approver has approved the journal, the status of the journal batch is “In Process” but once the all approvers have approved the journal the status of the journal batch changes to “Approved”.

2.  Journal approval where first responder wins

This second worked example illustrates a simple journal approval process where first responder wins, which means the journal status will be “Approved” whenever anyone out of multiple approvers approves the journal.

» Navigate to “Business Analyst Dashboard” and click on the setup for “GL Journal” Approval transaction type

» Select the “GL Journal Approval” transaction type and click on Setup.

» Define Approver Group

» Navigate to Approver Groups region and add an Approver Group

·    Create an Approver Group named “GL_Category_Allocation_Approver_Grp” where the group of approvers is static with three approvers assigned

» Define the Action Types and ensure that:

» Ordering mode is set to “Serial”

» Voting Method is set to “First Responder Wins”

» The Approver Group “GL_Category_Allocation_Approver_Grp” is assigned

» Define Rule

» Navigate to Conditions region and add a condition

·    Use the seeded AME attribute GL_JOURNAL_CATEGORY to define condition for Allocation journal category

» Navigate to Actions region and add an Action Type after adding the condition to the new rule

·    Assign the AME seeded approval-group chain of authority Action Type for Approver Group “GL_Category_Allocation_Approver_Grp”

Now that the setup is complete, you can test the journal approvals process. To ensure that the AME rules satisfy the conditions and actions you can create a journal and then test it using the AME Test Workbench before submitting the journal for approval.

Validate that when one of the approvers has approved the journal, the status of the journal batch changes to “Approved”.

3.  Multiple approvers dependent on account and journal debit amount

In this third worked example, let’s say the journal approval routing is dependent on the natural account value and amount, for instance:

» If the account is 1214 and the journal debit amount is below 50,000.00 route journal approval according to HR supervisor hierarchy

» If the account is 1214 and the journal amount is between 50,000.00 and 499,999.99 route journal approval to the senior director of the finance department

» If the account is 1214 and the journal amount is 500,000.00 and above route journal approval to the Managing Director

Setup steps to create the GL Journal Approval Rule in Oracle Approvals Management:

» Navigate to “Business Analyst Dashboard” and click on the setup for “GL Journal” Approval transaction type

» Select the “GL Journal Approval” transaction type and click on Setup.

» Three AME approval rules will be need to be defined

» Define Rule 1 – HR supervisor hierarchy for journal approval

» Navigate to the Attribute tab to create a new attribute:

·    Perform setup to create an attribute (in this example used AME Attribute GL_NATURAL_EXISTS_ATTR1) that checks if the Natural account (e.g. value 1214) exists in the journal lines using a function script

o The function script assigns either the value true or false (to the AME new attribute created above)

§ TRUE: if the natural account (in this case 1214) exists on any of the journal lines for the journal batch created.

§ FALSE: if the natural account (in this case 1214) does not exists on any of the journal lines for the journal batch created.

» Navigate to Conditions region and add two conditions:

·    Use the new AME attribute for the Natural Account above

·    Use the seeded AME attribute GL_JOURNAL_RUNNING_TOTAL_DEBIT to define condition for any amount less than 50,000.00

» Navigate to Actions region and add an Action Type:

·    Assign the AME seeded Supervisor level Approver Action Type

» Define Rule 2 – HR Senior director of the finance department for journal approval

» Navigate to the Approval Group region

·    Create a new Approver group for static approver(s) – in this example called GL_TESTCASE2_APPR2

» Navigate to Conditions region and add two conditions to the Rule 2:

·    Use the new AME attribute for the Natural Account used in Rule 1 above

·    Use the seeded AME attribute GL_JOURNAL_RUNNING_TOTAL_DEBIT to define condition for any amount less greater than or equal to 50,000.00 and less than or equal to 499,999,99

» Navigate to Actions region and add an Action Type:

·    Assign Static Approver group GL_TESTCASE2_APPR2

» Define Rule 3 – Managing Director for journal approval

» Navigate to the Approval Group region

·    Create a new Approver group for static approver(s) – in this example called GL_TESTCASE2_APPR3

» Navigate to Conditions region and add two conditions to the Rule 3:

·    Use the new AME attribute for the Natural Account used in Rule 1 above

·    Use the seeded AME attribute GL_JOURNAL_RUNNING_TOTAL_DEBIT to define condition for any amount greater than or equal to 500,000.00

» Navigate to Actions region and add an Action Type:

·    Static Approver group GL_TESTCASE2_APPR3

Now that the setup is complete, you can test the journal approvals process. To ensure that the AME rules satisfy the conditions and actions you can create a journal and then each of the three rules using the AME Test Workbench before submitting the journal for approval.

The outcome of the testing should be:

» When a journal is submitted for approval with amount of 25,000 for account 1214 the journal approval notification is routed through the HR supervisor Hierarchy to the appropriate approver.

» When a journal is submitted for approval with amount of 175,000 for account 1214 the journal approval notification is routed to the senior director of the finance department.

» When a journal is submitted for approval with amount of 550,000 for account 1214 the journal approval notification is routed to the Managing Director.

4.  Journal batch approval with multiple ledgers and different approvers

In this fourth worked example, let’s say the journal approval routing is dependent on the ledger and the journal batch consists of multiple ledgers, for instance:

» If journal belongs to ledger XXGLAME-A, the journal should go to a static approver, say Raj,Ritu.

» If the journal belongs to ledger XXGLAME-B, the journal should go to the static approver, say Bhanu, Ram.

» Journals with category ‘XXGLAMEREV’ only will be routed through this approval process.

Setup steps to create the GL Journal Approval Rule in Oracle Approvals Management:

» Navigate to “Business Analyst Dashboard” and click on the setup for “GL Journal” Approval transaction type

» Select the “GL Journal Approval” transaction type and click on Setup.

» Define Approver Group for Ledger XXGLAME-A

» Navigate to the Approver Groups section under Setup and create a new approver group LedgerA

·    Specify the voting method as Serial and usage type as Static

·    Add a row for the approver with approver type as HR People and Approver as Raj, Ritu

» Define Approver Group for Ledger XXGLAME-B

» Navigate to the Approver Groups section under Setup and create a new approver group LedgerB

·    Specify the voting method as Serial and usage type as Static

·    Add a row for the approver with approver type as HR People and Approver as Bhanu, Ram

» Define two approval rules as below

» Define Rule for Ledger XXGLAME –A

» Navigate to Conditions region and add two conditions:

·    Use the AME attribute GL_JOURNAL_LEDGER_NAME for the ledger name “XXGLAME-A”

·    Use the seeded AME attribute GL_JOURNAL_CATEGORY for the category name “XXGLAMEREV”

» Navigate to Actions region and add an Action Type:

·    Assign the approval-group chain of authority called “LedgerA”

» Define another Rule for Ledger XXGLAME –B

» Navigate to Conditions region and add two conditions:

·    Use the AME attribute GL_JOURNAL_LEDGER_NAME for the ledger name “XXGLAME-B”

·    Use the seeded AME attribute GL_JOURNAL_CATEGORY for the category name “XXGLAMEREV”

» Navigate to Actions region and add an Action Type:

·    Assign approval-group chain of authority called “Ledger B”

Now that the setup is complete, you can test the journal approvals process. To ensure that the AME rules satisfy the conditions and actions you can create a journal batch with two journals for two ledgers using the AME Test Workbench before submitting the journal for approval.

» When a journal batch with journals belonging to multiple ledgers is submitted for approval, the journal belonging to ledger XXGLAME-A is routed through the Approver Group with a static approver appropriate for Ledger A.

» When a journal batch with journals belonging to multiple ledgers is submitted for approval, the journal belonging to ledger XXGLAME-B is routed through the Approver Group with a static approver appropriate for Ledger B.

» Only once the two approvers have approved the two journals for the two ledgers will the approval status for the journal be set to “Approved”

Conclusion

The enhancement to the Journal Approvals process in Oracle General Ledger which now integrates with Oracle approvals Management and Oracle Workflow enables enterprises to improve their governance, control and compliance requirements in respect of segregation of duties for the processing and approval of journals in Oracle General Ledger.