Invoice Approval Workflow

An Oracle White Paper

February 2005


Invoice Approval Workflow Page 2
Invoice Approval Workflow

Introduction...................................................................................... 3
Scope ................................................................................................ 3
Overview ...................................................................................... 3
Pre-requisites ................................................................................ 4
Features......................................................................................... 4
Setup ............................................................................................. 5
HRMS......................................................................................... 5
Sysadmin................................................................................... 7
Oracle Approvals Management (OAM)................................. 10
Attribute............................................................................... 11
Conditions ........................................................................... 12
Actions................................................................................. 13
Action Group ...................................................................... 15
Rules.................................................................................... 15
Test ...................................................................................... 19
Oracle Payables ...................................................................... 22
Simulation................................................................................... 23
Troubleshooting ......................................................................... 29
Technical Overview of Invoice Approval Flow.................... 29
Tables Related to Invoice Approval ...................................... 30
Workflow Tables ................................................................ 30
AME Tables ......................................................................... 31
Invoice Approval Program Flow........................................ 31
How to Track the Workflow Process ................................ 33
Conclusion...................................................................................... 35


Invoice Approval Workflow Page 3
Invoice Approval Workflow
INTRODUCTION
In todays world, business conglomerates and MNCs process huge
number of invoices daily. Approving all the invoices by the appropriate
authority is a painful process. Payables Invoice Approval Workflow
process automate the approval process.
SCOPE
Scope of this white paper is as follows:
Setup details involved in
o Oracle Payables
o Oracle Approval Management
o Workflow
A full Cycle explaining the usage of Invoice Approvals
This paper will not cover general AME details and Worflow details
Trouble shooting of Invoice Approval Workflow
Overview
What do you mean by Invoice Approval Workflow?
It is a workflow process that enables you to automate the approval
process. It helps in customizing and setting approval methodology based
on:
o Approver
o Sequence of approval
o Criteria for approval
In what cases Invoice Approval workflow will not apply?
o When the Expense Report is imported
o In the case of Recurring invoices, if approval is not required as
per the template
o For those invoices before this feature is enabled
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o For invoices which are already processed


Pre-requisites
What are the basic requirements to enable the Invoice Approval
Workflow?
o Oracle Payables Patchset 11i.AP.I (2266251) and above
o Oracles Approval Management with following patches
(2198768,2220334,2228792,2257526,2271164,2274701)
Features
The approval can be submitted through:
o Invioces > Actions > Initiate Approval
o Concurrent Program Invoice Approval Workflow
The approval can be done through
o E-mail
o Workflow notification
If the invoice is rejected, user has three options:
o Force approve the invoice or
o Cancel the invoice or
o Re-submit the invoice
Invoice can be re-submitted only if Approval Status is Required/Not
Required/Rejected/Approved using Invoices > Action > Initiate approval
only
If Require Validation before approval is enabled in Payable Options,
then Invoice must be validated before approval
If you submit the approval using Invoice approval workflow, then invoice
must meet following criteria for selection:
o Should be validated if Require Validation before approval is
enabled in Payable Options
o Approval Status should be
o Required
o Other than Initiated or Manually approved
o Invoice amount equals distributions total
Invoice Approval Workflow Page 5
o Ready for approval is checked for invoice
o Requestor field should not be null

Setup
As far as setup is concerned with regard to Invoice Approval Workflow, it
involves
o HRMS
o Sysadmin
o Oracle Approvals Management (AME)
o Workflow
o Payables
HRMS
In HRMS, you need to create employees and assign supervisors.
In our test case, we are going to create the following employees and their
supervisors:
Employee Name Supervisor Name
The Clerk The Supervisor
The Supervisor The Manager
The Manager The CEO












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Invoice Approval Workflow Page 7




















Sysadmin
In System Adminstrator Responsibility, you need to create the following
users and assign them the following responsibilities:
User Name Responsibilites (minimum
responsibilities to be assigned)
THE CLERK Payables, Approval Management
(OAM), Workflow
THE SUPERVISOR Payables, Approval Management
(OAM), Workflow
THE MANAGER Payables, Approval Management
(OAM), Workflow
THE CEO Payables, Approval Management
(OAM), Workflow
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Following are the screenshots of the above:




























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Oracle Approvals Management (OAM)
In Oracle Approvals Management, You need to create a Rule for the
Transaction Type Payables Invoice Approval. In our test case, we will
see how to create a Rule in AME for Payables Invoice Approval. We will
not be going indepth about Oracle Approvals Management in this white
paper.
To create a rule in Approval Management, we need to create the
following and then attach to the rule:
1. Attribute
An attribute is a business variable that has exactly one value for a
given transaction. Examples are Invoice Amount, Invoice Lookup
Type, Payment terms etc.,
2. Condition
The IF part of an approval rule is the condition. It may consistis of
one or more conditions each of which is either true or false. For a
rule to apply to a transaction, all the condition must be true for the
transaction. We can create conditions based on the attributes.
Ordinary header condtions are based on columns of the Invoice
Header i.e, AP_INVOICES_ALL table
Example are if the INVOICE_AMOUNT <= 5000 US Dollars
Ordinary line item conditions are based on columns found in the
invoice distributions i.e, AP_INVOICE_DISTRIBUTIONS_ALL table
Examples are DISTRIBUTION_LINE_TYPE_LOOKUP_CODE,
DISTRIBUTION_AMOUNT etc.,
3. Actions
An Action is an instruction to AME to modify a transaction's approval
process in some fashion. An approval rule's "then" part (its
"consequent") consists of one or more actions. Actions that modify a
transaction's approver list are approval actions or simply approvals.
Actions that generate a production (a variable-name/value pair) are
production actions.

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Once we create the above for the transaction type Payables Invoice
Approval, we need to create a rule and attach the above for the rule.
Following are the screenshots of how to create an attribute, condition and
approval and then attach all these to a rule.
Attribute
Responsibility: AME Application Administrator
N > Approvals > Attributes
1. Change the transaction type to Payables Invoice Approval from the list
of values and select the continue button.
2. Scroll to the end of the attributes page and select the Add Attribute
button.
3. Select the header attribute button.
4. Select Create New Name button from the Create an Attribute.
5. Enter SUPPLIER INVOICE AMOUNT in the name field and select the
continue button.
6. Select an Attribute type of currency.
7. Enter Invoice amount in the description field.
8. Select static usage as no. Attribute usages define how the value is
determined at the run time. If it is a static usage, then you can define a
constant value for the transaction type. If it is a dynamic usage, then you
need to define a SQL query for the transaction type that uses the attribute.
In our case, it is a dynamic usage and the following SQL query is used
select fnd_number.number_to_canonical(ai.INVOICE_AMOUNT),
nvl(ai.Invoice_Currency_Code,asp.Invoice_Currency_Code),
nvl(ai.Exchange_Rate_Type,asp.Default_Exchange_Rate_Type)
from ap_invoices_all ai, ap_system_parameters_all asp
where ai.invoice_id = :transactionId
and ai.org_id = asp.org_id
9. Select the Create Attribute button.
Note: AME will confirm the creation of the attribute for you.
10. Select the Quit button to return back to the main menu page.



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Conditions
Responsibility: AME Application Administrator

N > Approvals > Conditions

1. Change the transaction type to Payables Invoice Approval from the list
of values and select the continue button.
2. Scroll to the end of the conditions page and select Add a Condition
button.
3. Select an ordinary header condition type.
4. Select the continue button.
5. In the attribute field select SUPPLIER INVOICE AMOUNT from the list
of values.
6. Select the continue button.
7. Select the Currency code as USD
8. Enter 0 in the lower limit field.
9. Enter 5000 in the upper limit field.
10. Select yes for include lower limit.
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11. Select yes for include upper limit
12. Select the Create Condition button.
13. AME will confirm the condition being added successfully.








Actions
Responsibility: AME Application Administrator
N > Approvals > Approvals
Note: that actions are common to all transaction types so you do not need
to select the Payables Invoice Approval transaction type.
In the actions types page view scroll down to view the absolute job
level action type and note that it has 2 required attributes:
INCLUDE_ALL_JOB_LEVEL_APPROVERS
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JOB_LEVEL_NON_DEFAULT_STARTING_POINT_PERSON_ID
Verify that these attributes have been defined with the Payables Invoice
Approval transaction type.
N > Approvals > Attributes
1. Select the Payables Invoice Approval transaction type from the list of
values.
2. Select the continue button.
3. Scroll down and check the non-mandatory attributes list to see if the
following two attributes appear:
INCLUDE_ALL_JOB_LEVEL_APPROVERS
JOB_LEVEL_NON_DEFAULT_STARTING_POINT_PERSON_ID
4. Add these attributes if they are missing.
5. Select the Quit button to return back to the main menu page.

AME includes a set of seeded action types, many of which enable
you to ascend commonly used organizational hierarchies. If none
of the seeded action types meets your organization's
requirements, you need a custom action type. An AME user with
administrative privileges must use the actions tab to define a new
action type. (this is not the scope of this paper and hence not
Invoice Approval Workflow Page 15
disucussed here). For our test case, we will use the seeded action
type absoulute job level).

Action Group

Action Group is out of the scope of this material. If you want to
know more about Action Group, then please refer Implementing
Oracle Approvals Management, Release 11i10.

Rules

Creating rules and rule usages is the main step in the AME
implementation process. Rarely will an organizations business
rules match any rules that are seeded with a transaction type.
Instead, you must translate the business rules you documented
into AME rules yourself.

Rule associate one or more conditions with an approval in an if-
then statement. Before you can create rules, you must create
conditions for the rules to use. You may need to create (or have a
system administrator create) some custom attributes and/or
approvals. You may also need to create some approval groups.
Thus, while creating rules is your ultimate goal, it is also the last
thing you do when you set up AME.

How to creat a Rule:
N > Approvals > Approvals
1. Press on Rule tab
2. Click on the Add Rule and Usage tab
3. Give the name of the Rule in the Description. Rule Key will be
automatically displayed.
4. Give appropriate Start and End date for the rule and then
press continue button
5. Select the appropriate Action Types (in our case chains of
authority based on absolute job level action type is selected)
and press continue. The action type will change according to
the Rule Type selected.
6. Select the appropriate absoulute job level actions and press
continue
7. Select the appropriate Subordinate item class and press
continue
8. Select the appropriate Header Attributes. In our case
SUPPLIER_INVOICE_AMOUNT is selected and press continue
9. Select the appropriate condition and press continue.
10. This will create the rule



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Creation of Rule Step 1


Creation of Rule Step 2
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Creation of Rule Step 3
Creation of Rule Step4



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Creation of Rule Step 5

Creation of Rule Step 6




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Creation of Rule Step 7


Test
Approval Management allows users to test the approval process
independent of the Invoice Approval Workflow. This will help
determine where the problem is occurring, either in OAM or the
Invoice Approval Workflow.
How to test a rule in OAM:
N > Approvals > Approvals
1. Go to Test Tab
2. Select a Test Type
a. to test a real transactions approval process, you need
to give the item key which will be the invoice_id. In
this case check the View a real transactions approval
process check box
b. to test the rule created in OAM in order to check the
approval process, you can select create a test
transaction
3. Select the transaction requestor type
4. Search for the person and select the person
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5. Enter the transaction attribute values
6. Press View approval process button to view the approval
process
7. Press View approver list to view the list of approvers

Testing a Rule Step 1
Testing a Rule Step 2



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Testing a Rule Step 3















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Oracle Payables
N > Payables > Setup > Options > Payables Options
1. Check the Use Invoice Approval Workflow check box.
2. Check the Allow Force Approval vheck box, if you want to force
approve the invoice in which case the approval process will be
bypassed.
3. Check the Require Validation before Approval check box if you
want to validate the invoice before it is picked up by the approval
process







Invoice Approval Workflow Page 23






Simulation
1. Go to Oracle Payables
2. Enter a Standard Invoice with Requestor name populated
3. Validate the invoice
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4. Intitiate the invoce by checking the Intitate Approval Checkbox in
the Action window
5. Check the approval field and view the Invoice Approval History
(Tools > View Invoice Approval Hisotry)
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6. Run the Workflow Listener for Agent name WF_DEFFERED in
Sysadmin












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7. Check on the status of the approval process in Payables in View
Invoice Approval History form by querrying the invoice.


8. Login in to corresponding User Name in whose name the action is
pending (Login as Supervisor)
9. Selection the Notification from the worklist
10. Check the Notification details and approve
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11. Check the invoice Approval Status after the Supervisors approval.

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12. Similarly you need to login as next approver (manager) and
repeat the process and following will be the invoice approval
status after managers approval

13. Invoice Approval status after the final approver (CEO)


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Troubleshooting
Technical Overview of Invoice Approval Flow




















Initiate Approval calls:
ap_wfapproval_pkg.i
aw_raise_events
ap_wfapproval_pkg.ia
w_raise_events calls:
Wf_event.raise
Wf_event.raise puts
data in: wf_deferred
table (Queue)

On running the Wf
Agent Listener: Event
subscriptions are
executed
Event subscriptions
Triggers:
APINV workflow
Process
APINV_MPO Node
check PO Match
ap_wfapproval_pkg
APINV_IA Node get
approvers: using
AME_APIs in
ap_wfapproval_pkg.get
_approvers
APINV_SN Node: send
notifications and gets
the feedback
APINV_UAH
Node: Updates
the history
APINV_UAH1 Node:
Updates the history
Approval Process
ends (No More
Approvers)
Approval Process ends
(If Rejected)
Approval Process
ends (If matched)
Invoice Approval Workflow Page 30
Tables Related to Invoice Approval
Workflow Tables
Table Name Usage
WF_EVENTS,
WE_EVENTS_SUBSCRIPTIONS
Consists complete list of events and
events subscriptions along with
licensing details
WF_DEFERRED Stores details of the events that
requires to be submitted to
workflow
WF_ERROR If the Workflow Agent Listener
errors, then a record is logged in
this table

Query to access WF_DEFERRED and WF_ERROR table details
Select w.user_data.event_name EVENT_NAME,w.user_data.event_key
EVENT_key, w.* from WF_DEFERRED w
where w.user_data.event_name like
'oracle.apps.ap.event.invoice.approval and w.user_data.event_key like
'57936_1';
Note : 1. These tables consists data-type Object.
2. Above queries will work on 8.1.5+ Sql*Plus version.
3. Can replace WF_DEFERRED with WF_ERROR

WF_ITEM_TYPES_TL Consists complete list of workflow
item types
WF_ITEM_ATTRIBUTES_TL Consists attributes defined for a
workflow item type
WF_ACTIVITIES_TL,
WF_PROCESS_ACTIVITIES
Consists activities defined for a
workflow item type
WF_ITEMS Consists item type and item key.
One record exists for every invoice
submitted for approval
WF_ITEM_ATTRIBUTE_VALUES Consists attribute values used
during approval workflow
WF_ITEM_ACTIVITY_STATUSES Consists item key activity status
Invoice Approval Workflow Page 31
WF_NOTIFICATIONS Consists notification details

Query to get notification details
select NOTIFICATION_ID, MESSAGE_TYPE, substr(subject,1,30),
STATUS,
substr(RECIPIENT_ROLE,1,20) from wf_notifications
where message_name = 'APINV_MRA and RECIPIENT_ROLE = 'THECEO'
Note: In where clause we can use notification_id from the
WF_ITEM_ACTIVITY_STATUSES.Notification_id
WF_USERS, WF_ROLES,
WF_USER_ROLES
Used to identify the notification
users notification preferences
AME Tables
AME_TRANSACTION_TYPES_V Consists AME transaction types lists
AME_ATTRIBUTES,
AME_CONDITIONS,
AME_ACTIONS,
AME_ACTION_TYPES,
AME_APPROVAL_GROUPS
Consists details of AME attributes,
condistions and approval lists
AME_RULES,
AME_CONDITION_USAGES,
AME_ATTRIBUTE_USAGES,
AME_RULE_USAGES,
AME_ACTION_TYPE_USAGES
Consists rules and usage of
attributes, conditions and approval
list in the rules
AME_APPROVAL_HISTORY Stores transaction id of the approval
process and the peron id who
approved the transactions
Query to retrieve details from approval history
select * from AME_APPROVALS_HISTORY where TRANSACTION_ID =
'57936 (transaction_id = invoice_id)
Invoice Approval Program Flow
On initiating the invoice approval process from APXINWKB
(invoice work bench form) program unit
inv_sum_actions_wfapprove.do_wfapproval is called.
inv_sum_actions_wfapprove.do_wfapproval calls
ap_wfapproval_pkg.iaw_raise_event
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ap_wfapproval_pkg.iaw_raise_event calls wf_event.raise. This
enqueues the event in appropriate queue (e., WF_Deferred
queue) after checking the license and enabled flag
Web agent listener (FNDWFLST) with WF_deferred as parameter
executes PL/SQL function wf_event.listen_concurrent. This
executes the event subscriptions after checking the license and
enabled flag
Subscription execution can be (defined in action section)
o Rule function execution (PL/SQL program)
o Or Starting a Work flow process (APINV) .
APINV (AP Invoice), workflow process start at event activity
receive and control is passed to Node APINV_MPO (Check if
Matched to PO)
APINV_MPO (Check if Matched to PO) is function activity. Checks
the invoice match to PO using PL/SQL function
AP_WFAPPROVAL_PKG.iaw_po_check
If the Match is No then the control is passed to Node APINV_IA
(Identify Approver).
APINV_IA (Identify Approver) is Function activity. PL/SQL
function AP_WFAPPROVAL_PKG.get_approvers is executed.
AP_WFAPPROVAL_PKG.get_approvers in turn calls AME_API and
gets approver. It also assign value for Item attribute Role_Name
If AP_WFAPPROVAL_PKG.get_approvers returns Yes then the
control is passed to Node APINV_SN (Send Notifications)
APINV_SN (Send Notifications) is Process Activity. So this process
is triggered and starts at function activity Start and control is
passed to Node APINV_AR (Approval request)
APINV_AR (Approval request) is Notification Activity. This sends
the notification to performer defined. (i.e role_name. Should exists
in wf_users). Row is inserted in wf_notifications table.
Once the performer approves the invoice PL/SQL function
AP_WFAPPROVAL_PKG.notification_handler is executed
After this the APINV_SN (Send Notifications) ends with
Approved status. So, control is passed to parent Process onto
the Node APINV_UAH (Update Approval History) .
APINV_UAH (Update Approval History) is Function activity and
PL/SQL function AP_WFAPPROVAL_PKG.update_history is
Invoice Approval Workflow Page 33
executed and control is passed back to Node APINV_IA (Identify
Approver)
Cycle of APINV_IA (Identify Approver) ---> APINV_SN (Send
Notifications) ---> APINV_AR (Approval request) ---> APINV_UAH
(Update Approval History) ends once APINV_IA (Identify
Approver) returns No.
Important packages involved:
AP : AP_WFAPPROVAL_PKG
AME : AME_API, AME_API2, AME_UTLI
WF : WF_EVENT, WF_ENGINE, WF_DIRECTORY etc.,
Other details:
Event : oracle.apps.ap.event.invoice.approval
Wf_item_type : APINV
WFT file name : apfiawie.wft (APInvoice)
AME Transaction type : APINV

How to Track the Workflow Process
Event Queue Summary
o WF_DEFERRED Queue (when approval is initiated a
request with the invoice id is placed in this queue)
After an invoice is initiated, it will be viewable via the Event
Queue Summary window through the System Administrator
Responsibility.
N > Syadmin > Workflow > Event Queue Summary
1. Check the agent name WF_DEFERRED and press torch icon
in View detail column
2. Find the Event in WF_DEFERRED Queue
Find Process to attribute values and error details
Once the Workflow Agent Listener has completed, you can view
this status of this invoice_id.
N > Sysadmin > Workflow > Find Processes
1. Enter criteria to Find Process
2. Check the Process Status (Item Key will be invoice_id
followed by underscore 1. Ex: 22403_1). Flag indicates that
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the process is completed successfully. Red traffic light
indicates that the process did not completed successfully
Find Notifications page
Once the notification process has completed, you can view the
status of the notification if the invoice.
N > Sysadmin > Workflow > Find Notifications
If you know the notification_id, you can query the notification
otherwise, you can query the notification of the particular owner
or type or status.
Test tab to check the Approval details in AME
Once you know the invoice_id for which the approval process is
initiated, you can check the approval status for the invoice_id in
AME.
N > Approvals > Test tab
1. Check View a real transaction approval process and press
continue
2. Provide the invoice_id value in the field Transaction ID and
press Fetch attribute values
3. Press View approval process button to view the approval
process
4. Press View approver list to view the list of approvers
Admin tab to check the Approval Exception Log in AME
Exception logs of the approval process can be viewed in AME to
know the details of the exception
N > Approvals > Admin tab
You need to choose the activity View a transactions type
exception log and press continue to view the details of the
exception
Wfstatus.sql
This script is used to get the details of the Item Key (invoice_id)
and its attribute values.
How to run this script
1. Go to $FND_TOP/sql
2. Connect to SQLPLUS as apps
3. Run the following command
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@wfstatus <Item Type> <Item Key>
Ex:
@wfstatus APINV 57936_1
APINV is the item type and 57936_1 is the item key
(invoice_id)






















CONCLUSION

In todays complex business sceanario, Invoice Approval Workflow will
help in great extent in automating the Invoice Approval Process which
will save time and cost to the company and will help in business growth.

White Paper Title
January 2005
Author: Sundaram Sriram
Contributing Authors:
Tumu Krishna
Ashok Srinivasan

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