09/01/2018 Document 434143.

How To Setup And Use Approval Management Engine AME For Purchasing and iProcurement
Documents (Doc ID 434143.1)

In this Document

Abstract
History
Details
Assign AME access to users
Assign AME Roles and Responsibilities
Grant Transaction Type Access to Users
Review and Modify AME Setup
1. Action Types
2. Attributes
3. Conditions
4. Approver Groups
5. Rules
6. Test Workbench
Enable AME
For Requisitions:
For Purchase Orders:
For Requisition Change Request (* not included in the whitepaper attachment)
Test the Functionality
View the AME Setup
Troubleshooting issues
MSWord Format - AME for Purchase Requisition Approval - Whitepaper
Summary
Still Have Questions?
References

APPLIES TO:

Oracle Purchasing - Version 11.5.10 to 12.2.4 [Release 11.5 to 12.2]

Oracle iProcurement - Version 11.5.10 to 12.2.4 [Release 11.5 to 12.2]
Information in this document applies to any platform.
***Checked for relevance on 15-JUL-2010***

ABSTRACT

Purchase Requisitions and purchase orders (in 12.1.3) can be routed for approval using the AME Approval Management
Engine. This whitepaper describes how to setup AME for use with purchasing documents, and shows how the approval list
is built based on the AME setup.

HISTORY

Author : David Felton, Oracle Global Customer Services

Contributing Authors : Diego Rossenblum, Oracle Global Customer Services (added 28-MAY-2008), Sofia Burbano,
(added 29-MAR-2012)
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Create Date 01-OCT-2007

Update Date 10-OCT-2012
Expire Date 10-OCT-2013 (requires review after this date)

DETAILS

Assign AME access to users

Assign AME Roles and Responsibilities

AME responsibilities in 11i.AME.A are assigned directly to the users. However, In R12 or 11i.AME.B and higher, AME
responsibilities are assigned indirectly to users through roles. The roles are assigned to the users by the SYSADMIN user
using the User Management responsibility. Once the roles are assigned, the AME responsibilities are automatically available
to the users without specifically assigning the AME responsibilities to the users. Here are steps to assign the roles:

1. Login as System Administrator user

2. Select the responsibility "User Management". (NOTE: User Management data is stored in the UMX schema)

3. Select "Users" menu option

4. Search for the user to whom you wish to grant AME roles

5. In the results table, click on update icon

6. In the update user page, user details can be seen along with a list of roles available to user.
Click on "Assign Roles"

7. Search for Approval% and Select roles from the resulting LOV. Choose the roles that are applicable (proper
authority) for the user, and click the Select button.

8. Specify justification and relevant dates for the newly assigned roles, and click Apply to assign the roles to the
user.

Reference Note 413300.1 Oracle Approvals Management Not Enabled? What Does It Take To Enable It?

Grant Transaction Type Access to Users

AME restricts access to transaction types using Data Security. Grant users access to the transaction types using the
Grants page. Set up user access as follows:

1. Navigate to the Personal Home Page.

2. Select Functional Administrator Responsibility

3. From the Grants page, press on the Create Grant button

4. Create a grant with the following information:

Name <specify a descriptive name>

Grantee Type = Specific User
Grantee = <The user who desires AME access>
Object = AME Transaction Types

5. Click Next and select the Object Data Context

Data Context Type = All Rows

6. Click Next to define the object parameters and Select Set

Set = AME Calling Applications

7. Click Next. Review the changes and then Finish the process.

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Review and Modify AME Setup

AME is designed to provide approval logic for many transaction types. Transaction types used for Purchasing include:
Purchase Requisition Approval, Internal Requisition Approval, Requester Change Order Approval and Purchase Order
Approval (See Note 1487661.1 AME : Approval, E-Review, E-Sign and Withdrawal Features for Purchase Orders - for
details on AME functionality for purchase orders).

1. Navigate to the Approvals Management Business Analyst, Standard responsibility

2. Choose the Business Analyst Dashboard menu from the responsibility

3. Use the Transaction Type LOV to search and select the transaction type

4. Use the links on the right in the Approval Process Setup region to set the components (Attributes, Conditions,
Action Types, Approver Groups) and rules, or to use the test workbench in AME.

1. Action Types

1. An action type is a collection of actions having similar functionality. Every action belongs to an action type. Action
types are enabled or disabled for a particular transaction type. AME may give an error when attempting to enable
an action type for a transaction if the transaction is not designed to allow that action type.

2. To disable or enable action types for the transaction, select the Action Types link

3. The Action Types page shows the action types that are currently enabled for the transaction type. Use the
Previous and Next links to scroll through the list of enabled action types. Select the Use Existing Action Type button
to see other pre-defined action types available in AME. Some of these may or may not be applicable to the currently
select transaction type; AME will give an error if the user tries to add a non-relevant action type for the selected
transaction type.

4. If you are going to use Employee/Supervisor, assign a level (approval authority) to the jobs. Navigate to HR
responsibility -> Work Structures -> Job -> Description - to assign a Level (Approval Authority) to a Job. Query up
the Job and enter the appropriate Job Level in the Approval Authority field.

5. In AME, select any or all of the following Action Types for JOB BASED approvals if applicable for your business
requirements:

absolute job level / chains of authority based on absolute job level

final approver only / chains of authority containing only the final job-level approver
manager then final approver / chain of authority includes requestor's manager and then the final
approver
relative job level / chains of authority based on relative job level
supervisory level / chains of authority based on number of supervisory levels

6. In AME, select any or all of the following Action types for APPROVER GROUP approvals if applicable for your
business requirements:

post-chain-of-authority approvals / group approvals after the chain of authority

pre-chain-of-authority approvals / group approvals before the chain of authority
approval-group chain of authority / chain of authority includes an approval group

7. In AME, select any of all of the following Action types for POSITION BASED approvals (Only in R12 and higher) if
applicable for your business requirements

hr position / chains of authority based on a particular HR position

hr position level / chains of authority based on HR positions

2. Attributes

1. Attributes are the base element for an AME Rule. Attribute values are retrieved from the Oracle E-Business Suite
Applications database or derived from values in the database. AME is seeded with attributes relevant to the
transaction type, and the user can create new attributes in AME for use in AME rules.

2. Select the Attributes link to view or add attributes for the selected transaction type

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3. Use the Previous and Next links to scroll through the existing attributes. Some of the attributes include
ITEM_CATEGORY, ITEM_NUMBER as well as other attributes. When AME approvals is enabled, these values get
populated for the purchasing document, and AME uses this information to determine the appropriate AME rule(s) to
use.

4. In addition to the seeded attributes, a customized attribute can be created. DAVE_CATEGORY_SEGMENT is an

example of this. This attribute uses a query to capture SEGMENT1 of the Item Category flexfield. The Item
Category flexfield may be setup to use one or more segments; this customized AME attribute captures only
SEGMENT1 of the flexfield. This allows the users to setup conditions and rules that are dependent on a certain
value in SEGMENT1 of the ITEM Category used on the requisition. NOTE: The new attribute
DAVE_CATEGORY_SEGMENT1 uses the same sql query as the seeded ITEM_CATEGORY AME attribute, except it
selects mck.segment1 rather than mck.concatenated_segments.

3. Conditions

1. Conditions identify values and value ranges for some or all of the attributes available. AME rules refer to these
conditions to determine if a particular rule is applicable for the specific document being approved. For example, an
AME rule can be setup to require certain approvers if $0 USD <= requisition total < $1000 USD. Since
REQUISITION_TOTAL is a seeded attribute, the user can define a condition $0 USD <= requisition total < $1000
USD, and then use this condition in a rule to require certain approvers for the requisition. The rule cannot refer to
this condition until it is defined in AME Conditions for the Purchase Requisition Approval transaction type.

2. Select the Conditions link from the AME Business Analyst Dashboard after specifying the transaction type.
Selecting the Conditions link will display the existing conditions defined for the transaction type, and also allow the
user to create new conditions for the transaction.

3. Click the Create button to create a new condition

4. To define the new condition, specify whether the condition is ordinary, or an exception condition (which can only
be used in an exception rule). Use the Attribute LOV to choose the attribute on which the condition is based. The
condition will specify a value or range of values for the attribute, so the attribute must be selected before the
value(s) can be defined.

5. Define the allowed value or value range for the selected attribute. Click Apply to complete the condition
definition.

4. Approver Groups

1. Approver Groups are optional. Setup Approver Groups if additional approvers are required for particular
conditions, or to specify a dynamic sql query for additional approvers. The rules defined for the transaction can be
based on Approver Groups, Jobs defined in HR setup, or Positions defined in HR setup (only in R12); the rules may
also use a combination of Job, Position, and Approver Group basis. (See the Rules details later in this paper for
more information about the rules)

2. Select the Approver Groups link from the AME Business Analyst Dashboard.

3. View and edit existing approver groups, or Click the Create button to create a new approver group.

4. When creating the approval group specify all the mandatory values.

a. Give a name and description to the approval group.

b. Specify an order number (order number of this approver group relative to other approver groups).

c. Choose a voting regime, only Serial is supported for Purchase Requisition Approval in 11.5.10 and 11.5.9.
R12 does allow other voting regimes that use parallel routing.

d. Choose Static if approvers will be selected when defining the approval group, or choose Dynamic if a sql
query is used to dynamically find the approvers for this approver group when the approval transaction is
being processed.

e. Click the Add Another Row button to add approvers to the approval group now.

f. Click Apply to save the approver group

5. The approval group members can be added as additional approvers to the normal chain of command approvers
generated by AME.
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5. Rules

1. Define rules to specify approvers that should be included in the approval list under specific conditions for the
approval transaction.

2. Select the Rules link from the AME Dashboard after selecting the transaction type

3. Review the list of existing rules already defined for the transaction

4. Select the Create button to create a new rule for the transaction. (Optionally, if there already exists a similar rule
choose the Duplicate icon or the Use Existing Rule button).

a. Specify a name for the new rule and choose the rule type and effective dates. Rule types are
explained in the AME online help pages along with examples. The most common types are List
Creation, Pre List Approver Group and Post List Approver Group. (NOTE: Some rule types may not be
available if the corresponding action types have not been assigned to the transaction type. Use the
Action Types feature to add or remove action types for the transaction)

b. Specify one or more conditions that activate the rule. The Conditions are defined in the AME Setup,
and they may be seeded conditions or user defined conditions.

c. Choose the Action Type and then choose a specific action. The list of actions available is dependent
on the Action Type selected. The actions are related to Jobs, Positions (in R12), or Approver Groups.
(Action Types are discussed previously in this whitepaper)

d. Review the rule details and click Finish to complete the rule setup, or click Back to make changes.

6. Test Workbench

Use the Test Workbench to determine which AME Rule(s) apply to a specific document, or to determine which AME
Rule(s) apply for an adhoc combination of values specified at the time of the test. Select the Test Workbench link
from the AME Dashboard

1. Specific Requisition test

a. Click the Run Real Transaction Test button.

b. Specify the value of REQUISITION_HEADER_ID from PO_REQUISITION_HEADERS_ALL as the

Transaction Id value. Click Go to see the AME rules that apply to the requisition.

c. Adjust the rules setup to cause rules to be called differently based on the business requirements.

2. Specific Purchase Order test

a. Click the Run Real Transaction Test button.

b. Specify the value of AME_APPROVAL_ID from PO_HEADERS_ALL as the Transaction Id value. Click Go to
see the AME rules that apply to the purchase order.

c. Adjust the rules setup to cause rules to be called differently based on the business requirements.

Note: AME for purchase orders is available in Procurement rollup Patch 14254641:R12.PRC_PF.B or
higher. See Note 1487661.1 AME : Approval, E-Review, E-Sign and Withdrawal Features for Purchase
Orders to learn the scope, limitations and features of AME for purchase orders.

3. Adhoc test

a. Click the Create button on the Test Workbench page

b. Specify Name and Description for the test, and specify values for pertinent attributes (e.g. Requisition
Total = $100 USD)

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c. Click the Run Test Case button to see the applicable AME rules, and the resulting AME approval list that
will be built based on the conditions specified for the attributes.

Enable AME

For Requisitions:

1. Navigate to Purchasing responsibility

2. Setup / Purchasing / Document Types

3. Select Purchase Requisition (or Internal Requisition) as the document type

4. Specify Approval Transaction Type = PURCHASE_REQ (or INTERNAL_REQ) to enable

AME approvals for Purchase Requisitions (or Internal Requsitions) in the current operating unit

For Purchase Orders:

In order to enable AME for Purchase Orders, create a document style and associate the AME workflow. Refer to Note
1487713.1 Setups for Purchase Order Approval Using Approvals Management Engine (AME). This note has screenshots
and detailed steps to create the document style and enable AME for purchase orders.

For Requisition Change Request (* not included in the whitepaper attachment)

1. Navigate to Purchasing responsibility

2. Setup / Purchasing / Document Types

3. Select Change Order Request Requisition as the document type

4. Specify Approval Transaction Type = RCO

You may specify Approval Transaction Type = RCO (Requester Change Order Approval) if you want to
have unique AME approval logic for the change requests, as this is the default approval transaction type
intended for use with change requests. If you want to use the same AME logic as for Purchase
Requisitions, you may specify PURCHASE_REQ as the Approval Transaction Type, although you will need
to test this to make sure it works as expected for the change request cases.

Note: The REQUISITION_TOTAL for RCO - Requester Change Order Approval AME transaction is
determined differently than the REQUISITION_TOTAL in the Purchase Requisition Approval AME
transaction. The REQUISITION_TOTAL in RCO transaction gets the New Revised Total specified for the
Change, but REQUISITION_TOTAL in the PURCHASE_REQ transaction retrieves the current Total rather
than the revised Total.

PURCHASE_REQ - Purchase Requisition Approval

REQUISITION_TOTAL = SELECT nvl(SUM(decode(order_type_lookup_code, 'RATE', amount,

'FIXED PRICE', amount, quantity * unit_price)), 0),
po_ame_setup_pvt.get_function_currency(max(requisition_header_id)),
po_ame_setup_pvt.get_rate_type(max(requisition_header_id)) from
po_requisition_lines_all where requisition_header_id =
po_ame_setup_pvt.get_new_req_header_id(:transactionId) and nvl(cancel_flag, 'N') =
'N' and nvl(modified_by_agent_flag, 'N') = 'N'

RCO - Requester Change Order Approval

REQUISITION_TOTAL = select po_ame_setup_pvt.get_changed_req_total(:transactionId),

po_ame_setup_pvt.get_function_currency(:transactionId),
po_ame_setup_pvt.get_rate_type(:transactionId) from dual

Be sure to check the attribute definitions for each transaction attribute and compare to ensure you get
the expected results with using the attributes. The intended design is to use Requester Change Order
Approval (RCO) for changes, and use Purchase Requisition Approval (PURCHASE_REQ) for new

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documents. The seeded requisition total calculation for change requests looks at the
PO_CHANGE_REQUESTS table to get the new values, because the PO_REQUISITION_LINES_ALL and
other requisition tables will only have the original values, not the changed values while the change is
being submitted and processed.

Test the Functionality

1. Create a requisition or purchase order and verify that the Approval List is built per the AME rules based on the
conditions present on the attributes.

View the AME Setup

1. Click the Setup Report link in the Quick Links section of the Dashboard

2. Select the appropriate transaction type (Example: Purchase Requisition Approval) and click Go.

3. Click the Printable Page button to view the complete setup for the selected transaction type (Attributes,
Conditions, Rules, Approval Groups, and etc.)

4. Compare the AME setup to the requisition attributes and approval list generated for a specific requisition, or
compare the AME setup to the business requirements.

NOTE: This document is not considered formal documentation of the product, but is a useful tool for applying the
functionality described.

Troubleshooting issues

AME : How to Diagnose Issues With the Default Approver List in Purchasing When
Refer to Note 1437183.1 '
Using Approvals Management' for tips to troubleshoot AME issues with the approval list.
In addition to the AME Setup Report and the Test Workbench mentioned above, this query may be useful, to
check attributes and conditions associated to rules directly at the table level (for requisitions). Although, the
information in the setup report is more nicely formatted.

For performance issues in AME, capture trace files to identify slow performing SQL. Also capture a debug
log and review the timestamps for large intervals between debug log statements. Even an interval of 1-2
minutes in the timestamp can indicate a performance issue if this same delay interval occurs multiple times
in the debug log for the same code call.

MSWord Format - AME for Purchase Requisition Approval - Whitepaper

NOTE1: These same instructions are provided in MSWord document format with screenshots in the file attached to this
note. Please see the attached MSWord document for more details. This document is not consider formal documentation of
the product, but is a useful tool for applying the functionality described.

SUMMARY

This paper describes the setup steps for accessing AME, designating AME as the approval choice, and using the AME
approval routing for requisitions or purchase orders. Use this document as a guide for initial AME setup, or for validating
and adjusting a current AME setup to meet changing needs. This information is also helpful for troubleshooting approval
routing issues when using AME approvals. For additional troubleshooting ideas review Note 1437183.1 and Note
428552.1.

Please provide feedback with your comments or recommendations for improving this document.

Still Have Questions?

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Join our growing Oracle Procurement Community and learn from your peers and Oracle on how to address your unique iss

You can access the main Oracle Communities page at http://communities.oracle.com (If you are enrolled, the Procuremen
already enrolled in the Procurement community, you can do so by clicking on the link Edit Subscriptions).

OR

From "My Oracle Support" as follows:

1. Log into My Oracle Support

2. Click on the 'Community' link at the top of the page
3. Click in 'Find a Community' field and enter Procurement
4. Double click on Procurement in the list
5. Click on the 'Create a Community Post' button and submit your question.

REFERENCES

NOTE:428552.1 - How To Diagnose Issues With Approvals Management Engine (AME) In Procurement
NOTE:1437183.1 - AME : How to Diagnose Issues With the Default Approver List in Purchasing When Using Approvals
Management
NOTE:404152.1 - Release Content Documents for E-Business Suite Release 12 and 12.0.x Release Update Packs
NOTE:1207863.1 - Master Reference For AME Based Requisition Approval In R12
NOTE:413300.1 - Oracle Approvals Management Not Enabled? What Does It Take To Enable It?
NOTE:293315.1 - FAQ for Approvals Management (AME) Integration For iProcurement and Purchasing

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