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How To Setup And Use AME For Purchasing [ID 434143.1]

Modified:30-Oct-2012 Type:WHITE PAPER Status:PUBLISHED Priority: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 12.1.3 [Release 11.5 to 12.1]

Oracle iProcurement - Version 11.5.10 to 12.1.3 [Release 11.5 to 12.1]
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)
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.

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

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.

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)

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.

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

Refer to Note 1437183.1 'AME : How to Diagnose Issues With the Default Approver List in
Purchasing When 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.

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?

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

You can access the main Oracle Communities page at http://communities.oracle.com (If you are enrolled, th
If you're not already enrolled in the Procurement community, you can do so by clicking on the link Edit Sub

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:293315.1 - 11.5.10 FAQ for Approvals Management (AME) Integration For

iProcurement and Purchasing
NOTE:404152.1 - Release Content Documents for E-Business Suite Release 12 and 12.0.x
Release Update Packs
NOTE:413300.1 - Oracle Approvals Management Not Enabled? What Does It Take To
Enable It?
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:1207863.1 - Master Reference For AME Based Requisition Approval In R12