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“If you want something new, you have to stop doing something old”- as Peter F. Drucker says many organizations
are stop doing old and keep innovating new technologies to stay in the competitive market. Thanks to customer
expectations, Organizations are updating the existing products with new technology to delight the customer with
enhanced features.

Oracle has also steering to achieve more customer satisfaction by keep updating their products. Recently Oracle E-
Business suite updated from their R11i to R12.1.3. Oracle has added many new features in R12.1.3 version which
spanning across different modules.

In this white paper, we would like to discuss about enhanced “Advanced Approval Support” features in
iProcurement Module using Oracle Approval Management Engine (AME). The enhanced Advanced Approval
Support features are:

E>' Position Hierarchy Based Approvals

Position Hierarchy can be used for Purchase Requisition approval using Oracle Approval Management
(AME)

G>' Parallel Approvals

Simultaneous approve by multiple approvers for Purchase Requisition to speed up the Requisition approval

K>' Supports FYI Notifications

For Your information (FYI) notification are enabled to notify the action taken on the purchasing decision to
certain individuals where the decision need to be communicated.

L>' Graphical display of Approval Chain

A graphical view of approval chain and requisition status display provided to view during purchase requisition
creation in iProcurement.

The above enhanced features, Setup required to use the features with some examples are detailed in this white
paper.

Introduction

Thanks to the global technology advancement, all organizations are updating or implementing new technologies to
grow faster and to be successful in the current competitive world. Oracle Corporation has released an updated
version of Oracle E-Business suite (EBS) 11i to R12 to sustain in the fast growing technology world. There are
number of new features introduced and some of the existing features are enhanced to give full benefit to the
customer.

However, we are limiting this document to discuss only on “Advanced Approval Support” features in iProcurement
R12.1.3. Oracle Corporation has released next version of Oracle EBS R12.2. But no further new or enhanced
features are added with respect to “Advanced Approval support”.

The new / enhanced approval support such as “Position Hierarchy Based Approvals, Parallel Approvals, Supports
FYI Notifications and Graphical display of Approval Chain” will enhance the Customer approval process in
Purchase Requisition Process. Features like Parallel Approval will speed up the buying process which enables the
buyer to procure items on time.

This white paper discusses the details about all new and enhanced approval support, setup required to enable the Delivering Enter…
features with examples.

Position Hierarchy Based Approvals for Purchase Requisition

Organizations are used to have Position Based approval to overcome the personnel changes. This type of approval
hierarchy ensures the organization work seamlessly even if the approver moves out of the organization. This new
feature allows the organization to use Position hierarchy for Purchase requisition approval without any change.
Approval Management engine enhanced to support Position based Hierarchy approval for Purchase requisitions
transaction type.

There are 2 new action types such as “HR Position Level” and “HR Position” is introduced to support position
hierarchy approvals. HR Position level will be used to get approval based on position level (Ex: Require approvals
up to first two positions up) and HR position will be used to approval from a particular HR position (Ex: Requires
approval up to HR Positions: MM400.Materials Manager)

Setup required for Position Hierarchy Based

Approvals for Purchase Requisition
E>' Define Job

G>' Define Position.

K>' Define Employee and assign Job and Position to employee

L>' Define Position Hierarchy

M>' Define Rule in Approval Management engine using “HR Position Level” action type for Purchase Requisition
transaction type

E>' Navigate to “Approval Management Engine Business Analyst” Responsibility and select “Purchase
Requisition Approval” as transaction type and click on Setup button.'

G>' Navigate to “Rule” button and click on “Create” to create a Rule based on Position Hierarchy.

K>' Enter Name, Rule type as”List Creation” and Start date during Step1.

L>' Add condition In Step2'

M>' Add “Action Type” “HR Position Level and select Required action in Step3

N>' Review all the details and click finish button to create Rule.

O>' You will get confirmation message once the rule has been created.

N>' Select “PURCHASE_REQ” as Approval Transaction Type for “Purchase Requisition” Document Type

Example
E>' Raise a Non catalogue Purchase requisition (PR) in iProcurement for $100.

G>' Check out from the shopping cart.

K>' Based on the Approval Limit Approval hierarchy generated. In our case, Approval hierarchy generated using
the Position Hierarchy level. Click on next to go to review page

L>' Review and submit the requisition for approval.

M>' Requisition submitted and Click on requsition number to see the current status.

Please navigate to “Approval Management Business Analyst” responsibility to cross check and to confirm the rules
used to generate approval hierarchy. Please note that I have shown these details to confirm that the rule created
based on Position hierarchy are used and this is not a step to create purchase requsition from iProcurement.

E>' Click on “Run Real Transaction Test “ button

G>' Enter Requsition_header_id of the Purchase Requisition and click GO

K>' Click on “Run Test Case(2)” button and results will be shown as below:

N>' Login as Horton and Approve PR and Once approved, PR will go the next approver.

O>' Login as Brown and Approve PR and Once approved, PR will get approved.

P>' Login as requestor to see the PR status and you can see that PR is fully approved.

Parallel Approvals for Purchase Requisition

Oracle introduced Parallel Approval process to speed up purchase Requisition approval. Due to high volatile
environment, organizations can not depend on one approval authority. The buying process delayed or stopped when
the approval authority is not available to provide his approval for the requisition. To continue the buying process
without any gap or delay, organizations are depending on another approval authority, who can approve the request.

Parallel approval process allows multiple approvers to approve the once purchase Requisitions simultaneously.
This ensures the buying process in an organization is moving continuously.

Setup required for Parallel Approvals for

Purchase Requisition
E>' Navigate to “Approval Management Business Analyst” Responsibility and Select Purchase Requisition
transaction Type. Click on “Setup” button to modify the setups

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G>' Navigate to “Action Type” and create new action type (if required) or use existing action types. We are using
existing action type “Approval –Group chain of authority” action type.

E>' Select ordering method as “Parallel” to setup Parallel approval process. (“Serial” ordering mode is
normal approval Process. i.e. Approval goes from one approver to next approver in a sequence )

G>' Select Voting method. Oracle provides multiple options in voting method.

E>' Serial:

Serial voting is a normal voting method where approvers are notified one after other. All approvers must approve
the request to get Purchase Requisition approval

G>' Consensus:

All Approvers are notified in parallel. All approvers must approve the request to get Purchase Requisition approval.

K>' First Responder Wins

All Approvers are notified in parallel. The first responder’s choice will be group’s response. Purchase Requisition
will get approved, if the first responder approves. Purchase Requisition will get rejected, if the first responder
rejects.

Note: “First Responder Wins” option used here to explain the functionality

K>' Create approver Groups with voting method as “First Responder Wins” and add all Approvers in the approval
group.

L>' Create Rule using Parallel approval Action type and approver Groups.

Example:
E>' Create Non catalogue request using “SUPPLIES.FACILITIES” as category and check out

Approval and Notes section displays the approval group selected for this purchase requisition.

In our example “Facilities Approval Group” selected for approval.

This group consist 2 approvers namely Horton and Smith. Both the approvers will be notified once
request submitted.

G>' Review the PR and Submit for Approval.

K>' Click on the status to know the status of the notification. Both approvers are notified for approval.

L>' Login as Smith to view the Purchase Requisition approval notification.

M>' Login as Horton to see the notification for the same purchase Requisition and Click “Approve” button to
approve the Request.

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N>' Login as Requestor to check the status of the Purchase Requisition and you can see the request is approved by
Horton and “no action taken” by Smith.

For Your Information (FYI) Notification

support for Purchase Requisition
Recent technical advancements bring bigger organizations closely. Industries are operating with less manpower to
cut down expenses to increase profit. Also, Employees are started working in multiple locations.

Due to these advancements, Requestor or Buyer may require to inform buying decision to other person who would
like to have information. These persons are not in the approval hierarchy and their approval is not required for
buying.

Setup required to configure “For Your

Information (FYI) Notification”
E>' Navigate to “Approval Management Business Analyst” responsibility and click on Configuration variables.

G>' Select Transaction type as “Purchase Requisition Approval” and click Go. Then Select “YES” under
Transaction type for the variable name “Allow For your Information Notifications”

K>' Save the Changes and you will get below confirmation message

L>' Create new rule with the category “For Your Information” or update existing rule

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Example
E>' Create Non catalogue Request to test this FYI information notification.

G>' Add to Cart and Checkout.

K>' Approval and Notes page displays the Approval Sequence. Both FYI notification and Approval Authority
shown in the display.

L>' Review and Submit the Request.

M>' Check the Status of the Request in Approval History.

N>' Login as FYI Notification user. User notified with FYI message.

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O>' Login as Approver and Approve the Request.

P>' Once all Approvers are approved the PR, Check Approval History of the PR. History displays the Request
approved only by approval authority and FYI user only got FYI notification.

Graphical display of Approval Chain

As Napoleon said “A picture is worth a thousand words”, Oracle enhanced purchase Requisition approval page
(Step 2 of 3 Page) with graphical display to show PR approvers. This feature enables the user to clearly understand
approval sequences without any confusion. Oracle also enhanced the Approval notification with the graphical
display to show the approval sequence.

Different symbols are used to indicate to represent whether it is an Approval notification or it is a FYI notification.

Setup required for Graphical display of

Approval Chain
No Specific Setup required for this functionality. This is a standard feature from R12 of Oracle EBS.

Example
E>' Below example depicts approval required from one approver in a sequence.

G>' Below example depicts approval required from group of approvers. Click on the Group name to view all
approvers attached with this Group

K>' Below example depicts approval required from Series of Approvers and “For Your Information” Notification
approvers.

L>' Below example depicts Graphical display of approvers in the PR Approval Notifications.

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