Oracle Applications

White Paper
Serial and Parallel Approval in Internet
Expenses (OIE) using AME

Contributors: Raghavender Vutukuru & Sriram Ramanujam

Versions: 1.0
Create Date: 11 August 2011
Update Date: 23 February 2012

_____

1
Contents

INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................................................3
Objective .........................................................................................................................................................3
Scope ..............................................................................................................................................................3
Background ....................................................................................................................................................3
Terms ..............................................................................................................................................................3
SET UP STEPS FOR PROCESSING EXPENSE REPORT USING APPROVALS MANAGEMENT ENGINE (AME) .............6
System Profile Option Page............................................................................................................................6
Approvals Management Administrator Setup Page........................................................................................6
Approvals Management Business Analyst Setups ...........................................................................................8
1. Create Conditions ...................................................................................................................................8
2. Create Rules............................................................................................................................................9
A. PROCESS EXPENSE REPORTS USING SERIAL APPROVAL PROCESS ......................................................... 11
Setup ......................................................................................................................................................... 11
Expense Report Process............................................................................................................................ 12
B. PROCESSING EXPENSE REPORT USING PARALLEL APPROVAL PROCESS ................................................ 18
Overview ....................................................................................................................................................... 18
AME Setups for Using Parallel Approval Process ....................................................................................... 19
B.I. AME for Parallel Approval – First Responder Wins Voting Method .................................................... 20
Setup ......................................................................................................................................................... 20
Expense Report Process............................................................................................................................ 21
B.II. AME Setup for Parallel Approval – Consensus Voting Method ........................................................... 24
Setup ......................................................................................................................................................... 24
Expense Report Process............................................................................................................................ 25
REFERENCES ..................................................................................................................................................... 30

2
Introduction

Objective
To provide the setup steps to achieve serial and parallel approval in an expense report
approvals process using Approval Management Engine (AME). This is intended to provide
the reader a good understanding of the features, the setups and detailed steps on how to
process expense report using Chain of Authority Action type of AME.
Scope
This paper will cover the functional side of processing expense report using serial and parallel
approval process in Oracle Internet Expenses and discuss some of the options and their
impacts.

Background
Expense reports can be approver with or without using AME. The ability to process expense
report using parallel AME approval process is a new feature introduced in OIE K and in R12.

Terms
Item Classes
Item-class parallelization is controlled explicitly via the item class order numbers that a
transaction type assigns the item class for which it has an item class use.

Items
AME can generate an approver list for a transaction's header, and a separate approver list for
each item in the transaction. A transaction type can define multiple item classes. For example,
a transaction type might generate separate approver lists for each transaction's header, line
items, and cost centers. All transaction types include a header item class, which always has
one item (the transaction's header). All other item classes are optional.

An item-class use parallelization mode determines the item order numbers of the item class'
items. If the mode is serial, then the items item order numbers are sequential, in ascending
order of item ID. If the mode is parallel, then all the items are assigned the item order number
one.

Sub-Lists
An item-class sub-list mode determines the sub-list order numbers of the sub-lists in the
approver lists of the item class' items. There are four options:

• Serial mode assigns pre-approvers the sub-list order number one, authority
approvers the sub-list order number two, and post-approvers the sub-list order
number three.

• Parallel mode assigns all approvers the sub-list order number one.

• Pre-approvers first, then authority and post-approvers assigns pre-approvers

the sub-list order number one, and other approvers the sub-list order number two.

3
 • Pre-approvers and authority approvers first, then post-approvers assigns pre-
approvers and authority approvers the sub-list order number one, and post-approvers
the sub-list order number two.

Note that all these modes, except the serial mode are only weakly consistent with the ordering
implicit in the pre-approver/authority approver/post-approver nomenclature. That is, a pre-
approver never follows an authority or post-approver, and an authority approver never follows
a post-approver, under any of the sub-list modes.

Action Types
An action type is a set of actions having a common purpose. Action-type parallelization is
controlled explicitly via the action-type order numbers that a transaction type assigns the
action types. The approval process parallelization options at the same level as the approver-
list tree are:

Approver Groups and Chains of Authority

Approver groups and chains of authority occur at the same level of the approver-list tree, and
so share the group-or-chain order number.

• Approver groups
Approver-group parallelization is controlled explicitly via the approver-group order
numbers that a transaction type assigns the approver groups.

• Chains of Authority
A transaction type assigns a chain of authority ordering mode to each action type that
generates a chain of authority. The serial mode gives the chains ascending group-or-
chain order numbers, in the order that the chains are generated. The parallel mode
gives all chains the group-or-chain order number one.

Approver-group and Chain of Authority Members

Approver-group members and chain of authority members occur at the same level of the
approver-list tree, and so share the group-or-chain-member order number.

• Approver-group Members
An approver group functioning as a pre-approval or post-approver group determines
its members' group-or-chain-member order numbers using the group's voting regime,
and possibly also the member order numbers assigned to static members or generated
for dynamic members. (Dynamic members are assigned sequential member order
numbers according to the order in which the group's SQL query returns the
members.) Approver-group voting regimes can have any of four values. The values
determine not only the group-or-chain-member order numbers, but also whether all
group members or one must approve the item.

• The serial regime assigns group-or-chain-member order numbers in

ascending order of the member order numbers, breaking ties arbitrarily. All
group members must approve.

• The consensus regime assigns group-or-chain-member order number one

to all members. All group members must approve.

• The first-responder-wins regime assigns group-or-chain-member order

number one to all members. In this case, only the first responder must
approve; all other members' responses are recorded but ignored.

4
 • The order number regime sets each member's group-or-chain-member
order number to the member's member order number. All group members
must approve.

• Chain of Authority Members

An action type that generates a chain of authority has a voting regime. The voting
regime determines the group-or-chain-member order numbers of the approvers in the
chains of authority generated by the action type. (This is even true for the chains of
authority generated by the approver-group chain of authority action type. This action
type ignores the approver-group voting regimes of the groups it uses.) An action
type's voting regime can have any of the values allowed for an approver group's
voting regime, other than the order-number regime.

Approvers
An approver has the following two properties:

• Approver Types
An approver type is any Workflow Directory Services originating system that
defines entities, which can receive Workflow notifications requesting an approval.
For example, the HR application defines its set of employees as a Directory Services
originating system, so an HR employee can be an approver.

• Approver Categories
AME can generate approvers belonging to either of two approver categories: action
and informational (for-your-information or FYI) approvers. Action approvers must
approve a transaction. FYI approvers merely receive a notification describing the
transaction. The exact content of all notifications depends on the application that
generates the notification.

5
Set Up Steps for Processing Expense Report Using Approvals
Management Engine (AME)

System Profile Option Page

Set the AME: Installed profile option to Yes at the application level for Oracle Payables.

Figure 1: System Profile values page

If the AME: Installed profile option is set to Yes and Oracle Approvals Management is not installed, the
expense report processing will fail during the Find Approver function of the Expense Report workflow process.

Approvals Management Administrator Setup Page

Query for the transaction type name “OIE Expense Reports” using Approvals Management Administrator
responsibility.

Figure 2: Approvals Management Administrator Dashboard page

In the Item Classes you note that five seeded item classes are there and Item-class parallelization is controlled
explicitly via the item class order numbers that a transaction type assigns the item class for which it has an item
class use.

6
Figure 3: Approvals Management Administrator- Item Classes page

Item-class ‘use parallelization mode determines the item order numbers of the item class’ items. If the mode is
serial, then the items' item order numbers are sequential, in ascending order of item ID.
An item-class sub-list mode determines the sub-list order numbers of the sub-lists in the approver lists of the
item class' items.

7
Approvals Management Business Analyst Setups
Query for the transaction type name “OIE Expense Reports” using Approvals Management Business Analyst
responsibility to complete the AME Setups. Such setups can be broadly classified as:
1. Create Conditions
2. Create Rules

1. Create Conditions
One creates conditions using the attributes seeded or defined in system. I created a condition for the Expense
Types Meal.

Figure 4: Approvals Management - Expense Types Condition page

Figure 5: Approvals Management – Expense Types Condition page

The set value of 11070 is the value for Expense type prompt “Meal” associated with Expense Report Template
“NW_Template”.
The expense_report_id associated with the Expense Report Template “NW_Template” can be found from
AP_EXPENSE_REPORTS_ALL table.

8
Figure 6: Backend details of Expense reports

The string values to be used in the above conditions can be known from back end using table name
AP_EXPENSE_REPORT_PARAMS_ALL.

Figure 7: Backend details of AP_EXPENSE_REPORT_PARAMS_ALL page

2. Create Rules
I created a rule using the above condition.

The Rule is to get the expense report with “Meal” expense type of “NW_Template” expense report template
initiated for approval based on “Approval Group 13” defined.

9
Figure 8: Rule page

10
A. Process Expense Reports Using Serial Approval Process

Setup

1. Create Approval Groups

For this test case, I created an Approval Group based on approver type HR People.
Voting Method “Serial” controls the behavior of expense report approval process.

Figure 9: Approval Groups page

The approval group has three approvers with different order numbers from 1 to 3. As noted, Waugh Steve is
giving order number 1; Taylor Mark is given order number 2 and Boon David is given order number 3.

Figure 10: Create Approval Group page

11
2. Create Action Type
The action type used for this test case is Approval-Group Chain of Authority. The Ordering Mode and Voting
Method are set to “Serial” to get expense reports approved serially.

Figure 11: Action Type page

Expense Report Process

Using Internet Expenses responsibility created an expense report using Meal expense types of “NW_Template”
expense report template and submitted for approval.

Figure 12: Expense Report Submitted using Serial Approval

12
With the Serial approval method, Approvers are built by AME and first approver is notified. You observe that
the order no in approvers list is same as defined in Approval Group.

Then logged in as Steve Waugh, the approver and can find the notification about this Expense Report in the
worklist.

Figure 13: One of the Approvers got the notification for approval

Opened the notification and got that approved.

Figure 14: Opened the notification and approved by one of the approvers

13
Then checked the status of this expense report, it is still in Pending Manager Approval status with current
approver as Taylor Mark.

Figure 15: Expense report status having approved by one of the approvers

The approvers section of this expense report shows that it is approved by Waugh Steve and is waiting for Taylor
Mark approval.

Figure 16: Approvers section of Expense report having approved by one of the approvers

Logged in as one of the other approvers of this expense report i.e., Taylor Mark and got the expense report
notification approved.

14
Figure 17: Expense report notification page of one of the approvers

Then checked the status of this expense report, it is still in Pending Manager Approval status. The approvers
section of this expense report shows that it is approved by Waugh Steve and Taylor Mark but is waiting for
Boon David approval.

Figure 18: Approvers section of Expense report having approved by two of the approvers

15
Logged in as Boon David and got the expense report notification approved.

Figure 19: Expense report notification page of last of the list of approvers

Post approval by all the three approvers, such expense report is in Pending Payment status.

Figure 20: Expense report status having approved by all the approvers

The approvers section of this expense report shows that it is approved by all the approvers namely Waugh
Steve, Taylor Mark and Boon David.

16
Figure 21: Approvers section of Expense report having approved by all the approvers

17
B. Processing Expense Report Using Parallel Approval Process

Overview
Approval process parallelization shortens a transaction's approval process time. The parallel
approval process imposes a hierarchical (tree) structure on the transaction's approver list and
enables each part of the tree at a given level to progress through its notification-approval cycle
asynchronous. This enables the approval process of each item in the transaction to continue
irrespective of the progress of approval process of other items in the transaction and reduces the
transaction's approval process time.
The detailed behavior of parallelization is as follows:
• AME engine constructs an approver tree based on the parallelization configuration at each level.
• The application calculates the order numbers for each level and the approvers at each leaf of
approver tree.
• The approval process of nodes which are in parallel with respect to each other start at the same
time.
• Thereafter, the approval process of each node proceeds independently.

You can have approvals take place in parallel to shorten the approvals process time. For example,
if an expense report requires approval from 2 different project managers, then the requests for
approval can be sent simultaneously and the approvals can be performed in parallel. The approval
process is complete when all the approvers have approved the expense report.

Parallel approvals are dependent on the order number. Header level approvals with the order
number 1 must be complete before other approvals commence.

You can specify FYI approvers who will receive a notification describing the transaction. Their
approval is not required for the approval process to be completed.

If an expense report is rejected by one approver, then the entire expense report will be rejected.

Before enabling parallel approvals, all existing in-process expense reports (that were created prior
to 11i.OIE.K) must be completed. See: Determining "In-Process" Expense Reports Before
Enabling Parallel Approvals, Note 391996.1.

Approvers can see the total expense report amount as well as the total amount that requires their
approval, and can drill down to the expense allocations. Users can see the list of approvers and
their approval status

18
AME Setups for Using Parallel Approval Process

1. Approvals Management Administrator Setup

For the transaction type name “OIE Expense Reports” using Approvals Management Administrator
responsibility ensure that Item-class use parallelization and sub-list mode are set to “Parallel”.

Figure 22: Approvals Management Administrator- Item Classes page

Note: The above setup mean that for an expense report it first builds the approver list based on Header item
class rules, if any, in Serial order and then uses parallelization for line item class.

Important:
To use Parallel approval process under item classes ensure that
1. Order number is same across parallel Item classes
2. Parallelization mode to be set to parallel for each item class,
3. Sub-list mode to be set to parallel on each item class.

19
2. Approvals Management Business Analyst Setups

B.I. AME for Parallel Approval – First Responder Wins Voting Method

Setup

1. Create Approval Groups

For this, I created an Approval Group with voting method as First Responder Wins.

Figure 23: Approval Groups page – First Responder Wins Voting Method

As the expense reports are set to use parallel approval process, set the approval group members order number as
same i.e., 1 here.

Figure 24: Create Approval Group page - First Responder Wins Voting Method

20
2. Create Action Type
The action type used for this test case is Approval Group Chain of Authority. The ordering mode is set to
“Parallel” and voting method as “First Responder Wins”.

Figure 25: Action Types page - First Responder Wins Voting Method

Expense Report Process

Using Internet Expenses responsibility, created another expense report with Meal expense types of
“NW_Template” expense report template and submitted for approval. Approvers are built by AME and with the
Parallel approval method set, notably ALL the approvers are notified.

Figure 26: Submitted Expense Report page using Parallel Approval - First Responder Wins Voting Method

21
Note that Order No is same for all the approvers here i.e., 1.

Logged in as Taylor Mark, one of the approvers and can see the notification in worklist for approval.

Figure 27: Expense report notification page of one of the approvers

Approved the same. Then checked the status of this expense report. It is in Pending Payment status.

Figure 28: Expense report status having approved by one of the approvers

The approvers section of this expense report shows that it is approved by Taylor Mark and other approver status
as “Beat by First Responder”.

22
Figure 29: Approvers section of Expense report having approved by one of the approvers

Note:
In this scenario, you can see notifications in worklist of remaining approvers and their action
(approve/reject) has NO relevance on the expense report status/process.

For instance, logged in as Waugh Steve and there such approval notification is still there.
Figure 30: Expense report notification page of one of the approvers

There is an open Enhancement Bug 8490741: CANCEL OTHER APPROVAL NOTIFICATIONS WHEN
FIRST RESPONDER APPROVES A NOTIFICATION that relates to this issue.

23
B.II. AME Setup for Parallel Approval – Consensus Voting Method

Setup

1. Create Approval Groups

For this, I created an Approval Group with voting method as consensus.

Figure 31: Approval Groups page - Consensus Voting Method

As the expense reports are set to use parallel approval process, set the approval group members order number as
same i.e., 1 here.

Figure 32: Create Approval Group page - Consensus Voting Method

24
2. Create Action Type
The action type used for this test case is Approval Group Chain of Authority. The ordering mode is set to
“Parallel” and voting method as “Consensus”.

Figure 33: Action Types page – Consensus Voting Method

Expense Report Process

Using Internet Expenses responsibility created another expense report with Meal expense types of
“NW_Template” expense report template and submitted for approval. Approvers are built by AME and with the
Parallel approval method set, notably ALL the approvers are notified.

Figure 34: Submitted Expense Report Approvers page using Parallel Approval - Consensus Voting Method

Note that Order No is same for all the approvers here i.e., 1.

25
Note that the approver of the expense report need NOT be in the same order as system picks to be approved in
the approver list.

Logged in as Waugh Steve, one of the approvers and can see the notification in worklist for approval.

Figure 35: Expense report notification page of one of the approvers

Approved the Expense report.

Figure 36: Approvers section of Expense report having approved by one of the approvers

26
Then checked the status of this expense report, it is still in Pending Manager Approval status. The approvers
section of this expense report shows that it is approved by Waugh Steve and is waiting for Boon David and
Taylor Mark approval.

Then logged in as Boon David and approved the expense report notification.

Figure 37: Expense report notification page of one of the approvers

The status of this expense report, it is still in Pending Manager Approval status. The approvers section of this
expense report shows that it is approved by Waugh Steve and Boon David and is waiting for Taylor Mark
approval.

Figure 38: Approvers section of Expense report having approved by two of the approvers

27
Logged in as Mark Taylor and approved the expense report.

Figure 39: Expense report notification page of last of the list of approvers

Post approval by all the three approvers, such expense report is in Pending Payment status.

Figure 40: Expense report status having approved by all the approvers

The approvers section of this expense report shows that it is approved by all the approvers namely Waugh
Steve, Taylor Mark and Boon David.

28
Figure 41: Expense report status having approved by all the approvers

29
References

Oracle® Approvals Management Implementation Guide Release 12

Oracle® Internet Expenses Implementation and Administration Guide Release 12

Change Log
11-Aug-2011: Created white paper
23-Feb-2012: Removed Internal Only comment at the bottom of the white paper

30