AP Invoice Line Level Approval:

In this document we will talk about the how to configure the AP invoice line level approval using AME.

Ensure you have enabled the AME for​​ Payables​​ applications.​​ 

Navigation: System Administrator -> Profile -> System

Profile Option:- ​​ AME: Installed​​ – Yes

Make sure you have enabled “Use invoice Approval Workflow” option for your operating unit.

Navigation: Payables Responsibility>Setup>Options> Payables Options

Go to Approvals Management Administrator responsibility, select the transaction type “Payables Invoice Approval” and click on update.

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Go to the item classes, select line item and make sure order number values 1​​ 

This is how line item​​ will be generated in AME, if you want to change the SQL statement we can go ahead and change.

In our scenario we don’t want to the invoice line work flow status should be INITIATED, we want all the invoice lines should go through the AME approval routing.​​ So we changed the SQL statement likes below.  ​​ ​​​​ 

Note:​​ If we don’t change the SQL statement, invoice lines other then INITIATED status will not go for approvals and lines will  ​​ ​​ ​​​​ show as approval not required.​​ 

Go to the Approval Management Business​​ Analyst responsibility, select the transaction type “Payables Invoice Approval” and click on setup.

Use Case 1:

• Invoice type should be standard (Header Attribute)

• Invoice line amount should be > 0 (Line Attribute)

• Invoice line item type = Item, we don’t send approvals for the Tax item type lines (Line Attribute)

• Approver names are static (i.e. approver names are fixed, we don’t bring dynamically)​​ 

Use Case 2:

• Invoice type should be standard (Header Attribute)

• Invoice line amount should be > 0(Line​​ Attribute)

• Invoice line item type = Item, we don’t send approvals for the Tax item type lines (Line Attribute)

• Approver names are dynamic (based on the SQL statement)

Use Case 3:

• Invoice type should be standard (Header Attribute)

• If invoice lines are​​ PO_MATCHED, we don’t require any approval.

Use Case 4:

• Approval notification should be parallel (i.e. all the line approvals for that invoice should be generated once, it not deepened on any lines)

• Approval notification should be serial (i.e. all the line​​ approvals should be generated one by one, after 1st​​ line approval only then 2nd​​ line approval notification will be sent)​​ 

Now setting up the AME rules, AME has attributes, conditions, action types, approver groups and rules. Finally AME rules will be executed by workflow, to define AME rules we need other 4 AME components.

Use Case 1:

AME Attributes:

Create a new line level attributes based on the requirements. Follow the below instructions to create

We need two attributes one is invoice line amount and another one is invoice line item type should be ‘Standard’.

So we can use standard AME line attributes. But the problem is all the line item attributes will contains the wfapproval_status = 'INITIATED' condition, we have to remove this condition.

Note:​​ If you would like to create a custom attributes, you can create but the​​ item class should be Line Item​​ then the SQL statements will execute for each line. If we don’t define like that AME will throw an error.

Line Amount Attribute: SUPPLIER_INVOICE_LINE_AMOUNT

Line Item Type Attribute: SUPPLIER_INVOICE_LINE_UNIT_MEAS_LU_CODE

Line Item Type Attribute: SUPPLIER_INVOICE_LINE_MATCHED

We need a one header attribute to check the invoice type. This one also provided by oracle.

Invoice Type​​ Attribute:​​ 

SUPPLIER_INVOICE_TYPE_LOOKUP_CODE

Defining AME Condition:​​ Navigate to as shown below

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Define a condition invoice line amount > 0 (lines attribute)

Define a condition invoice line item type = ‘Item’ (lines attribute)

Define a​​ condition invoice type = ‘Standard’ (Header Attribute)

Define a condition invoice line matched = ‘Y’ (Line Attribute)

Defining AME Action Types:

We need two action types here and use exiting action types which are provided by oracle.

Select the​​ Production Rule action type for invoices lines which are doesn’t require any approvals.

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Select Approval Group Chain of Authority action type HR based serial approvers.

Defining AME Action Types:

Select the approver name (Mallarapu, Anand) from a HR people and this is static, so we can’t change the approver. If the approver leaves the organization we need to change the approver name in AME also.​​ 

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Use Case 2:​​ 

Get approver name dynamically from HR tables based on couple of conditions.

1st​​ SQL statement is based on the requestor id for each invoice line.​​ 

select ​​ 'person_id:'||requester_id from ap_invoice_lines_all

 ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​​​  WHERE  ​​ ​​ ​​​​ invoice_id = :transactionId

 ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​ ​​​​  ​​ AND line_number = :itemId

2nd​​ SQL statement is​​ based on the employee supervisory based on the invoice approval limit. Like Manager has approval till $10,000 and Director has the approval of $100,000. We have defined these limits in one custom lookup. Like this we need to send for approvals.

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Defining AME Rules:​​ This is final step in AME, based on this rules conditions will be executed and approver name will be derived.

Rule 1:​​ 

• Invoice type should be standard (Header Attribute)

• Invoice line amount should be > 0 (Line Attribute)

• Invoice line item​​ type = Item, we don’t send approvals for the Tax item type lines (Line Attribute)

Rule 2:

• Invoice type should be standard (Header Attribute)

• If invoice lines are PO_MATCHED, we don’t require any approval.

Test Workbench:

AME Setups are done, we can go to the invoice screen/form and test our setups. Before that we can make sure all our setups are correct in AME for this we have option called Test Workbench in AME.

In order to run the test workbench all you need is transaction id i.e. invoice id.

Header Attributes: ​​ 

Line Attributes:

We can find the how many approvers, approver names and what rule is satisfied, conditions also.

Click on View approval process stages, will show how many approvers are there and their names.

Go to​​ invoice form/screen, validate the invoice and initiate the approval.

After successful validation, now click on the initiate approval.

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Invoice Status looks like

Select the invoice and go to reports, click on the view invoice approval history. This​​ will display the whole/entire invoice approval history.​​ 

We can see here each line invoice approvals.

If you want to see the specific line approval history, select invoice line and go to reports and click on​​ 

We selected line 1 and we could line​​ 1 approver name and history like approver approved the request or not.

Login as approver name and see how notification look like.

If approver clicks on Approve/Reject Individual lines. Approver can approve/reject individual line.

Use Case 4:

Step 1:

If we want send the all notifications(line1, line2, line3 and line4) at time, which means line1 goes to on approver and line2, line3, line4 will go to another approves. This is nothing but parallel activity, no need wait on the line1 to be approved​​ and then go the line 2. We can achieve by using below setups.

Go to Approvals Management Administrator responsibility, select the transaction type “Payables Invoice Approval” and click on update.

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Check the invoice approval history.

Step 2:

If​​ we want to send the approval notification on serial, which means notification will be sent to line1 first. After line 1 approved then line2 approval notification will be sent.​​ 

Go to Approvals Management Administrator responsibility, select the transaction type “Payables Invoice Approval” and click on update.

Check the invoice approval history.