Approvals Management Engine (AME)

R12 Functionality & Case Study

Paresh Shah
Jay Robinson

24th October 2011 NEOAUG

 Company Background
Boston ■ New York ■ Atlanta ■ Germany ■ India

• In operation since 2002 with consistent                
year‐over‐year growth, privately held
 Inc 500/5000 list of fastest growing U.S. 
companies
• Offices in USA – MA (HQ), New York,                   
Atlanta, Germany and India
 Over 400 employees with strong local         
presence
• Core Specializations:  E‐Business Suite,            
Business Intelligence / Enterprise            
Performance Management, Fusion  
Middleware, Infrastructure Services,            
Education Services
• Founded by former Oracle Consulting                   
Service employees

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 Apps Associates LLC
Boston ■ New York ■ Atlanta ■ Germany ■ India

Agenda

1. What is AME/  What are the various uses of AME 
2. New features available in R12 
3. Power of AME: Case Study PO Requisition Approval/ Methodology
4. AME Implementation Steps:
 Assign Role to Setup User
 Grant Access to Transaction Type to Setup User
 Create Attributes
 Create Conditions
 Create Approval Groups
 Create Rules
 Setup Profile Options
 Update PO Requisitions Document Type
6. Case Study – Service Contract Approval with Parallel Approval
7. AME Test Workbench
8. References

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 What is AME?
1. What is AME?

Oracle Approvals Management (AME) is a self‐service Web application that enables 
you to define business rules governing the process for approving transactions in 
Oracle applications that have integrated AME.

2. What are the various uses of AME?

Approvals – PO Requisition, Expense report, Sales Quote, Item Approval, Service 
Contract Approval, etc. (supports more than 180 transaction types)

E‐Signatures – Various Inventory/ Mfg transactions

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Release 12 – PO Requisition AME Approval New Features

1. Parallel Approvals: notifications are sent out to multiple people 
simultaneously to speed up the approval process. 

2. Support for Viewers: FYI approval notifications are sent to specific users 
whose approvals are not required. 

3. Position Hierarchy Support: Approval lists built within AME are 
generated based on the position hierarchy. The Position Hierarchy 
method in AME has some differences which allows it to model not 
exactly with PO‐based Approvals

4. Purchase Orders are still NOT integrated with AME. Only Requisitions 
can use AME for approval routing.

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 Power of AME – Solution Design Methodology    
Purchase Requisition Approval .
# 2 General Expense Approver must have AG9
Requisition authorization to approve CCN
Requestor’s Cost Center O
Finance Requestor Approver
Approval if NO Requestor’s YES
Pre-Approval Limit > PO Limit > PO Post Approval
Prepare is Supervisor
(CC Based) Req. Amt Req. Amt
different Approval
FN1 AG13 AG1 YES AG2
# 3 Cap Expense
Requisition
Requestor’s
Approval if Finance
CFO
Prepare is Pre-Approval
Approval
different (CC Based)

Verify FN2 AG13 AG1 Approver must have AG10 AG3

Requisition # 4 Project Requisition (Non- Cap) authorization to approve CC
Type Requestor’s Task Manager
Finance Approver Find Task
Approval if Approval (If Null NO
Pre-Approval Limit > PO Manager’s Post Approval
Prepare is – Project
(CC Based) Req. Amt Supervisor
different Manager)
PASS FN3 AG13 AG1 AG4 YES AG2
AME
Admin Check for # 5 Project Requisition
multiple (Cap)
req types / Requestor’s Task Manager
Finance
FAIL proj./ Approval if Approval (If Null CFO
Pre-Approval
tasks Prepare is – Project Approval
(CC Based)
FN7 different Manager)
FN4 AG13 AG5 AG1 AG3
# 7 Inventory Requisition (Part YES AG11
Submit PO Based) NO
Requisition Requestor’s
Requestor NO Approver
for Approval Approval if Supervisor YES Plant Manager
Prepare is Limit > PO Limit > PO
Approval Approval
Req. Amt Req. Amt
FN6 different
AG13 AG7

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 Converting Business Approval Flow to AME Rule

IF THEN
All Conditions are TRUE Requires Approval from
AME
Admin Check for Requestor’s Task Manager
Check Finance
multiple Approval if Approval (If Null CFO
Req. Type Cap. Pre-Approval
req types / Prepare is – Project Approval
Project (CC Based)
FAIL proj./ different Manager)
tasks
AG13 AG5 AG1 AG3
FN7 FN4
Reject ‐ Send  If someone else  Task Manager on 
approval to AME  enters requisition  the project should 
Admin if  on behalf of  approve 
requisition has  requestor then  requisition. If 
lines with different  requestor should  project is not setup 
types OR multiple  first approve it. with the Task 
projects Manager then 
approval should go 
FN X = Function used in the attribute to Project Manager
AG X = Approval Group

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 AME Implementation Steps
1. Assign AME Business Analyst Roles
2. Grant Access to Transaction Types
3. Create  Attributes
4. Create Conditions
5. Create Approval Groups TRANSACTION TYPE

6. Create Rules
7. Setup Profile Options RULE(S)

8. Update PO Approval Workflow for Document 
Type                 CONDITION(S) ACTION(S) ACTION
TYPE(S)

ATTRIBUTE(S) APPROVAL
GROUPS

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 Assign AME Role to Setup User
1. Login as SYSADMIN
2. Navigate to User Management
3. Search User > Update > 

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 Grant Access to Transaction Type to Setup User

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: 

a. Navigate to the Personal Home Page.
b. Select Functional Administrator Responsibility
c.  From the Grants page, press on the Create Grant button
d. 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 
e. Click Next and select the Object Data Context
•Data Context Type = All Rows 
f. Click Next to define the object parameters and Select Set 
•Set = AME Calling Applications
g. Click Next. Review the changes and then finish the process. 

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Approvals Management Business Analyst

Select Transaction Type

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 Create Attribute

FN7 – Function Returns Case Sensitive

‘Y’ or ‘N’

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Create Conditions

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Create Approval Groups

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 AME Rule Building Blocks
Attributes Conditions Approval Groups

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Create Rules

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 Setup Profile Options

Set up profile option for Application = Purchasing and Profile = AME:Installed as follows.

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 Update Document Type

Purchasing Super User > Setups > Purchasing  > Document Types
Change Approval Transaction Type to ‘PURCHASE_REQ’.

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 Business Case Study – Service Contracts                                              
Approval Process with Parallel Approval

Overview:
In R11i instance profile option ‘OKC: Contract Approver’ is used to define approver. This
profile option is setup at the responsibility level. Responsibility used to create a service
contract determines who gets to approve that service contract. This profile option was 
obsoleted in R12i, instead AME module should be used to determine approvers.
Key Business Requirements:
• Non US operating units – OU on contract should determine the approver. There may be more
than one approvers for one approving unit.
• US operating unit – Org for which service contract is created will determine the approver           
• In case of multiple approvers – approval notification should be sent to all approvers in 
parallel. Service contract should get approved when any one approver approves it.
• If approver is not setup for any OU/Org then notification should go to default approver.
• FYI Notification should go to supervisor of person who enters the contract.

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 Service Contract Approval Process Flow

Notify Find out Approvers –Custom

Supervisor Profile “XYZ Service Contract
Approver Non US_OU”

Operating 
Unit Approvers
OP1 John Smith1 First Approve
Send Approval
OP2 John Smith2 Responde End of
Non Notifications to Service Contract
r Approval
US OP3 John Smith3&John Smith6 All Approvers
Approves
Approved

Submit OP4 John Smith4 Reject

Service Check
Operating
OP5 John Smith5
Contract
for Approval Unit OP6 John Smith6 Service Contract
Status ‘Inactive’
OP7 John Smith7&John Smith8
US
OU
OP8 John Smith8

Find Out Approvers – Custom

Find out
Profile “XYZ Service Contract
Inventory Org
Approver US_OU”

Inventory Org Approvers
XYZ John Smith9
LMN John Smith10
OPQ John Smith10 & John Smith 11

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 Test Workbench

Test Workbench displays the attribute values for the transaction, approval 
lists and rules used to generate the approval list.

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 References

1. How To Setup And Use AME For Purchase Requisition Approvals

[ID 434143.1]

1. FAQ AME iProcurement In Release 12 [ID 396216.1]

2. 11.5.10 PO: Approval Management Engine - How to Create AME Rules For
One Approver [ID 305295.1]

3. Master Reference For AME Based Requisition Approval In R12 [ID 1207863.1]

4. How To Add Viewers (FYI Notification Recipients) In R12 When Using AME
[ID 472871.1]

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Questions

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