How To Setup And Use AME For Purchase Requisition Approvals [ID 434143.

1]
  Modified 29-MAR-2012     Type WHITE  
PAPER     Status PUBLISHED

In this Document
  Abstract
  Document History
  How To Setup And Use AME For Purchase Requisition Approvals
     Assign AME access to users
     Review and Modify AME Setup
     Enable AME for Requisition Approval 
     Enable AME 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
  References

1 Applies to:

Oracle iProcurement - Version: 11.5.10 to 12.1.3 - Release: 11.5 to 12.1

Oracle Purchasing - 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***

2 Abstract

Purchase Requisitions can be routed for approval using the AME Approval Management Engine.
This whitepaper describes how to setup AME for use with requisition approvals, and shows how a
requisition approval list is built based on the AME setup. Approvers in the AME based approver list
are assigned to the requisition based on the AME rules setup for the Purchase Requisition Approval
transaction. Similar setup can be done for Requester Change Order Approval and for Internal
Requisition Approval, although those are not specifically covered in this whitepaper.

The screenshots provided are based on 11i.AME.B, and some of the navigation details are specific
to 11i.AME.B. However, most of the details provided are applicable to 11i.AME.A and higher
including R12.

3 Document History

Author : David Felton, Oracle Global Customer Services

Contributing Author : Diego Rossenblum, Oracle Global Customer Services  (added 28-MAY-
2008)
Create Date 01-OCT-2007 
Update Date 3-MAR-2012
Expire Date 3-MAR-2013 (requires review after this date)

4 How To Setup And Use AME For Purchase Requisition Approvals

5 Assign AME access to users
6 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?

7 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.

8 Review and Modify AME Setup

AME is designed to provide approval logic for many transaction types. Transaction types used for
Purchase Requisitions include the following: Purchase Requisition Approval, Internal Requisition
Approval, and Requester Change Order Approval. This whitepaper focuses on Purchase Requisition
Approval, however, many of the concepts are applicable to the other two requisition transaction
types as well. Likewise, some examples and comments in this paper are written in iProcurement
context, but the same AME concepts apply to core apps requisitions also.

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 = Purchase Requisition
Approval

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.

9 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. Reference Note 293315.1 11.5.10 FAQ for Approvals Management (AME)
Integration For iProcurement and Purchasing - for a list of action types allowed for requisition
transactions in AME. In addition, Note 404152.1 Release Content Documents for E-Business Suite
R12 - provides a link to the Procurement Family RCD which clarifies (Section 3.4.2.14) that
requisition approval with Oracle Approvals Management (AME) in R12 allows use of Position
Hierarchy based Approvals, Parallel Approvals, and Support for FYI Notifications.

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
(Purchase Requisition Approval). 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

10 2. Attributes

1. Attributes are the base element for an AME Rule. Attribute values are retrieved from the Oracle
EBusiness 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
relevant to Purchase Requisition Approval include ITEM_CATEGORY, ITEM_NUMBER, and
REQUISITION_TOTAL as well as other attributes. When AME approvals is enabled for purchase
requisitions, these values are retrieved for the relevant requisition while navigating through
iProcurement checkout or core apps requisition create, 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.

11 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
(requisition) 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
Purchase Requisition Approval 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.

12 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 requisition
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.

13 5. Rules

1. Define rules to specify approvers that should be included in the approval list under specific
conditions for the requisition approval transaction.

2. Select the Rules link from the AME Dashboard after selecting the transaction type : Purchase
Requisition Approval

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 : Purchase
Requisition Approval. 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.

14 6. Test Workbench

Use the Test Workbench to determine which AME Rule(s) apply to a specific requisition, 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. 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.

15 Enable AME for Requisition Approval

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 

16 Enable AME 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.

17 Test the Functionality

1. Create a requisition in Core Apps Purchasing or iProcurement and verify that the Approval List is
built per the AME rules based on the conditions present on the requisition attributes.

18 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. 

19 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, the following query
may be useful in some cases to check attributes and conditions associated to rules directly at the
table level.  Although, the information in the setup report is more nicely formatted. 

select amea.*, ameb.*, amec.*, amed.*

from 
(select distinct amerul.rule_id rule_id, amerul.description ruledesc,
ameact.description actdesc
from AME_ACTION_USAGES ameau, AME_ACTIONS ameact, AME_RULES amerul
where 
ameact.start_date <= sysdate and ameact.end_date >= sysdate and
ameau.rule_id = amerul.rule_id and
ameau.start_date <= sysdate and ameau.end_date >= sysdate and
ameau.action_id = ameact.action_id and 
amerul.start_date <= sysdate and amerul.end_date >= sysdate) 
amea,
(select ameattu.attribute_id attribute_id, ameattu.query_string query_string
from ame_attribute_usages ameattu
where 
ameattu.start_date <= sysdate and ameattu.end_date >= sysdate and
ameattu.application_id = 
(select application_id from ame_calling_apps
where 
start_date <= sysdate and end_date >= sysdate and
transaction_type_id = 'PURCHASE_REQ')
)
ameb,
(select amecond.condition_id condition_id, amecond.attribute_id attribute_id,
ameatt.name attname, ameatt.description attdesc,
amecond.parameter_one, amecond.parameter_two, amecond.parameter_three,
amecond.include_lower_limit, amecond.include_upper_limit
from ame_conditions amecond, ame_attributes ameatt
where 
ameatt.start_date <= sysdate and ameatt.end_date >= sysdate and
ameatt.attribute_id = amecond.attribute_id and
amecond.start_date <= sysdate and amecond.end_date >= sysdate
order by condition_id, attribute_id)
amec,
(select amecondu.rule_id rule_id, amecondu.condition_id condition_id
from ame_condition_usages amecondu
where amecondu.start_date <= sysdate and amecondu.end_date >= sysdate) 
amed
where amea.rule_id = amed.rule_id and 
ameb.attribute_id = amec.attribute_id and
amec.condition_id = amed.condition_id
order by amea.rule_id, amec.attribute_id, amec.condition_id

20 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.

NOTE2: This document is not consider formal documentation of the product, but is a useful tool for
applying the functionality described.

21 Summary

This paper describes the setup steps for accessing AME, designating AME as the approval choice
for requisitions, and using the AME approval routing for requisitions.  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.

22 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

 Attachments

 AME Setup and Usage Whitepaper-REVC (4,508 KB)

  Related

Products

 Oracle E-Business Suite > Procurement > Procurement > Oracle Purchasing
 Oracle E-Business Suite > Procurement > Procurement > Oracle iProcurement

Keywords

AME; APPROVAL; APPROVAL AUTHORITY; APPROVAL GROUPS; APPROVAL

LIST; CHANGE ORDER; CHANGE REQUEST; IPROCUREMENT; ORACLE
APPROVALS MANAGEMENT; ORACLE PURCHASING (Q502); PURCHASE
REQUISITION; REQUISITION; REQUISITION APPROVAL; RULE SETUP; SETUP

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