AME Integrated Approvals for Outbound Sales Orders in R12.2.

8 EBS Order Management

Kishor Genikala & Solomon Raya
Oracle India Private limited

Abstract
Presently in Oracle EBS release 12.2.2, the AME (Approval Management Engine) integration with Order Management is limited
to Return Orders and Quotes only. As part of latest Oracle EBS release 12.2.8, AME integrated approvals has been extended to
outbound Sales Orders. A new seeded root workflow “Order Flow - Generic with Booking Approval” for Order Header has been
supplied, which calls AME approval flow before booking of the Order. This paper provides an insight into Background of this
Enhancement, Setup Steps, Process Flow, Objects Modified / Added for the existing AME approvals, Diagnostics / Troubleshooting
Techniques and Common setup issues.

Scope
1. Introduction
2. Setup Steps
3. Process Flow
4. Objects Modified/Added
5. Diagnostics and Troubleshooting
6. Common Setup Issues

I. Introduction
Limitations of Current Approval Process
Prior to Oracle EBS release 12.2.2, only negotiation flow and RMA flow in Order Management (OM) had Support for approval
hierarchy where approval hierarchy can be Defined Using Transaction Types in OM. But, this has limitation to use only Static List
of Approvers.
R12.2.X New Enhancements

In release 12.2.2 Order Management was integrated with Oracle Approval Management (AME) to support dynamic determination
of approvers list for Quotes, Sales Agreements and Returns (RMA). The following seeded workflows were provided with the
required integration:
 Quote workflow “Negotiation Flow – Generic with Approval”
 Oracle Header workflow “Order Flow - Mixed or Return with Approval

In release 12.2.8, a new feature has been added for approval of all “Sales Orders” at Booking using AME which is common across
various order types and line types like:

 Orders consisting of outbound lines only, return lines only or mix of outbound & return lines
 Drop ship and back to back orders
 Models (ATO, PTO and Hybrid) and Kits
 Bill Only, Bill Only with Inventory Interface

Following seeded workflows were delivered as part of this enhancement:

 Order header workflow “Order Flow - Generic with Booking Approval"
 Sub process “Book Order – Manual with AME Approval"

This is a simplified and common approval process across order types which will help customers to improve productivity and reduce
errors. Further it would also centralize approval policies to improve audit and accountability.

EBS Integration with AME

The Purpose of Oracle Approval Management is to Define Approval rules that determine the approval process for Oracle
applications. This picture illustrates the typical integration of Oracle application such as OM, Receivable, and Purchasing etc. with
AME through WF engine.
Calling applications talk to AME through respective WF processes to get the list of approvers based on the business rules written
in AME. WF engine accordingly sends notifications to the approvers either in sequential /parallel mode and receive responses.
Once all the necessary approvals are done, the base transaction will be updated as approved/rejected.

AME Capabilities
OM flows use the below mentioned key inherent capabilities of AME to perform approval of Outbound Sales Orders, Returns,
Quotes And Sales Agreements leveraging AME integration
 Use seeded or user defined Conditions and Attributes to create AME rules
 Determine approvers based on the expanded criteria
 Perform Serial or Parallel Approvals
 Implement the options like “First Responder Wins” and “Consensus” in Parallel Approvals
II. Setup Steps
Order Management Setup

Navigate to responsibility “Order Management Super User” -> Setup > Transaction Type > Define the Sales Order Transaction
Type as follows in order to enable AME Integration for a particular transaction type:
 Select the option “Use Approvals Management Engine”.
 Enter Fulfillment Flow “Order Flow - Generic with Booking Approval”
 Enter Sales Document Type “Sales Order”
 Order Category can be any – Order, Mixed or Return

Access OM system parameters from Order Management Super User -> Setup > System Parameters > Values > Define value for
the New System Parameter “Treat AME Exception As”. It can take any of three values (Default Value is NULL)
 Approval: Treat AME Exception as Approved
 Rejection: Treat AME Exception as Rejection
 Null: Treat AME Exception as Rejection
AME Setup
The purpose of Oracle Approvals Management (AME) is to define approval rules that determine the approval processes for Oracle
applications. An application that uses AME to govern its transactions' approval processes is termed an integrating application. An
integrating application may divide its transactions into several categories where each category requires a distinct set of approval
rules. Each set of rules is called a transaction type. An approval rule is a business rule that helps determine a transaction's approval
process. Rules are constructed from conditions and actions. The approval rule's if part consists of zero or more conditions, and its
then part consists of one or more actions. A condition consists of a business variable (in AME, an attribute) and a set of attribute
values, any one of which makes the condition true. An action tells AME to modify a transaction's approval process in some fashion.
Given below are the AME Transaction Types introduced for OM integration. These are used to associate business rules for
generating Approval hierarchy in AME.
 Order Management Negotiation Approval ( OENEG )
 Order Management Return Approval ( OERMA )
 Order Management Sales Agreement Approval (OEBSA )

To define necessary AME approval rules, navigate to responsibility “Approvals Management Business Analyst” > Select
transaction type “Order Management Return Approval” > click on setup >

To Define/Modify Attributes: Go to attributes tab > you can see all the seeded attributes defined for the transaction type >New
attributes can be created here as per business requirement.
Go to conditions tab > create/Modify qualifying conditions as per need.

Go to Action Types tab > Create new or use existing action types as per need

Go to Approver Groups tab > Create or update groups as per need

Now, navigate to Rules tab and create a new rule using the conditions, action type and action already defined. This AME rule
will determine the qualifying conditions for an order and also the action type and action to derive the list of approvers.

III. Process Flow

The below diagram shows the basic process flow of the functionality.

Create Order using Order Header

AME enabled Order Notifications Are Progresses to
Approvers Take the “Booked” or “Review
Type which has Sent to the List Action to
“Order Flow - Book the Of Approvers Required” Status
Order Approve or Reject the Accordingly
Generic with Generated by Document
Booking Approval” AME Based on whether it is
Workflow attached Approved or Rejected.

Approval Actions – Status Changes

When the order is booked, the order will be sent for approval, based on AME setup. The order status will be updated to “Pending
Internal Approval”, indicating that the order has been sent for approval. At the same time, the status of the order lines will remain
as “Entered”, awaiting booking approval of order.

 If the approval is rejected, the status of the order is changed to “Review required”. User can then change the order and
send it for approval again.
 After the order is approved, the order would be pushed ahead for booking changing the status of order to “Booked”.
 If the order is approved, but does not get booked because of any reason, order workflow will move to Book-Eligible
activity updating the status of order to “Entered”. When progressing the order again for booking, then in that case order
is not sent again for approval.

Demo Business Case

Let us assume the following organization hierarchy for the purpose of this demo. “Pat Stock” will be the user submitting the Order
for approval. The first level approver is “Jonathan Smith” and the second level approver is “Casey Brown”.

Stock, Ms. Pat Smith, Mr. Jonathan Brown, Ms. Casey Tucker, Mr. William
Materials Manager VP Materials Chief Financial Officer Chief Executive Officer
Case I

Order submitted for approval first time. Let us assume the following rule has been setup in AME i.e. for the customer “Bigmart”,
“Order Amount greater than $1,000” and Order Category "Order" (outbound lines) approval is required from two levels of manager
hierarchy in serial mode.

Login to EBS as “Pat Stock” > Navigate to responsibility “Order Management Super User” > Create an Order with Customer:
“Bigmart”, Order Type: Standard-AME and Order Amount: $1,500 > Save the Order > Order status is now reflected as ‘Entered’

Initiate “Book” action” > Order status changes to “Pending Internal Approval” > When the user initiates the “Book” action, the
approval process is triggered.
At any point of time after the user initiates the “Book” action, workflow status can be monitored from Tools > “Workflow Status”
option on Order Header.

We can also drill down to sub process level to see the actual progress in the workflow process.

In AME, the list of approvers is generated. In this case, the approvers are “Jonathan Smith” and “Casey Brown”. Notifications are
sent sequentially to the approvers.

Approval is requested from the first level in the hierarchy “Jonathan Smith”. Now, login as “Jonathan Smith” and “Approve” the
Order. When you login to EBS as “Jonathan Smith ” > on the home page at worklist find the approval notification with type “OM
AME Approval” from “Pat S tock” along with order details on the subject.
After the first level has approved the Order, approval is requested from the next level in the hierarchy. In our example, the next
level approver is “Casey Brown”. Now, login as “Casey Brown” and “Approve” the Order >
After completing two levels of approval the order header status now changes to “Booked”
Case II

Create another order similar to Case I, but without specifying the payment terms at the header and line level. After the Order is
submitted for approval, complete the two levels of approval as discussed in Case I.
As the Order has completed approval, the activity book eligible attempts to book the order but , booking fails due to missing
payment terms information and the status changes to “Entered”.

Try Booking the Order, Order Booking Fails due to Missing Payment Terms.
Now, update the missing payment terms information on the order and Initiate “Book” action.

In this case, the order will not be resent for approval as it has already obtained the necessary approvals and the status changes to
‘Booked’ (without any re-approval).
IV. Objects Modified/Added

Workflow
“Order Flow - Generic with Booking approval” process is added to the OM Order Header item type.

This includes the sub process “Book - Order, Manual with AME approval” which will integrate with AME.

AME
“Order Management Return Approval” Transaction Type in AME is modified for outbound sales orders functionality
Order Category, Booked Attributes in AME are added new along with existing Header Level attributes: Customer, Customer
Category, Order Type and Order Amount. Line Level attributes: Line Type, Item, Quantity, Line Amount and Line Discount
Percent
Changed Programs
“Purge Order Management workflow” and “Retry Activities in Error” concurrent programs are modified to include a new Item
Type “OM AME Approval
V. Diagnostics and Troubleshooting
Whenever user gets an unexpected result while using fulfillment workflow “Order Flow - Generic with Booking Approval”,
complete Order Management Debug log file along with the output of concurrent request “Diagnostics Order Information” for the
Sales Order is required to debug the issue.
 Order Management Debug file –Note 121054.1
 Diagnostics Order Information – Note 1326539.1
Navigate to responsibility “Approvals Management Business Analyst” > Select the transaction type (Order Management Return
Approval) and click on Run Real Transaction Test via Test Workbench by entering the Sales order Header id as the transaction id
and review the attribute values, conditions and actions via AME
VI. Common Setup Issues
Issue
AME Rules are Defined, but Documents
are not sent for Approval
Order is Booked, Without Proper
Approval
Order is Booked, Without any Approval
Notifications Sent
Notifications are Not Sent, Exception
Raised in AME and Transaction Gets
Booked/ Rejected as per System
Parameter "Treat AME Exception As"
Notifications are Not Sent, Exception
Raised in AME and Transaction Gets
Booked/ Rejected as per System
Parameter "Treat AME Exception As"
Problem Cause
The Conditions are Most Likely Not
Defined in Installed Base Language
Supervisors are Not Defined Properly
for "Chain of Authority" Type Approval
Rules
Use AME Check Box is Check on
Transaction Type Form, However Valid
Rules are Not Setup in AME
Issue with Custom Attributes and
Associated SQL Exceptions like No
Data found, too Many Rows Returned
etc.
Approval Group is Defined in AME
with a List of Individual Approvers, But
Some of The Approvers are Not a Valid
Employees
Resolution
Always Defined Conditions in Base
Language
Make Sure That Supervisors are
Appropriately Defined in HR Module
Make Sure to Define Appropriate Rules
in AME
Make Sure that All the SQLs associated
with Custom Attributes Related to OM
are Valid
Make Sure that all the Approvers
Defined in the User Defined Approver
Groups Are Valid.
Key Document References

MOS Doc ID 2479230.1 - AME Integrated Approvals for Outbound Sales Orders in R12.2 EBS Order Management
MOS Doc ID 431815.1 - Oracle Approvals Management (AME) frequently asked Questions (FAQ)

Oracle® Approvals Management - Implementation Guide

Conclusions
It is our desire that this paper has helped you to enable Integration with AME (Order Header) functionality (Enhancement in
R12.2.8) in Oracle Order Management. We hope that you are now better equipped to create necessary setups, understanding of key
entities, defining transaction types with necessary AME approval conditions. In addition, if you encounter a problem that requires
assistance, please remember to call Oracle Support. They may have seen the issue before and may already have a solution for the
issue!