AP Invoice Approval workflow setup and usage

Organizations might prefer to set AP invoices to be approved through an approval process

before the invoice is paid off. This is useful from an Audit perspective as well as it eliminates
mistakes made on the part of data entry operator.
From Audit perspective, there is very little chance of an unauthorized payment as approvers
might question Corporate Finance team of the organization if some invoice looks out of the
ordinary.
If the data entry operator makes a mistake during entering the invoice, the invoice might be
paid off before the mistake is spotted. If the payment does not reach the supplier it has to be
cancelled. If the payment reaches the supplier then an adjustment has to be made on the
supplier for a future payment.
To avoid these scenarios organizations might implement AP invoice approval process. This
process built into standard Oracle Applications but it is turned off by default. Oracle has to be
configured to enable this feature.
The steps and usage of this process is illustrated below.

Setup steps

Go to Approvals Management Business Analyst or AME Application Administrator. It will take
you to Business Analyst Dashboard
AME setup


AME setup
Transaction Types: Payables Invoice Approval
Create rule, condition and action.
Note: I shall illustrate AME setup in more detail in another post.
Database setup
Execute the following script in APPS schema.
DELETE FROM wf_event_subscriptions
WHERE owner_tag =AP AND wf_process_type =APINV
Only 1 row should be deleted.
This step is required so that the following error about parallelization configuration details do not
creep in.

Error message on sending AP Invoice for approval

Apps setup
Set Profile
Responsibility: System Administrator
Navigation: Profile > System
Query for profile option, AME:Installed, and Application, Payables. The value should be set to
Yes for Payables or the Invoice Approval Workflow will not be initiated. This value is set but
AME is not configured the workflow will be initiated but no notifications will be sent out and the
workflow will be stuck as it will be unable to find an approver.

AME profile option

Payables Options
Responsibility: EY AP Administrator
Navigation: Setup > Options > Payables > Invoice (tab)
You need to see the following boxes and ensure that these are checked,
Use Invoice Approval Workflow
Allow Force Approval
Require Validation before approval

Payables Options


Synchronize all workflow roles
Go to System Administrator
Navigation: View > Requests
Run the request Synchronize WF LOCAL tables for all Orig systems,

Synchronize workflow tables


Usage of the AP Invoice approval

The invoice creation process is illustrated in another post, here.
Enter invoice
Responsibility: AP Administrator
Navigation: Invoices > Enter > Invoices
Enter the invoice

Create Invoice


Validate Invoice
On the same form click Actions button. On the new window, select Validate

Validate Invoice
Initiate Approval
After invoice is validated, click on Actions again and select Initiate Approval

Initiate Approval for Invoice
The approval history for an invoice can be seen by clicking on Tools > View Invoice Approval
History once the invoice approval is in process or when the process is over.


Invoice Approval History

Workflow
Once the workflow is be kicked off, you can view it from Workflow Administrator > Status
Monitor
Search for Internal Name: APINV

Invoice approval workflow
If we check the Action History of the workflow we will find the notifications. The notification
will look like the following,

Workflow notification
Once the approval process is complete the AP invoice will be ready for payment.

- See more at: http://www.oracleerpfunctional.com/2012/08/ap-invoice-approval-workflow-
setup-and.html#at_pco=smlwn-1.0&at_si=5357890507ee5041&at_ab=per-
14&at_pos=0&at_tot=1