Update 21A

Revision History

This document will continue to evolve as existing sections change and new information is added. All updates appear in the following table:

Date	Product	Feature	Notes
16 MAR 2022	Payables	Modifications to Employee Bank Account Creation	Updated document. Revised feature information.
02 FEB 2021	General Ledger	Option to Publish Hierarchies for All Value Sets	Updated document. Delivered backported feature in update 21A.
29 JAN 2021	Assets	Manage Leases Page Enhancements	Updated document. Delivered feature in update 21A.
29 JAN 2021	Budgetary Control	Connected and Integrated Budget Revisions with EPM Planning Financials	Updated document. Delivered feature in update 21A.
29 JAN 2021	Payables	Electronic Filing of Forms 1099-MISC and 1099-NEC for Tax Year 2020	Updated document. Delivered feature in update 21A.
04 DEC 2020			Created initial document.

Overview

This guide outlines the information you need to know about new or improved functionality in this update.

DISCLAIMER

The information contained in this document may include statements about Oracle’s product development plans. Many factors can materially affect Oracle’s product development plans and the nature and timing of future product releases. Accordingly, this Information is provided to you solely for information only, is not a commitment to deliver any material, code, or functionality, and should not be relied upon in making purchasing decisions. The development, release, and timing of any features or functionality described remains at the sole discretion of Oracle.

This information may not be incorporated into any contractual agreement with Oracle or its subsidiaries or affiliates. Oracle specifically disclaims any liability with respect to this information. Refer to the Legal Notices and Terms of Use for further information.

Common Technology and User Experience

Common Financials Features

Service Excellence Continuing Investments

In this update, our on-going investment in service excellence includes improvements in messages, usability, and performance. Refer to the What's New for more information.

Simplified Workflow Rules Configuration

Use the Simplified Workflow Rules Configuration feature to create rules for the Payables Invoice Approval and General Ledger Journal Approval workflows using spreadsheets. Download the spreadsheet template, enter data, and upload it using the Manage Workflow Rules in Spreadsheet task to create and manage workflow rules as per your approval policies.

In update 21A, you now have the ability to specify a rule priority for rules created using the spreadsheet-based templates. Also, additional sample rules have been added to the templates available for the Payables Invoice Approval workflow.

Workflow Rules Report

Use this report to review and validate the workflow rules created for Payables Invoice Approval, General Ledger Journal Approval, and Expense Report Approval workflows. Workflow administrators can use this report to evaluate whether the rules have optimum configuration.

Workflow Transaction Console Security by Product or Workflow

Secure the Workflow Transaction Console by restricting the workflow administrator or business user view of transactions either by product or workflow.

Financials

Assets

Allow Expense Type Account as Asset Clearing Account for GASB 34

Public sector entities complying with GASB 34 can set up a unique expense type clearing account for each asset category assigned to an asset book and automatically assign the asset category by default to the invoice lines from Payables.

Asset Setup Page Enhancements

The Create Book page now includes two additional options: Prevent prior period amortized adjustments and Copy group asset changes.

Employee Search and Select LOV Enhancement

You can now search for employees with at least one of the following attributes. Previously you could search for an employee only by name only.

• Person Number
• Name
• Email

Manage Leases Page Enhancements

In the Manage Leases page, you can view up to 10,000 leases in a spreadsheet after exporting leases to Excel. By default, the leases are sorted by creation date, from newest to oldest.

Transfer of Accrue at Receipt Invoices for GASB 34 Primary Ledger

The Update Asset Tracking process within the Create Mass Additions job set now checks whether the Accrue at Receipt option is enabled in the purchase order when enabling the Track as Asset option in Payables.

Budgetary Control

Additional Budgetary Control Transaction Information

Gain more understanding of budgetary balances with additional budgetary control validation transaction attributes on the Review Budgetary Control Transactions page. This includes an indicator when transactions are overridden due to insufficient funds.

Budget Hierarchy Updates While Control Budget Is Active

Use the Refresh Tree for Budgetary Control process to add values to a budget account hierarchy while the control budget is in use. You must still close the control budget before running the process for all other tree changes. The log and output file has been enhanced to include additional error messages for common configuration issues.

Carry Forward Open Purchase Orders for Budgetary Controlled Non-Sponsored Projects

Use the Carry Forward Open Purchase Orders process to move purchase orders associated with budgetary controlled non-sponsored projects from one budget year to another. The process automatically updates the budget date to the corresponding budget year for these purchase orders.

Connected and Integrated Budget Revisions with EPM Planning Financials

Prepare draft revisions to an approved EPM Planning Financials budget and verify against the funds available before the budget change is submitted.  You can either approve or reject budget revisions before control budget balances are updated. You can drill down from EPM Planning Financials budget balances to view budget revision details on the Review Budget Entries page.

Enterprise-Level Budgetary Control Options

The Enterprise Options section in the Manage Budgetary Control and Encumbrance Accounting page is used to enable enterprise-level budgetary control options. The expiring Opt In for these three features will be moved permanently to this page in 21C:

• Enable Additional Budgetary Control Liquidation Validation 19C
• Enable Control Budget Security 19C
• Synchronize Hierarchy Maintenance Across Budgetary Control and General Ledger 20C

Cash Management

Automatic Reconciliation of Bank Accounts for a Bank, Bank Branch or Legal Entity

Streamline bank statement reconciliation by submitting the bank reconciliation process for bank accounts of any bank, bank branch or legal entity.

Notional and Physical Cash Pools

Create and manage notional and physical cash pools to review pool-level cash positioning and optimize liquidity management.

Reconciliation of Third-Party Rollup Payments

Reconcile consolidated third-party rollup payments transferred from Payroll and reported in bank statements. Third-party rollup payments are included in these reports: Cash to General Ledger Reconciliation; Cash in Transit; Cash Forecasting.

Expenses

Configurable Spend Authorization Workflow Rules Using Additional Project Attributes

Use project-related attributes to configure approval rules in the Spend Authorization Workflow. These attributes let you route spend authorization approval notifications to project team members, project task manager, and the hierarchy of the project task manager.

Digest Email Updates to Display Predefined Number of Expenses

To improve usability, limit the number of expenses displayed under each section in the digest email to three when there are more than three expenses that require the employeeís attention. Employees can access additional expenses by clicking the link in each section to review the expenses in the Travel and Expenses work area.

Keyword Audit for Expense Reports

Identify expense reports containing specific keywords and route them for audit. Administrators can create the list of keywords that meet their company's auditing needs.

Number of Attendees Capture When Expense Is Above Designated Limits

Capture the number of attendees when meals and entertainment expenses surpass the designated limits specified by the company policy. Auditors can view the cost per attendee when auditing the expense.

Travel Provider Integration Using Expense Travel Itineraries REST API

Create trips, travel itineraries, and reservations, such as air, hotel, and car rental, using the Expense Travel Itineraries REST API. Travel providers other than Getthere can integrate with Expenses using the Expense Travel Itineraries REST API.

Expenses Mobile Application

Flight Class Policy Enforcement in Expenses Mobile Application

Enforce flight class policies for airfare, such as whether an employee is eligible for business class, in Expenses Mobile Application. If company policy permits expense report submission with policy violations, employees are prompted to provide a justification. If not, employees must correct the expense items that contain policy violations.

Location List of Values in Expenses Mobile Application

Select expense location from a list of values in the Add Expense and Add Mileage screens in Expenses mobile application. The list of values varies depending on the location list configuration for the business unit. Employees can select the correct location instead of manually entering the location.

Mandatory Fields Highlighted in Expenses Mobile Application

View all mandatory fields for an expense in the Add Expense, Add Mileage, and Submit Expense Report screens in the Expenses Mobile Application. The mandatory fields vary depending on the expense type configuration. Employees have a clear understanding of what is mandatory before submitting an expense.

Oracle Maps Cloud Service for Expenses Android Application

Calculate trip distance during mileage expense entry in the Expenses Android application using Oracle Maps Cloud Service. Additionally, use mileage tracker to track the commute distance and automatically create a mileage expense.

Expenses Digital Assistant

Automatic Synchronization of Expense Types and Synonyms to Oracle Digital Assistant

Automatically download expense types for all business units to Oracle Digital Assistant and associate preconfigured synonyms to expense types to improve expense type prediction.

Manual Submission of Expense Reports from Oracle Digital Assistant

Manually submit all available expenses directly from the Oracle Digital Assistant and enter a purpose for the expense report for faster submission of manually created expense report.

View Expenses Requiring Attention in Oracle Digital Assistant

View details of expenses that require attention using conversational experience in Oracle Digital Assistant for a simple, easy-to-use experience.

Withdrawal of Automatically Submitted Expense Reports from the Expense Report Approval FYI Notifications

Withdraw an automatically submitted expense report from the Expense Report Approval FYI Notification.  This allows employees to update and resubmit the expense report.

Federal Financials

U.S. Federal Financials is a configurable and flexible solution that enables U.S. Federal agencies to meet Federal financial management system requirements.  It supplements Financials and Procurement functionality by providing U.S. Federal specific functionality. The initial release of U.S. Federal Financials will include the features described below. Additional functionality to fully meet mandatory Federal financial management requirements will be provided in upcoming releases. 

U.S. Federal Accounting

U.S. Federal Accounting features include capabilities to generate Federal budgetary accounting that complies with U.S. Standard General Ledger requirements.

U.S. Federal Invoice Accounting

Generate Federal budgetary accounting for invoices that comply with the U.S. Standard General Ledger requirements. Federal agencies can use predefined accounting rules to meet common accounting needs and configure new accounting rules to meet Federal agency specific needs.

U.S. Federal Payment Accounting

Generate Federal budgetary accounting for payments that comply with the U.S. Standard General Ledger requirements. Federal agencies can use predefined accounting rules to meet common accounting needs and configure new accounting rules to meet Federal agency specific needs.

U.S. Federal Purchase Order Accounting

Generate Federal budgetary accounting for purchase orders that comply with the U.S. Standard General Ledger requirements. Federal agencies can use predefined accounting rules to meet common accounting needs and configure new accounting rules to meet Federal agency specific needs.

U.S. Federal Requisition Accounting

Generate Federal budgetary accounting for requisitions that comply with the U.S. Standard General Ledger requirements. Federal agencies can use predefined accounting rules to meet common accounting needs and configure new accounting rules to meet Federal agency specific needs.

U.S. Federal Payment Processing

U.S. Federal Financials Payment Processing features include capabilities to meet U.S. Federal Prompt Payment requirements and creating U.S. Federal Payment File Formats.

U.S. Federal Payment File Formats

Create Federal payment files that comply with the standards for Payment Automation Manager (PAM) and Secure Payment System (SPS) payment file formats.

U.S. Federal Prompt Payment

Calculate invoice due dates and discount dates, generate interest payments, and take discounts when economically feasible, to comply with U.S. Federal Prompt Payment requirements based on configurable rules.

General Ledger

Definition and Maintenance of Chart of Accounts and Related Configurations

Define and maintain your chart of accounts and hierarchies using a guided process to ensure your setup adheres to the required standards. The improved user experience centralizes all related elements of managing a chart of accounts and provides efficient tools for loading account values and hierarchies.

Entered and Converted Currency Balances Side by Side in Financial Reporting

View entered currency balances and converted balances side by side in Smart View and Financial Reporting. Accountants can now easily compare the balances.

Option to Publish Hierarchies for All Value Sets

Select the All Value Sets option when submitting the Process Account Hierarchies process or the Publish Chart of Accounts Dimension Members and Hierarchies to Balances Cubes process.  This enables publishing hierarchies for all value sets to all GL balances cubes without having to submit the processes separately for each value set.

Prevent General Ledger Period Closure When Open Subledger Periods Exist

Prevent the closure of a General Ledger accounting period if the accounting period for any of the corresponding subledgers is still open, or if incomplete accounting entries or transactions exist for the period.  This ensures an effective period close process by validating that all transactions are complete and that incomplete transactions aren't held up during the close.

Assets is now included in the list of subledgers along with the existing Payables, Receivables, Project Foundation, Revenue Management and Cost Management subledgers.

Rapid Implementation Improvement to Create Separate Value Sets for Primary Balancing and Intercompany Segments

The Rapid Implementation for General Ledger workbook template now creates separate value sets for primary balancing and intercompany segments.

Validations of Date and Number Values Captured Using Descriptive Flexfields

You can now define date and number validations while setting up descriptive flexfields in General Ledger. These validations ensure more accuracy and consistency of the information that is captured using these additional fields.

Joint Venture Management

Data Security for Joint Venture Management

Data Security for Joint Venture Management enables companies to add data security throughout the Joint Venture Management system to enable joint venture users to view and manage business data relevant to their role.

Joint Venture Additional Information in Receivables Invoice

Use the Print Receivables Transactions process to include joint venture transaction details inthe Receivables invoice that's sent to the joint venture partners to recoup their share of costs in a joint venture.

Joint Venture and Project Management Enhanced Data

The existing Joint Venture Management and Project Costing integration enables customers to automatically adjust project costing to facilitate accurate project capitalization and gross to net reporting. This enhancement allows the project costing adjustments to be sent into Project Costing in accounted mode allowing customers to reconcile costs in Project Costing with General Ledger and the ability to budget by net costs.

Joint Venture Definition Improvements

Simplify setting up Joint Venture Definitions with the ability to:

• Select a supplier that belongs to the same business unit as the business unit of the joint venture invoicing partner.
• Prevent users from moving active invoicing partners to pending status through additional validations in the invoicing partner definition.
• Choose a party for a stakeholder from a list of available parties.

Transactions Identified by Specified Segment

Identify billable joint venture transactions by a segment other than the segment with the cost center segment label in the chart of accounts.

Usability and Navigation Improvements for Joint Venture Management

Continued improvements to the Joint Venture applications that increase productivity through reducing the number of clicks, reducing scrolling and simplifying navigation.

Export joint venture transactions and distributions into spreadsheets to modify values for processing, and then import the updated records back into Joint Venture Management.

Lease Accounting

Complex Payment and Options Structures

Manage contracts with non-level payments and options by capturing structures such as step payments, skips, and stubs.

Lease Amendments for Scope Increases

Perform amendments on a lease to add payments or assets. Amendments to a contract include creating a new version of the contract, adjusting the accounting balances for the contract, and maintaining an audit of the changes. Additionally, perform non-financial changes to update attributes that do not require re-calculation of balances.

Payables

Additional Tax Drivers in Supplier Portal for Accurate Tax Calculation

Use the additional tax drivers available on invoice lines to calculate tax accurately when submitting invoices through the Supplier Portal. This helps suppliers reconcile the tax calculated on the invoice lines with the tax entered on the physical invoice.

Creation and Management of Supplier Invoices with Retainage Payment Terms

Create and manage supplier invoices matched to purchase orders with retainage payment terms. Hold back retainage on complex purchase orders and only release the retained amount once the contract is completed.

Electronic Filing of Forms 1099-MISC and 1099-NEC for Tax Year 2020

Generate electronic files for Forms 1099-MISC and 1099-NEC in accordance with the new specifications for tax year 2020 published by the US Internal Revenue Service. 

Modifications to Employee Bank Account Creation

Some data fields are no longer required for creating bank accounts for employees in France, Italy, Ireland, Portugal, and Spain. As IBAN contains the required details, these fields have either been removed or made optional when CE_USE_EXISTING_BANK_BRANCH profile option is No.

Performance Improvements in Manage Invoices Page

The Manage Invoices page search function includes a date range parameter for Supplier Name and Number or Party Name searches.

Supplier Invoice Import with Remittance Bank Account Details

Specify remittance bank account details when creating supplier invoices using the Import Payables Invoices process. This reduces the need to update the default remittance bank account on the imported invoice with the correct one.

Supplier Search Using Tax Registration Number During Supplier Invoice Creation

Use the tax registration number as search criteria to select suppliers when creating, editing, or managing supplier invoices.

Payments

Inclusion of Transaction Tax Amount in Payment File Extract

Capture transaction tax payment amount separately in the standard payment file extract, to meet country-specific legal requirements, for example in Poland. Transaction tax amounts are credited to a separate bank account maintained by the supplier.

Retrieval of Funds Capture Acknowledgment Files Using a Wildcard

Retrieve multiple funds capture acknowledgment files using the Universal Content Management Reader Protocol with wildcard. Enter a wildcard in the file name parameter to download multiple files at once without having to specify each file name.

Receivables

Balance Forward Billing in Advance of the Billing Cycle End Date

Generate balance forward bills earlier than regularly scheduled billing cycle dates. Use this flexibility in managing your balance forward billing activity impacted by holidays and unscheduled interruptions.

Cash Pooling for Receivables Multifund Accounting

Record the multifund accounting entries on cash receipts to represent a cash pooling model. Cash pooling in multifund accounting provides efficient management of cash flows by notionally combining the debit and credit positions of various bank accounts into a pooled account.

Open Receivables Search Enhancements for Manual Receipt Application

Use improved search and select attributes in the Add Open Receivables window in the Edit Receipt page to select customer transactions for manual receipt application. The receipt customer is now populated by default when you open the window. Additional columns in the search results table for customer bill-to site, transaction receipt method, and transaction date help improve decision-making in selecting transactions for receipt application. Transaction installments marked as internal are excluded by default from the search results, but you can include them by enabling the Include Internal Transactions Excluded from Collections option.

Oracle Channel Revenue Management Integration with Oracle Receivables for Claim Creation and Settlement for Lockbox Receipts

Initiate claims in Channel Revenue Management from lockbox receipts when Receivables customers make invoice-related and non-invoice related underpayments and overpayments. Accelerate claim processing to quickly settle underpayments and overpayments, including processing all settlement-related financial transactions.

Oracle Channel Revenue Management Integration with Oracle Receivables for Invoice-Related Claim Creation and Settlement

Initiate claims in Channel Revenue Management using the Edit Receipt page when Receivables customers make invoice-related underpayments and overpayments. Accelerate claim processing to quickly settle underpayments and overpayments, including processing all settlement-related financial transactions.

Receivables Customer Account Activities REST API

View the activities on a customer account using the Receivables Customer Account Activities REST API. Review the open receivable balances, transactions due, credits pending application, and the account activity history.

Revenue Management

Contract Freeze Override for Revenue Accounting Contracts

Automatically freeze open contracts by overriding the assigned freeze date based on the contract identification rules. Revenue managers can freeze open contracts in bulk within a single request, allowing greater control over period end processing and revenue recognition.

Subledger Accounting

Multiple Supporting Reference Selection Using a Simplified User Interface

Simplify the configuration of supporting reference assignments to journal line rules. Review and delete existing supporting reference assignments, and select one or more supporting references and assign them to multiple journal line rules across journal entry rule sets.

Transactional Business Intelligence for Financials

Enhancements to Payables Invoices Transactions Real Time Subject Area

The Oracle Transactional Business Intelligence subject area Payables Invoices - Transactions Real Time has been enhanced with the additional reporting attributes of Complex Work Purchase Order.

Regional and Country-Specific Features

Financials for the Americas

Alphanumeric Prefix for Transaction Numbering in Receivables

Include alphanumeric prefixes in Receivables transaction numbers to comply with legal requirements related to invoice numbering in countries including Colombia, Ecuador and El Salvador.

Financials for Asia/Pacific

Invoice Reference Numbers (IRN) Generated by India GST E-Invoicing System to Allow Input Tax Credit

Record the Invoice Reference Numbers (IRN) generated by the India GST E-Invoicing system on Receivables and Inventory Cloud transactions. Transmit transaction data to the invoicing system using any of the available modes. Recipients of the sales transaction invoices can claim input tax credit based on the IRN reported in the sales return.

Financials for EMEA

E-Filing Extract for Payables Invoices for Italy

Extract Payables invoice data, such as intra-EU purchases, imports, self-issued invoices, and free supplies, for e-Filing to the tax authorities. This helps you comply with the new legal requirement for reporting supplier invoices in Italy.

SAF-T Audit File in XML Format for Norway

Generate the SAF-T data extract in the specific XML format used in Norway to comply with the legal requirement. This extract includes accounting, customer, supplier, and tax information.