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:

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.

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Complex Work Procurement

Complex Work Procurement is an end-to-end integrated solution across the Oracle Procurement Cloud, Oracle Financials Cloud, and Oracle Supply Chain Management Cloud applications. This solution is designed to model procurement of complex contracts in industries such as construction, consulting, and professional services. Complex work contracts tend to have high dollar values and long lead times, and are governed by complex payment terms. You can use Complex Work Procurement to manage various aspects of the acquisition processes involved in procuring complex work.

In this update, the Complex Work Procurement solution is comprised of 3 features. The first two features are part of the Oracle Procurement Cloud applications, and the last one is part of the Oracle Financials Cloud applications:

• Create Purchase Orders with Retainage Terms
• Negotiate Retainage for Services
• Creation and Management of Supplier Invoices with Retainage

Negotiate Retainage for Services

Determine retainage rate and maximum retainage amount during negotiation and pass to purchase orders for downstream processing.

Create Purchase Orders with Retainage Terms

Enable retainage on supplier invoices by specifying retainage rates on purchase orders. Invoices matched to such purchase orders will automatically withhold an amount as per the specified rate. The retainage balance can be released upon request after satisfactory completion of the order. You can also specify a maximum retainage amount to ensure no further retainage is applied on invoices once the retained balance reaches the specified maximum amount.

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.

Cross-Product Procurement Enhancements

Integrate and Extend Procurement Using REST Services

In this update, Oracle Procurement Cloud delivers new and modified REST APIs to enable and simplify integration with external systems.

Link to Procurement Application Pages Using Deep Links

In this update, Oracle Procurement Cloud delivers new deep links that provide easy navigation directly to application pages without using the menu structure. You can use these links in a variety of ways, such as in business intelligence reports and third-party application pages.

Approvals and Notifications

This section provides details about shared features that are related to approvals and notifications.

The Configure Commenting Options for Approval and Rejection feature was released in 20B, but was not included in the Oracle Procurement Cloud What's New document at that time. It's included here to raise your awareness of this capability. This feature's description is also available in Oracle Common Technologies and User Experience: New Features Summary, Update 20B.

The Optimization of Workflow Rule Evaluation feature applies only if you're configuring rules in the BPM Worklist.  If you're using the Manage Approvals UI page in Oracle Procurement Cloud, this feature doesn't apply, because missing parent/child joins are automatically added. This feature is also available in Oracle Common Technologies and User Experience: New Features Summary, Update 21A

Configure Commenting Options for Approval and Rejection

Configure commenting options for approving and rejecting workflow tasks. You can configure comments as mandatory or optional; you can also restrict approvers from entering comments. You can use this feature to adhere to regulatory compliance requirements that mandate auditing of comments.

Optimization of Workflow Rule Evaluation

When using BPM Worklist to configure rules, optimize rule evaluation when parent and child attributes are used within the same rule in a workflow by identifying and correcting missing parent child joins in BPM Worklist.

Purchasing

Allow Delivery on Purchase Orders That Are Pending Supplier Acknowledgment

Move purchase orders to the open status even when acknowledgment from the supplier is pending. Your suppliers can now deliver goods directly without providing a formal acknowledgment response.

Communicate Purchase Orders to Multiple Email Recipients

Add multiple email recipients when communicating purchase orders to suppliers. You can now notify internal stakeholders and additional supplier contacts on the same email that gets dispatched when a new purchase order or change order is issued.

Identify Purchasing Documents That Failed Validation Checks

Identify purchasing documents that failed validation checks with the help of visual aids. These visual aids are available on UI pages such as Manage Orders, View Purchase Order, and Edit Purchase Order.

Populate Trading Partner Item Details Automatically from the Item Master Definition While Creating Purchase Orders

Populate trading partner item details such as manufacturer, manufacturer part number, and supplier part number automatically from the item master definition while placing orders for master items. You no longer need to maintain the same information on blanket purchase agreements if you already maintain it as part of the item master definition. You can now view the information in the context of purchase orders, include the information in the outbound purchase order communication to your suppliers, and search for purchase orders by any of the attributes.

Specify a Sold-to Legal Entity While Creating Purchase Orders

Specify any legal entity assigned to the ledger of the requisitioning BU as the sold-to LE while creating purchase orders without configuring new supply chain orchestration flows. Before update 21A, in the absence of a supporting supply chain orchestration flow, you could only choose between the default LE of the requisitioning BU and the LE to which the destination organization belongs.

Search for Purchase Orders Using Requisition Attributes

Search for purchase orders using requisition attributes such as requisition number, requisition description, and requester or buyer email.

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.

Route Purchase Orders for Approval Based on Any Segment of the Charge Account

Route purchase orders for approval based on any segment or combination of segments of the charge account. This extends the ability to drive purchase order approval routing based on segment labels such as the primary balancing segment, cost center, natural account value, and management segment by allowing you to route approvals based on segments not associated with any of these labels. Additionally, you can now write approval rules based on the intercompany segment of the charge account.

Self Service Procurement

Use Task Number to Identify Project Tasks When Importing Requisitions

Use task number to identify a specific project task when importing requisitions using the FBDI template. This attribute helps you identify the specific project task when the task name isn't unique.

NOTE: This feature was also made available in a monthly update of 20D.

Sourcing

Submit Prebids Before Auction Opens

Allow suppliers to submit prebids before auction starts to gain insight on supplier participation, answer clarification questions, and check starting bid positions.

Use a Requirements Only Supplier Response Spreadsheet

Respond to high-volume negotiations using a spreadsheet that exports requirements only. This spreadsheet does not contain lines, so suppliers can upload it faster for a large number of requirements.

Display Negotiation Messages That Are Relevant to the Recipient

View messages on dashboard only for the negotiations you own or are a team member of, to streamline the number of messages received.

Supplier Model

Make Attachments Mandatory During Supplier Registration

Ensure required documents are captured during supplier self-service registration by making attachments mandatory.

Procurement Contracts

Assign Numbers Automatically for Imported Contracts

When you import contracts using Import Management from the Tools work area, the application automatically generates the contract number if automatic numbering is enabled for the associated contracts.

View Amount in Contract Version History

In addition to other information, you can use the Versions pane in the History tab to view the contract amount or the agreement amount. Additionally, you can export the tabular data of the contract lines in the Lines tab and the invoices in the Financial Summary tab to Microsoft Excel.