What's New

Update 24A

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

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Optional Uptake of New Features (Opt In)

Oracle Cloud Applications delivers new updates every quarter. This means every three months you'll receive new functionality to help you efficiently and effectively manage your business. Some features are delivered Enabled meaning they are immediately available to end users. Other features are delivered Disabled meaning you have to take action to make available. Features delivered Disabled can be activated for end users by stepping through the following instructions using the following privileges:

• Review Applications Offering (ASM_REVIEW_APPLICATIONS_OFFERINGS_PRIV)
• Configure Oracle Fusion Applications Offering (ASM_CONFIGURE_OFFERING_PRIV)

Here’s how you opt in to new features:

1. Click Navigator > My Enterprise > New Features.
2. On the Features Overview page, select your offering to review new features specific to it. Or, you can leave the default selection All Enabled Offerings to review new features for all offerings.
3. On the New Features tab, review the new features and check the opt-in status of the feature in the Enabled column. If a feature has already been enabled, you will see a check mark. Otherwise, you will see an icon to enable the feature.
4. Click the icon in the Enabled column and complete the steps to enable the feature.

In some cases, you might want to opt in to a feature that's not listed in the New Features work area. Here's how to opt in:

1. Click Navigator > My Enterprise > Offerings.
2. On the Offerings page, select your offering, and then click Opt In Features.
3. On the Opt In page, click the Edit Features (pencil) icon for the offering, or for the functional area that includes your feature.
4. On the Edit Features page, complete the steps to enable the feature.

For more information and detailed instructions on opting in to new features for your offering, see Configure Offerings.

Opt In Expiration

Occasionally, features delivered Disabled via Opt In may be enabled automatically in a future update. This is known as an Opt In Expiration. If your cloud service has any Opt In Expirations you will see a related tab in this document. Click on that tab to see when the feature was originally delivered Disabled, and when the Opt In will expire, potentially automatically enabling the feature. You can also click here to see features with Opt In Expirations across all Oracle Cloud Applications.

Feature Summary

Supply Chain Orchestration

Improve Processing After Supply Chain Orchestration Updates Supply or Demand

Manually reduce or cancel the quantity that remains open on a transfer order or purchase order even when only part of the supply is available. Reduce the errors that might come up when you make these adjustments. Let Oracle Order Management know when Oracle Inventory Management closes a transfer order that's within the shipment tolerance but under the quantity that you requested. Use this functionality in your back-to-back flows.

Manage the response that you get from your fulfillment systems when Oracle Supply Chain Orchestration closes one transfer order but the supply order has other transfer orders that remain open. Use this functionality with your internal material transfers when you might have more than one transfer line in a single supply order.

Reduce errors and user interaction when changes are required to supply or demand.

Steps to Enable

Use the Opt In UI to enable this feature. For instructions, refer to the Optional Uptake of New Features section of this document.

Offering: Manufacturing and Supply Chain Materials Management  No Longer Optional From: Update 24B

Key Resources

• Using Supply Chain Orchestration
• Supply Chain Orchestration

Access Requirements

The feature is available to any privilege that can create and submit a sales order.

Users who are assigned a configured job role that contains these privileges can access this feature:

• Initiate Order (FOM_CREATE_ORDER_PRIV)
• Submit Order (FOM_SUBMIT_ORDER_PRIV)

Users who are assigned a configured job role that contains these privileges and can create a supply order in the Supply Orchestration work area can access other parts of this feature.

• Create Supply Request (DOS_CREATE_SUPPLY_REQUEST)
• View Supply Line Details (DOS_VIEW_SUPPLY_LINE_DETAILS)

Add Postprocessing Days When You Modify Ship Dates in Your Back-to-Back Flows

Add postprocessing days to the supply's requested delivery date when you modify the sales order's scheduled ship date. Use this feature to help you reliably meet that ship date in your back-to-back flow.

Here's how it works:

1. You update the sales order's scheduled ship date, then submit the sales order for scheduling and fulfillment.

2. Oracle Global Order Promising calculates the scheduled ship date and updates the sales order. Promising adds the postprocessing days to the scheduled ship date because the shipping warehouse will need them when the item arrives at the warehouse.

3. Oracle Order Management sends the update on the requested delivery date to Oracle Supply Chain Orchestration. The requested delivery date includes the postprocessing days.

4. Promising subtracts the postprocessing days from the scheduled ship date to calculate the recommended requested delivery date that it sends to Supply Chain Orchestration so Supply Chain Orchestration can make the supply available in the warehouse. The warehouse manager can then do the postprocessing activities before shipping the item to the customer. For example, if the scheduled ship date is November 30, and if the postprocessing days is 5, then Promising will recommend November 25 as the requested delivery date.

5. Supply Chain Orchestration picks the requested delivery date from Global Order Promising's recommendation, then sends an update to your downstream application, such as Oracle Manufacturing.

Steps to Enable

Use the Opt In UI to enable this feature. For instructions, refer to the Optional Uptake of New Features section of this document.

Offering: Manufacturing and Supply Chain Materials Management  No Longer Optional From: Update 24C

Key Resources

• Consider Your Lead Times
• Use Supply Chain Orchestration in Your Back-to-Back Flows

Access Requirements

Users who are assigned a configured job role that contains these privileges can access this feature:

• Process Supply Order Interface (DOS_PROCESS_SUPPLY_ORDER_INTERFACE_PRIV)
• View Supply Orders (DOS_VIEW_SUPPLY_ORDERS_PRIV)
• Manage Supply Request Exceptions (DOS_MANAGE_SUPPLY_REQUEST_EXCEPTIONS_PRIV)
• View Supply Order Exceptions and Status (DOS_VIEW_SUPPLY_ORDER_EXCEPTIONS_AND_STATUS_PRIV)

These privileges were available prior to this update.

Collaboration Messaging Framework

Exchange B2B Messages with Your Trading Partners Using GHX Marketplace

A new predefined service provider, GHX, is available for your electronic healthcare B2B messaging needs.  If you subscribe to GHX’s services, you can connect to the GHX supply chain network and exchange B2B messages with your trading partners.

GHX's messages and endpoints are predefined, and a new simplified process is provided to streamline the B2B setup in the Collaboration Messaging work area.

Steps to Enable

At a high level, to set up the predefined GHX service provider:

1. Configure GHX to exchange messages with your trading partners.
2. Create trading partners.
3. Associate the trading partners with your suppliers and select the documents you want to exchange.

These steps are detailed in the Configuring and Managing B2B Messaging for Oracle Fusion Cloud SCM guide.

Configure GHX to Exchange Messages with Your Trading Partners

1. Select Manage Collaboration Messaging Service Providers from the Tasks panel tab, search for the GHX service provider, and select Actions > Edit.

The overview tab displays the following GHX details:

• Connection type that's configured.
• Check box to indicate whether credentials are configured.
• Number of trading partners configured for GHX.
• Number of trading partners with override message definitions.
• Number of suppliers set up with GHX as the service provider.

Service Provider Overview 

2. Select Actions > Manage Delivery Settings to configure the settings for outbound message delivery.

2. 1. Select Test or Production from the Outbound Delivery Connection Type drop-down list to reflect the environment you're setting up.

   2. Enter the username and password provided by GHX for sending messages to their network in the Service Provider User Name and Password fields.

   3. You can modify the outbound purchase order message to email POs to suppliers conditionally, for example, bill-only orders. The email address for these POs is provided in the payload. You can enter an email address in the Recipient Email ID field to use if an email address isn't found in the payload.

   4. If some POs are being emailed to a supplier who doesn’t accept specific file extensions as attachments, you can specify a File Extension. After the supplier receives the file, they can rename the extension.

   5. By default, the file is zipped when a PO is being sent to a supplier by email. Select the Transmit the PO PDF as an unzipped file when it’s the only attachment check box if you want to send the PO as a PDF file when it's the only attachment.

Manage Delivery Settings

3. Select the Outbound Message Setup tab to activate the outbound purchase order message, GHX-OAGIS-10.1-Purchase-Order-Collaboration-Message-Out.

The PO message will be sent as an XML message using the web service delivery method by default. Alternatively, you can conditionally send the PO as a PDF file via email to some suppliers by modifying the XSL associated with this message definition. For example, this can be done when sending bill-only orders.

Outbound Message Setup

4. Select the Inbound Message Setup tab to activate the messages you plan to use. There are three messages available:

• GHX-OracleB2B-1.0-Purchase-Order-Acknowledgment-In-V2
• GHX-OAGIS-10.1-Invoice-Collaboration-Message-In
• GHX-OAGIS-10.1-Shipment-Collaboration-Message-In-V2

Inbound Message Setup

Create Trading Partners

After completing the service provider setup, create your trading partners.

1. Select Manage B2B Trading Partners on the Tasks panel tab.
2. On the Manage B2B Trading Partners page, select Actions > Create, and add your trading partners.
3. Select GHX as the service provider.

Create a Trading Partner

Associate Trading Partners with Your Suppliers

Next, associate the trading partners with your suppliers and select the documents you plan to exchange.

1. Select Manage Supplier B2B Configuration on the Tasks panel tab and search for your suppliers.

2. Select a supplier and then select Edit Supplier B2B Configuration.

3. On the Edit Supplier B2B Configuration page, select the Trading Partner Assignment tab and click Actions > Add Row to add a trading partner and the GHX service provider.

Supplier Trading Partner Assignment

4. On the Edit Supplier B2B Configuration page, select the Document Setup tab and add the documents you want to exchange with the selected supplier.

Supplier Document Setup

Tips And Considerations

• If you want to conditionally send POs to suppliers, i.e., for bill-only orders, refer to the Configuring and Managing B2B Messaging for Oracle Fusion Cloud SCM guide for details about modifying the XSL.

• Make sure you provide the email address in the PO payload for sending orders by email. The Recipient Email ID XPath associated with the message definition for GHX-OAGIS-10.1-Purchase-Order-Collaboration-Message-Out determines its location within the payload.

Key Resources

• Refer to the Configuring and Managing B2B Messaging for Oracle Fusion Cloud SCM guide on the Oracle Help Center.

Access Requirements

Users who are assigned a configured job role that contains these privileges can access this feature:

• Manage B2B Supplier Trading Partners (CMK_B2B_SUPPLIER_TRADING_PARTNERS_PRIV)
• Manage B2B Trading Partners (CMK_B2B_TRADING_PARTNERS_PRIV)
• Manage Service Provider (CMK_MANAGE_SERVICE_PROVIDER_PRIV)

These privileges were available prior to this update.

Connect with Your Trading Partners using SPS Commerce Fulfillment for Oracle Cloud

A new predefined service provider, SPS Commerce, is available for your order-to-cash electronic messaging needs. If you subscribe to SPS Commerce services, you can connect with your trading partners and exchange messages using SPS Commerce fulfillment for Oracle Fusion Cloud.

SPS Commerce messages and endpoints are predefined, and a new simplified process is provided to streamline the B2B setup in the Collaboration Messaging work area.

Steps to Enable

At a high level, to set up the predefined SPS Commerce service provider:

1. Configure SPS Commerce to exchange messages with your trading partners.
2. Create trading partners.
3. Associate the trading partners with your customers and select the documents you want to exchange.

These steps are detailed in the Configuring and Managing B2B Messaging for Oracle Fusion Cloud SCM guide.

Configure SPS Commerce to Exchange Messages with Your Trading Partners

1. Select Manage Collaboration Messaging Service Providers from the Tasks panel tab, search for the SPS Commerce service provider, and select Actions > Edit.

The overview tab displays the following SPS Commerce details:

• Connection type that is configured, Test or Production.
• Check box to indicate whether credentials are configured.
• Number of trading partners configured for SPS Commerce.
• Number of trading partners with override message definitions.
• Number of customers set up with SPS Commerce as the service provider.

Service Provider Overview

2. Select Actions > Manage Delivery Settings to configure the settings for outbound message delivery.

• • Select Test or Production in the Outbound Delivery Connection Type drop-down list to reflect the environment you're setting up.

• • Enter the username and password provided by SPS Commerce for sending messages to their network in the Service Provider User Name and Password fields.

Manage Delivery Settings

3. Select the Outbound Message Setup tab to activate these outbound messages:

• Purchase Order Acknowledgment
• Advance Shipment Notice
• Invoice

Outbound Message Setup

4. Select the Inbound Message Setup tab to activate the inbound PO.

Inbound Message Setup

Create Trading Partners

After completing the service provider setup, create your trading partners.

1. Select Manage B2B Trading Partners on the Tasks panel tab.
2. On the Manage B2B Trading Partners page, select Actions > Create, and add your trading partners.
3. Select SPS Commerce as the service provider.

Create a Trading Partner

Associate Trading Partners with Your Customers

Next, associate the trading partners with your customers and select the documents you plan to exchange.

1. Select Manage Customer B2B Configuration on the Tasks panel tab, and search for your customers.

2. Select a customer and then select Edit Collaboration Configuration.

3. On the Edit Customer B2B Configuration page in the Associated Service Providers section, select Actions > Add Row to add a trading partner and the SPS Commerce service provider.

4. On the Collaboration Documents for Service Provider section, select Actions > Add Row. Add the following three inbound documents, and set their Association Status to Enabled.

• Purchase Order - Inbound
• Purchase Order Acknowledgment - Outbound
• Advance Ship Notice - Inbound

Customer B2B Collaboration

5. To set up the outbound invoice for your customers, select Manage Customer Account B2B Configuration on the Tasks panel tab, then select Order to Cash from the Collaboration Business Process drop-down list and search for your customers.

6. Select a customer and then select Edit Collaboration Configuration.

7. On the Edit Customer Account B2B Configuration page in the Associated Service Providers section, select Actions > Add Row to add a trading partner and the SPS Commerce service provider.

8. On the Collaboration Documents for Service Provider section, select Actions > Add Row. Add the outbound invoice document and set the Association Status to Enabled.

Customer Account B2B Collaboration

Key Resources

• Refer to the Configuring and Managing B2B Messaging for Oracle Fusion Cloud SCM guide on the Oracle Help Center.

Access Requirements

Users who are assigned a configured job role that contains these privileges can access this feature:

• Manage B2B Customer Trading Partners (CMK_B2B_CUSTOMER_TRADING_PARTNERS_PRIV)
• Manage Customer Account Collaboration Configuration (CMK_B2B_CUSTOMER_ACCOUNT_TRADING_PARTNERS_PRIV)
• Manage B2B Trading Partners (CMK_B2B_TRADING_PARTNERS_PRIV)
• Manage Service Provider (CMK_MANAGE_SERVICE_PROVIDER_PRIV)

These privileges were available prior to this update.

Support Additional Electronic Invoicing Requirements in the New UBL PEPPOL Invoice Message

A new version of the outbound invoice message definition for UBL-2.1-PEPPOL-Invoice-Out-V2 is available.

This message definition supports additional invoicing data items required for electronic invoicing in France. It includes payer details such as their address and contact information. It also includes order rounding amounts and ship-to addresses.

The details of the updated data mapping for this message are described in the Configuring and Managing B2B Messaging for Oracle Fusion Cloud SCM guide.

Steps to Enable

At a high level, to use this new message definition to send outbound invoices:

1. Add the message definition as an outbound message to your trading partners.
2. Associate your trading partners to your customer accounts and select the outbound invoice document.

Add the Message Definition as an Outbound Message to Your Trading Partners

1. Select Manage B2B Trading Partners on the Tasks panel tab.
2. On the Manage B2B Trading Partners page, search for and select your trading partner.
3. Select Actions > Edit.
4. On the Edit Trading Partners page, select the Outbound Collaboration Messages tab. Select Actions > Add Row.
5. Select the UBL-2.1-PEPPOL-Invoice-Out-V2 message definition and set the Status to Active.

Add Outbound Message to Trading Partner

Associate Trading Partners to Customer Accounts

1. To set up the outbound invoice for your customers, select Manage Customer Account B2B Configuration on the Tasks panel tab.

2. Select Order to Cash from the Collaboration Business Process drop-down list and search for your customers.

3. Select a customer and then select Edit Collaboration Configuration.

4. On the Edit Customer Account B2B Configuration page in the Associated Service Providers section, select Actions > Add Row to add a trading partner.

5. In the Collaboration Documents for Service Provider section, select Actions > Add Row.

6. Add the outbound invoice document and set the Association Status to Enabled.

Customer Account Collaboration

Key Resources

• Refer to the Configuring and Managing B2B Messaging for Oracle Fusion Cloud SCM guide on the Oracle Help Center.

Access Requirements

Users who are assigned a configured job role that contains these privileges can access this feature:

• Manage Customer Account Collaboration Configuration (CMK_B2B_CUSTOMER_ACCOUNT_TRADING_PARTNERS_PRIV)
• Manage B2B Trading Partners (CMK_B2B_TRADING_PARTNERS_PRIV)
• Manage Service Provider (CMK_MANAGE_SERVICE_PROVIDER_PRIV)

These privileges were available prior to this update.

Procurement Common

Common Procurement

Integrate and Extend Procurement Using REST Resources

In this update, Oracle Fusion Cloud Procurement and Oracle Fusion Cloud Self Service Procurement deliver new and modified REST resources to enable and simplify integration with external systems.

New REST resources introduced in this update are:

• Content Zones
• Requisition Lifecycle Details
• Compliance Checklists
• Compliance Checklist Templates
• Questionnaire Responses

The following REST resources were previously available, and have been updated:

• Purchase Requisitions

  • Use the Price, Currency, or Amount attributes when performing a POST or PATCH action on a requisition line to override the blanket purchase agreement price.

  • The SUBMIT action now supports override requests for insufficient funds.

  • Use the Additional Contact Email attribute on requisition lines to assign supplier contacts for your requisitions and purchase orders by specifying their emails when these contacts don’t already exist in the supplier profile directory. 

• Shopping Catalog Smart Form Details

  • Use the Product Type attribute to identify when to hide manufacturer and manufacturer part number on a smart form line. Only the product type of Goods can be used to provide manufacturer details on a smart form line.

You can use these new and modified REST resources to simplify integrations and support standards-based interoperability with your other applications and external systems.

Steps to Enable

Review the REST service definition in the REST API guides to leverage (available from the Oracle Help Center > your apps service area of interest > APIs & Schema). If you are new to Oracle's REST services you may want to begin with the Quick Start section.

Key Resources

• Refer to the REST API for Oracle Fusion Cloud Procurement documentation available on the Oracle Help Center.

Access Requirements

Refer to the Privileges section in the REST API for Oracle Fusion Cloud Procurement documentation, available on the Oracle Help Center.

Approvals Work Area with Enhanced User Interface and Adaptive Search

Instead of the Worklist: Approvals and Notifications work area, use the Approvals work area, which provides an enhanced user interface and adaptive search functionality. Tasks can be filtered by approval type, task type, or sender, or be searched by keyword.

The application is limited in functionality and isn’t a complete replacement for the Business Process Management (BPM) Worklist. For this reason, it’s available to set up at a site or user level.

If the application is set up, you can click Navigator > Tools > Approvals to open it, instead of Navigator > Tools > Worklist to open the Worklist: Approvals and Notifications work area.

The Approvals work area has three views.

Approvals Tasks

The Approvals Tasks page shows a list of the tasks assigned to the current user, including business attributes depending on approval type. You can organize your work using supplied filters, search on keywords, and approve or reject approvals.

Supplied filters include:

• Task type, for example Approval, FYI, or Request
• Approval type, for example, expense reports
• From, or the person who sent the approval

You can also search by keywords on other attributes of the tasks. Any combination of search and filters can be bookmarked and shared.

You can quickly address your tasks without waiting for each to complete before moving to the next approval. Supported actions include:

• Approve
• Reject
• Dismiss (FYIs)

You can also comment on approval or rejection actions in a drawer if required.

Quick View

Click a task in the list to open the Quick View, which displays additional information about the approval and allows you to approve or reject it. You can click the arrow to navigate to the next task in the list.

To get more information or take an action that isn’t yet available in the Quick View, click View More Details to open the Analytics Publisher or Application Development Framework (ADF) notification.

Click the Approvals Tasks link to navigate back to the list.

Approvals Status and History

Click Approvals Status and History to view the current status and assignee for approvals that you’ve either submitted or been an approver for.

Use the supplied filters and search by keyword to find historic approval information.

The Approvals work area is designed and built with performance as a priority. The user experience is improved for both desktop and tablet or mobile users, making it easy to act quickly on approval tasks and notifications.

Steps to Enable

1. Ensure that your environment has been patched before enabling the work area.

2. In the Scheduled Processes work area, run the Create Search Index for Worklist scheduled process once and ensure it has completed.

3. In the Setup and Maintenance work area, go to the Manage Applications Core Administrator Profile Values task in the Application Extensions functional area. Set the Approval Requests UI Enabled (ORA_FND_APPROVALS) profile value depending on whether you want the Approvals work area to be available to all users or only some users.

Tips And Considerations

The Approvals work area doesn’t replace the BPM worklist or change the behavior of the Notifications icon. You still click Show All from the notifications list in the global header, then click Worklist to open the BPM Worklist and use these tools with the application. Setting up the application doesn’t impact the BPM Worklist or Notifications icon and data remains consistent.

The Tasks List view isn't currently configurable. It includes two attributes for each approval type, and the remaining attributes are shown in the Quick View.

As a new application, not all BPM Worklist use cases are yet supported. You can choose to set up the application at the site or user level. If you have some users who would benefit from this application, but want to keep others using the existing Worklist for all tasks, you can enable this feature for specific users by setting the profile option at the user level.

Here are some of the uses that aren’t yet met with the Approvals work area.

• Extensively modified approvals in terms of either notification or actions
• Approvals with heavy use of comments and attachments, and Requests for Information (RFIs)
• Managers who manage their teams’ tasks
• Approvals requiring digital signatures
• Support for proxy users
• Support for some workflows

For these uses, wait to set up the application. Here are some examples.

• The Approvals work area shouldn't be enabled if you require Electronic Records and Electronic Signatures (ERES) in industries regulated by the Federal Drug Administration.

• If you’re using Project Management, Channel Claim, or Channel Program approvals, it’s recommended that you wait until the next release.

Only supported actions are currently available. If you have considerable custom actions, you should consider implementing later.

Not all approval types have attributes available. Test to see if it works for your important workflows.

Key Resources

• Set Up the Approvals Work Area (available January 5)
• Use the Approvals Work Area to Manage Approvals (available January 5)
• Update Existing Setup Data
• Set Profile Option Values

Procurement

Project-Driven Supply Chain

Project-Driven Supply Chain is an end-to-end, integrated solution across the Oracle Fusion Cloud Supply Chain Management and Oracle Fusion Cloud Project Management applications. This solution is designed to support various business processes of manufacturing and asset-intensive companies.

You can use the Project-Driven Supply Chain solution to manage your supply chain processes in the context of projects without creating separate organizations for each project. You can also capture supply chain costs as project expenditures.

After you opt in to the feature named Project-Driven Supply Chain, you can use the feature described in this section.

Budgetary Control for Project-Specific Procurement to an Inventory or Work Order Destination

Check for funds availability, reserve funds against control budgets, and account for encumbrances, if applicable, when procuring material to an inventory destination for sponsored or non-sponsored projects. This capability is also available when procuring material directly to a work order destination from a project-specific manufacturing or maintenance work order.

Project-specific requisitions created with an inventory or work order destination, as well as back-to-back requisitions, can have funds reserved as a commitment against the project or chart of account-based control budgets or both, when budgetary control is enabled for these transaction types. Funds reserved will include both the raw (requisition cost) and related burden costs.

Requisition for Inventory Destination with Project Details

When budgetary controlled validation is performed on purchase orders created independently or from such requisitions, funds are reserved as an obligation. Also, commitments for requisitions, if applicable, are liquidated. The funds status on the purchase order is updated throughout the procurement lifecycle, until the costs have been imported into Project Costing.

Purchase Order with Funds Status showing Partially Liquidated for a Partial PO Receipt imported into Project Costing

The inventory receipt and costing of items for such purchase orders are not budgetary controlled in Receipt Accounting or Cost Management. It is at the time of importing the purchase order related inventory costs from Supply Chain Cost Management into Project Costing that the purchase order obligation is liquidated, and the inventory costs reserved as project expenditures. This includes raw (inventory) costs and related burden costs. If the burden schedule associated with the project has been updated with new rates between purchase order creation and the import of inventory costs into Projects, then the revised burden rates will be used to reserve the funds. Project Costing will also liquidate the raw and burden costs originally reserved against the purchase order.

Use the Budgetary Control Analysis Report to view control budget balances for non-sponsored projects, and the Manage Awards page to view control budget balances for sponsored projects.

Budgetary Control Analysis Report Showing the Funds Reservation and Liquidation Happening at Requisition, Purchase Order and Project Costing

Payables invoices associated to project-specific purchase orders with inventory and work order destinations are not applicable for budgetary control validation. Invoice variances, if any, will be budgetary controlled by the Import Costs process in Project Costing when the acquisition adjustment costs are imported from Supply Chain Cost Management. Payables Invoices now display project attributes at the invoice line and distribution levels for invoices matched to project-specific purchase orders.

If encumbrance accounting is enabled for the relevant business function and transaction subtypes, then accounting and liquidation of the encumbered raw and burden costs is done when creating accounting for the requisition, purchase order, receipt accounting, and project costs.

Returns, cancellations, and other adjustments on project-specific purchase orders to an inventory or work order destination and back-to-back orders are budgetary controlled. Applicable encumbrances are also accounted.

Funds that the Project Costing subledger reserved at the time of importing purchase order costs from the Supply Chain Cost Management application might differ from the accounted encumbrances on the same transaction. This is because the Supply Chain Cost Management application could have imposed item cost overheads, resulting in additional costs to the originally encumbered purchase order costs. Funds reservation in Project Costing will be based on these actual costs received from the Supply Chain Cost Management application.

These are the business benefits of this feature:

• Efficient fund management and monitoring of budgetary controlled projects for project-specific procurement to an inventory or work order destination.

• Control your project budgets effectively for project-specific procurement to an inventory or work order destination.

• Improved review of payables invoices matched to project-specific purchase orders.

Steps to Enable

• Navigate to the Manage Budgetary Control task in the Functional Setup Manager. For your concerned ledger and business unit, edit the Budgetary Control and Encumbrance Accounting options. In the Edit Budgetary Control and Encumbrance Accounting page:
  • Enable budgetary control for the ledger, business units assigned to the ledger, and the project accounting business function.
  • Enable budgetary control and encumbrance accounting for these Requisitioning business function transaction subtypes:
    • Project purchase requisition to inventory for project-referenced requisition with an inventory destination.
    • Requisition back to back for back-to-back orders 
    • Project direct purchase work order for direct procurements made to a work order destination from a project-referenced manufacturing or maintenance work order. 

Budgetary Control and Encumbrance Accounting Enablement for Business Function Requisitioning

• Enable budgetary control and encumbrance accounting for these Procurement business function transaction subtypes:
  • Project purchase order to inventory for project-referenced purchase orders with an inventory destination.
  • Project order back to back for back-to-back orders 
  • Project work order purchase order for direct procurements made to a work order destination from a project-referenced manufacturing or maintenance work order. 

Budgetary Control and Encumbrance Accounting Enablement for Business Function Procurement

• This feature also makes available two new journal line rules for encumbrance accounting in Project Costing. 'Same Line Project Encumbered Burden Cost Liquidation for PO' for same line burdening enabled projects, and 'Separate Line Project Encumbered Burden Cost Liquidation for PO' for separate line burdening enabled projects. They are already available in the ‘Inventory Cost’ and ‘Burden Cost’ seeded journal entry rule sets.

New Project Costing Journal Entry Rules for Liquidation of Encumbered Burden Cost for Same Line Project

New Project Costing Journal Entry Rules for Liquidation of Encumbered Burden Cost for Separate Line Project

• If your ledger is assigned with a user-defined subledger accounting method, then add these new journal line rules to your rule sets and recompile your subledger accounting method for encumbrances to be accounted successfully for project-specific procurements to an inventory or work order destination.

Tips And Considerations

Budgetary Control:

• The new transaction subtypes that are introduced to support budgetary control and account encumbrances for a project-specific procurement to an inventory or a work order destination and back-to-back orders will be enabled by default for newly created business units and ledgers that are enabled for budgetary control. New business units and ledgers refers to those created on or after release 24A. The new transaction subtypes will remain disabled for existing business units and ledgers that are enabled for budgetary control. They will have to be manually enabled if you would like to have budgetary control and account encumbrances for project-specific procurement to an inventory or work order destination and back-to-back orders.

• To successfully budgetary control and account encumbrances for a project-specific procurement that involves use of both requisitions and purchase orders to an inventory or a work order destination and back-to-back orders, you must enable the new transaction subtypes for BOTH the Requisitioning and Procurement business functions. Failure to enable the new subtypes for both the business functions will result in funds being reserved or liquidated incorrectly.

Requisitions:

• Project-specific requisitions for inventory or work order destination as well as back-to-back requisitions created before enabling budgetary control or encumbrance accounting for requisition transaction subtypes, will remain as not applicable for budgetary control and encumbrance accounting. Once you enable the new transaction subtypes for the requisitioning business function, only new requisitions will be subject to budgetary control and encumbrance accounting.

Purchase Orders:

• Project-specific purchase orders for inventory or work order destination, as well as back-to-back purchase orders created before budgetary control is enabled for these transaction subtypes, will continue being excluded from budgetary control and encumbrance accounting throughout their fulfillment cycle. Once budgetary control for these transaction types is enabled for existing inventory or work order destination purchase orders, the changes listed below will trigger budgetary control and encumbrance accounting.
  • Changes to account, project, or budget date
  • Addition of new back-to-back or project-specific lines, schedules, or distributions

Receipt Accounting and Cost Management:

• Verify that the journal sources for cost accounting and receipt accounting are displayed in the Budgetary Control Journal Exceptions section, under the Ledger Options region in the Edit Budgetary Control and Encumbrance Accounting page. Add these sources if they have not been previously included.

Journal Source and Category Exceptions for Cost Accounting and Receipt Accounting

• The encumbrance liquidation of raw (purchase order) costs will be done by the Receipt Accounting subledger using the following transaction types:

• Encumbrance liquidation of raw costs due to price update to a purchase order is done only for the un-invoiced receipt quantities in Receipt Accounting using the transaction types ‘Cost Adjustment - PO Price Update for Inventory Destination’ and ‘Cost Adjustment - PO Price Update for Work Order Destination.’

• To successfully reserve funds for invoice variance costs in projects for project-specific purchase orders to an inventory and work order destination, disable the profile option to Exclude Invoice Variances from Cost Management if enabled.

• For description-based purchase orders without item reference and to a work order destination, the encumbrance liquidation and budgetary check will be done directly in receipt accounting using the transaction type ‘Delivery to Expense’.

Projects:

• Project-specific purchase orders to an inventory or work order destination and back-to-back orders that were created prior to enabling the new transaction subtypes may exist. This can also include inventory receipts and returns. If these project costs are imported into the Project Costing subledger after enabling the new transaction subtypes, they will be subject to budgetary control in Project Costing. Funds reservation will happen in Project Costing for such scenarios irrespective of whether funds were originally reserved at the time of creating the purchase order or not. It is recommended you review and adjust your control budgets to allow for these reservations.

• Budgetary control, when enabled for this feature, is successful only for projects with project types that have not been enabled for exclusion from cost collection in the Manage Project Type Cost Exclusions task.

• The encumbrance liquidation of the purchase order raw costs will be done by Receipt Accounting and that of burden costs associated to the purchase order by Project Costing. It is recommended you run the relevant create distributions and accounting processes for each application without delay to ensure the encumbrances are accounted promptly.

Payables:

• Before this feature, for budgetary control enabled ledgers, Payables reserved funds for invoice price variances in the applicable control budgets when the invoice was matched to project-specific purchase orders to an inventory destination. With this feature, Payables will stop reserving funds for invoice price variances and the reservation will instead be done by Project Costing. It is recommended to review your existing user-defined business flows that could be impacted by this change.

• When invoice price variances exist for project-specific purchase orders to an Inventory and Work Order destination, the funds status for such distributions will show as not applicable. These distribution lines are also not subject to further funds reservation at General Ledger.

Budgetary Control Status of Invoice Price Variance in Payables

• Before this feature, for capital projects or construction-in-process (CIP) projects, there was a possibility of capitalization or asset lines being created twice, once in Payables and again in Projects, if the accrual account is also an asset clearing account. With the project details being captured at Payables, this will no longer occur. It is recommended to review your existing user-defined business flows, if any, that could be impacted due to this change.

• View and report project details on payables invoice lines and distributions, available in the OTBI Subject Area: “Payables Invoices — Transactions Real Time”.

Other:

• Budgetary control for purchase orders related to outside processing services or contract manufacturing is not supported at this time.

• Budgetary control and encumbrance accounting is not supported for project-specific internal material transfer requisitions to an inventory destination.

Key Resources

For more information on budgetary control and encumbrance accounting, refer to the following topics:

• Overview of Budgetary Control and Encumbrance Accounting in the Using Financials for the Public Sector manual in the Financials Cloud Applications documentation.

• Overview of Project-Driven Supply Chain topic in the Using Project Costing manual.

• Budgetary Control topic in the Defining and Managing Financial Projects manual.

• Direct Procurement of Materials for Work Orders topic under Manage Production in the Using Manufacturing manual.

Access Requirements

No new access requirements.

Procurement Checklists

Create Compliance Checklists for Purchasing Documents

Create compliance checklists to collect and track the completion of compliance documentation required for audit purposes. You can reference compliance checklists on purchasing documents and their associated change documents. You can configure purchasing document approval rules based on checklist existence and checklist status.

Compliance checklists facilitate and streamline the collection of required documentation to ensure compliance with procurement rules and regulations. Incorporating checklists in your procurement process by linking them to purchasing transactions reduces business risk while improving audit controls.

Create Checklists

Checklists are created from user-defined templates to drive the consistency needed for compliance standards. The templates are used to define a set of requirements needed for a specific procurement business purpose, hence you can create different templates for a specific purpose. For example, you can have different templates for your direct and indirect purchases to capture different requirements and documents.

A checklist includes an optional prerequisite section and one or more checklist sections. Questions in the prerequisite section may be frequently referenced in the checklist sections, which enables you to present related questions and requirements throughout the checklist, resulting in a dynamic template. After you respond to the prerequisite questions, the checklist is generated. 

This screen capture shows how you can create a checklist using the Direct Materials template, which includes a prerequisite section. You need to respond to two prerequisite questions before continuing to the checklist generation.

Create a Checklist with a Prerequisite Section

A checklist section contains requirements for a particular area. For example, a Sourcing section could have requirements related to the solicitation process. Your response to a checklist question can guide which follow-up questions are displayed in the checklist. If a checklist question is mapped to a prerequisite question, the checklist question response is automatically set based on your response to the prerequisite question. Any identified documentations should be attached to the response.

This screen capture displays the checklist sections: Sourcing, Supplier, and Additional Documentation. For the sole source justification requirement, question branching is used to determine if attachments are required.

Capture Attachments based on Question Response

While the checklist is in progress, the validate action can be used to see if any required responses or documents are missing. The checklist is automatically validated when you complete it.

In this screen capture, the validation indicates a question response and an attachment are still missing in the Supplier section.

Validate Checklist

A checklist with a prerequisite section is created with the status of draft. After the prerequisite section is completed and you continue to the checklist sections, the checklist status is set to in progress. The checklist can be marked completed after all the required questions are answered, and the required documents are uploaded. Once completed, the checklist can no longer be modified unless it’s reopened, at which point the checklist status is set back to in progress. You can also view a PDF version of the checklist anytime. It contains all checklist questions, their responses, and a list of the attached documents. 

Compliance checklists are managed from the Purchase Orders or Purchase Agreements work area.

Access Checklists from Purchase Orders Work Area

Associate Purchasing Documents with Checklists

The checklist is prepared to track compliance requirements for a specific procurement transaction. This could be a purchase order, purchase agreement, or change order that may result in a new document revision. You can:

• Create and make progress on the checklist even before the intended procurement document is created.
• Associate the checklist with its intended document before the document is submitted for approval.
• Configure purchasing approval rules to ensure documents have an associated checklist with the appropriate status as necessary.

Associate a Checklist with a Purchasing Order

You can drill down to a checklist from a purchase order or purchase agreement.

View Checklist Action on the Purchase Order

Each checklist is unique for a purchasing document. You can access the checklists associated with a purchasing document and its associated change documents from the Revision History and Change History pages.

Checklist Link on the Change History Page

Checklist Link on the Revision History Page

Steps to Enable

Use the Opt In UI to enable this feature. For instructions, refer to the Optional Uptake of New Features section of this document.

Offering: Procurement

• Enable access to manage checklists for procurement agents.

1. In the Setup and Maintenance work area, use the Manage Procurement Agents task:
   • Offering: Procurement  
   • Functional Area: Procurement Foundation

2. Select the Allowed check box for Manage Compliance Checklists action.

Procurement Agent Access to Manage Compliance Checklists

• Create prerequisite questions. This is an optional step.

1. In the Setup and Maintenance work area, use the Manage Compliance Checklist Questions task:
   • Offering: Procurement  
   • Functional Area: Compliance Checklists

2. Set Question Usage as Prerequisite.

3. Specify whether the question response is text entry, multiple choice with single selection, or multiple choice with multiple selections.

Create Prerequisite Questions

• Create checklist questions.

1. In the Setup and Maintenance work area, use the Manage Compliance Checklist Questions task:
   • Offering: Procurement  
   • Functional Area: Compliance Checklists

2. Set Question Usage as Checklist.

3. Optionally, map to a prerequisite question.

4. If not mapped to a prerequisite question, specify whether the question response is text entry, multiple choice with single selection, or multiple choice with multiple selections.

5. Indicate whether attachments are required, optional, or not allowed for each possible response.  Optionally, set follow-up questions to the response using question branching.

Create Mapped Checklist Questions with Follow-up Questions

• Create prerequisite and checklist sections.

1. In the Setup and Maintenance work area, use the Manage Compliance Checklist Sections task:
   • Offering: Procurement  
   • Functional Area: Compliance Checklists

2. Add the prerequisite questions into a checklist section with Prerequisite section usage, if applicable.

3. Add the checklist questions related to an area into a checklist section with Checklist section usage.

Create the Checklist Section

• Create checklist templates.

1. In the Setup and Maintenance work area, use the Manage Compliance Checklist Templates task:
   • Offering: Procurement  
   • Functional Area: Compliance Checklists

2. Set the prerequisite section, if applicable.

3. Add the checklist sections.

Create the Checklist Template

• Configure the numbering sequence of compliance checklists for a procurement business unit. This is an optional step.

1. In the Setup and Maintenance work area, use the Manage Procurement Document Numbering task:
   • Offering: Procurement  
   • Functional Area: Procurement Foundation

2. Create a numbering sequence for a procurement business unit.

Document Numbering for Compliance Checklist

• Configure approval rules using checklist attributes. This is an optional step.

1. In the Setup and Maintenance work area, use the Manage Purchasing Document Approvals task:
   • Offering: Procurement  
   • Functional Area: Approval Management

2. Create an approval rule using checklist attributes. For example, you can auto-reject the purchasing documents if checklist status is in progress.

Purchasing Document Approval Using Checklist Attributes

• To manage search capabilities for compliance checklists, submit the ESS job to create index definition and perform initial ingest to OSCS scheduled job. Use these index names when submitting the process:
  • compliance checklists: fa-prc-compliancechecklists

Tips And Considerations

• You can’t submit a purchasing document for approval if the checklist associated with the document was canceled.

• You can only associate checklists to a purchasing document using the UI and FBDI.

• Up to 7 levels of checklist question branching is supported.

• Only an up-to-date template can be used to create a checklist. If any update to a question creates a new question revision, uptake the new question revision in any questions referencing the outdated question. Similarly, for any sections that include the outdated question. If a section has a new revision, any templates containing the outdated section should also uptake the new section revision.

• The attachments listed in the checklist PDF need to be individually downloaded from the checklist. 

• The Checklist Title and Checklist Number attributes are available in the purchase order notification data model in Oracle Analytics Publisher.

Access Requirements

Users who are assigned a configured job role that contains these privileges can access this feature:

These privileges are new in this update.

• Search Compliance Checklist (PO_SEARCH_ COMPLIANCE_CHECKLIST_PRIV)
• View Compliance Checklist (PO_VIEW_COMPLIANCE_CHECKLIST_PRIV)
• Create Compliance Checklist (PO_CREATE_ COMPLIANCE_CHECKLIST_PRIV)
• Complete Compliance Checklist (PO_COMPLETE_ COMPLIANCE_CHECKLIST_PRIV)
• Reopen Compliance Checklist (PO_REOPEN_ COMPLIANCE_CHECKLIST_PRIV)
• Cancel Compliance Checklist (PO_CANCEL_ COMPLIANCE_CHECKLIST_PRIV)

These privileges were available prior to this update.

• Create Purchase Order (PO_CREATE_PURCHASE_ORDER_PRIV)
• Change Purchase Order (PO_CHANGE_PURCHASE_ORDER_PRIV)
• Create Purchase Agreement (PO_CREATE_PURCHASE_AGREEMENT_PRIV)
• Change Purchase Agreement (PO_CHANGE_PURCHASE_AGREEMENT_PRIV)
• Import Purchase Order (PO_IMPORT_PURCHASE_ORDER_PRIV)
• Import Blanket Purchase Agreement (PO_IMPORT_BLANKET_PURCHASE_AGREEMENT_PRIV)
• Import Contract Purchase Agreement (PO_IMPORT_CONTRACT_PURCHASE_AGREEMENT_PRIV)

To set up this feature, you'll need a configured job role that contains these privileges:

These privileges are new in this update.

• Manage Compliance Checklist Question (PO_MANAGE_COMPLIANCE_CHECKLIST_QUESTION_PRIV)
• Manage Compliance Checklist Section (PO_MANAGE_ COMPLIANCE _CHECKLIST_SECTION_PRIV)
• Manage Compliance Checklist Template (PO_MANAGE_COMPLIANCE_CHECKLIST_TEMPLATE_PRIV)

These privileges were available prior to this update.

• Manage Procurement Agent (PO_MANAGE_PRC_AGENT_PRIV)
• Manage Procurement Document Numbering Options (PO_MANAGE_PRC_DOC_NUMBERING_PRIV)

Purchasing

Assign Additional Supplier Contact Emails for Requisitions and Purchase Orders

Assign supplier contacts for your requisitions and purchase orders by specifying their email IDs when these contacts don’t already exist in the supplier profile directory. You can specify these email IDs in addition to or in place of a supplier contact you selected from the supplier profile directory.

Procurement Requesters can now assign additional supplier contacts while creating requisitions through smart forms and noncatalog requests using the Responsive Self Service Procurement application. In addition to specifying additional supplier contact email IDs, you can also select a supplier contact on the requisition line if a supplier contact is defined for the supplier site on request.

Assign Additional Supplier Contacts While Creating Requisitions Using Smart Forms and Noncatalog Requests

You can also modify the contact email IDs while reviewing the request from the shopping cart.

Review and Modify Additional Supplier Contacts While Reviewing Your Request from the Cart

Buyers can review the additional contact email IDs while processing requisition lines into purchase orders.

Review Additional Contact Emails While Processing Requisition Lines

When you create the purchase order, the additional contact from the requisition line gets copied to the purchase order. The requisitions with the same set of supplier contact and additional contact email IDs are grouped together into the same purchase order.

You can also specify an additional contact email ID when creating purchase orders without backing requisition.

Before this update, if the supplier site is configured for email communication, the email ID of the supplier contact would default to the Communication Email field on the purchase order header. With this update, the Communication Email field on the purchase order header will have both the supplier contact email ID and additional contact email IDs.

Assign Additional Contact Email for a Purchase Order

Steps to Enable

Use the Opt In UI to enable this feature. For instructions, refer to the Optional Uptake of New Features section of this document.

Offering: Procurement

Tips And Considerations

• You can create or update purchase orders with additional contact email IDs online.

• You can't create or update purchase orders using the file-based import (FBDI) and REST services.

• Additional contact email ID on requisitions won't get copied onto the purchase order while processing requisitions using the Requisition Processing Requests REST API.

• You can't update additional contact email IDs on approved purchase orders.

• When the requisition has an additional contact email ID and a supplier contact isn't specified, the value for the Supplier Contact won't default on the purchase order.

• Use commas to separate multiple additional contact email IDs.

• The Additional Contact Email field is available in the purchase order data model, purchase order notification data model, and purchase document e-mail data model in Oracle Analytics Publisher.
  • You can use the additional contact email ID in PDF, electronic communication, approval notification, or email communication by modifying the corresponding layout and mapping.

Key Resources

• To know more about how to use the Responsive Self Service Procurement application, refer to the Procure Goods and Services Using the Responsive Self Service Procurement Application readiness training.

• To know how to provide the required privileges to your requesters to use your own configured role instead of the Requisition Self Service User role, refer to the How You Configure Roles for the Responsive Self Service Procurement Application topic.

• For more details about the feature, watch this demo.

Access Requirements

Users who are assigned a configured job role that contains this privilege can access this feature in the Responsive Self Service Procurement application:

• Allow Users to Provide Additional Contact Email while Creating Requisitions (POR_ALLOW_ADDITIONAL_CONTACT_EMAIL_PRIV)

This privilege is new in this update.

• Manage Requisition with the Responsive Self Service Procurement Application (POR_MANAGE_REQ_WITH_PWA_PRIV).

This privilege was available prior to this update.

Users who are assigned a configured job role that contains these privileges can access this feature in Purchasing:

• Create Purchase Order (PO_CREATE_PURCHASE_ORDER_PRIV)
• Process Requisition Line (POR_PROCESS_REQUISITION_LINE_PRIV)
• Create Purchase Order from Requisitions (PO_CREATE_PURCHASE_ORDER_FROM_REQUISITIONS_PRIV)

These privileges were available prior to this update.

Configure Purchase Order Implemented and Rejected FYI Notifications Using Oracle Analytics Publisher

You can now configure both in-application and email FYI notifications for implementation and rejection of purchase orders and change orders.

• Use the Purchase Order Implemented Notification Report to configure implemented FYI notifications.
• Use the Purchase Order Rejected Notification Report to configure rejected FYI notifications. 

With this update, the purchase order implemented FYI and purchase order rejected FYI notifications will be rendered using Oracle Analytics Publisher templates and the content, layout, and style will be similar to purchase order approval notifications.

These screen captures illustrate the feature.

Purchase Order Implemented FYI Notification Using a Oracle Analytics Publisher Template

Purchase Order Rejected FYI Notification Using a Oracle Analytics Publisher Template

With this update, you can also include additional contextual information, such as supplier name and document totals in the title of implemented FYI and rejected FYI notifications for purchase orders and purchase agreements. Before this update, you could include these details only in the title of the approval notification.

• PODescription
• SupplierName
• FunctionalCurrencyApprovalTotal
• FunctionalCurrencyApprovalTotalUnformatted
• DocumentCurrencyApprovalTotal
• DocumentCurrencyApprovalTotalUnformatted
• FunctionalCurrencyOrdered
• FunctionalCurrencyOrderedUnformatted
• DocumentCurrencyOrdered
• DocumentCurrencyOrderedUnformatted
• FunctionalCurrencyCode
• DocumentCurrencyCode
• CODescription
• CONumber
• COSequence
• DocumentStyleDisplayName
• DocumentTypeDisplayName

Implemented FYI Notification Title Configuration in the Oracle BPM Worklist

Implemented FYI Notification with Additional Information like Supplier, Document Total, and Currency in the Notification Title

Steps to Enable

Use the Opt In UI to enable this feature. For instructions, refer to the Optional Uptake of New Features section of this document.

Offering: Procurement

Key Resources

• To know more about how to change workflow task titles, refer to the Change Workflow Task Titles topic.
• To know more about how to create and edit reports, refer to the Overview of Analytics Publisher topic.

Access Requirements

Users who are assigned a configured job role that contains this privilege can access this feature in Purchasing:

• View Purchase Order (PO_VIEW_PURCHASE_ORDER_PRIV_OBI)

This privilege was available prior to this update.

Users who are assigned a configured job role that contains this duty role can configure the notification titles of purchasing document implemented FYI and rejected FYI notifications:

• BPM Workflow Procurement Administrator (BPMWorkflowPRCAdmin)

Users who are assigned a configured job role that contains this duty role can configure the purchase order implemented FYI and rejected FYI notifications with Oracle Analytics Publisher:

• BI Author Role (BIAuthor)

Rank Blanket Purchase Agreements to Prioritize Source Selection on Requisitions and Purchase Orders

Assign priorities to blanket purchase agreements to rank candidate source agreements for requisitions and purchase order lines. When multiple blanket purchase agreements are available for automatic document sourcing, the following hierarchy is applied to select a source agreement:

1. Agreement owned by the requisitioning business unit acting as its own procurement business unit.
2. Agreement with the option to automatically generate orders.
3. Agreement with the highest priority. This option is introduced by this feature.
4. Agreement with the earliest start date.
5. Most recently created agreement.

The priority is captured in the Order Processing section of the Agreement Controls tab as an integer number between 1 and 999. Agreements without a priority are treated as having the lowest priority (999).

Assign Priority to a Blanket Purchase Agreement

When manually selecting a source agreement in the Document Builder or on the Edit Purchase Order page, the source agreement LOV displays the available blanket purchase agreements ordered by their priority whenever assigned.

Source Agreement LOV Displaying Priorities

Steps to Enable

You don't need to do anything to enable this feature.

Tips And Considerations

• Blanket purchase agreement priorities can be assigned or updated from either the UI or the file-based data import process (FBDI).

• Priorities aren't applicable to contract purchase agreements.

• If you use approved supplier lists, the application will first attempt to identify a source agreement from the relevant approved supplier list entries and will use the agreements’ priorities to break ties whenever necessary.

Access Requirements

Users who are assigned a job role that contains these privileges can access this feature:

• Create Purchase Agreement (PO_CREATE_PURCHASE_AGREEMENT_PRIV)
• Change Purchase Agreement (PO_CHANGE_PURCHASE_AGREEMENT_PRIV)

These privileges were available prior to this update.

Apply Ship-to Organization and Ship-to Location Specific Pricing When Available

Configure pricing such that requisition and purchase order lines are always priced from ship-to organization or ship-to location specific price breaks whenever available. When multiple applicable price breaks exist for a purchase, the following hierarchy is applied to select the price break from which the unit price will be taken:

1. Price break with matching ship-to organization and ship-to location that results in the lowest unit price.
2. Price break with matching ship-to organization and blank ship-to location that results in the lowest unit price.
3. Price break with blank ship-to organization and blank ship-to location that results in the lowest unit price.

If the unit price is taken from a price break in the first two groups, it might result in a higher price than if taken from a price break in the third group. Here's an example that illustrates how this works.

This screen capture displays multiple price breaks defined for a blanket purchase agreement line.

Ship-to Organization and Ship-to Specific Price Breaks

This table shows the unit price that would be derived from these price breaks for different purchases based on the ordered quantity, ship-to organization, and ship-to location before and after opting in to this feature.

Steps to Enable

Use the Opt In UI to enable this feature. For instructions, refer to the Optional Uptake of New Features section of this document.

Offering: Procurement

Tips And Considerations

When multiple price breaks apply to a purchase based on the ordered quantity, ship-to organization, and ship-to location, the application will select the one resulting in the lowest price, even if another price break with the quantity closer to the ordered quantity exists. For example, let's suppose the following price breaks have been defined for a blanket purchase agreement line:

A purchase of 250 units for ship-to organization V1 and ship-to location New York will be priced at $10 per unit, even though a price break with quantity (200) closer to the ordered quantity (250) exists. 

Access Requirements

Users who are assigned a job role that contain these privileges can access this feature:

• Create Purchase Agreement (PO_CREATE_PURCHASE_AGREEMENT_PRIV)
• Change Purchase Agreement (PO_CHANGE_PURCHASE_AGREEMENT_PRIV)

These privileges were available prior to this update.

Communicate Purchasing Document PDFs with a Clearer File Name to Suppliers

Communicate your purchase order and purchase agreement PDFs to your suppliers using a clearer file name that includes just the document type, document number, and change order number.

The filename no longer contains the internal organization identifier. For example, a PDF that would have been named PO_204_1010941_0.pdf will now be named PO_1010941_0.pdf.

Steps to Enable

You don't need to do anything to enable this feature.

View Change Orders Using a Deep Link

View change orders for purchase orders and purchase agreements using deep links. You can use a deep link to view a change order as an agent that has access to the document or as the originator of a requester change order.

New deep links introduced in this update are:

• View Purchase Order Change Orders
• View Purchase Order Change Orders as a Requester
• View Purchase Agreement Change Orders

You can include the link in business intelligence reports or external applications to give users direct access to change orders.

Steps to Enable

You don't need to do anything to enable this feature.

Tips And Considerations

You won't be able to view the change order after it's been approved and implemented.

Key Resources

• For additional details on how to add deep links to OTBI analyses, refer to the Configure Deep Links section in the Oracle Fusion Cloud Procurement: Creating and Administering Analytics and Reports for Procurement guide.

Access Requirements

Users who are assigned a job role that contain these privileges can access the deep links:

• View Purchase Order Change Orders deep link
  • View Purchase Order Work Area (PO_VIEW_PURCHASING_WORKAREA_PRIV)
  • View Purchase Order (PO_VIEW_PURCHASE_ORDER_PRIV)

• View Purchase Order Change Orders as a Requester
  • Manage Requisition (POR_MANAGE_REQUISITION_PRIV)
  • View Purchase Order as Procurement Requester (PO_VIEW_PURCHASE_ORDER_AS_PROCUREMENT_REQUESTER_PRIV)

• View Purchase Agreement Change Orders
  • View Purchase Agreement Work Area (PO_VIEW_PURCHASE_AGREEMENT_WORKAREA_PRIV)
  • View Purchase Agreement (PO_VIEW_PURCHASE_AGREEMENT_PRIV)

These privileges were available prior to this update.

Release Planned Buy Orders for Execution with Status Firm

In some businesses, you may start engaging with suppliers using the output from the supply planning process prior to the release of planned orders to execution systems. If the supplier can come up with a date and quantity that’s agreeable to both parties, you can set the status of a planned order to Firm to indicate that this order shouldn’t be rescheduled.

You can release this planned order for execution to Oracle Fusion Cloud Procurement, and this firm status is carried over to the purchase requisition and then onto the resulting purchase order. You now have a closed loop process so that in subsequent planning cycles the purchase order isn’t eligible for rescheduling.

You can firm the planned order either before or after marking the planned order for release. If the planned order is firmed prior to marking the order for release, the firm status is defaulted into the implement status after the planned order is marked for release. Otherwise, you can update the Implement Firm field after the planned order is marked for release as shown in the following example.

Firm Planned Order

Steps to Enable

You don't need to do anything to enable this feature.

Tips And Considerations

• You aren't able to view the firm status field on a supply request or purchase requisition in the Oracle Fusion source system.

• After collecting the Purchase Requisition entity into planning, you can view the firm status from the Plan Inputs work area.

• You can see the firm status of a purchase order in Oracle Fusion Cloud Procurement from the Manage Schedules page. The information icon is displayed, and after you click it, you'll see the following:

Access Requirements

Users who are assigned a configured job role that contains these privileges can access this feature:

• Edit Supplies and Demands (MSC_EDIT_DEMANDS_AND_SUPPLIES_PRIV)
• Mark Orders for Release (MSC_MARK_ORDERS_FOR_RELEASE_PRIV)
• Release Planning Recommendations (MSC_RELEASE_PLANNING_RECOMMENDATIONS_PRIV)

These privileges were available prior to this update.

Selected Purchasing Bug Fixes in This Update

This update includes some bug fixes that can change the way Oracle Purchasing works. This isn't a full list of all the bug fixes in this update. This list includes the bug fixes that can cause a noticeable change in application behavior.

Use the Supplier Contact on the Requisition Line

Before this update, requisition lines with the same supplier and site but different supplier contacts could be grouped and the application would randomly choose which supplier contact would carry over to the resultant purchase order.

After this update, the application will create separate purchase orders from requisition lines if the supplier contacts differ on the requisition lines. If you don’t want the new behavior, opt out by creating the CUS_PO_GRP_SUPP_CONTACT_OPT_OUT profile option and setting it to Y.

Oracle reference: 35937141

Prevent Supplier Communication of Change Orders That Are Pending Signature

Before this update, change orders that were still pending signature and not implemented were communicated to suppliers. After this update, change orders will only be communicated to suppliers after all signatures have been received and the change order is implemented.

Oracle reference: 35619939

Steps to Enable

You don't need to do anything to enable this feature.

External Purchase Prices

Define External Purchase Prices Mappings for Manufacturer Names

Map manufacturer names provided by source systems to the manufacturer names defined as trading partners. When you import external purchase prices, this mapping aligns the manufacturer names as per the mapping definitions.

From this update onwards, manufacturers being imported into External Purchase Prices should either be created as a manufacturer defined in trading partners or mapped to a manufacturer defined as a trading partner. The mapping of manufacturer names is required when the source manufacturer name isn't an exact match to the manufacturer name defined in trading partners in the Product Information Management work area. 

The External Purchase Prices Mappings page has a new Manufacturer tab where you can define manufacturer mappings.

Manufacturer Mapping

From the external purchase price mappings page, you can download the template for external purchase price mappings. This predefined template uses the Oracle Visual Builder Add-in for Microsoft Excel to download, update, and create external purchase price mappings. The template now has a Manufacturer tab where you can define and manage manufacturer mappings.

Manufacturer Mapping Spreadsheet

Manufacturer mapping enables you to translate the value of the manufacturer name from the source system to the corresponding value defined in the Product Information Management work area. This ensures that External purchase prices with valid manufacturer names are imported into the system. The Manufacturer tab in the Oracle Visual Builder Add-in enabled Excel template enables you to achieve significant reduction in data entry efforts by updating the mapping data in bulk.

Steps to Enable

You don't need to do anything to enable this feature.

Tips And Considerations

All manufacturers that are imported into External purchase Prices should be either created as a manufacturer in trading partners or mapped to a manufacturer defined as a trading partners in the manufacturer mappings.

Access Requirements

Users who are assigned a configured job role that contains these privileges can manage or update the manufacturer mappings using this feature:

• Manage External Purchase Prices Mappings (SCH_MANAGE_EXTERNAL_PURCHASE_PRICES_MAPPINGS_PRIV)
• View Trading Community Organization (HZ_VIEW_TRADING_COMMUNITY_ORGANIZATION_PRIV)

Users who are assigned a configured job role that contains these privileges have a view-only access of the manufacturer mappings using this feature:

• View External Purchase Prices Mappings (SCH_VIEW_EXTERNAL_PURCHASE_PRICES_MAPPINGS_PRIV) 
• View Trading Community Organization' (HZ_VIEW_TRADING_COMMUNITY_ORGANIZATION_PRIV)

These privileges were available prior to this update.

Create Blanket Purchase Agreements by Source Contract Number

Create separate blanket purchase agreements based on the source contract number in addition to the existing combination of requisitioning BU group, supplier, supplier site, and currency while creating purchase agreements from external purchase prices. Separate Blanket Purchase agreements can now be created for each External purchase price based on the combination of these attributes helping in easier maintenance.

For example, let’s consider 3 external purchase prices for the suppliers S001 and S002. If the opt-in is not enabled for this feature, the external purchase prices create 2 blanket purchase agreements (BPAs) based on the combination of requisitioning BU group, supplier, supplier site, and currency. However, if the opt-in is enabled, the external purchase prices create 3 BPAs by considering the source contract number as well.

Example of BPA creation including source contract number

If the opt-in is enabled, the source contract number is stored as REFERENCE_NUM in the blanket purchase agreement header.

If you’re currently using Oracle External Purchase Prices, the existing BPAs created before enabling this feature will continue to be grouped without considering the source contract number. Newly created blanket purchase agreements after enabling the opt-in will be grouped based on the source contract number in addition to the requisitioning BU group, supplier, supplier site, and currency.

If you want some or all of the existing BPAs created from External Purchase Prices to also move to the new grouping perform these steps:

1. On the External Purchase Prices page, mark the lines in existing external purchase prices as Exclude from Selection. You can also use the Visual Builder add-in enabled Microsoft Excel template downloaded from the External Purchase Prices page to make this change and upload the spreadsheet.

2. Run the Import Purchase Agreements from the External Purchase Prices process. This will end date the existing purchase agreement lines.

3. Enable the opt-in  Create Blanket Purchase Agreements by Source Contract Number.

4. On the External Purchase Prices page, select all the lines that are required lines in existing external purchase prices and click Include for Purchasing or use the Visual Builder spreadsheet to make this change.

5. Run the Import Purchase Agreements from the External Purchase Prices process. This will create new purchase agreements and purchase agreement lines based on the new grouping.

6. You can also manually cancel the blanket purchase agreements created earlier because they won't be used any longer.

You now have the flexibility to also include the source contract number as one of the deciding factors to group the purchase agreement lines into separate blanket purchase agreements. This gives you the ability to manage and maintain your purchase agreements better.

Steps to Enable

Use the Opt In UI to enable this feature. For instructions, refer to the Optional Uptake of New Features section of this document.

Offering: Procurement

In the Offerings work area, enable the Manage Approvals for External Purchase Prices feature:

• Offering: Procurement
• Functional Area: External Purchase Prices

Opt in to the feature Create Blanket Purchase Agreements by Source Contract Number.

Opt-in Create Blanket Purchase Agreements by Source Contract Number

Tips And Considerations

Existing BPAs created before enabling this feature will continue to be grouped without considering the source contract number. If needed, you can move these existing BPAs to the new grouping.

Key Resources

• See External Purchase Prices in the Oracle Fusion Cloud Using Procurement guide in Oracle Help Center.

Access Requirements

Users who are assigned a configured job role that contains these privileges can access this feature:

• Import Purchase Agreements from External Purchase Prices (SCH_UPDATE_BPA_FROM_EXTERNAL_PURCHASE_PRICES_PRIV)
• Import Blanket Purchase Agreement (PO_IMPORT_BLANKET_PURCHASE_AGREEMENT_PRIV)

These privileges were available prior to this update.

Item Replacement

Group Impacted Organizations During Item Replacement

Several organizations can get impacted during a supply disruption which get derived and displayed in the item replacement task, that is created to initiate item replacement for a disrupted item. You can now group the impacted organizations for an item replacement task as long as they have at least one common alternate option available and perform item replacement actions like replace and reinstate on the group. Prior to this update, you selected the level of replacement to be all organizations together or each organization individually while defining the replacement task. Instead, now you review the impacted organizations along with their alternate options. Based on the availability of a common alternate supply source or common alternate item, you can group all the organizations or a specific set of organizations as required.

Grouping of Organizations

Grouped Organizations

Grouping consolidates the purchase orders pertaining to different ship-to organizations that are supposed to undergo mass replacement. You can confirm the replacement options at the group level.

Confirm Replacement Options

In a scenario where some organizations had a particular alternate option to address a supply disruption and a few other organizations had a different alternate option, you had to initiate item replacement for each organization individually. When there’s a large number of inventory organizations in your enterprise, this becomes cumbersome. But with the organization grouping capability, you can perform the item replacement more efficiently by initiating the replacement for a group of organizations in one go and substantially reduce the administrative effort.

Steps to Enable

You don't need to do anything to enable this feature.

Tips And Considerations

• Once the organizations are grouped, they can’t be regrouped and the group can’t be split. Therefore, it's highly recommended to review the alternate options before grouping the organizations.

• The alternate item or the alternate supplier for the disrupted item must have a common source agreement for the organizations that are selected for grouping.

• The disrupted item must have a common source agreement against the disrupted supplier for the organizations that are selected for grouping.

Key Resources

• See Item Replacement in the Oracle Fusion Cloud Using Procurement guide in Oracle Help Center.

Access Requirements

Users who are assigned a configured job role that contains the following privileges can access this feature:

• Manage Item Replacement (SCH_MANAGE_ITEM_REPLACEMENT)
• View Purchase Order Work Area (PO_VIEW_PURCHASING_WORKAREA_PRIV)

These privileges were available prior to this update.

Replace Items Set for Replenishment Planning

You can now create an item replacement task for an item that is set to replenishment planning as the MRP planning method when it undergoes supply disruption. Prior to this update, you could create the replacement tasks only for items set to MRP planning, min-max planning, or PAR replenishment planning.

When you confirm the replacement option by selecting the alternate item, a supply hold is created for the disrupted item by populating the planning attribute Create Supply After with a future arbitrary date, if the replacement type is temporary. If the replacement type is permanent, the planning attribute Create Supply will be updated to No for the disrupted item. These updates on the planning attributes prevent further replenishment requests from getting created for the disrupted supplier and item.

Confirm Replacement Options

Planning Attributes

You can configure business rules in the BPM work list to send notifications to planners. On confirming the replacement option, a notification is sent to planners about the replacement in effect and the corresponding updates on the planning attributes.

If the replacement option is alternate supplier, a notification can still be sent to the planners informing them about the replacement in effect and details about the alternate supply source so that they can change the planning related configurations such as sourcing rules. But there won't be any updates on the planning attributes for the disrupted item.

For temporary replacements, on confirming the reinstatement action, the future arbitrary date populated on the Create Supply After attribute will be removed so that new replenishment requests can start getting created for the original item. A notification is sent again informing planners that the replacement period is over and the planning attributes are reinstated.

Confirm Reinstatement Options

Reinstate Planning Attributes

Item replacement ensures timely fulfillment of demand for items set to replenishment planning despite supply disruptions. It also prevents any new replenishment requests that get originated from the supply chain planning application for an item that doesn't have the supply available from an external source. This in turn eliminates the administrative effort of modifying or canceling the requisitions and purchase orders created out of those replenishment requests.

Steps to Enable

You don't need to do anything to enable this feature.

Key Resources

• Item Replacement in Oracle Fusion Cloud Using Procurement
• Configure Business Rules for Item Replacement Notifications in Oracle Fusion Cloud Procurement Implementing Procurement.

Access Requirements

Users who are assigned a configured job role that contains the following privileges can access this feature.

• Manage Item Replacement (SCH_MANAGE_ITEM_REPLACEMENT)
• View Purchase Order Work Area (PO_VIEW_PURCHASING_WORKAREA_PRIV)

These privileges were available prior to this update.

Supplier Model

Enhance Duplicate Supplier Check on Taxpayer ID

Quality supplier data is essential to smooth operations. If a duplicate supplier is created, it can cause transaction problems and manual intervention to resolve. Duplicate supplier prevention is now improved by checking the alphanumeric value of taxpayer ID regardless of format differences. This will prevent accidental or intentional attempts to add a duplicate supplier with the same taxpayer ID.

When a taxpayer ID is entered or modified, its alphanumeric value is used to validate against the alphanumeric values of all the saved taxpayer IDs. For example, if 123456789 is a saved taxpayer ID for a supplier, then these and similar values will be considered as duplicates:

123456789, 123-456-789, 12-3456-789, 12 3456 789, and so on.

Supplier with Saved Taxpayer ID

Error When Creating a Supplier

The duplicate check is enhanced in all supplier-related flows from where the taxpayer ID value is captured, like supplier registration, create and edit supplier, import supplier, and supplier REST service.

An out-of-the-box Business Intelligence report, Suppliers with Duplicate Taxpayer ID is also provided to find duplicate suppliers based on the enhanced taxpayer ID validation criteria to help you take action.

Suppliers with Duplicate Taxpayer ID

Steps to Enable

You don't need to do anything to enable this feature.

Tips And Considerations

1. It's recommended to run the Suppliers with Duplicate Taxpayer ID Report to review suppliers with duplicate taxpayer ID and take appropriate action like correcting the taxpayer ID, inactivating duplicate suppliers, or merging duplicate suppliers to maintain a clean supplier master and ensure you're transacting with the right suppliers.
   • To access this report, navigate to BI Publisher > Catalog > Shared Folders > Procurement > Suppliers > Open, Suppliers with Duplicate Taxpayer ID.
   • If the feature Allow Taxpayer ID Sharing Across Suppliers is enabled, there may exist suppliers with the same taxpayer ID but within a parent-child relationship. These suppliers will also be listed in the report showing the parent-supplier relationship. Such suppliers are included for completeness but don't require any action if the relationship is still valid.

2. The duplicate taxpayer ID error message is enhanced to include the name of the supplier with same taxpayer ID. Use the supplier's name in this error message to search for the duplicate supplier in Manage Suppliers. The error message is enhanced to show the supplier name only for internal users and not for supplier-facing flows.

Access Requirements

Users who are assigned a configured job role that contains this duty can access the Suppliers with Duplicate Taxpayer ID BI report:

• Supplier Profile Management (ORA_POZ_SUPPLIER_PROFILE_MANAGEMENT_DUTY_OBI)

Extending Next Generation Supplier Self-Service Registration

Supplier Registration can have unique requirements based on factors like geographic region and industry. If the information requested in the registration flow isn't tailored to the supplier based on these types of factors, it can be confusing and result in higher support costs with lower registration success rates. Tailor a seamless experience for your suppliers in the next generation supplier self-service registration by using Business Rules in Oracle's Visual Builder (VB) Studio. Business Rules offer a user-friendly interface that allows you to extend registration pages to make fields required or optional, read-only or editable, or hidden. These properties can also be applied conditionally based on specific criteria such as country. With Business Rules, you can efficiently deliver a tailored registration experience for suppliers with lower support costs. 

In this update, Business Rules are supported on the Company Details page, and additional pages are planned for the future. You can configure the individual attributes, including descriptive flexfields, per your business needs. In VB Studio, after you enter the workspace of a project, navigate to the layouts. Under Register Supplier click on SupplierRegistration page and then the Business Rules tab to access the default rules for the company details attributes.

Default Business Rules

Since the default rules can't be modified, start by duplicating them to create a new rule set you'll use to configure the attribute properties. Click on the action drawer (step 5 in the above screen shot) and then the duplicate action to create a duplicate of the default rules. On the new duplicated rule set, toggle the options available under the required, hidden and read-only columns to change the display properties of the individual attributes. For example, as demonstrated below, you can enable the descriptive flexfields and also configure individual descriptive flexfields as required or hidden. Unchanged attributes will keep the default properties.

Extension Business Rules Set to Enable Descriptive Flexfields

You can also add conditions on extension business rules using country, organization type, supplier type, and business relationship attributes. For example, as demonstrated below, you can configure taxpayer ID and supplier type as required for United States. In the conditions section, select the value of country as United States and then configure the taxpayer ID and supplier type attributes as required.

Extension Business Rules Set for United States

After making all the required extension changes, verify and then publish the project.

Another extension capability to add company logo is also now available. Add a new section in the container rule set of the suppreg-shell and insert the image of your company logo in this new section following this navigation: Workspace > Apps UI > From Dependencies > Register Supplier > Application Root Pages > suppreg-shell > Container Rule Set 1. You can remove the default section from your rule set if you have to show the logo but not the company name that is available by default in this shell.

Extend Your Shell to Add Your Company Logo

Steps to Enable

Configure Descriptive Flexfields: If you’re currently using or plan to use descriptive flexfields of type, list of values, you need to make additional setup changes to allow anonymous users access to the value sets. The setup must be performed for new as well as your existing descriptive flexfields, for more information, see How to Enable Descriptive Flexfields in the Next Generation Supplier Self-Service Registration.

Tips And Considerations

1. At any point in time, only one business rules set will be applicable. The sets are evaluated from top to bottom and the first applicable set is considered. You must therefore position the always applied extension business rules set towards the bottom. If none of the extension rules apply, default (built-in) rules will be considered to render the page.

2. The default properties of attributes are applicable if their properties are left unchanged on the applicable extension business rules.

3. Adding conditions on extension business rules is not mandatory.

4. Other extension capabilities like adding instruction texts or hyperlinks using dynamic containers delivered in a previous update, will continue to function as is. For example, you can add country-specific instruction text on the company details page to provide guidance on what documents must be attached. If you have implemented any extensions that aren't supported such as those on the dynamic components under Layouts, you must delete them prior to Update 24A. For more information, see Delete an Extension.

5. To rename attributes you need to use the user interface text tool editor.

Key Resources

• To get an overview of the next generation supplier self-service registration feature, refer to the Oracle Fusion Cloud Procurement What's New (23C Update) and TOI.

• To get an overview of using Business Rules in Oracle's Visual Builder Studio to extend the next generation supplier self-service registration, refer to the TOI.

• To get more details on the extension capabilities supported in previous updates, refer to Extending the Next Generation Self-Service Supplier Registration Pages in Update 23C and Update 23D.

• To get more details on using Visual Builder Studio to extend the Oracle Cloud Applications, refer to Oracle Help Center.

Access Requirements

Users who are assigned a configured job role that contains this privilege can access VB Studio for extension:

• Administer Sandbox (FND_ADMINISTER_SANDBOX_PRIV)

Selected Supplier Model Bug Fixes in This Update

This update includes some bug fixes that can change the way Oracle Supplier Model works. This isn't a full list of all the bug fixes in this update. This list includes the bug fixes that can cause a noticeable change in application behavior.

Support 240 Characters for Address Name in Supplier Registration

Before this update, the address name in supplier registration only supports up to 15 characters. After this update, you and your suppliers can enter an address name up to 240 characters in internal and external supplier registrations. This matches the maximum number of characters supported for address name and site name in the supplier profile.

Oracle reference: 35596906

Steps to Enable

You don't need to do anything to enable this feature.

Sourcing

Track Negotiation Lifecycle Activities

Track negotiation activities performed by category managers and collaboration team members throughout the negotiation lifecycle. The negotiation activities are presented in a new Redwood user experience as a timeline view and a list view where you can also download the entire activity log in MS Excel.

Starting with draft creation, all negotiation actions are recorded which include, publish, close, extend, amendment, new round, and award. Additionally, actions performed by team members during scoring and response analysis are also recorded and displayed in the timeline.

Negotiation Activities in a Lifecycle View

Negotiation Activities in a List View

Activity and Member Details

Activities across negotiation lifecycles can be comprehensively tracked to ensure process compliance and enhanced visibility in the negotiation progress.

Steps to Enable

Use the Opt In UI to enable this feature. For instructions, refer to the Optional Uptake of New Features section of this document.

Offering: Procurement

Access Requirements

Users who are assigned a configured job role that contains these privileges can access this feature:

• View Supplier Negotiation (PON_VIEW_SUPPLIER_NEGOTIATION_PRIV)

This privilege was available prior to this update.

Reopen Award Decision After Negotiation Is Completed

You can now reopen an awarded and completed negotiation, and change the award decision to pick another supplier even after purchasing documents are created. You must cancel or delete all purchasing documents created from the previous award decision if you want to reopen the completed award. You can enter the reason for reopening, which can be shared with award approvers in the award approval notification.

You can send an online message to all supplier participants while reopening the award.

After the negotiation is reopened, a new award must be submitted for approval. Award approval attributes are available to configure approval rules for reopened negotiations. You can configure the award approval notification to include this re-award information by changing the BI publisher template.

On the Analyze Negotiation page, select the Reopen Award from the page Actions drop-down. You can enter a reason for reopening award, and a message for suppliers in the reopen Completed Award popup.

Reopen Completed Award

If requisitions are associated with the awarded lines, they're handled as follows:

When you delete the purchasing documents, any requisition lines linked and fulfilled by the award are released and become available in the Process Requisitions page. Then the award can be reopened and these original requisition lines, or the split lines are reassociated to the negotiation line automatically. When the lines are awarded again and purchasing documents are recreated, these requisitions are then fulfilled.

Original Requisition Lines Associated to the Negotiation Line

Award Approval Notification Configured to Show Reopen Award Information

This feature provides category managers the flexibility to manage real world business challenges. For example, if the awarded supplier declines to fulfill the purchase order, they can change their award decision to choose the next eligible supplier and recreate the purchasing documents.

Steps to Enable

Use the Opt In UI to enable this feature. For instructions, refer to the Optional Uptake of New Features section of this document.

Offering: Procurement  No Longer Optional From: Update 24C

Tips And Considerations

• You can reopen the award as many times as needed. This activity is recorded, and available for tracking.

• A completed RFI can also be reopened, which can be leveraged to create a new round or to create new surrogate responses.

• Reopen completed award is also supported for large negotiations.

• A new award header level approval attribute is seeded, which can be leveraged to create award approval rules.
  • Award reopened

• A new data model attribute is added to the existing Negotiation Award Decision Notification Data Model, which can be used to display your own messages in the award decision notification sent to suppliers when the award is reopened.
  • AwardReopened

• A new data model attributes are added to the existing Award Approval Notification Data Model, which can be used to display your own messages in the award approval notification sent to approvers when the award is reopened.
  • AwardReopened
  • AwardReopeningReason

• You can use Oracle Page Composer to add information about award reopening with new parameters in the Analyze and Award Negotiation pages.
  • ReopenAwardNote  (Reopening award reason)
  • ReopenAwardDate
  • ReopenAwardPerformedBy
  • AwardReopenedFlag

Access Requirements

Users who are assigned a configured job role that contains these privileges can access this feature:

• Reopen Completed Award (ORA_PON_REOPEN_COMPLETED_AWARD_PRIV)

This privilege is new in this update.

Allow Suppliers to Enter Zero Response Price

Suppliers can now enter a zero price when responding to negotiations. This allows suppliers to offer items for free or services at no cost for products still under warranty for example. They can enter a zero price when responding through spreadsheets as well.

Supplier Enters a 0 Response Price

Buyers can take advantage of free offerings from suppliers and improve their savings.

Steps to Enable

Use the Opt In UI to enable this feature. For instructions, refer to the Optional Uptake of New Features section of this document.

Offering: Procurement

Access Requirements

Users who are assigned a configured job role that contains these privileges can access this feature:

• Create Supplier Negotiation Response (PON_CREATE_SUPPLIER_NEGOTIATION_RESPONSE_PRIV)
• Create Supplier Negotiation Response as Surrogate (PON_CREATE_SURROGATE_SUPPLIER_NEGOTIATION_RESPONSE_PRIV)
• Edit Supplier Negotiation Response (PON_EDIT_SUPPLIER_NEGOTIATION_RESPONSE_PRIV)

These privileges were available prior to this update.

Audit Negotiation Changes

Auditors can now track and view real-time data changes performed by the negotiation owner, collaboration team members, and procurement agents on a negotiation by generating audit reports in Oracle Sourcing. The audit framework captures key information including who performed the update, what operation was performed on the field, when it was performed, and how the value was changed.

Attributes can be configured for audit tracking on the following negotiation entities:

• Supplier Negotiation (Header)
• Response Currencies
• Collaboration Team Members
• Requirement Sections
• Requirements
• Lines
• Suppliers

To generate Audit Reports:

1. In the navigator, click on Tools and then click Audit Reports.

2. Search for Business Object Type as Supplier Negotiation. To see audit data for a specific negotiation, you can use the description search field to search by negotiation number.

3. Select the Show Attribute Details checkbox to see old and changed values of specific attributes.

4. Select the Show additional object identifier columns check box to see more information about the negotiation.

5. The audit report can be exported to a spreadsheet by clicking the Actions drop-down list and selecting the desired format (XLS/CSV).

Generate Audit Report

The audit framework in Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications stores the history of data changes on business objects for tracking and reporting which now includes sourcing negotiations. Providing real-time traceability of negotiation data allows you to meet internal audit controls and governance.

Steps to Enable

To start auditing negotiations select the attributes you require for change tracking:

1. In the Setup and Maintenance work area, use the Manage Audit Policies task:

• Offering: Procurement   
• Functional Area: Application Extensions   
• Task: Manage Audit Policies

2. In the Manage Audit Policies page, click the Configure Business Object Attributes button and then in the Product drop-down list, select Sourcing.

3. Select the specific business objects and attributes within each object that you require to enable for audit history tracking. For each business objects, the respective attributes are displayed on the right side.

4. Auditors can click the + sign to add more attributes to the list, that need to be audited.

5. Click the Save button.

Configure Business Object Attributes

Tips And Considerations

• Ensure you enable all the attributes that need to be audited. Changes to an attribute will be tracked only if the attribute is enabled for audit.

• Since results are retrieved online, searching time periods longer than a month may have an impact on system performance.

• It's recommended that you run the report using the parent business object supplier negotiation because the report will also include changes to all child objects. You can use a child object in the search if there is a specific need to track changes for only that object for a given time period.

• If audit history is disabled for objects and attributes, history is still retrieved for the periods when they were enabled.

• The audit setup page provides users with access to all applications enabled for audit tracking. Take care when you make changes in the setup page. The impact of changes in setup can impact users across several applications.

• If an object or attribute is disabled or removed from audit tracking, the changes are prospective and not retrospective. Audit history before such change will continue to be available for reporting.

• Updates to negotiation made by non-UI interfaces such as REST or spreadsheet are also captured.

• Tracking data changes for large negotiations are not currently supported.

Key Resources

• Refer to Enabling Audit Functionality for more information.

Access Requirements

Users who are assigned a configured job role that contains these privileges can access this feature:

• For Setup –
  • Manage Audit Policies (FND_MANAGE_AUDIT_POLICIES_PRIV)

• For Reporting –
  • View Audit History (FND_VIEW_AUDIT_HISTORY_PRIV)

These privileges were available prior to this update.

Recover Approval Exceptions Using the Transaction Console

Application administrators can now manage negotiation and award approval transactions using the transaction console. You can recover transactions that have failed after reviewing the fault details.

The Transaction Administration Console provides enhanced diagnostic information and superior search capabilities that enable you to:

• See the status of all of the approval tasks in the system.
• Monitor tasks and take appropriate actions such as withdraw or reassign.
• Monitor tasks that have failed and take appropriate actions such as recover or terminate the approval process.
• Search approval tasks based on user-defined criteria.
• Save search criteria.
• Export the queried results to a spreadsheet.

For example, a transaction may have failed approval due to a fault in approval rules. You can follow these steps to identify and fix the issue. You can then recover the failed transaction to resume the approval using the transaction console.

1. Select Tools > Transaction Console which opens the Transaction Manager page.
2. Select the transaction that you want to view in detail. Review the issue description, diagnostic log, and resolution to understand and fix the problem. Recover the failed transaction.
3. Approve the recovered transaction to complete it.

Application administrators can now respond faster whenever a fault occurs, without needing to involve Oracle Support.

Steps to Enable

You don't need to do anything to enable this feature.

Tips And Considerations

To refresh the status of a transaction in the console at regular intervals, an administrator must manually schedule to run the Refresh Transaction Administrator Console Transaction Status process. It’s recommended to schedule the process to run every hour.

Key Resources

• For more information about this feature, see Using the Transaction Console.

Access Requirements

Users who are assigned a configured job role that contains this duty role can access this feature:

• Review Procurement Approval Transactions as Administrator (ORA_PO_REVIEW_PRC_APPROVAL_TRANSACTIONS)

This duty was available prior to this update.

Selected Sourcing Bug Fixes in This Update

This update includes some bug fixes that can change the way Oracle Sourcing works. This isn't a full list of all the bug fixes in this update. This list includes the bug fixes that can cause a noticeable change in application behavior.

Default Team Members While Sending Online Messages

In a team scoring enabled negotiation, you will now see that all scoring team members are defaulted in the recipient list when you click on Send Message in the Manage Teams or Scoring Progress pages. If one or more team members are selected in the table and send message is clicked, then only the members selected in the table will be defaulted. You can still select or deselect members.

Members Defaulted in the Send Message pop-up

Oracle Reference: 35391316

Steps to Enable

You don't need to do anything to enable this feature.

Limited Availability

Discover New Suppliers Using Generative AI in Sourcing

Use generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) to discover suppliers who may or may not be currently registered but possess the capability to provide goods and services for your business. If you like a recommendation, you can register the supplier and invite them to participate in the negotiation.

When creating a draft negotiation, you can click the Discover New Suppliers button on the Suppliers page to view AI-generated supplier suggestions. You can select other lines to view supplier suggestions for other items or services.

Discover New Suppliers Using AI Assist

Use generative AI to broaden the supplier pool by exploring new suppliers and adding them to your supply base. Increase competition in your negotiation events by inviting these suppliers.

We want your input! To provide feedback to Oracle on your experience with this feature, or to make suggestions about how the feature can be improved, post to the Sourcing forum on Oracle Cloud Customer Connect.

Steps to Enable

1. In the Setup and Maintenance work area, go to the Manage Profile Options setup task, and create a profile option as follows:

• • Profile Option Code: PON_SUPP_DISCOVERY
  • Profile Display Name: Sourcing Supplier Discovery
  • Application: Sourcing
  • Module: Sourcing
  • SQL Validation: Select meaning, lookup_code From fnd_lookups Where lookup_type='YES_NO'
  • Start Date: < Enter today's or desired date >
  • End Date: <leave empty>
  • Set Site Level to Enabled and Updatable for this profile option.
  • Click Save and Close.

2. In the Setup and Maintenance work area, go to the Manage Administrator Profile Values setup task, and add profile values as follows:

• • Use the Profile Option Code field to search for: PON_SUPP_DISCOVERY
  • Add profile level: Site, and profile value: Yes
  • Click Save and Close.

Tips And Considerations

This feature has the following limitations:

• Up to 5 suppliers are recommended per line for the first 10 negotiation lines only.

• The large language model used to generate recommendations doesn't consider the latest supplier data such as acquisitions, new product introductions, or going out of business.

The supplier suggestions generated by artificial intelligence may contain inaccuracies and shouldn’t be solely relied upon for researching and inviting suppliers to negotiations.

Key Resources

• To know more details about geographies where this feature is available, refer to the Fusion Generative AI Data Center Region Availability.

Access Requirements

Users who are assigned a configured job role that contains these privileges can access this feature:

• Create Supplier Negotiation (PON_CREATE_SUPPLIER_NEGOTIATION_PRIV)   
• Create Supplier Negotiation Template (PON_CREATE_SUPPLIER_NEGOTIATION_TEMPLATE_PRIV)   
• Edit Supplier Negotiation (PON_EDIT_SUPPLIER_NEGOTIATION_PRIV)

These privileges were available prior to this update.

Supplier Qualification Management

Support Multiple Languages on Questionnaires

If you deal with regional or global suppliers who operate in different languages, you may wish to present qualification questionnaires in the supplier's preferred language. Using question translations with the language you've vetted avoids ambiguity and ensures that the supplier understands your intent. With this enhancement, you can now store translations for the question text and acceptable responses as part of a question's definition.  When generating the questionnaire, the appropriate text from the questions is displayed according to the supplier's preferred language. You can also use language translations for internal responders if you send internal questionnaires to those who use different languages. Since the translations are tied to the same underlying question, you can easily aggregate qualification data across languages for reports and analysis.  

With this enhancement, you can translate the following displayed in the questionnaire:

• Question details in question setup
• Section names in qualification area setup
• Questionnaire title, introduction, section name, and instructions in the initiative
• Introduction text in rule set for automatically created initiatives

These translatable elements are highlighted in the following Respond to Questionnaire screenshot:

Respond to Questionnaire

Questions - Translate Question Details

You have the option to define translations for the question, hint, and preferred response text. When editing a question, simply click on the globe icon in the top right corner to access the Edit Translations dialog. Source language is intended to indicate the language used to create the record. When a question is created and no translations are defined, the source language will be the same for all installed language packs. Any updates that are made in the same language as the Source Language will automatically propagate to other language packs with the same source language.

In the following example, you're creating the question in American English so the source language is American English for all languages.  If you modify the content in American English, it will get propagated to all the languages because they share the same source language.

Edit Question - No Translations Yet

To define translations for the question text, simply click on the icon located in the Question Text column. This action will open the second dialog for translation settings.

Enter Translations for Question Text

After the translation is entered, the Source Language is updated to the translated language, indicating it's been translated. It's important to note that if you make further question updates after translations are defined, these changes won't automatically update the translated rows. Translations need to be kept updated manually to be kept in sync. In the following example, changes in American English won't affect other languages.

Edit Question - After Translations Are Defined

Additionally, for multiple-choice questions, you have the option to define translations for the acceptable responses. Simply select an acceptable response and click on the globe icon on the table toolbar. Then you can define translations in the Edit Translations dialog one by one for each acceptable response.

Qualification Area - Translate Section Name

After you've established translations for the questions, you can proceed to define translations for the section name within the qualification area. Section name is a new attribute introduced with this feature. This value set in the qualification area will be defaulted as the section name in the questionnaire, including its corresponding translations.

Edit Qualification Area

Initiative Creation - Translate Questionnaire Title, Introduction, Section Name, and Instructions

On the questionnaire step of the initiative you can define translations for the questionnaire title, introduction text, section names and instructions for each section.

Create Initiative - Edit Questionnaires

Rule Set - Translate Introduction Text for Automatically Created Initiatives

When initiatives are automatically created based on events such as supplier registration or requalification, the introduction text of the questionnaire is derived from the rule set. You can define translations for the introduction text within the rule set, so that the questionnaire content is displayed in the responder’s preferred language.

Supporting multiple languages on questionnaires is essential for reaching your diverse supply base, ensuring clear communication, and collecting accurate and meaningful data. It enhances the user experience, improves communications within multinational organizations, and enables more efficient data analysis.

Steps to Enable

Use the Opt In UI to enable this feature. For instructions, refer to the Optional Uptake of New Features section of this document.

Offering: Procurement  No Longer Optional From: Update 24D

Tips And Considerations

1. When users access pages with translated attributes, the text is displayed in their preferred language. If users update text for the language that's the same as the source language, the changes will get propagated to other languages if they have the same source language.  If no other languages have the same source language, the changes are only made to that language.

2. When making changes to any of the attributes that support multiple languages, it's essential to open the Edit Translations dialog box to ensure content consistency across all installed language packs.

3. Closing the Edit Translations dialog box by clicking on the OK button doesn't automatically save the changes. It's recommended to explicitly save your changes by clicking the Save button on the object for which you are defining translations.

4. It's highly recommended to use the Edit Current Revision option to enter translations in questions instead of Create New Revision since translations don't change the meaning of the question.

5. There's no change on text responses from questionnaire responders.  Responders don't enter translations and evaluators will see the exact text as entered by the responders.

6. If you maintain a separate set of questions for different languages today and would like to migrate, you can use Supplier Qualification Questions REST or Visual Builder Add-in for Excel to enter translations for questions. Each REST request is for one language which is based on the authenticated user's preferred language.

7. When you search for a question on the Manage Questions page, if you enter a search criterion in Question Text, you are searching the content in your preferred language.

8. Review and assess impact of feature, Change Question Text Without Requiring New Revision, since it is automatically enabled when you opt in to this feature.

Access Requirements

Users who are assigned a configured job role that contains these privileges can access this feature:

• Edit Supplier Qualification Question (POQ_EDIT_SUPPLIER_QUALIFICATION_QUESTION)
• Edit Supplier Qualification Area (POQ_EDIT_SUPPLIER_QUALIFICATION_AREA)
• Create Supplier Qualification Initiative (POQ_CREATE_SUPPLIER_QUALIFICATION_INITIATIVE)
• Edit Supplier Registration Rule Set (POQ_EDIT_SUPPLIER_REG_RULE_SET)

These privileges were available prior to this update.

Change Question Text Without Requiring New Revision

Choose whether or not to create a new question revision when making changes to the question text and acceptable responses. For example, you may not want to version the question when making minor wording changes that wouldn't materially affect responses. This can avoid unnecessary requalification cycles as the existing responses are likely still valid. With this enhancement, you can now decide whether or not a new question revision is needed.

When accessing active questions, you are now directed to the View Question page instead of the Edit Question page. On both the View Question and Manage Questions page, the Edit action is now split into two actions: Edit Current Revision and Create New Revision.

View Question

Manage Questions

Edit Current Revision:

This feature introduces the ability to update question text and response text, along with their corresponding translations, within the current revision. Attributes that could be previously modified without triggering a revision can now be modified in either the current revision or a new one. This includes attributes such as critical question, allow response comments, question attachments, hint, or preferred response. You must decide whether to edit the current revision or create a new revision up front. Recommend training administrators on when to update question text or acceptable response text in the same revision. All the in-progress questionnaires will be affected and responders will start seeing the latest changes immediately.

In the example illustrated in the following screenshot, to correct a typo or to add translations, the user may choose to edit the current revision. Some other modifiable attributes are also highlighted.

Edit Current Revision

Create New Revision:

If the changes you're making to the question text are significant, as in the following example, updating the year in the question text, you may want to create a new revision. With the exception of question text and acceptable response text, all other attributes that previously required a new revision for modifications must still be modified in a new revision. These attributes include question type, scoring, response required, adding or deleting an acceptable response, response attachments or editing branching questions.

Create New Revision

This provides users with greater flexibility and control in managing questions. Users can make informed decisions about question revisions, ensuring that updates align with their specific needs while maintaining the integrity of existing responses and reducing the qualification burden.

Steps to Enable

Use the Opt In UI to enable this feature. For instructions, refer to the Optional Uptake of New Features section of this document.

Offering: Procurement  No Longer Optional From: Update 24D

Tips And Considerations

1. The feature, Support Multiple Languages on Questionnaires, must be enabled before you can use this feature. The opt-in will expire in Update 24D.

2. There are still attributes that can't be changed even with the create new revision action just as in previous releases, such as question level or responder type.

3. With this feature, you can also update the question text and acceptable response text for the current revision via the Supplier Qualification Questions REST.

Access Requirements

Users who are assigned a configured job role that contains this privilege can access this feature:

• Edit Supplier Qualification Question (POQ_EDIT_SUPPLIER_QUALIFICATION_QUESTION)

This privilege was available prior to this update.

Selected Supplier Qualification Management Bug Fixes in This Update

This update includes some bug fixes that can change the way Oracle Supplier Qualification Management works. This isn't a full list of all the bug fixes in this update. This list includes the bug fixes that can cause a noticeable change in application behavior.

Performance Improvements to Supplier Qualification Work Area Landing Page

To address performance issues on the landing page, these two infolets are hidden by default for all users.

• Updates Available
• Setup Requiring Attention

To view the infolets, users can click the My Infolets icon to enable them.

Oracle reference: 35447521

Steps to Enable

You don't need to do anything to enable this feature.

Procurement Contracts

Manage Signed Contract Documents

From the Documents tab, you can now manage your signed contract document in its own document category, separate from other supporting documents. It's visibly highlighted on the Documents tab so you can easily find the signed copy alongside the latest contract in the application.

Electronically Signed Contracts

When contracts are electronically signed, the signed contract document that's returned is saved in the new Signed Contract Document category, and the File Name is displayed at the top of the Documents tab.

Signed Contract Document for Electronically Signed Contract

When a new version is created for the contract, the latest signed contract document takes the position alongside the primary contract document and the prior signed contract document is retained and saved as a Supporting Document in the Contract Image category.

Signed Contract Document on Version 2

Manually Signed Contracts

Contracts that don't go through your own electronic signing process also use the new Signed Contract Document category. These could be contracts that are tracked manually, with wet signatures, or for those signed through electronic processes outside the application. Once you have the signed contract document, you can use the plus icon next to the Signed Contract Document field to add it to the contract as an attachment. You can either browse for the file, or link to it from a URL.

Browse for File

Attach as a URL

You can attach more than one signed contract document. You'll see only one in the Signed Contract Document field, but can see the others by hovering over the Folder icon.

Additional Signed Contract Documents from Folder Icon

Clicking on the Folder icon opens the Attachments summary. You can open or download the documents from here.

Multiple Signed Contract Documents on Attachment Summary

Deleting a Signed Contract Document

Signed contract documents need to be protected from accidental deletion which is why they're now held in a separate document category. However there still may be a valid case for deleting one, for example the wrong document was attached. In order to delete a signed contract document, the contract must be in either draft or under amendment status, and you must be assigned the privilege to allow deletion of signed contract documents. Once a contract has become active and a signed contract document exists (whether electronically or manually added), you can't delete the signed contract document on that contract under any circumstances. If you need to delete a document, you'd need to amend it first.

If you need to proceed with deleting a signed contract document, you can delete one or more from the attachment summary, or you can directly delete a document from the Documents tab.

Delete Signed Contract Document

You'll see a warning before you proceed.

Warning when deleting a Signed Contract Document

This offers better protection for signed contract documents where they can be deleted only in limited circumstances.

Steps to Enable

Use the Opt In UI to enable this feature. For instructions, refer to the Optional Uptake of New Features section of this document.

Offering: Enterprise Contracts

Migrating Signed Contract Documents

If you opt in to use this feature, you can migrate your existing signed contract documents to the new Signed Contract Document category. Before migrating, these signed contract documents will be in the Contract Image category in the Supporting Documents region.

Signed Contract Document Before Migration

After migration, the documents attached as files in the Contract Image category that were selected by the migration process are moved to the new category and the File Name is displayed in the Signed Contract Document field.

Signed Contract Document After Migration

The migration is carried out by the Migrate Signed Contract Documents scheduled process.

Migrate Signed Contract Documents Scheduled Process

NOTE: You can't undo the migration once the documents are moved from the Contract Image category to the Signed Contract Document category. To be sure you're moving the correct documents, you should first run the process in review mode.

Run first in Review Mode

• Mode - Review output before migrating signed contract documents, or Migrate signed contract documents

After you've selected the Mode, you can further isolate the contract documents that will be included in the migration process with two other optional parameters:

• Migrate if Single Contract Image Exists - If set to Yes, this restricts the process to include contracts if only one document exists in the Contract Image category. If No, this restriction is removed.

• File Name Contains - This gives the option to match the file name of the signed contract document. For example if the file name contains the word 'Signed' the process would include contracts that have been electronically signed since by default they include 'Signed' in the file name when they're returned from the signing process.

At least one of the above two parameters are required. If both are entered, they work together as an AND condition.

Any contracts that already have documents in the signed contract document category will not be included as part of the migration.

Only the latest version of the contract will be identified by the migration process. For contracts that are under amendment, the prior active version will also be picked up so that if the contract amendment is later reverted, the contract that's reinstated will have been migrated by the process.

Documents included in the process can be from either manually or electronically signed contracts, as long as they match the above criteria.

Documents attached as a URL are not included in the process. Those are unaffected and remain under Supporting Documents in the Contract Image category.

Scheduled Process Parameters

When the Migrate Signed Contract Documents process completes, you can review the output file to check that the documents included in the process are as you expect them to be.

The output file is a text file, but you can save it as a CSV file and open it in Microsoft Excel so you can sort and filter your records.

Migrate Signed Contract Documents Output File

Once satisfied with the list of documents, you can run the process again in Migrate mode to process the files and migrate them to the new signed contract document category.

Tips And Considerations

Note that when signing contracts electronically, for example, in DocuSign, you have the option to add other documents that might be intended for internal viewers only. These internal documents are included within the combined document pack when the signed contract document is returned to Enterprise Contracts. You might want to consider this before you share the signed contract document through email or on the Supplier Portal.

Access Requirements

Two new privileges are introduced with this feature:

• Delete Signed Contract Documents - Allows deletion of signed contract documents for draft contracts, or contracts under amendment.

• Run Scheduled Process to Migrate Signed Contract Documents - Allows you to run the scheduled process to migrate signed contract documents.

These privileges aren't added to any seeded job role. You'll need to manually add them as required to a limited set of users.

Support Date and Number Data Types in Party Descriptive Flexfield

The Contract Parties descriptive flexfield now supports Number and Date data types that can be used when setting up segments. The values entered in these segments are validated to ensure they conform to these data types.

Number Based Segment

This helps to avoid entering incorrect data containing special characters, or in the wrong format.

Steps to Enable

You don't need to do anything to enable this feature.

Manage Contract Validations

When you submit a contract for approval, the validation process presents any errors and warnings that are found on the contract. You can now configure the contract validation rules of type Warning and enable or disable them as required. You can also choose to change the severity of the validation from Warning to Error to prevent the contract progressing through to approval until the error is resolved. Contract terms related validations are not available for configuration.

The feature is available for users with the Manage Contract Type privilege.

New Manage Contract Validations task

Manage Contract Validations

You can configure contract validations of type warning based on your business needs. Improve contract validation performance by disabling irrelevant warnings.

Steps to Enable

You don't need to do anything to enable this feature.

Sign Contracts with Adobe Acrobat Sign

You can now use Adobe Acrobat Sign to manage the electronic signature process for contract documents created in Enterprise Contracts. When you send the contract for signature, you can optionally add a CC recipient, specify the signing order and add a private message for each signer. Acrobat Sign sends the documents for signature, and you can track the progress from Manage Signatures action or the History tab of the contract. The contract status is set to Active automatically once all the signers have signed the contract.

Sending a Contract for Signature

When you create a contract from a contract type enabled for Acrobat Sign, you can designate one or more party contacts as signers on the Parties page and provide valid email for them. When the contract is in Pending Signature status, a user with edit privileges on the contract can send the contract for signature to the designated signers by email. Such a user can be an administrative user or a user with full access on the contract. The contract author who plans to send the contract for signature must have a valid email address and must be set up as a user in the Adobe Acrobat Sign account that's specified in the electronic signature setup. The Fusion Applications email ID of the user must match the Adobe Acrobat Sign account email ID. When you click on Sign Contract, in the integrated UI, Acrobat Sign agreement is created. You can add more tags in the agreement, add additional signers, add a private message to signers etc.

Contract Parties Tab

The signers are to be added in this tab for the internal and external parties with the signing sequence. You have the option to tag a signer as Information Only.

Managing the Electronic Signature Process

The signer who receives an email from Acrobat Sign can either sign or decline to sign. If the signer declines, the contract status changes back from Sent for Signature to the previous Pending Signature status. The sender of the contract can then make the required corrections to the agreement before re-sending it for signature. After the agreement is sent for signature, the sender can modify the agreement to add additional files and all the signers will see the updated document. Sender can also cancel the agreement and all the signers will receive an email about the cancellation.

Contract Validation

The documents added in the Documents tab of category Contract are appended to the agreement when it's sent for signature. The following formats are supported by Acrobat Sign. .pdf, .doc, .docx, .xls, .xlsx, .ppt, .pptx, .rtf, .txt, .htm, .html, .bmp, .jpg, .jpeg, .gif, .png, .tif and .tiff. If any other document type is added, contract validation process will result in error.

View Electronic Signature History

The sender can view the electronic signature history of the current version of the contract in the Signatures region of the History page.

Track Electronic Signature Status

This scheduled process tracks the electronic signature process and makes the consequent contract status updates. When all signers have signed, this process retrieves the signed contract document from the Acrobat Sign and stored in the Documents tab. The status of the contract is set Active.

Contracts can be sent for signature automatically by running this process. If the contract status is 'Pending Signature', and if AutoSendForSignature ='Y' (the flag is set in the contract header using Webservice) the contract is sent for signing and the status of the contract is set to 'Sent for Signature'. 

Contract signature process is made efficient, easy and secure with Adobe Acrobat Sign. The entire signature process from generating the agreement to tracking the signatures can be managed within the contract.

Steps to Enable

Prerequisites

1. Your organization must first register and obtain a license directly from Adobe Acrobat Sign. 

2. After the license is obtained, you must set up an account for your organization on Acrobat Sign's web site. You must create an administrator account on the site. Note that this is a one-time activity.

3. Note down the email address and password used for administrator account in Acrobat Sign.

4. You can configure only one e-signature provider in the contracts application.

Configure Adobe Acrobat Sign

Navigation-> Setup and Maintenance->Manage Electronic Signature

Select Adobe Acrobat Sign as solution provider and click on Connect button.

Acrobat Sign Configuration

Acrobat Sign login window will open in another tab. Enter the email address and password of the administrator account and click on Sign In button.

Acrobat Sign Login

Access confirmation page is displayed. Click on the Allow Access button.

Allow Access

Connection status page is displayed.

Connection Status

Go back to the Manage Electronic Signature UI and click on Refresh button. If the connection was successful, Last Connected On and End Point URL will be displayed. In case of any failure during the setup process, click on the Connect button to retry the setup.

Acrobat Sign Successful Connection

Enable the contract type for Adobe Acrobat Sign

Navigation-> Setup and Maintenance->Manage Contract Type

Manage Contract Type

• Select Requires Signature in the Overview tab
• In the E-Signature tab, select Enable electronic signature
• Select the Solution provider as Adobe Acrobat Sign
• Enable Adobe Acrobat Sign Template - Templates to be configured in Adobe Sign account
• Email Message - Meaningful value

If you do not select the terms layout template with the appended signature tags as the default template for electronic signature, then you must manually configure the signatures tags in the Sign Contract page before sending the contract for signing.

Tips And Considerations

Only a single e-signature provider can be configured at any one time in the contracts application. You can configure Adobe Acrobat Sign, DocuSign or OneSpan. This feature is applicable only for contract documents created in Enterprise Contracts.

Key Resources

• Using Customer Contracts - How accepting a contract works
• Implementing Enterprise Contracts - Setup Electronic Signature