Journal Approval Process By Ritwik Kumar Mishra Oracle AppsFinance Functional Consultant Table of Contents 1 INTRODUCTION:... 2 2 Employee Identification... 2 3 Pre-requisites:... 3 3.1 Settings for journal approval in the primary ledger:... 3 3.2 Setting up journal approval in journal sources... 7 3.3 Setting the journal authorization limits for employee... 7 4 Required Profile Options... 8 4.1 Approver method... 9 4.2 No self-approval...10 5 Creation of Journal... 11 6 Identification of the Supervisor... 17 7 Log in with the user id of Mr. Brown Casey... 20 8 Approval Notification:... 23 9 Granting of approval... 26 10 Conclusion:... 27 Page 1
1 INTRODUCTION: In any accounting cycle journals become an integral part of the financial reporting system. So as part of the procedures before posting of journals decision needs to be taken whether the journals should be approved or not. So this approval related decision needs to be setup and be part of the application through which financials transactions are being done and regulated in real time scenarios. This functionality of setting up the approval process based on the journal details or amounts is called Journal Approval. Like any other ERP in oracle apps as well journal approval functionality is available. As we know that in real time business scenarios journals are prepared by the employees who would be creating the journals so in order to set it up the approval limits for the same need to be set with the employee. So in order to do the testing we need to know the employee to whom the user ID is attached to in system administrator. 2 Employee Identification Responsibility: System Administrator Navigation: So as we know that in vision instance our user name is OPERATIONS. So lets query with our user name and see the details. Ctrl F11 Page 2
So here we can see that our user is attached to Pat Stock for whom we need to set the approval limits in general ledger module. 3 Pre-requisites: Before setting the approval limit we need to do the pre-requisite set ups for this functionality. These setups are as given below Setting of journal approval in primary ledger Setting of journal approval in journal sources Setting of journal authorization limits for the employees Once the above mentioned above setups are done then we need to start the process. 3.1 Settings for journal approval in the primary ledger: Responsibility: General Ledger Navigation: As we know that our ledger is Vision operations so first we need to query for our ledger and attach the settings for journal approval. Page 3
Query for our ledger Click for changing the required settings Page 4
Get into the primary ledger and make the required changes by clicking button Get into the and make the changes Page 5
So her as we can see that the box for journal approval is unchecked so in order to enable the functionality we need to check this box as shown below. Page 6
3.2 Setting up journal approval in journal sources Responsibility: General Ledger Navigation: Query for your journal source and set the check box for below. as shown 3.3 Setting the journal authorization limits for employee Responsibility: General Ledger Super user Navigation: Select the employee as shown below Page 7
As here as you can see that we have selected Stock Pat as the employee for setting the journal authorization limits as it s the employee to whom this user is attached with. So here we have assigned the journal authorization limit for our employee that is Stock Pat which is 20000 USD. 4 Required Profile Options In order to test the journal approval flow we need to create a journal from the user id of Robin the various pre-requisites are Page 8
As part of the standard journal approval flow is concerned in case the journal authorization limits are exceeded then the approval notification will go to the supervisor of the journal creator which in our case is Robin More. 4.1 Approver method Responsibility: System Administrator Navigation: Profile > System Next we need to enable a profile option which will define the approval method that will be used. In this context there are four option as we can see in the below screenshot. Go Up Management Chain: The journal batch moves up the approval hierarchy until it has been approved by an approver whose authorization limit is sufficient to allow approval. The journal batch must be approved by all intermediate approvers as well. Go Direct: The journal batch is sent directly to the first approver in the approval hierarchy who has an authorization limit high enough to allow approval. The preparer's direct manager receives a courtesy notice. One Stop Then Go Direct: The journal batch is first sent to the preparer's manager for approval. If further approvals are required, the journal batch is sent directly to the first approver in the approval hierarchy who has an authorization limit high enough to allow approval. The default value for this profile option is Go up Management Chain. You cannot view this profile option at the user level. Your System Administrator must set this profile option at the site, application, or responsibility level. As per the requirement since there should be one line of approval so we need to go for Go Direct option. Page 9
Save it 4.2 No self-approval If we want to have self-approval so for this we need to look into a profile option. Responsibility: System Administrator Navigation: Profile > System Profile option name: Journals: Allow Preparer Approval Page 10
As part of the conditions for journal since we don t want self approval so we need to set the profile option as No. 5 Creation of Journal Let s go ahead with creating a journal. Responsibility: General Ledger Super user Navigation: Click Page 11
Enter the line details Page 12
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Here in both places you can see that we have entered a journal with amount as USD 30000 which is exceeding the authorization limits. So if this approval process is working then the journal will not get approved and will be send for one level of approval. Page 14
Posting of Journal Click Page 15
So here we can see that the journal since is above the authorization limits so has been send for approval. This shows the fact that the approval system set by us is working perfectly. Page 16
6 Identification of the Supervisor As we have seen that our employee pat has authorization limit of 20000 USD and so the journal; of 30000 USD has been send for approval. So this journal will go for the approval of the supervisor of Pat. For this we need to know about the supervisor of Pat. Responsibility: Human resources Navigation: Query with the employee name Click Page 17
Click Click Page 18
So here we can know that the supervisor of Pat is Mr. Brown Casey. So in order to cross check the fact that this approval notification is working or not we need to check with the user id of the supervisor that whether he has received the approval notification or not. Page 19
7 Log in with the user id of Mr. Brown Casey For this purpose we need to know the user name and password of this person which we can know from system administrator. Responsibility: System Administrator Navigation: Query with the supervisors name in the persons TAB as shown below Page 20
Now we need to set the password for this person in order to log in. So press TAB and enter the password of your choice as shown below Press Tab and re-enter to confirm the password Page 21
Again press Tab to confirm This changing of color of the field from yellow to blue gives the indication that the password given by us has been frozen and set. Save it Page 22
8 Approval Notification: Now try to log in with the login id of CBROWN Page 23
Change the password set by you Page 24
Now get into the GL module Responsibility: General Ledger Super user Navigation: Over here we can see that Mr. Brown has received the approval notification for the journal which is above the authorization limit of Pat. Page 25
9 Granting of approval Let s see the notification which has come Click to approve the journal As here as we can see that our journal approval notification does not appear over here. So this shows the fact that our notification regarding the approval process of journals is working perfectly. Page 26
10 Conclusion: So here we have seen the whole process by which the journal approval for a particular employee can be set up. but the biggest lacunae of this process is that it facilitates parallel approval and does not facilitate if more approval lines are required. In order to meet the requirements apart from one given in standard we need to customize the standard journal approval workflow. Page 27