Detailed Functional Components of iExpenses

1. Expense Report Entry:

1.1 Create Expense Report:

· Employees log on to Oracle Web Expense and enter their expense report using a standard Web browser.

· Employees enter general information about their expense report in the Report Information region.

· Employees enter their expenses in the Enter Receipts region.

· iExpense offers a “disconnected solution”, to meet the needs of employees with limited access to the corporate intranet. Employees can enter expense reports off line, and save them for later submission,

when intranet access is available.

· The disconnected expense reporting process involves the following:

· Employees use the Download Expense Spreadsheet function to save a copy of Client’s expense spreadsheet template locally. Employees must be connected to the corporate intranet in order to use the

Download Expense Spreadsheet function.

· Employees use an expense spreadsheet to enter their expense reports while disconnected from the corporate intranet.

· Employees use the Upload Expense Spreadsheet function to transfer expense reports created with a spreadsheet to iExpense. Once uploaded, the transferred information appears as an expense report in

iExpense, and employees can update, save, or submit it. Employees must be connected to your corporate intranet to use the Upload Expense Spreadsheet function. iExpense automatically populates the Cost Center field with the cost center of the employee requesting reimbursement.

· For manager approval, employees direct their expense report to their manager. When required, employees can redirect their expense report for approval by entering a value in the Override Approver field of the expense report template.

1.2 Review:

· iExpense enables employees the opportunity to review their expense report before they submit it.

· Employees use the View Receipts region to view expense lines in the order they entered them.

· The View Receipts region also identifies the expense lines for which your accounts payable department requires original receipts.

· Employees can use the Expense Summary region to view weekly summaries of their expense reports.

· The Expense Summary region displays amounts for each expense type. Employees can click on amounts to see detailed information for the receipt(s) that make up that amount.

· iExpense enables employees to check the status of their expense report(s).

· Employees can see whether their expense reports have been approved by their manager.

· Employees can see whether the accounts payable department has reviewed their expense reports.

· To view expense report statuses, employees choose the View Expense Report History function from the main menu.

· If an employee’s expense report has been adjusted by the accounts payable department, the employee can choose the View Expense History function, to see why an adjustment was made to their expense

report.

1.3 Submit Expense Report:

· Employees submit their expense report using a standard Web browser.

· After employees submit their expense report, it is their responsibility to send original receipts to the accounts payable department for verification.

2. Validation:

2.1 Server Side Validation:

· The Server Side Validation process adds required information to the AP Expense Report Headers, and AP Expense Report Lines tables in order for the workflow approval processes and the Payables Invoice Import program to function properly.

· The accounts payable department can query and view Web Expense reports only after the expense reports pass the Server Side Validation process.

2.2 Manager (Spending) Approval Process:

· The Manager (Spending) Approval Process routes expense reports to managers for their approval.

· If an expense report receives manager approval, it transitions to the AP Approval Process.

· If a manager rejects an expense report, the expense report transitions to the Rejection Process.

· When managers reject expense reports, The Rejection Process begins.

· With this process, the employee is notified that their expense report(s) has been rejected.

· Employees can retrieve, fix, and resubmit rejected expense reports by using the Modify Expense Reports function.

2.3 AP Approval Process:

· The AP Approval Process first determines whether expense reports require the approval of the accounts payable department as defined in the AP Expense Report Workflow.

· If accounts payable approval is not required, the process automatically gives accounts payable approval.

· If expense reports require accounts payable approval, then the process waits for the results of the accounts payable department review.

· The accounts payable department uses the Expense Reports window in Oracle Payables to review, adjust, short pay, and approve iExpense reports.

· The accounts payable department approves expense reports by checking the Reviewed by Payables check box.

· Once the expense report has been approved by the accounts payable department, the Invoice Import program in Oracle Payables converts the expense report into an invoice for payment.

3. Payables:

3.1 Payables Import Process:

· Submit the Payables Invoice Import program in Oracle Payables to convert expense reports into invoices.

· An iExpense report is eligible for Invoice Import after successfully completing the AP Expense Report workflow process.

· When expense reports cannot be imported, Payables prints the Invoice Import Rejections Report.

· If the expense report is rejected, correct the problems, and resubmit the Payables Invoice Import program.

3.2 Accounts Payable Approval/Pay Expense Reports:

· iExpense enables you to enforce company expense report and reimbursement policies.

· To enforce policies, the accounts payable department uses the Expense Reports window in Oracle Payables to approve, adjust, or short pay employee expense reports.

· When the accounts payable department adjusts an expense report, the AP Approval workflow process informs the employee of the reason for, and the amount of, the adjustment.

· When the accounts payable department short pays an expense report, the Shortpay Unverified Receipt Items workflow does the following:

· Creates a new expense report from the lines which have missing required receipts, and/or creates a new expense report from the lines which have inadequate justifications.

· Eliminates the lines the accounts payable department short paid from the original expense report and approves it.

· Once the accounts payable department has approved, and/or adjusted the employee’s expense report, a payment is created for the invoice in the same manner as other invoices.

4. The Expense Report Template:

4.1 Descriptive Flexfields:

· Descriptive Flexfields enable employees to enter additional information about receipts not otherwise captured in iExpense.

· Descriptive Flexfields can be defined so they appear as either a text box with a poplist that contains a list of values, a check box, or a text box.

· Descriptive Flexfields have two different kinds of segments or fields, global and context sensitive.

· Context sensitive segments appear only when an employee selects expense types to which you have associated flexfield segments.

· Global segments always appear in the Enter Receipts region, regardless of the expense type an employee chooses.

· The Descriptive Flexfields defined for Web Expense also appear in the Expense Reports window in Oracle Payables.

· To plan context sensitive and global descriptive flexfields for use in iExpense you must:

· Determine for which expense types you want to collect additional information. These are the context sensitive segments.

· Determine what information you want to collect regardless of expense type. These are the global segments.

· Determine how you want employees to enter information. You can choose from the following three methods:

· a text box with a poplist that contains a list of values

· a check box

· a text box.

4.2 Multiple Expense Templates:

· An expense template defines the list of expense types (airfare, car rental, meals, etc.) employees can choose from when they enter their expense reports.

· You can define multiple expense report templates for use with iExpense.

· If you define multiple expense report templates, employees can select an expense report template from a list of values in the Report Information region.

4.3 Original Receipts:

· When you define expense report templates for use with iExpense, you can indicate whether an original receipt is required for an expense type.

· You can also indicate that an original receipt is required only if the expense exceeds a certain limit.

· The employee can see whether an original receipt is required in the View Receipts region of iExpense.

· Employees have the ability to indicate that they do not have an original receipt by checking the Original Receipt Missing check box in the Enter Receipts region.

· iExpense can be set up so when employees check the Original Receipt Missing check box, it changes the status of a receipt from required to unrequired.

4.4 Refund/Credit Tracking:

· Set up iExpense so employees can enter negative receipts (credit lines) when creating an expense report.

· Employees enter negative receipts to report refunds from a previous reimbursed expense (I.e., the refund of an unused airline ticket).

4.5 Required Justifications:

· Set up iExpense so employees are required to enter justifications for specific expenses.

· When you define an expense report template, you can indicate whether justification is required for the expense.

4.6 Required Purpose:

· Set up iExpense so employees are required to provide a purpose for their expense report.

· When you define an expense report template, you can indicate whether a purpose is required for the expense.

4.7 Expense Report Number Prefixes:

· You can define a prefix for every expense report entered in iExpense.

· Entering a prefix value enables you to easily identify invoices in Oracle Payables originally created as iExpense employee expense reports.

How to Build a Report in OBIEE

Scenario: Building Dashboards in Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (OBIEE)

Assumption: (A User has a valid User ID and password already configured).

• Log in to the OBIEE Application by entering the correct User ID and Password.

• Once we Login, we get the ‘My Dashboard’ which would appear as shown below:
• Click the Answers Link at the top right corner

Sample Report:

In the following example, a report is generated for the D711 - eBS ESAS (India SSI Only) - 09B Organisation for the Fiscal year 2009.

Step 1:  Select the Subject Area on which the report has to be generated. The Subject Area lists the attributes, which can be viewed in the Report. This consists of Dimensions (e.g Organisation Name, Project Name Project Status etc.) and Facts or Measures (e.g Total Funding Amount etc).

• In the present example, Project Funding Subject Area is selected.

• The Dimensions and Measures appear on the left hand side titled ‘Columns’

Step 2: Select the Configuration Criteria for the Report.

·         Select the required columns from the Columns pane on the left.

·         In the current example, the following columns are selected:

1)      Project ® Project Organisation: Organisation Name

2)      Time ® Fiscal: Fiscal Year Long Name

3)      Project: Project Number, Project Name and Project Status

4)      Measures: Total Funding Amount

Step 3:  The screenshot below shows all the columns that have been included in the Report.

Step 4:  Create Filters on appropriate columns to restrict the number of records that are displayed in Results.

In this example we create the following filters:

• Organisation Name = D711 - eBS ESAS (India SSI Only) - 09B
• Fiscal Year Long Name = FY2009
• Exchange Rate Type = Constant Dollar Rate – FY09
• Project Status = ACTIVE

IMPORTANT          

For all reports in this scanario,

• Filter for the Exchange Rate Type column must be clearly defined. In absence of this filter, the report results will be incorrect.

·         The ‘Exchange Rate Type’ can be either defaulted to Constant Dollar Rate - FY 09 or Project Functional Currency.

·         If Constant Dollar Rate - FY 09 is selected then the Measures will be displayed in constant US Dollars ($).

If Project Functional Currency is selected then the Measures will be in the respective functional currency eg. Euros, Great Britain Pound (GBP), Australian Dollars (AUD) etc.

The screenshot below shows how to configure a filter for the Organization Name column with a value ‘D711 - eBS ESAS (India SSI Only) - 09B’.

1)      Click the Filter icon for the column Organization Name

2)  The Create/Edit Filter window opens.

·         Search for the required Column value on the right pane of the window.

·         In this example we have selected ‘D711 - eBS ESAS (India SSI Only) - 09B’.

3)  Select the required choice from the right side to populate the Value field.

Step 5: The screenshot below shows the report Criteria once all the filters have been configured.

Note: To include a filter for a column that is not present as part of the report we need to press CTRL and then click on the desired column in Columns pane.

Step 6: To view the result click on the Display Results button (By default the report is displayed in the Compound Layout view.)

Step 7: To change the way the Report appears the View needs to be modified. The Compound Layout as the name suggests combines more than one view. By default the Compound Layout contains Title and Table view.

The most commonly used Views are given below:

1.   Pivot Table:

·         We can place the attributes in either Rows or Columns based on how the User desires. In the above screenshot the Fiscal Year Long Name has been placed in the columns section.

·         It is possible to drill on values in the Report to greater level of detail. In this case if we click on FY2009 we will get how the Total Funding Amount is distributed over the 4 Quarters

 

·         Grand Totals can be added in the Report by clicking .

·         If any column needs to be excluded in the report then that column needs to be dragged to Excluded section.

2. Table

·         In the table view, only the order of the columns can be changed in the Report.

·         In addition to the drill and Grand Totals available in Pivot Table, the Table view allows sorting by Column Heading. To enable this we need to tick the checkbox:  Enable column sorting in Dashboards, in Table View Properties ().

3. Filters:

• The filter view gives the list of filters that have been added in the Report. 

4. Chart:

• The Chart View generally gives a pictorial repsentation of data in the Reports.
• The Chart can be plotted for any of the columns included in the Criteria of the Report.
• In the above screenshot the Total Funding Amount has been plotted against the Project Name.
• We can modify the way the chart appears by selecting appropriate values for Graph, Type and Style.
• We can modify the properties of the Chart (e.g Chart Name, Width and Height of the Chart etc) by clicking on Properties .

Note:  There are a large number of Views available, which can be included in the Report, depending on the User’s requirement.

 

Step 8: Saving the Report

·         Click on the icon  (shown below) located at the top-right corner of the page to save the Report.

·         The Save Request Window opens.

·         The User can save the Report in an appropriate folder.

·         In this case, we save the Report under My Folders as Organization Report shown in the screenshot below.

Sample Dashboard Prompt

Steps to create a Dashboard Prompt

Step 1:

• A dashboard prompt is a special kind of filter that filters requests embedded in a dashboard.
• Click the Answers link to navigate to the start page in Oracle BI Answers, and then click on New Dashboard Prompt…  in the Left Pane.
• Select the subject area that contains the column to use as the filter. In this case we select Project Funding as the Subject Area.
•  

• To select a column to use as a filter in the dashboard prompt, click it in the selection pane. You can add multiple columns to a dashboard prompt. To remove a column from the prompt, click the Delete button for that column.
• Select the Operator and Control type for the columns that have been added.
• We can also default the value for a particular column. In this case we are setting the default for Fiscal Year Long Name to FY2009.

• We can change the way the column gets displayed in the Dashboard by entering an appropriate value in Label.

• We can constraint columns by checking Constrain in the prompt. Constrained columns will be constrained by all other columns in the prompt. For e.g if we select Fiscal Quarter = Q2 and if Fiscal Month is constrained, then Fiscal Month will show only those months in Quarter Q2.

Result:

• In this case we add the following columns in the prompts.

1. Fiscal Year Long Name, renamed as Fiscal Year and default set to ‘FY2009’.
2. Fiscal Quarter.
3. Fiscal Month Name renamed as Fiscal Month.
4. Project Number, with Contol set to Multi-Select.
5. Project Status, with Contol set to Multi-Select and default set to ‘ACTIVE’.
6. Exchange Rate Type with default set ‘Constant Dollar Rate - FY09’.

Note:

• The Group check-box is ticked for at Project Number to ensure that Project Number appears in the next line in the dashboard prompt.

Step 2: Saving the Dashboard prompt.

• Click on the icon  (shown below) located at the top-right corner of the page to save the Dashboard Prompt.

• The User can save the prompt in an appropriate folder.
• In this case, we save the Report under My Folders as ‘Dashboard Prompt’ shown in the screenshot below.

IMPORTANT:

• When we use Dashboard Prompts we have to ensure that the Columns in the Report are set to ‘is prompted’.

• This operator is required for columns included in dashboard prompts where no prefiltered values are desired.
• Note that we add 2 more filters, Fiscal Quarter and Fiscal Month and set them also to ‘is prompted’.

• The final Report with all the filters added is shown below:

 

Creating a Dashboard

• Click on Dashboard at the top right corner of the page to view the Dashboard Page.
• If the Dashboard Page is empty is will appear as shown below. In this case the Dashboard Prompt and the Report are added to ‘My Dashboard’

• Click ‘here’ and we will be able to add the Dashboard prompt and the Report to different sections of the page.

• Drag and drop the ‘Dashboard Prompt’ and ‘Organization Report’ to different sections of the Dashboard page.
• To add certain features to the Report we click on Report Links… check the box for Refresh, Printer Friendly, Download, Add to Briefing Book.

           

• Click Save to return to the Dashboard page.
• The Dashboard page that appears is shown below:

 

KEY ACCOUNTS USED IN Oracle P2P

RECEIVING INVENTORY ACCOUNT: - This is one of the clearing accounts. The account is used for receipt accruals. After receiving transactions are processed and the Transfer Transactions to GL process is run, the Receiving Inventory Account is cleared and the Material account is charged with the cost of the capitalized inventory.

You can specify this account when you define Receiving Information for your inventory organizations.

INVENTORY AP ACCRUAL: - This is the account used by Purchasing to accrue your payable liabilities when you receive items you will capitalize as inventory.

This account represents your uninvoiced receipt liability and is usually part of your Accounts Payable Liabilities in the balance sheet.

Oracle payable relieves this account when the invoice is matched and validated. So, you have to specify this account when you define Inventory Information for your inventory organizations in the Other Accounts tab.

AP LIABILITY ACCOUNT: - This account defaults from the supplier site and is credited when a standard invoice is entered or debited when a credit memo or debit memo is entered. The account is relieved when the invoice is paid.

When you are creating an invoice, the liability account will get defaulted based on the hierarchy i.e., it can be from Financial options/Supplier /Supplier site.

However you will still have an option to modify the Liability account by replacing the defaulted account or do you see a different account getting defaulted during Invoice creation.

EXPENSE AP ACCRUAL: - This is the account used by Purchasing to accrue your payable liabilities when you receive items you will expense. This account represents your uninvoiced receipt liability when you run the Receipt Accruals - Period End process.

When you receive the goods, the accounting entry will be: -

Receiving Inv Dr

To Expense Accrual Cr

In Payables,

Expense Accrual Dr

To Liability Cr.

So the Expense Accrual will knock-off. You can specify this account on the Accrual tab when you set up Purchasing Options.

MATERIAL ACCOUNT: - An asset account is used for to tracks material cost.
In the average costing, this account holds your inventory and in transit values. Once you perform transactions, you cannot change this account.

You can specify this account when you define Inventory Information for your inventory organizations in the Valuation Accounts region for the Costing Information tab.

CHARGE ACCOUNT: - This account is the account that will be charged for the purchase on either the balance sheet or income statement.

·If the destination type for the distribution is Inventory, this account will be the Material account associated with the subinventory and you cannot override it. This is the balance sheet account that will be charged after inventory is capitalized.

·If the destination type is expense, you can specify this account (provided it isn’t project related) and override any defaults. This account will be either an asset clearing account that will be included on the balance sheet or an expense account that will be included on the income statement. This account is either created or specified when you create a purchase order.

Look at the Material Account on the destination inventory organization, or (if specified), destination subinventory. Under Inventory: Setup/Organizations/Parameters or Sub inventories.

PURCHASE PRICE VARIANCE: - This account is used to record differences between purchase order line price and standard cost. The Purchase Price Variance is calculated when items delivered to inventory are costed. You should note, this account is not used with the average cost method.

For example, assume the purchase order line price for an item was set at $100 per item but standard cost was set to $120 per item and you purchased 10 items. The Purchase Price Variance would be $200.

You can specify the Purchase Price Variance account when you define Inventory Information for your inventory organizations in the Other Accounts tab.

 INVOICE PRICE VARIANCE: - The variance account is used to record differences between purchase order price and invoice price. This account is used by Payables to record the invoice price variance for inventory items.

For expense items, the account generator uses the charge account to record any invoice price variance. You can understand with this set of example, how it works;

1) Create a purchase order with expense type item having the above Navigation: Purchasing->Purchase Orders->Purchase Orders

2) Receive the goods for this PO. Navigation: Purchasing->Receiving->Receipts

3) Login as Payables manager, create an invoice and match it to the PO created in step 1. Navigation: Payables->Invoices->Entry-Invoices

For example

PO Quantity=100

PO Price = 5

Now you match an invoice to the PO and Invoice (match) details are as follows:

Matched Quantity=100

Price on Invoice= 1

In this case, probably you have set the Invoice price variance account in define Organization Parameters form (alternate region: other accounts) same as the expense account on the PO

Invoice Price Variance= (PO Price - Invoice Price) x Qty. Invoiced

You can specify this account when you define Inventory Information for your inventory organizations in the Other Accounts tab.