Payment Process Request in Release 12.1.3 Version 1.

Oracle Financials Release 12.1.3 Accounts Payable Payment Process Request

Author Ivruksha Email Ivruksha@gmail.com

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Payment Process Request in Release 12.1.3 Version 1.0

Greetings Fellow Professionals, Welcome you all to another presentation on Oracle Financials, this time have taken up a feature from Oracle Payables which is Payment Process Request or widely known as PPR. The reason to touch upon this particular feature is that there is very less information available in the documentations provided by oracle, and there is a greater struggle, trial and error method involved in finding out the intended behaviour of the feature. It is not that oracle has not provided the documentation , but as we all know to understand one complete flow of an feature one needs to open up multiple user guides, implementation guides, reference guides, etc to get that information, I have tried to compile those information that are relevant to payment process request from various such oracle related documentations. Even though I have not mastered this feature, I would like to share what I have understood till date on this feature to fellow professionals, as it could be of some help and reference. I do not want this to sound like a formal whitepaper, therefore taken a liberty of write the same in a manner that would be comfortable for the readers, have adopted an organised approach till the end of the document. Having said all this, I am sure this document is not 100% complete, there are greater things which I have not explored, and it is purely an attempt to share in areas where I have stumbled upon. The document contains only conceptual understanding of the feature, the detailed demonstration with step by step screen shots have already been uploaded in the website (www.ivruksha.com). Take your time in going through the presentation and please point out mistakes that are available in the document, so that one can have better and correct understanding of this feature and no one gets misguided. Please fire your feedback to the Author and the Site Administrator at ivruksha@gmail.com

Regards, Ivruksha Author

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SECTION TABLE OF CONTENTS PG NO

Generic Overview
Introduction Oracle Payments Is it a new Module? Oracle Payables Vs Oracle Payments Procure to Pay Cycle Types of Payment Mode of Payment Why oracle payables does not provide Cash mode of payment? Methods of Payment 6 6 6 7 7 7 8 8

Functional Overview
What is a payment process request? What is the need of Payments in batches or Payment Process Request? Payment Batches in Release 12 How can one make Multiple payments or payments in batches? Payment process request is controlled by Payables or Payments module? How Payment processes Request in Release 12 differ from Payment Batches in Release 11? What are the different selection criteria available in Payment Process Request for selecting invoices eligible for payment? When an invoice is eligible to be picked up by Payment Process Request? Benefits of Payment Process Request Disadvantages of Payment Process Request Prerequisites for making Payment Process Request New enhancements in Payment process request not available in earlier versions Different statuses of Payment Process Request Different Statuses of Payment Instruction Process flow of Payment Batches in Release 11 Process flow of Payment Batches in Release 12 Payment Models supported by Oracle Payments 10 10 10 10 10 11 12 13 13 15 16 16 16 17 17 17 17

Components of Payment Process Request

Scheduled Payment Selection Criteria Payment Attributes User Rates Processing Validation Failure Results Additional Information XML Publisher Template Payment Format Payment Process Profile Bank , Bank Branch, Bank Account and Payment Document Other Terminologies 19 19 21 21 22 22 22 23 24 26 26 27 28 28 28

18

Technical Overview
Has the payment architecture undergone any changes in Release 12 Table Names involved in Payment Process Request Payments Integration with XML Publisher

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Payment Process Request in Release 12.1.3 Version 1.0 E Authors Corner

How to Troubleshoot issues related to Payment Process Request When to approach Oracle Support Implementation Tips Frequently Asked Questions Important Metalink References (Re) Sources of Information 29 30 30 31 31 33 33

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GENERIC OVERVIEW

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Introduction Anyone who has worked on Release 12 implementation/support projects of financial modules, especially Accounts Payable Module, would have came across this term Payment Process Request. The name of the feature may be something new in release 12; however the feature itself is not a new one, this was called as Payment Batches in earlier versions. A question which would arise in every one mind at this point is why at all greater understanding is required on a feature which was already available in earlier versions? Even though the core functionality of the feature remains the same, it has gone through lot of enhancements from Architecture and setup perspective; therefore it becomes a necessity to understand the feature now. Majority of the changes that have taken place in Release 12 version are from Financials Modules. Subledger Accounting, E Business Tax, Ledgers, Data Access Sets, Ledger Sets, etc.... These changes have led to introduction of new modules and scrapping few old modules as well. One such new Module which is more relevant for our further discussions is Oracle Payments, since Payment process Request is more related to the Module Oracle Payments than Oracle Payables. Oracle Payments Is it a new Module? YES, but still this module is not completely new one, since oracle payments module replaces the ipayments module which was used in earlier versions. In release 12, we do not have ipayments now. Oracle Payments module takes care of two major activities, i.e. 1) Funds Disbursement 2) Funds Capture. We will be restricting our discussion with respect to Funds disbursement activity alone. In Oracle Payments module, setups related to payments are taken care, which was carried out in Payables module in earlier releases. This module also acts as a centralized payment System of an organization. Oracle Payables Vs Oracle Payments Now that there are two modules Payables and Payments, it causes bit of confusion as to which module is really required for making payments, the answer is BOTH are required. The activities, which we re only performed by Payables alone in the earlier versions, were now shared by Payments module, therefore both works hand in hand. However one can draw a fine line of difference as to where payables activities end and when payments activities start. If you take payment process requests, even though all the stages and activities are performed in Payments manager, it does not mean that it is fully controlled by Payments module. The thumb rule, which I can personally state from what, I have read and observed, is Payments module takes care of Payments alone. Which means Selection of invoices, adding invoices, removing invoices, etc all belongs to payables since till that stage no payment related activity is initiated. All activities, which happen after selection of invoices, purely belong to payments module alone. In short, Payable module is responsible for making invoices ready for payment, and payment module is responsible for making payment to those invoices.

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Payment Process Request in Release 12.1.3 Version 1.0

Procure to Pay Cycle It would be bit complicated for any reader to directly grasp the main content of the document, therefore have decided to summarize the Procure to Pay (P2P) Cycle in short for better understanding, and then move towards the explanation on payments. It becomes essential to have a brief overview on procure to pay cycle and the role of payments in the cycle before reading further. The Procure to pay cycle starts from meeting the demands of the purchasing department by making procurement from market and creating an obligation to make payment for suppliers when due and finally ends once the suppliers are paid for the dues. The same is broken in to steps for clarity below: Step 1 - Purchase Requisition Once the companies available stock comes down, they will place a Purchase Requisition to the Purchasing department stating the stock they need to meet the demand. Step 2 Request for Quotation Upon receiving the Purchase Requisition, Purchasing department will Request for Quotations from few suppliers from the market. Step 3 Purchase order Upon receiving quotations from different suppliers in the market, the Purchasing department will perform a competitive analysis as to the best quotation and decide on the supplier from whom the stock can be purchased. A Purchase order is placed to that supplier. Step 4 Receipt of Goods / Creation of Invoice Supplier delivers the goods to the Company as specified in the purchase order. Upon delivery of goods, concerned department will record the receipt of goods and intimate the Accounts department about the receipt of goods made. Accounts department creates the invoice for the amount, which needs to be paid to the suppliers. Step 5 Making payment for the invoice Upon due date, Accounts department makes the payment to the supplier, which results in completion of the transaction between that supplier and the company, Step 6 Clearing and Reconciliation of Payment Upon making the payment to suppliers one has to clear the payment so as to confirm the actual payment made and reconcile the same with Bank statement once it is presented by Supplier for encashment, which also ends the Procure to pay cycle. Now that we have an idea of the complete P2P cycle, will discuss more towards Step 5, which is related to payments, before getting into payment process request. Types of Payment The available types of payment are Single Payment and Batch Payment. One can make payment to Invoices one by one or in batches. Single payment refers to making payment to invoices by manually selecting the invoices and generating the payment. Batch payment refers to making payments to invoices by automatic selection and using multiple payment documents. Payments by batches are termed as Payment Process Request in Release 12. Single payment can be made through Payment Workbench; however payment in batches can be made only through Payment process requests in release 12. Mode of Payment Payments can be made through Check, Wire and Electronic. Every Payment made through oracle payables will belong to any one of the three modes specified above. I would like to point out that there is no standard functionality in oracle which can take care of Cash payments and Payments made through demand drafts. However there are many available workarounds adopted to meet these business demands.

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Consultants/ Implementers can also create their own payment method through Payment Administrator and specify validations required for the business. Why Oracle Payables does not provide Cash mode of payment? This question often arises to many people, and it is a valid business requirement. I have personally thought of many reasons as to why oracle has not provided, and with help of my accounting knowledge, found out a possible cause. Carefully observe the below explanation, only then you will be able to appreciate the final conclusion. My Explanation (Could be totally wrong ....): Payments are normally made for Purchases. Purchases can be any, be it Asset, Stock in Trade or Office Supplies. Same way type of purchase can be any Cash or Credit. Purchase of goods and payment for the purchased goods are the two activities which completes a transaction. In case of cash purchase, both these activities happen at the same time, in case of credit purchase, there is a time interval between the purchase and payment activity. Now lets see what is the difference in accounting for Cash Purchases and Credit Purchases: For Cash Purchase, the accounting entry to be For Credit purchase the accounting entry to be passed passed is, is, Debit - Asset / Stock in Trade / Expense A/C Debit - Asset / Stock in Trade / Expense A/C Credit Supplier / Vendor A/C Credit Cash A/C At the time of payment, Debit Supplier / Vendor A/C Credit Bank A/C Have you found the difference in the above entries? The difference is the Supplier or Vendor information is captured only in case of a credit purchase whereas the same is not required for a cash purchase. Conclusion: So if one needs to record a Cash transaction, General Ledger module can be directly made use of since there is no need for supplier information, therefore cash payment is not required in payables module. Having said this, my conclusion is not final, since it does not answer the below question and many more:

Did oracle consider about the option of company making a credit purchase and later followed by a payment after a week in CASH? This is a very genuine transaction; however no direct functionality is available to satisfy the same.
There are other logical explanations as well; the most common one is, it is not the Best Business Practice to be adopted, as control on physical cash and cash related documentations is subject to human intervention and manipulation. Methods of Payment There are three different types of payments available to the user when they make a single payment using Payment Workbench, they are Manual, Quick and Refund. Refund is actually a negative payment, whereas manual and quick payments are normal payments. There are few differences between Manual payment and quick payments, which is not being discussed here.

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FUNCTIONAL OVERVIEW

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What is a Payment Process Request? Payment process request is a feature through which a company can make payments for multiple invoices eligible for payment in no time. Payment process Request will select the invoice eligible for payment automatically or based on any selection criteria and proceed to make payment as directed by the user. What is the need of Payments in batches or Payment Process Request? One can make multiple payments using payment workbench without any hurdles, however the same will be time consuming and end users will have to do repetitive data entry tasks on a regular basis. The objective of implementing any ERP product is to cut down on the manual tasks carried out and automate the same with accuracy, so as to prevent human errors. Oracle provides us with the feature of making multiple payments by capturing the repetitive information once and applies the same for all invoices eligible for payments. Users were also provided with options to make the selection criteria for the invoices eligible for payment. This feature really saves time and it is accurate, however it is the business decision to make use of this feature or not. No additional setups are required, in order to make use of payment batches or payment process Request feature, basic setups required for making a single payment holds good for payments in batches also. Payment Batches in Release 12 The architecture behind processing payments is very different in Release 12, than what it was in 11i. Even though the concepts remain the same, the steps/processes have undergone few changes with greater enhancements. We will discuss about the architectural changes at a later stage. About the look and feel, the changes are as follows: The Payment batch screen is changed to Html page (java based) from form based environment. The same is accessible via Payment Manager which was not there in earlier versions. The Dashboard acts as a one stop place to monitor various payment batches and the statuses in a single snapshot. The setups required for performing a payment has undergone a change, therefore few newer fields were introduced in few screens in order to make payments. And there are lots of more goodies to come in further discussions about this, now that you have an idea as to what will be read further, will be throwing more technical stuffs, terminologies and screen shots wherever appropriate. How can one make multiple payments or payments in batches? Making payments in batches has undergone a drastic change in the backend architecture and front end look and feel under release 12. Multiple payments can be made via Payment Manager from Payables responsibility. Through payment manager one needs to create a Payment process Request in order to make payments in batches. Payment Manager is a new terminology used for performing Payment Batches in Release 12. Payment Process Request is controlled by Oracle Payables or Oracle Payments? It is controlled by both the modules. As stated earlier, both the modules work hand in hand in order complete the payment cycle. Selection of invoices becomes the job of payables module, and making payments to those invoices are taken care by payments module. Having said that, majority of the related setups, navigations are carried out in the Payments module.

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How Payment process Request in Release 12 differ from Payment Batches in Release 11? Invoice Selection

Release 11 Invoice selection must be the made as per the payment requirements and other attributes Release 12 Invoice selection is not dependant on the how the payment is going to be made at later
stage, it selects all invoices which are eligible for payment, the grouping of selected invoices are taken care at later stage, and payment instructions are printed accordingly. Look and Feel

Release 11 Form based environment Release 12 Web based environment

New Parameters

Release 11 No field for Payment Process Profile Release 12 New field for Payment process profile exists.
Centralised Payment System

Release 11 Payment batches can be created only for invoices from Oracle payables module Release 12 Payment process request can pick up eligible transactions from other related modules and
also from different operating units which was not possible in earlier releases. Transmission of Payment Instruction File

Release 11 It involves customization with the assistance from any third party software Release 12 Formatting and Transmission is carried out by the Oracle Payments module itself.
Check Printing

Release 11 Owned by Oracle Payables Module Release 12 Owned by Oracle Payments Module
And many more....

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What are the different selection criteria available in Payment Process Request for selecting invoices eligible for payment? Payment Process Request selects invoices based on the details entered in Scheduled Payment Selection Criteria. Providing appropriate values on the different parameters available can restrict selection of invoices. Following are the list of conditional parameters by which selection of invoices can be made: Supplier Type - The user can select supplier type at the time of supplier creation. It is not mandatory to have a supplier type; however assigning proper types will enable the user in filtering out the invoices that are selected for payment by the Payment Process Request. Supplier Type can be selected under Company Profile > Organization in the supplier creation screen. Apart from the seeded supplier types provided by oracle, user can also define their own supplier types as per the business requirement. By defining lookup values for the lookup type VENDOR TYPE under purchasing application, the same will be available for selection at the time of creating a supplier. (Payables Responsibility > Setup > Lookups > Purchasing) Payee - Payee refers supplier (Receiver of the payment is termed as Payee). One can select a particular supplier alone and make payments in batches for all the invoices due to him. Payment Method - Payment method determines how a documents payable (invoices) needs to be paid. Every invoice will have a payment method associated, which can be used as a criterion for selecting invoices for payment. Payment Methods are defined under Payment Administrator (Payables Responsibility > Setup > Payment > Payment Administrator > Funds Disbursement Setup > Payment Methods > Payment Methods) Invoice Batch Name - Invoices can be entered in payables as single invoice; invoice batches and interfaced from external systems. Invoice batches allow the user to process set of invoices together. Every invoice batch will have an invoice batch name. User can make use of this invoice batch name as a parameter for selecting invoices for payment; therefore invoices that are entered in that batch alone will be selected for payment. Invoice Exchange Rate Type - The available values for selection are User and Not User. User refers to user-defined exchange rate, which means at run time the exchange rate has to be entered by the user. Non-User refers to predefined exchange rates, which gets populated automatically when the transaction is processed. (After defining exchange rates in General Ledger, in order to make use of the same in subledgers Auto Rate program needs to be run in subledgers.) Pay From Date - Every invoice has a payment term associated, which results in determination of the due date on when the invoice has to be paid. By entering a date in the Pay From Date field, invoices, which are having the due date on or after the above-specified date, will be selected for payment. This can be treated as a starting range. Pay Through Date - By entering a date in Pay Through Date field, invoices, which are eligible for payment having due date on or before the above mentioned date alone are selected for payment. This can be treated as an end of the range. Payment Priority High - The available values which determines the priority ranges from 1 to 99, where 1 refers to high priority. Every invoice has a payment priority value associated with it, which can be www.ivruksha.com Page 12

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entered by the user while creating the invoice. Priority field is present under Scheduled Payments Tab of the Invoice Workbench (Payables Responsibility > Invoices > Entry > Invoices) Payment Priority Low - The available values which determines the priority ranges from 1 to 99, where 99 refers to low priority. Every invoice has a payment priority value associated with it, which can be entered by the user while creating the invoice. Priority field is present under Scheduled Payments Tab of the Invoice Workbench (Payables Responsibility > Invoices > Entry > Invoices) Include only Due - By the selecting the above, invoices which are having the due date on or before the pay through date entered will alone be available for making payment. Include Zero Amounts - Invoices having amount to be paid as Zero are also selected for payment. Pay Groups - Invoices can be selected for payment based on the pay groups. Pay groups are attached with suppliers or supplier sites, which in turn defaults while creating invoices. Therefore every invoice will have a pay group. Usage of pay groups facilitates in selection of invoices for payment processing. Define your pay group under the lookup type PAY GROUP (Payables Responsibility > Setup > Lookups > Purchasing) and the same is assigned to supplier/ supplier site / Invoice. Payment Currencies - Invoices can be selected based on the currencies in which it is to be paid. At the time of invoice creation, the currency code is selected by the user, which will be used as a basis for selection of invoices for payment processing. Legal Entities - Invoices selection can be restricted based on Legal Entities Operating Units - Invoices selection can be restricted based on Operating units

When an invoice is eligible to be picked up by Payment Process Request? An invoice which is complete in all respects are eligible for payment, below are the conditions which are to be satisfied in order for an invoice to be available for selection in the Payment process request: Invoices that are approved (Force Approval or Approved through Invoice workflow) Invoices that are validated (Need not be Accounted) Invoices which are due for payment as per the payment terms Invoices, which have outstanding balances. (not fully paid invoices) All holds placed in the invoices are released (Manually or Automatically)

Benefits of Payment Process Requests Payment process request is provides us with many benefits. It is really worthwhile to spend some time in few of those benefits as we will speak about this more and more in further discussions to come. Full Audit Trail - It acts as a one point stop for administering all payments. Also there is a greater visibility in the payments, as one can very clearly observe the status of pending payments and payment completed via payment dashboard. The complete process can very easily be crossverified with final results. Centralized Payment System - Oracle payments act as a centralized payment system, where all payments are carried out through Payment Process Requests. We need to understand what is centralized. The following payments can now be made very easily via payment manager, www.ivruksha.com Page 13

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Invoices Expense Reports Refunds (Payment Request Invoices) Loan disbursements Other payments if any

Flexible Validation Model - Apart from pre-defined validations available in the system by default, users can have their own validations. The main purpose of this flexible validation model is that to avoid errors at the very beginning of the process, rather than waiting till the last step and starting over again from the beginning. So that all errors are corrected at the earliest and providing no bottle necks at the end. Payment Process Request Templates - Users can create a template with all the relevant parameters, which they will be providing in Payment Process Request at run time. This template can be referenced next time when the user creates a pay run, all parameters gets defaulted to the Payment process request, and user just has to hit the submit button. Based on the invoice selection criteria one can create templates as required. It saves time spent on creating Payment Process Requests by the users. Below is the Screenshot of the Payment Process Request Template

Payments Dashboard - Payments dashboard provides a complete overview on the status of the payment process requests that are in place on a particular day and the actions to be taken on them if required. This snapshot enables the user to monitor pending actions that are to be completed. Also the dashboard provides with links for users to navigate to the pages directly without any need to remember navigations.

Below is the Screenshot of the Payment Dashboard

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Schedule Payment Process Request - Payment process Requests can be scheduled like any other concurrent program from the Payment Manager dashboard. The only prerequisite for scheduling the Payment Process Request is that one need to have a template defined for it, upon submission of the request, system creates a Payment Process Request with an auto generated name preceded by the template name. Request will be run as scheduled, users can prefer a notification to be sent to them, while scheduling the request or they can monitor the request from the monitor requests link on the dashboard. Below is the Screenshot of the Scheduling Payment Process Request

Disadvantages of Payment Process Request

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Even the best feature/functionality is subject to few criticisms as well, Payment Process Request is no exception. But having gone through so many benefits and uses of it in earlier sections, one is bound to believe that payment process request is only packed with advantages, however that is not the real case. Even though the feature has more benefits, however stability of the functionality is a big question mark. There have been cases where one will struggle to complete a full payment process request cycle successfully. Most of the times, it will not be successful at the very first attempt, this is mainly due to lack of clear instructions on usage of this feature and the complex architecture behind the payments in release 12. There were many bugs identified and reported on this feature. This functioning of this feature is stable from version R12.1.1 I will be more pleased if readers of this presentation can share the disadvantages which they have felt during their implementations and experiences with the feature. Prerequisites for making Payment Process Request Before explaining more on Payment Process Request, we need to have a brief idea on the prerequisites that is required to make a Payment through Payment Process Request. Following setups has to be completed in order to make payment to suppliers through Payment Process Request:

Bank Account must be created for Payment Payment document must be created for the Bank Account Payment Process Profile must be defined Payment exchange rate must be defined in case of multi currency payments. Payment Method must be decided Payment instructions for printing should be defined. Invoices eligible for payment must be available

And the most important prerequisite is to be on the latest Patch set. As we all know Release 12 is a product with less number of new functionalities and more number of bugs, one has to be on the latest patch set always, so that the functionality can work in an intended way without any technical hiccups. Brief information on the available patches and known issues are given at the later stage as a ready reference. New enhancements in Payment process Request not available in earlier versions? The major enhancement which I have personally felt is due to Multi Org Access Control (MOAC) feature. In release 11, one can make payments to invoices belonging to single operating unit only, whereas in release 12, one is given with the choice of selecting invoices from more than one operating unit and more than one legal entity. The above is possible by having a security profile with more than one operating unit attached to the responsibility. Apart from above, this feature has retained all functionalities from earlier versions. Different statuses of a Payment Process Request Payment Process Request when executed updates the status which is being performed currently, so that user is aware of the progress of the payments and updated if manual intervention is required in between. Below are the few status names which Payment process request uses while performing the payment operations: New This is the initial status of the PPR, which means no processing has began. Selecting Scheduled Payments This status indicates that PPR is currently engaged in looking for eligible invoices for payment. Invoices Selected This status indicates that PPR has selected invoices that are due for payment or as per the invoice selection criteria. Assembling payments This status indicates that PPR is currently engaged in generating payments for the selected invoices. Page 16

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Assembled Payments This status indicates that PPR has completed generating payments for the invoices selected. Awaiting for payment instruction to be generated. Confirmed Payment This status indicates that the payments generated by PPR are confirmed and Final Calculating Special Amounts Information required Pending Action Cancelled Payment This status indicates that the payments generated by the PPR has now been cancelled. Pending proposed payment review Payments are created awaiting review by users Invoices pending review Selected invoices have some issues, which are to be corrected before proceeding further. Formatting Payment Exchange rates missing This status indicates that payments involving foreign currencies require exchange rates for proceeding further. At times system may require exchange rates to be made available even though the selected invoice does not belong to foreign currencies; this behaviour is normal and intended. Document Validation errors Pending Action Validation failure, need to recheck

Different statuses of Payment Instruction Printed This status indicates that payment instruction has been printed Submitted for printing This status indicates that payment instruction has been submitted for printing Created Ready for Printing This status indicates that payment instructions are generated and available for printing Formatted Ready for Printing This status indicates that payment instructions are formatted and available for printing. Formatted Ready for transmission This status indicates that payment instructions are formatted and ready for transmission. Process Flow of Payment Batches in Release 11 Invoice Selection = > It selects invoices based on how it needs to be paid along with other criterias. Build Payments = > From the above selection similar invoices are grouped together for payment. Format Payments = > Payments are formatted as per the grouping done at the build stage. Print Documents = > Print the payment document after formatting Confirm Payment Batch = > Confirm the payment batch to complete the payment batch process. Process Flow of payment process Request in Release 12 Invoice Selection = > It selects invoices that are available in payables eligible for payment Build Payments = > from the list of invoices selected from the previous step, the invoices are grouped in to payments based on the various criterias. Build Payment Instruction = > Built payments are further grouped in to Payment instructions. Format Payment Instruction = > the above grouped payment instructions are later converted in to well formatted files through XML data extract. Transmission of payments = >Transmission of electronic payment files or printing checks are done. Payment Models supported by Oracle payments Completely Decentralized Invoices belonging to different operating units are kept separate through invoice selection, build payments and format payments stages. Shared Service Centre Invoices belonging to different operating units are kept together. Payment Factory Invoices belonging to different operating units are kept separate through invoice selection and build process, however they are clubbed during the format or payment instructions creation stage.

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COMPONENTS OF PAYMENT PROCESS REQUEST

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In order to create a payment process request, there are many components that were involved. It is essential to know all of those components in detail, for better understanding. Following are the components and different terminologies involved in successful completion of every payment process Request in Release 12. The components of payment process request are grouped under the following tabs; we will explore each and every field in detail: Scheduled Payment Selection Criteria Payment Attributes User Rates Processing Validation Failure Results

TAB: SCHEDULED PAYMENT SELECTION CRITERIA

Refer to the below section in this document: What are the different selection criteria available in Payment Process Request for selecting invoices eligible for payment? TAB: PAYMENT ATTRIBUTES

Payment Date This will be the date on which payments will be made. This date will also appear on the payment document and Payment instruction also.

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Disbursement Bank Account This refers to the internal bank account which a company uses for making payments to the invoices selected / due for payment. Payment Document Payment document refers to the Cheque book Name defined for the disbursement bank account. In case of electronic payments, it will be treated as a wire instruction Reference. This Payment document will contain the First and Last cheque numbers. Payment Process Profile Payment process profile is the new feature that has been introduced in Release 12. This is a mandatory component required to make a payment. Payment Process profile contains the instructions as to how the payment needs to be formatted and transmitted. It is directly associated with Documents Payables defined under Bank Accounts. The payment process profile also includes a payment instruction format, which is in turn associated with an XML Publisher template, as well as rules for grouping documents payable into payments and payments into payment instructions. Payment process profile setup decides when a payment becomes complete. Payment process profile contains rules which control the following: How invoices must be built in to payments How payments must be grouped in to payment instruction How the payment instruction file must be formatted (Printed or Transmitted) Payment process profile is selected by the system based on the payment method provided in the source transaction. Payment Exchange Rate Type This field provides the types that could be used for picking up relevant functional currency values for foreign currency transactions. Override Settlement Priority Instructions to the bank related to the urgency of the payment. Populated only if the child documents are grouped by the settlement priority. Any value here will be overwritten to the invoice record during the invoice selection process. The available options for the same are: Null, Express and Normal Override Bank Charge Bearer When funds are sent by EFT, the bank that does the processing charges a fee. By Selecting an option from the Bank Charge Bearer drop-down list, you can indicate the party who is responsible for paying the EFT fee. This field may not be used by all banks in all countries. To override any bank charge bearer values on the invoices with any of the following options provided for: Payee, SLEV, Payer, Payee Pays Express Charges and Shared Transfer Priority In case if the bank charges feature in payables is implemented, one of the below values must be selected: Any, Express and Normal. It indicates the priority for the transfer of electronic payment. Starting Voucher Number

A starting voucher number that the system uses to incrementally number the resulting payments. If you enter 1, then 1 is used as a starting number each time this template is used. If you use voucher numbers, number you assign

to a payment document to uniquely identify it. If you use automatic sequential numbering, Payables assigns a voucher number and you cannot update it.

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TAB: USER RATES

In case of user type exchange rate, the user submitting the payment process request has to provide the rate which the system has to take in to account for other automatic computations. There may be multiple currency payments being made, hence conversion rates between each of those foreign currencies and functional currencies have to be provided for a successful completion of payment process request. Following are details you are required to provide: Payment Currency, Ledger Currency and Rate TAB: PROCESSING

Maximize Credits If this check box is selected in the Process Automation subtab, then during invoice selection, if there is any credit for a payee after interest and payment withholding calculations, the system groups all scheduled payments for the payee site together to be paid on one payment, based on grouping rules. If the sum is negative, the system reduces the credit amount to zero. Stop Process for Review after Scheduled Payment Selection If this check box is selected in the Process Automation subtab, the pay run pauses after invoices have been selected and the status of the payment process request updates to Invoices Pending Review. Clicking on the Start Action icon navigates you to the Payment Process Request: Selected Scheduled Payments page to review the invoices selected for scheduled payment, add or remove scheduled payments from the request, or change payment amounts. Calculate Payment Withholding and Interest during scheduled Payment Selection If this check box is selected in the Process Automation subtab, the following calculations occur: For each scheduled payment subject to interest, the system calculates the interest due. For those invoices subject to withholding, the system calculates withholding tax for invoices that belong to an operating unit where tax is withheld at payment time. Stop Process for review after creation of proposed payments If this check box is selected in the Process Automation subtab, the Build Payments program runs to group the invoices into payments and the pay run pauses after payments have been built. Clicking on the Start Action icon navigates you to the proposed payments in the Review Proposed Payments: Payment Process Request page of the Payment Process Requests tab.

Create Payment Instructions:

Automatically initiate when payment process request is complete If you want immediate payment processing, you can select the Automatically Initiate When Payment Process Request is Complete option from the Create Payment Instructions drop-down list so the Create Payment Instructions program starts immediately when the payment process request completes. The www.ivruksha.com Page 21

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Create Payment Instructions program then creates payment instructions for those payments. Electronic instructions are transmitted to the bank. If they are printed instructions, printing is initiated. This option also ensures that payments from this payment process request will not be combined with payments from other payment process requests when the system builds the payment instructions. Note: If you select this option, you are required to specify a payment process profile in the Payment Attributes subtab. Wait for Standard Request Submission Alternatively, you can set the Create Payment Instructions option to Wait for Standard Request Submission. In this scenario, an enterprise typically schedules the Create Payment Instructions Program to run periodically. An enterprise would choose this option to take all built payments from multiple payment process requests and build fewer payment instructions. TAB: VALIDATION FAILURE RESULTS

Document
During the execution of the payment process request, if by any reason validations performed on the documents payable has negative results, then you instruct the system on what is to be done next, the available options are: Reject Only Documents with errors, Stop process for review, Reject all documents for payee when any document fails and Reject all documents in request

Payment
Similarly for payments system performs validations, and likewise on negative results one of the below instructions are to be selected for the system operation to proceed further. The available options are: Stop process for review, Reject all payments for payee when any payment fails, Reject only payment with errors and Reject all payments in request TAB: ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

These are DFF fields which do not have any predefined usage; it is for information / data capture purposes only. The DFF name is Invoice Selection (AP_INVOICE_SELECTION_CRITERIA) XML PUBLISHER TEMPLATE It is the layout designed in a well formatted file. The template will pick the relevant data upon execution. One can decide as to what the fields the layout must contain are and what must be hidden. It is like a seeded report with option to modify as per the requirement. Technical expertise is required to modify an XML publisher Template.

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XML Publisher Setup Screen

PAYMENT FORMAT Oracle payment uses many different formats for various needs, of all the formats following are frequently used ones almost in every payment, they are: Format for Printed Checks Format for Electronic Funds Transfer Format for Remittance Advice XML publisher templates are available for every format, which can be modified as per the requirement. Payment Format Type Selection Screen

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Payment Format Setup Screen

PAYMENT PROCESS PROFILE A payment process profile, is a payment attribute assigned to documents payable, which specifies handling of the documents payable, payments and payment instructions by oracle payments. Payment process profiles include specifications for payment formatting and transmission. The selection of a payment process profile is driven by the payment method assigned to a document. Payments are built from documents payable that have the same payment process profile. Oracle Payments seeds a limited number of payment process profiles.

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Payment Process Profile Setup Screen

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BANK, BANK BRANCH, BANK ACCOUNT AND PAYMENT DOCUMENT In order to make a payment, one must have a Bank Account. Even though it is ideal for any business to make a cash payment, the same is not available in oracle payments or cash management as straight fit. Hence one must setup Bank, Bank Branches and Bank Account. Also, Bank Account alone is not enough for making payment, one must setup check or wire sequence numbers by configuring Payment documents. OTHER TERMINOLOGIES OF SOME USE: Payer and Payee Payer The one who initiates the payment Payee The one who received the payment made by payer. When we use Receivables module we become the Payee when we use payables module, we become payer Pay run It is a process of selection of invoices for making payment. Payment Systems Payment system indicates the third party or the financial institution which will process the payment upon transmission. Ideal payment systems are Banks.

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TECHNICAL OVERVIEW

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Has the Payment Architecture undergone any Changes in Release 12? Yes, there have been many changes from the technical aspect as well. Below are the key architectural differences between Release 11 and Release 12 from technical point of view: Particulars Tables updated while creating a Payment Release 11 AP_CHECKS_ALL AP_INVOICE_PAYMENTS_ALL AP_PAYMENT_HISTORY_ALL AP_CHECK_STOCKS_ALL AP_CHECK_FORMTS Release 12 AP_CHECKS_ALL AP_INVOICE_PAYMENTS_ALL AP_PAYMENT_HISTORY_ALL AP_DOCUMENTS_PAYABLE AP_PAYMENT_HISTORY_ALL AP_PAYMENT_HIST_DISTS IBY_DOCS_PAYABLE_ALL IBY_PAYMENTS_ALL IBY_PAY_INSTRUCTIONS_ALL XLA_EVENTS XLA_AE_HEADERS XLA_AE_LINES XLA_DISTRIBUTION_LINKS

Tables updated while Accounting an Payment

AP_ACCOUNTING_EVENTS_ALL AP_AE_HEADERS_ALL AP_AE_LINES_ALL

The above changes are purely due to introduction of centralized accounting engine through Subledger Accounting and introduction of new Funds disbursement process in Oracle Payments. TABLES involved in Payment Process Request In order to complete a payment process request there are multiple stages involved in the process, at each stage there are certain tables that gets updated with the necessary data, flags, stamping etc... Let me share few such information on the same, which I have observed so far,

Creation of Payment Process Request through Payment Manager When Invoices are selected based on the selection criteria provided Of the Invoices got selected, if you are manually removing few invoices not want to be paid When payment is completed When Payment Instruction is completed

AP_INV_SELECTION_CRITERIA_ALL AP_USER_EXCHANGE_RATES AP_SELECTED_INVOICES_ALL AP_UNSELECTED_INVOICES_ALL AP_CHECKS_ALL AP_INVOICE_PAYMENTS_ALL IBY_PAY_INSTRUCTIONS_ALL

Oracle payments integration with Oracle XML Publisher XML publisher has replaced oracle reports. Unlike in earlier versions where assistance of technical consultant is required to modify the reports, one can make changes to seeded templates using e text editor with less technical assistance, however knowledge on basic XML publisher is required for the Functional Consultant. Payment Instructions are to be generated through XML Publisher templates in release 12.

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AUTHORS CORNER

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How to troubleshoot an issue related to Payment Process Request? Troubleshooting is much more difficult than configuring a functionality, hence one need to have greater depth on the functioning of Module and its features. But even for the Subject Matter Experts (SME) it is not an easy task all the time to bring an issue to its resolution in shorter time. From experience I would like to share few tips and tricks which one can make use to narrow down the issue using the tools provided by oracle effectively and saving much more time in troubleshooting: Log File of concurrent Program The first place to look for error and its reason is from the concurrent program output file, but most of the time when an program status is ended in either error or warning, you might not have the output file generated, hence one could open the log file of that concurrent program. Log file provides you with the details of actions performed by the system and at which stage the system validation resulted in failure, this will most likely be an error code or at times error description which helps in analysing the cause and rectify an issue Oracle Diagnostics In release 12, Oracle diagnostics tool has provided many tests and seeded scripts to troubleshoot issues related to various modules. You can switch responsibility to Oracle Diagnostic Tool and select the Module, and further select payment diagnostics, provide the parameters and execute. Once execution is complete, system provides the results fetched along with causes and actions to be taken. These scripts are built based on common expected errors in the product, it is most likely that lot of our issues may get sorted out at this stage itself. Trace and FND Debug Log Assuming that the issue is of peculiar nature, it requires some detailed trouble shooting, reading an Debug Log or Trace file will help in finding out at which stage the error occurs, which package is involved, what validation in that package is failed etc ... One has to enable Trace / Debug profile options and repeat the action and disable Trace/ debug profile options and generate a log of the actions you have performed and read it with patience to find irregularities. Other Diagnostic Scripts and Outputs Apart from standard diagnostics scripts available in Oracle Diagnostics tool, time and again there are many scripts provided by oracle support in Metalink or through the service requests raised to obtain more and more information on the issue to find the root cause and fix the issue.

When one must approach Oracle Support for assistance and what are the prerequisites one must take care before approaching for assistance? When you have exercised all the above options and did a reasonable search on the Metalink with the error or error message, and still you are unable to fix the issue by yourself, it is time to reach Oracle support with all of the output / log files / screen shots you have obtained on the issue for faster resolution.

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Implementation Tips Make better usage of Pay group of functionality, since you cannot increase the selection criteria on the payment process request. Make better usage of Supplier classifications (Vendor Type lookup) setup, since one of the most common method of grouping payments is by the classifications of a supplier. For example, suppliers for Statutory dues are to be given priority and importance, it would be much easier if proper classification is assigned to every supplier, for better usage of functionality. While submitting payment process request, always select the options for stop and review under Process automation tab and validation failure results tab, since this helps you to review the payment process request at each and every stage and make corrections, else if there is any mistake, you may have to terminate and redo the whole process again. Oracle diagnostic tool provides with setup diagnostic scripts, which indicates any missing or incorrect setups performed, this helps one to identify issues at a very early stage. While configuring payment process profile, select your bank account that is to be used for making the payment, therefore every time when you select the payment process profile, related details would get defaulted automatically. Spend more time on deciding on the naming conventions for Pay group, Supplier Classifications, etc.

Frequently Asked Questions Does the module ipayments is totally scrapped due to introduction of Oracle Payments module? Not exactly, the module ipayments does not exist in release 12 now, however the database details, table structures still exists, therefore one cannot say that ipayments is totally scrapped. Is there a direct relation between invoices and the payment process profile? No, there is no direct relationship. While creating invoices one is never asked to provide the details of the payment process profile in the Invoice workbench. Payment process profile detail is collected only at the stage of making payment. Having said there is no direct relationship between invoices and payment process profile, details mentioned in the invoices must match with the details mentioned in the Payment process profile at the time of payment, else it is not possible to complete the payment. Oracle payments are stated as Centralized Payment System, what are the other payments that it takes care of? Apart from making payments to invoices in payables, oracle payments module takes care of Bank Account Transfers (BAT) from Cash Management and receipts through credit cards from receivables. It also integrates with third party systems. However Payroll is excluded from the Centralized Payment system. Does payment process profile is required for all payments or is it optional? Payment process profile is mandatory for all payments. However it is not required for a refund transaction made in payment workbench since it is not a payment. www.ivruksha.com Page 31

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Can a functional consultant make changes or create an XML template for various formats in payments or does it require any technical expertise as well? It will not be possible for a mere functional consultant make changes to existing templates or to create a new template, it requires technical expertise, or an exposure to XML Publisher is required. It is much advised to have exposure on XML publisher since most of the future technologies from oracle will be using reports based on XML / BI Publisher mostly.

How can one edit the existing XML templates using Microsoft Word? One needs to install an Add on software which is available for free download from metalink. This software is known as eText. Can one setup a payment format in a manner as per the client needs? There is a feature called validation in oracle payments which stipulates that every payment format must satisfy the seeded validations. These validations are performed so that the payment file is not rejected by the Payment systems. What is the difference between Build Payment process and Payment Instruction Process? There is not much difference between the two processes, both does the same function in separate ways. The function performed by them are Grouping of invoices. Build payment process groups the invoices for payment in certain way first, followed by the Payment instruction process which again regroups depending on how it is to be paid. Which process decides on how the invoices needs to be paid in the Payment Process Request? Invoice Selection process selects invoices based on due dates, Build process groups based on similarities on the selected invoices, whereas payment instruction process regroups invoices based on how the invoices needs to be paid. Is Bills payable available in payment method definition a new feature in release 12? No it is not a new feature; it has replaced Future Dated Payments used in Release 11. What is the difference between payment method defaulting rules and Usage rules under payment method definition? In Payment method defaulting rules, system performs the process of defaulting a payment method only. In Usage rules of payment method definition, system controls what values must be shown in the payment method LOV. Why at all we need Payment Process Profile, when the same is not used in the previous releases, and more than that it is a mandatory setup for making a payment, is there any logic behind?

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The reason of being mandatory is due to the change in the design of the payments, the formatting and transmission controls were enhanced in release 12 and scope of payments have been widened to many other modules also, hence it became mandatory so as to satisfy all such requirements. But I am sure, there is a very strong system logic is build behind which I am not aware at this point of time, would love to get feedback from readers. Does supplier and Customer bank accounts are taken care by relevant modules or Cash Management in Release 12? External bank accounts are now controlled by Payments module (IBY Schema) itself, only internal bank accounts are owned by Cash Management Module.(CE Schema) I have executed the payment process request, but it did not fetch any invoices for making payment, why? There are many reasons possible for such behaviour, few are: Invoice is not approved. The invoice is not due yet. The pay group of the invoice is different than the pay group used in the payment batch. Make sure the currency used on the invoices matches the currency for the payment format you are using. If the payment format is to handle a currency other than the functional currency, the field "Multiple" under the Currency region must be checked. Since there are two modules in release 12 (Oracle Payables and Oracle Payments), Payments created using payment process manager will be accounted under which module? Payment transactions are always sent to Payables, and accounting is performed in payables. SLA has nothing to do with Oracle Payments module; there is no accounting requirement in Oracle payments. Important Metalink References 1305001.1 - R12: Master Troubleshooting Guide for Payment Process Requests (PPRs) 1307420.1 - R12: How to Submit a New Payment Process Request (a "payment batch") 732167.1 - R12.0.6+: Oracle Payables Payment Process Request Data Collection Test 1088920.1 - R12: How Does Payment Process Request Select The Credit Memos? 1064602.1 - PPR: Improved Termination Usability for Payment Process Requests 1092897.1 - R12 Payables: Detailed Troubleshooting Guide for AP Invoices Stuck due to a Payment Process Request (PPR) 1314118.1 - R12: Troubleshooting Payment Process Request (PPR) Errors: Comprehensive Listing of Errors and Solution Documents 821133.1 - R12 Payment Process Request - Functional and Technical Information (Re) Sources of Information Oracle Payables Implementation Guide Oracle Payables User Guide Oracle Payments Implementation Guide Oracle Payments User Guide www.ivruksha.com Page 33

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Thank you for your Time and Patience AND Congrats on making it to the last page
Please shoot your views, mainly criticisms and incorrect statements on the document, so that the same can be corrected at the earliest. Author & Site Administrator: ivruksha@gmail.com

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