The Feature

OTL Timecard Needs a Makeover

October 16, 2006 on 7:46 am | by Marian Crkon | In Ideas and Opinions, Reviews | 17 Comments |  Print |  Email

Here is some unsolicited feedback for you, Oracle Time and Labor (OTL) developers. Implementing Financials and Projects (11.i.10) I spent a good deal of last month with a group of Oracle users whose primary interaction with Oracle Applications was entering time and expenses against the projects they worked on. Being new Oracle users, they reminded me how “different” Oracle was and how it took some time to “get used to Oracle’s nuances”. I documented some their comments and observations below:

Usability

• Users are having tough time remembering to hit the “Go” button when they change time periods or templates; as a result, many timecards get entered into wrong periods.

• It is not very obvious one has to hit TAB to navigate across fields to “commit” values in each field (this is a general Framework issue). If you, for instance, entered a project number without hitting TAB and hit Search for tasks (Flashlight), the form generates an unintuitive error message or starts an infinite search that freezes the page

• It would really help the time entry process if users could see additional fields including project name, task name, or customer on their timecard lines. This would be particularly useful when, due to business requirements, you cannot limit the list of available project values based on people’s assignments.

Error Messages

Many existing OTL messages are not user friendly and explanatory. Error messages should explain to users what they did wrong. The existing OTL messages quite often tell the users what they don’t need to know and don’t not tell what they do.

OTL and OIE Inconsistencies

There are several differences between the OTL and iExpenses (OIE) look and feel that let you know you are using two separate applications developed by separate teams. For instance:

• Time Entry responsibility (sub-menu) lists the OTL functions in the Navigator window; OIE has a consolidated Expenses Home link with functions as Tabs.

• OTL lets you restrict a list of project-related values (project, task, expenditure type), OIE does not.

• OIE lets you search for projects by Project Number, Project Name, Start Date, End Date and Organization, OTL does not. In OTL, you can only search by Project Number and Project Name.

No Save at Timeout

If you walked away from your desk before saving your timecard - too bad for you. Typically, there is a 10 minute “inactivity” timeout that terminates your Oracle session after 10 minutes of no activity. This is a general Framework feature, not just OTL. Make sure you save your work every time!

Offline Timecard

This feature may look good on the OTL data sheet, but in reality, it is a joke (it generates laughs and sarcastic remarks every time we show it to end users, so we no longer do so). I’d really like to know if anyone is actually using it.

Project Timecard Approval and Import

There are, essentially, no parameters to control which timecards get approved and imported into Projects when the background approval method is used. It would be very useful to restrict approval and import by time period, organization, project type, or range of projects.

OTL and iExpenses are often the only two Oracle applications that many users will see. When they do not provide user experience people expect, they give the applications a reputation they do not deserve.

What is your experience with using OTL timecards and expense reports? Share your thoughts and experiences as comments below!

Oracle Project Billing - Show Me the Money!

March 17, 2006 on 10:41 pm | by Marian Crkon | In Reviews | 2 Comments |  Print |  Email

Oracle Project Billing is another core application in the Oracle Projects Suite 11i.10. It provides the ability to define revenue and invoicing rules for your projects, generate revenue, create invoices, and integrate with other Oracle Applications. It enables you to enter project customers and contacts with whom you have negotiated and contracted project work, define customer agreements (purchase orders, service agreements, contracts, etc.) from your customers and fund projects with those agreements. It provides ways to generate revenue using various methods including time and materials, percent complete, and cost plus, and create draft invoices from detail transactions and milestones for online approval by your project or accounting managers. Project Billing can automatically generate accounting entries for your revenue and invoices, and interface revenue to Oracle General Ledger and invoices to Oracle Receivables while maintaining a detail audit trail.

What it Can Do…

Billing Configuration

• Set up billing information, including customer, billing cycles, sales credit receivers, and retention terms
• Define billing methods for different contract projects or by top task for invoicing
• Set up bill rates for time and materials projects
• Define employee, job title and non-labor bill rates
• Assign and override bill rates and discounts

Agreements and Funding

• Define agreement types and templates
• Fund at project or task level
• Fund different projects across operating units
• Revaluate funding to match currency fluctuations
• Control billing by project or top task
• Define Customers by project or top task
• Enter agreements, bill rates, and events in any currency
• Configure hard and soft funding (revenue budget) limits
• Define currency conversion attributes
• Funding Multiple Projects and Tasks

Revenue Accruals

• Accrue revenue using time and materials, cost reimbursable, and fixed price methods
• Accrue revenue for a single project or range of projects
• Calculate potential revenue by percent spent or percent complete
• Accrue costs in the same period that that revenue is generated
• Review and adjust revenue accrual online

Invoice Generation

• Generate invoices based on defined milestones
• Use flexible invoice line formats to summarize invoice lines by different attributes
• Review and adjust invoices online
• Create Discounts, credit memos and write-offs
• Drill down from invoice to detailed transactions online
• Generate inter-project invoices to share costs and revenue between projects

Billing Analysis

• Create and view billing review reports
• Create and view billing process flow reports
• Invoice Flow Detail and Summary Reports
• Potential Revenue Summary Report
• Project Billing Status Report
• Revenue Flow Detail Report
• Analyze Billing Status in Funding Inquiry

Integration

Oracle Project Billing integrates with other Oracle applications including General Ledger, Payables, Project Contracts, and Receivables, as well with third-party applications through open, standards-based architecture.

What Works Great…

• AutoAccounting generates revenue and invoice accounting entries based on pre-defined rules to hidden from end users. It’s great to have an ability to define separate rules for different accounting functions.

• Integration with Other Applications is definitely a strength. Once you define your rules, integration with Project Costing, General Ledger and Receivables is effortless.

• Inter-Company and Inter-Project Billing is very useful for companies who need it.

• Multi-Currency Support for costing and billing is great.

• Online and Self-Service Inquiries including Funding Inquiry, Review Revenue, Invoice Review, and Project Status Inquiry make it easy to review project billing balances at glance. I noticed the Search button (Flash Light) does not work consistently in all Find windows.

• Potential Labor Revenue Report is a great way to see what labor revenue will be recognized, or needs to be fixed before it can be recognized.

• Billing Extensions provide a great way to extend the functionality of Project Billing. I also like the fact that more and more extensions are becoming the standard billing functionality.

• Revenue Audit Report is very helpful when reconciling project revenue to General Ledger.

• Unbilled Receivable/Unearned Revenue Views are great for reconciling revenue and receivable balances.

… and What Could Work Better

• Agreements Upload It is great to have the new API to upload agreements; but a new WebADI upload integrator would even better.

• Events Upload Same as above, the new API is great, but a WebADI upload integrator is still needed.

• Find Agreements The Agreements form needs a Find window with Customer, Agreement Number, Agreement Type, and Project Number as parameters.

• AutoAccounting is a great feature, but there are also several limitations, which sometimes make it frustrating to use. For example:

• Lookup Sets Having no validation in lookup sets provides great flexibility and maintenance nightmare. Just imagine a business with several hundred to several thousands departments. Imagine you change hundreds department names in HR. Since there is no API, or interface, you have to replicate all name changes in your lookup sets manually. Why not build parameters into lookup sets similar to AutoAccounting Rule parameters? You could store intermediate values based on value IDs, not actual values, so that any changes would be automatically reflected in lookup sets.
• Receivable Accounts could use more parameters to be able to create more robust rules.
• Error Reporting during revenue and invoice generation processes could be better. The “Invalid AutoAccounting” error just doesn’t provide enough detail.

• Billing Rates Upload and Maintenance Bill Rate Schedules could use a new API and WebADI upload integrator. Typically you maintain several hundreds rates in a typical rate schedule (e.g. by job title).
• Revenue Reporting There are no revenue reports (similar to expenditure detail and expenditure summary) by revenue type, revenue category, etc.
• Unbilled Expenses Reporting It would be useful to have a report showing what billable expenses are to be billed (similar to Potential Labor Revenue report).

For more information about Oracle Project Billing, refer to other Oracle resources:

• Oracle Project Billing Data Sheet with an overview and summary of key features.

• Oracle Project Billing User Guide 11i (OTN login is required)

I’ll Love DataLoad If I Have To

March 2, 2006 on 8:11 pm | by Marian Crkon | In Reviews | Enter Comments |  Print |  Email

I was really surprised to see that a white paper about DataLoad is scheduled to be presented at the upcoming OAUG conference COLLABORATE 06 in Nashville, Tennessee (April 23 - 27, 2006). When did DataLoad become the official Oracle integration tool?

I embraced DataLoad in its early days in late nineties and it saved my rear many times. However, all this time I’ve been thinking of DataLoad as a provisional “copy and paste” solution until Oracle, or somebody else, comes up with a better idea. I guess there is a place for a nimble data management tool like DataLoad for uploading smaller volumes of data. But I would not recommend it for anything more than 10 to 1,000 records. I’d rather see Oracle Web ADI Integrators or “Define-Your-Own-Integrator” integrator for all existing Oracle Applications APIs. I hope Oracle stays committed to enabling integration between MS Excel and Oracle Applications.

Meanwhile, I will love DataLoad. I will keep creating new templates and keep watching for hours as DataLoad copies and pastes data into the applications. While you are waiting with me, visit DataLoad for product information, user guides, sample spreadsheets and free downloads.

Oracle Project Costing - Know What It Takes to Run Your Projects

February 26, 2006 on 3:00 pm | by Marian Crkon | In Reviews | 12 Comments |  Print |  Email

Oracle Project Costing is one of the core applications in Oracle Projects suite. It allows you to set up your projects, project work-breakdown structures (WBS) and project budgets, collect project-related expenditures (including timecards, expense reports, supplier invoices, inventory costs, and other miscellaneous transactions), and account for them in your General Ledger. Depending on a project type, costs can be either billable to be billed to clients, or capital (CIP) to become fixed assets, or they can be other indirect (overhead) costs associated with running your business. Oracle Projects gives you tools to process all three types.

Continue reading Oracle Project Costing - Know What It Takes to Run Your Projects…

Welcome Aboard, Contingent Workers!

February 26, 2006 on 9:00 am | by Marian Crkon | In Reviews | 1 Comment |  Print |  Email

Open the gates! Roll out the red carpet! Start the music! Contingent workers have arrived in Oracle Applications (Release 10.5.10)! Who are those contingent workers anyway? I define them as individuals working for your business, but not on your payroll.

You are probably thinking what the big deal is, right? Well, it’s big because contractors can now enter time and expenses in Oracle, and we are done with all the ugly workarounds and customizations we had to do in the past! Somehow, it took Oracle several years to provide this functionality, but it’s better late than never. Contingent workers are here, and they look fabulous!

How It Works…

• In Human Resources (must be a fully installed HR), you can define contingent workers as persons with a separate person type ‘Contingent Worker’. You can define their assignments, assignment rates, and attach them to their suppliers - either their agencies or their respective 1099 suppliers.
• In Oracle Time and Labor (OTL), contingent workers can now enter time the same way employees do.
• In Oracle Internet Expenses (iExpenses), contingent workers can now enter expense reports the same way employees can. When expense reports are imported into Payables, they become invoices under suppliers that are assigned to contingent workers in HR.
• Contingent worker time and expenses can now be imported into Projects to be costed and/or billed according to your company’s needs.
• Contingent worker labor costs can be calculated either based on their Purchase Order, or Hourly Rates defined in Projects. Using the Labor Costing Extension, you can calculate their costs based on their assignment rate maintained in HR.
• You can define separate accounting rules for contingent worker costs and revenue, thanks to Person Type being a separate parameter in the AutoAccounting rules.
• You have an option to send, or not to send, contingent worker labor costs to General Ledger.

People keep asking me about the gotchas, hidden bugs and surprises. I can’t believe your expectations are so low! There are none. We found everything described above working as designed. Well, for most part…

.. What Could Work Better

• WebADI Transaction Import does not distinguish between person types, and hence does not recognize contingent workers. If you are planning on uploading a larger volume of contingent worker expenses into Projects (e.g. data conversions) using the Web ADI upload, it won’t work.
• The Streamline Interface Process (XL option), which interfaces labor costs from Projects to General Ledger, does not work for contingent worker costs, if they are being interfaced alone. It workrs fine if you interface them with employee costs. I understand this is an existing bug fixed in the next release.
• Contingent Worker and Supplier Start Dates Be careful about the start dates! If contingent worker record in HR has an earlier start date than his supplier record in Payables, and if contingent worker incurred expenses during that timeframe, his expense reports will fail, because “Supplier is Not Active”. In addition, there is no supplier start date, so fixing it is a lot of fun. See Contingent Worker and His Supplier Start Dates feature of the week.
• Contingent Worker Assignment Rate Start Date. Here is a little gotcha for you. Make sure you set this date far enough in the past so that you can cost any legacy timecards. Once you define the first assignment rate, you cannot define another before it.

Share your experience with contingent workers with others. Let the rest of us know what worked and what didn’t.

Nobody Knows Oracle Projects, Right?

February 25, 2006 on 5:00 pm | by Marian Crkon | In Reviews | 21 Comments |  Print |  Email

Not true. But it definitely feels that way when you implement Projects for companies, which are not typical project-centric businesses. There are (I am told) many companies in industries like construction, professional services, telecom, product development and others, as well as government agencies, who choose Oracle Applications instead of Peoplesoft or SAP specifically because of its Projects application. I had an opportunity to work with several clients who not only got Projects, but took advantage of every single bell and whistle available to them. So what is Oracle Projects? Currently it is marketed as Oracle Projects suite, which includes following products:

• Project Costing
• Project Billing
• Project Resource Management
• Project Management
• Project Contracts

Continue reading Nobody Knows Oracle Projects, Right?…

Oracle Internet Expenses Has Grown Up

February 25, 2006 on 12:01 pm | by Marian Crkon | In Reviews | 35 Comments |  Print |  Email

I recently had an opportunity to implement the new Internet Expenses application (10.5.10). I must say I liked what I saw! Anyone remembers Oracle Personal Time and Expenses (PT&E)? It’s a good thing if you don’t. The Internet Expense has matured into a nice, robust and stable application. The timing has worked in our favor, as we were able to utilize most of the new improvements.

What It Can Do…

Oracle Internet Expenses (iExpenses) is essentially an extension of Oracle Payables. It privides a way for employees and contingent workers to enter their expense reports. Employees and contingent workers become suppliers, and their expense reports become supplier invoices in Payables.

Integrate with Other Oracle Applications

• Oracle Human Resources - for one database of valid employees and contingent workers
• Oracle Payables – for seamless and streamlined expense report payment
• Oracle Projects - for billing to customers or internal tracking of costs
• Oracle Approvals Management - for flexible approval rules
• Oracle Grants Accounting - to charge expenses to awards for funds tracking
• Oracle Time and Labor - for common user interface
• Oracle Daily Business Intelligence - for expense analysis, Top Spenders report, and drill-down to line details

Expense Report Entry

• Enter expense reports using a browser, a wireless web-enabled mobile device, or an offline spreadsheet
• Enter expense reports on behalf of others
• Enter expense reports for contingent workers
• Pre-populate expense reports with credit card transactions
• Itemize charge card or cash line items and assign multiple expense types; Enable automatic Hotel Folio itemization based on card feed
• Allocate reports to many cost centers
• Copy saved and submitted reports
• Withdraw reports after submission
• Require or enable projects and tasks
• Require or enable category specific additional fields
• Include advances and refunds as negative amounts
• Default data based on user preferences, including from prior reports
• Calculate mileage and per diem during expense entry or import of spreadsheet
• View approval and payment status on the home page or using a Web-enabled mobile device
• Automatically capture and manage expense receipts online
• View notes, responses and actions in Approval Notes
• View card transaction history, mark items disputed with card provider

Company Policy

• Define company policy for online enforcement
• Define exchange rate defaulting and tolerance checking
• Require receipt by expense type and amount
• Require justification by expense types and upon policy violation
• Require receipt itemization and provide set of expense types for itemization
• Configure descriptive flexfields or additional fields for expense types
• Enable special messages or calculations on review, confirmation pages

Workflow Approvals and Notifications

• Approve expense reports and associated receipts, flag policy violations, and enforce reimbursement policy
• Review details of expenses with supporting receipt documentation on approval notifications
• Optionally require manager and accounts payable approval by exception
• Delegate or transfer approval authority, and handle vacations
• Build flexible approval routing rules and conditions, including line-based and cost center-based approvals
• Notify employees of policy violations, rejection or adjustments
• Notify users of reimbursements and payments to card issuers on their behalf

Charge Card Administration

• Define card usage and transaction submission policies for online enforcement
• Identify employees with outstanding credit card transactions by details or aging
• Automatically notify of unsubmitted card transactions, escalate as needed
• Pay charge card issuer directly on behalf of employees
• Use automatic new account registration
• Map card types for expense type defaulting

… What is New n Release 10.5.10

Expenses Home Page. The Expenses Home Page allows users immediate access to a variety of expense reporting information, workflow notifications, and their corporate credit card account information. It is a nice “portal” where employees can see and manage all expense reports. Employees are alerted to changes and transactions that require their attention and these items are highlighted and linked, so that they can be addressed in a timely and efficient manner. When you click on the Internet Expenses responsibility link, you are taken directly to the Expenses Home page. Because you can access all functions from the Expenses Home page, there is no longer the need to show a list of menu items.

Contingent Workers. It was about time! Non-employees, such as contractors and temporary workers, can now enter expense reports into Oracle Internet Expenses. You set up contingent workers in HR, and associate them with their Vendor record. The service providers who employ them are then paid directly through Accounts Payable. Contingent workers can also be set up to approve reports, enter reports for others, and audit reports.

Expense Allocations. You are now able to manualy override accounting information (for non-project expense lines only!).

Future-Dated Expenses.Expenses process owners can use the setup utility to define whether future-dated expenses should be treated as warnings or errors during expenses entry. This ensures that expenses are not entered into inappropriate accounting periods, which causes reimbursements to be delayed and accounting to be incorrect.

User-Interface Enhancements. Several usability enhancements were made, including browser Back button support and bubble text. In addition to the Internet Expenses Back and Next buttons, you can now use the browser Back button to go back and make changes while entering an expense report, unless the report has been submitted or items were deleted. Bubble text was added for buttons and icons.

Other improvements include:

• Enhanced Approval Rules using Oracle Approvals Management
• Enhanced Approver Entry
• Enhanced Adjustment and Short Pay Processe
• Enhanced Expenses Itemization
• Paperless Audit Rules
• Audit List Rules
• Manager Reporting
• Improved Workflow Notification

… And What It Could Do Better

Improve the Offline Expense Report Upload Importing the Offline Spreadsheet is clunky, prone to errors, unintuitive, and most users stay away from it. How about a WebADI like looking upload, which validates against valid projects, tasks and expense types? Clients also ask for ways to customize the offline spreadsheet so that they could input copany logo, expense policy, etc.

Provide Valid Alternative Approvers Only. The list currently shows everybody in the employee-supervisor hierarchy. Employees can chose Override Approvers, who are not defined as approvers in Payables, and hence, expense report submissions fail. This can be avoided by simply limiting the list of employees in the Override Approver field to valid approved in Payables.

Detail vs. Summary Expense Entry - it would be nice to be able to switch the default expense report layout between summary and detail.

Provide a List of Override Cost Center Values. Users can currently enter only cost centers, but they are unable to choose them from the list.

Expense Report Printing Printing an expense report does not fit to a page! There are a couple of Metalink notes outthere, but no solutions. Please fix this!

Provide customizable views to limit the list of projects, tasks and expenditure types (similar to OTL views).

Improve AME Why provide yet another tool to make the applications work? Why not use Workflow instead? While is is a great idea to provide additional options for expense report approvals, the current AME is far from being the “robust tool forline-based and cost center-based approvals “.

Provide a better solution for CEO Expense Report Approval. The default approval workflow uses the supervisor hierarchy to approve expense reports, i.e. everybody needs a supervisor in order to approver expense reports. Assigning a dummy employee to be CEO’s supervisor is not a good solution.

Allow Cross-Charge between multiple business units for project-related expense reports by engaging Account Generator, even if the initial combination of employee’s default company and override cost center is invalid.

Manage Attachements. Provide a better way for iExpenses Administrators to manage (view, save, print) expense report attachements.

Provide a way to change project-related information for submitted expense reports before they get imported to Payables.

Provide Direct Deposit Intergration with 3rd Party Vendors. Not as much iExpenses feature, but a requirement for better integration with Oracle Payroll, or other Payroll providers like ADP and PeopleSoft. Companies need to be able to reimburse expense reports via direct deposit without replicating bank and bank account information in Oracle Payables. Most employees now have their paychecks deposited directly, and expense reports should be paid the same way.

Additional Information

Check following resources for additional information about Oracle Internet Expenses:

• Oracle Internet Expenses Datasheet (a .pdf file) available at Oracle Applications Home page. Below I provide excerpts from the datasheet.
• Oracle Internet Expenses Implementation and Administration Guide

Share your experience with Oracle Internet Expenses. What is your favorite feature?

Find this and similar articles in iExpenses.

Introduction to Reviews

January 22, 2006 on 9:49 pm | by Marian Crkon | In Reviews | Enter Comments |  Print |  Email

All right, this a call to all Oracle Applications experts!

It’s a Feature! is here to provide a forum to express your opinion and share your knowledge by creating independent, in-depth product reviews of Oracle Applications. Have you noticed that nobody else is writing them? People write reviews about shows, cars, ipods, so why not ERP applications? Companies spend millions on them. I assume that everyone who knows enough about the applications to write an in-depth review is too busy developing, selling, implementing or using them. I will only write reviews about applications I personally tested and implemented.

This is a great opportunity for all you Super Users and Consultants to let people know what you know. Pick your favorite application or feature, and write a review about! Let people know about what you liked and didn’t like, what worked and what didn’t. Let other users know how you made it work. This is a great a way to provide feedback to people who create the applications. For consultants, this is a great way to reach clients and create leads. Let them come to you!

And as always at It’s a Feature!, make sure to do your homework and know what you talk about before you hit that Post. Other experts will read and scrutinize your opinions.