The Feature

Do Not Forward Oracle Notifications from Outlook!

February 9, 2006 on 9:44 pm | by Marian Crkon | In Feature of the Week | Enter Comments |  Print |  Email

You can encounter this feature if you are using Oracle Internet Expenses and use email notifications to approve expense reports:

The Feature

There is a vulnerability in iExpenses approval workflow. Here is a scenario:

• Employee enters his expenses report and submits to his manager
• Manager receives an email notification to approve the expense report
• Manager forwards the notification USING OUTLOOK FORWARD FUNCTION (not an Oracle link provided in the email) to the the expense report preparer requesting more information.
• Employee receives the manager’s approval email, and is able to approve his own expense report.
• Expense report in iExpenses becomes approved, and shows it was approved by the expected approver.

The Summary

Employee can approve his own expense report after his manager forwarded the approval email to him. Furthermore, in Oracle iExpenses it looks like the expense report was approved by the manager himself.

The Workaround

Configure the Workflow Mailer to not allow a user to respond by email to an email notification that has been forwarded from another user. As Oracle Applications Manager (available from the Oracle Applications Rapid Install Portal window):

• Log in as Oracle Application Manager
• Navigate to Workflow Manager page
• Under Workflow System: click on Notification Mailers
• Click on your Mailer Name, and then Edit.
• Navigate to Edit Workflow Mailer: EMail Servers page.
• Make sure to uncheck the Allow Forwarded Response flag.

How To Create Expenses Overview

February 6, 2006 on 9:33 pm | by Marian Crkon | In How To Guides | 1 Comment |  Print |  Email

Employees and contingent workers can create expense reports in Oracle Internet Expenses in two ways:

• Online using their computers and a standard Web browser.
• Offline using Microsoft Excel spreadsheets from a configured template.

Expense Report Workflow ProcessWhen an employee submits an expense report for approval, the Expense Report workflow process begins. Once the workflow process is complete, the expense report in the Payables Expense Reports window has a number of restrictions on user interaction.

Manager (Spending) Approval Process

The Manager (Spending) Approval process routes expense reports to managers for approval. A manager’s ability to approve a report depends on the manager’s signing limit. If the total report amount is greater than the manager’s signing limit, Workflow forwards the report to the next person in the management hierarchy that has proper signing authority. When an expense report is approved, the workflow transitions to the AP Approval process. If a manager rejects the report, the workflow transitions to the Rejection process.

Rejection Process

When a manager rejects an expense report, the Rejection process begins. The Rejection process notifies the employee that the report has been rejected, with or without a reason. The employee can optionally modify and resubmit the report for approval using the Modify Expense Reports function.

AP Approval Process.

The AP Approval process first determines whether an expense report requires the approval of the accounts payable department. If approval from the accounts payable department is not required, the process automatically approves the expense report. If the report requires approval from the accounts payable department, the process waits until it receives a response from that department before continuing. The accounts payable department can use the Expense Reports window in Oracle Payables or the Audit Management feature to review, adjust, short pay, and approve expense reports. After the accounts payable department approves an expense report, the Oracle Expense Report Import program converts the report into an invoice.

Signing Limits

Managers can approve an expense report only if the total amount of the report does not exceed their signing limit. The Manager (Spending) Approval Process in the Expense Reporting workflow uses the signing limits you define to determine whether managers have authority to approve expense reports. When you assign signing limits to a manager, you specify a cost center to which the signing limit applies. You can also give managers signing limits for multiple cost centers.

Sending Receipts to Accounts Payable

After an employee submits an expense report, Internet Expenses displays a confirmation page with instructions for the employee. For example, you may want to inform the employee that a notification will be sent when the report is approved by management and at that time all original receipts must be sent to the accounts payable department.

Converting Expense Reports into Invoices

Oracle Payables pays invoices only, so before an approved expense report can be paid, it must be converted into an invoice. The Oracle Expense Report Import converts expense reports created in Internet Expenses into invoices in Oracle Payables. An expense report can be processed by the Expense Report Import program only if it receives approval from both the approval manager and the accounts payable department during the Expense Report workflow process. After running the Expense Report Import program, Payables prints the Invoice Import Exceptions Report. This report lists all expense reports that could not be imported, with the exception (rejection) reason. When a report is rejected by the Expense Report Import program, you must correct all problems in the expense report and then resubmit Expense Report Import to create an invoice.

Reimbursing Expense Reports

After the Expense Report Import program creates invoices for expense reports, Payables pays them as employee supplier invoices.

How To Disable Delegation of iExpenses Notifications

January 31, 2006 on 10:42 am | by Marian Crkon | In How To Guides | Enter Comments |  Print |  Email

Following steps provide instructions on how to disable delegation of authority for iExpenses notifications. This will prevent users from delegating their notifications, and hence their expense report approval authority, to other users. The Grant Worklist Access function is new in Release 10.5.10, and can only be disabled using the Oracle Personalization Framework, instead of be excluded as menu function.

Set Notification Reassign Mode to Transfer

You can read more about the notification reassign mode in the Do You Want to Delegate or Transfer That Oracle Notification? story.

1. • As System Administrator: Navigate to Profile > System
   • In the Find System Profile Values window, enable responsibility flag, and enter ‘Internet Expense’
   • In Profile field, enter ‘WF: Notification Reassign Mode’. Click Find.
   • Set the profile option as follows:Site=Reassign, Responsibility=Transfer.
   • Save you changes.

1. • As System Administrator: Navigate to Profile > System. In Profile field, enter ‘Personalize Self-Service Defn’. Click Find.
   • Set the Personalize Self-Service Defn to ‘Yes’.
   • Switch to Internet Expenses responsibility.
   • Navigate to Expenses Home page
   • Click on Worklist Access under Notifications section on Expenses Home page
   • On Worklist Access page with button ‘Grant Worklist Access’, click on Personalize Region
   • Click Apply.
   • Click on pencil (Personalize) on the Table : Worklist Access User Information List line.
   • On Personalization Properties page, find the field Rendered.
   • Change the value from Inherit to false
   • Apply
   • Click on Return to the Application link at the bottom of the page.
   • The ‘Grant Worklist Access’ function is now hidden.
   • Disable Personalization Framework. System Administrator: Navigate to Profile > System.
   • In Profile field, enter ‘Personalize Self-Service Defn’. Click Find.
   • Set the Personalize Self-Service Defn to ‘Yes’.

Disable “Grant Worklist Access” function by using Oracle Personalization Framework

CEO Reports to a Dummy?

January 24, 2006 on 5:45 pm | by Marian Crkon | In Feature of the Week | 5 Comments |  Print |  Email

Let me start the Feature of the Week column by describing a feature in Oracle Internet Expenses.

The Feature

Employee expense reports must be approved by their supervisors before they can be paid. And the way Oracle Internet Expenses approvals work is by using an employee-supervisor hierarchy. In other words, everyone must have a supervisor to be in a hierarchy, and be able to approve other people’s expense reports. Now, the CEO, or other employee at the top of the food chain, does not typically have a supervisor, right? Hence, any expense reports he tries to approve fail, because he is not in the supervisor hierarchy.

The Workaround

Oracle resources available on Metalink recommend setting up a dummy employee, which in fact we did. Let me tell you that it was a very embarrassing discussion with the client and their HR Management.

It is not a bug, and there is a workaround to make it work. But for the reasons above, CEO Approval of Expense Reports is my first (Fake) Feature of The Week.