Bank Account Transfers in Oracle Cash Management

Bank account transfers represent fund transfers between internal bank accounts.

Bank account transfers can be done either manually or automatically. The access to bank account transfer creation for a particular legal entity is subject to bank account use security. The bank account transfers are reflected in Cash Position automatically. Payment processing for bank account transfers is managed using Oracle Payments. Journal entries are created through a centralized sub ledger accounting engine. From the point of view of bank account ownership, you can either do an Intra-Company bank transfer or an Inter-Company bank transfer. Intra-company transfers represent cash transfers between two internal bank accounts that belong to the same legal entity, while Inter-company transfers represent cash transfers between two internal bank accounts that belong to two different legal entities. In case of such transfers, the system can produce balanced journal entries for both legal entities. And from the point of view of transfer currency, you can either do a Domestic bank transfer or an International bank transfer. In Domestic bank transfer, the currency of both bank accounts and the transfer amount is the same.

For example, you are transferring USD between two bank accounts that are denominated in USD. In International bank transfer, the currency of one bank account is the same as the currency of the transfer amount but the currency of the other bank account is different. For example, you are transferring USD from a bank account denominated in USD to the bank account denominated in AED.

Setting Up Bank Transfers

Before creating a bank transfer, complete the following steps:

Navigate to the Profile Options page using Otherà Profile menu.

1. Search for CE: Bank Account Transfers profile.
2. Select Cash Management and select OK.
3. Set up transaction subtypes.
4. Set up payment templates.

Creating a Bank Transfer

To create a bank transfer, complete the following setup steps:

Navigate to the Bank Account Transfers page under the Cash Management Super User responsibility.

1. Click Create.
2. Enter the bank account transfer information.

If you select a payment template, the bank account transfer attributes defined at the template level will default in automatically.

1. Click Apply.

If you would like to validate the bank account transfer at the same time as saving it, click Apply and Validate. The bank account transfer will be available for further processing such as manual authorization, payment and journal creation only after it has been validated.

Authorizing a Bank Transfer

To authorize a bank transfer, complete the following setup steps:

Navigate to the Bank Account Transfer Authorization page under the Cash Management Super User responsibility.

Select the bank transfers from the displayed list and click Authorize Transfers.

If the transfer requires payment processing, they will now be automatically sent to Oracle Payments. If they do not require payment processing, they will now be available for journal creation.

Strength and Weakness of Approval Hierarchies available in Oracle Purchasing

Strengths and Weaknesses of Approvals Using the Employee/Supervisor Relationship

Strengths

• Allows flexibility of establishing approval groups around either jobs or positions.

• Assuming Oracle Human Resources (HR) is installed and the data is being maintained, Purchasing uses the supervisor name on the employee record which should be entered and maintained for HR purposes already.

Weaknesses

• Documents may not travel by the employee/supervisor relationship for approval purposes, but take a different path in part or entirely.

• Documents can get hung up more frequently due to the volume of personnel changes that typically occur in companies.

• Higher volumes of documents need to be re-routed using the Forward-To settings. Recall that the first name alphabetically appears as the default.

Strengths and Weaknesses of Approvals Using Position Approval Hierarchies

Strengths

• Allows approval paths to be set up that follow the actual flow of documents for approval

• Assuming Human Resources is installed and the data is being maintained, Purchasing can make an employee representation of the position approval hierarchy by simply running the Fill Employee Hierarchy process. This will allow changes occurring in personnel assignments to be updated in the position approval hierarchy.

• Documents can get hung up less frequently due to the lower volume of structural hierarchy changes compared to the higher volume of personnel changes that typically occur in companies.

• Lower volumes of documents need to be re-routed using the Forward To settings, especially when there are multiple holders in a particular job or position. Recall that the first name alphabetically appears as the default when there are multiple holders.

Weaknesses

• Cannot be used with jobs, but must be used with positions.

Some Doubts………..In Oracle Purchasing

What if there is more than one holder in a job or position?

Multiple holders in the same job or position can only occur if Oracle Human Resources is installed. If only Oracle Purchasing is installed, you can assign only one employee to each job or position. If multiple holders exist when using position approval hierarchies, Oracle Workflow will route the document to the holder based on alphabetical order. You can see who the system will route the document to by clicking the Forward radio button, overriding the defaulted name if needed.

What if there are changes to the position approval hierarchy?

Personnel changes are updated in the position approval hierarchy by running the Fill Employee Hierarchy process which reviews the employee record to determine the current position assignment. You will probably want to schedule this process to run on a frequent basis to ensure smooth processing of all approval requests. Structural changes to the position approval hierarchy require the hierarchy to be rebuilt from the point where the change occurs to the bottom of that branch. Documents are routed according to the hierarchy in effect at the time they are submitted for approval.

What if Human Resources were already implemented with jobs set up, but no positions?

Unless the decision to set up jobs only and no positions can be revisited, you will have to route all documents by the employee/supervisor relationship and maintain this data on the employee records.

What if the approver is unavailable for an extended period?

Oracle Purchasing has the ability to automatically forward documents when users do not respond to notifications. This tool should be used when possible to prevent documents from holding up business productivity. Oracle Workflow manages this functionality, typically set up to send a first and second reminder after pre-determined time periods before forwarding the notification to the next approver.

What if the document has a status of Pre-Approved?

The status of Pre-Approved is the outcome of a person forwarding a document for approval even though the forwarding person has the necessary authority to approve it. The document may have been forwarded by mistake or for business reasons. Once the person it was forwarded to approves the document, the status will be changed to Approved and subsequent actions such as receiving and invoicing can be completed.

What if there is no account range on an approval group assigned to a job or position?

By default, all accounts are excluded from an approval group and therefore documents governed by this approval group cannot be approved. You avoid this situation by ensuring that there is at least one Account Range Include rule on every Approval Group.

What if Workflow can’t find a supervisor to approve the document?

If this occurs, the person submitting the request for approval must forward the document to a different person in the list of values for Forward To. If this isn’t done, the document will be returned to an Incomplete status and a notification will be sent stating No Approver Found – Please Select a Forward To Employee. If using employee/supervisor relationship to determine approval paths, the list of values will include all active employees. If using position approval hierarchies to determine approval paths, the list of values will include all employees in the hierarchy selected.

What if a job or position has different authority levels for different document types?

You may have jobs or positions that can approve one document up to a specified dollar amount, while they can approve another document at a lower dollar amount. If this occurs, simply set up multiple approval groups with the rules properly defined for the differences and ensure that the right approval group is assigned to the correct document type.

What if documents flow employee/supervisor, but approval rules are needed?

Approval Groups can be used whether approval paths are determined by employee/supervisor relationships or by position approval hierarchies.

Document Access and Security Level in Oracle Purchasing

Document Access Levels

Specify an access level to control what modification and control actions can take on a particular document once user gain access. Document owners always have full access to their documents.

Following are Access level options

• View Only – Accessing employees can only view the document. Only the document owner may modify or control the document.

• Modify – Accessing employees can view, modify, freeze and close the document.

• Full – Accessing employees can view, modify, freeze, close, cancel and finally close the document.

Document Security Levels

Anyone with menu access to the document entry window can create a document. These individuals then become the document owners.

Security levels can be set for each document type. Following are Security level options

• Private – Only the document owner and subsequent approvers can access the document.

• Purchasing – Only the document owner, subsequent approvers, and individuals defined as buyers can access the document.

• Hierarchy – Only the document owner, subsequent approvers, and individuals above the document owner in the security hierarchy can access the document.

• Public – All system users can access the document.

Accrual Accounting – Periodic Accrual on Period End

Accrual Accounting – Periodic Accrual on Period End in Oracle Purchasing