Applications Integration

Dude! You are getting Paid!

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Integrating Payables & Project Expenses in 11i

Lakshmi Sampath,
Stone Blue Technologies
 Lakshmi Sampath
Presidential Ballroom D
12:15 pm – 1:15 pm
Thursday
 Presenter Qualifications
• Principal Consultant at Stone Blue Technologies.
• Expertise in implementing EBusiness Suite 11i –
including IStore, ISupplier, CRM, OM, Fin & HR
• Presented several Papers and hosted Panels at
the OAUG, Oracle Open World, Austin Oracle
Users Group etc.
• ENCORE Presenter @ COLLABORATE-2006
• Board Member of Austin Oracle Users Group
 Agenda for today’s presentation
• Key Items for each integration point
• Entering Expense Reports in 11i
• Setting Up in Payables and Oracle Projects
• Submitting the Streamline Processes
• PA Ù AP Integration Processes
• Tables involved during the integration
processes along with Typical Error
Messages during each process
• Troubleshooting tips & Bug Information
• New features in 11i
 Who will benefit ?

¾Oracle PA/AP Support/Developers

¾Oracle Payables Support/Developers
¾PA and AP Functional analysts
¾End-users and ...
¾Of course all of you who are here and
watching
 1. Key Items for each integration point
¾Data flow during each process and tables
involved
¾ Transaction flow between PA and AP
¾ Concurrent Manager Processes
¾ Various problems encountered and error
messages
¾ Troubleshooting/Bug Info
¾ Tips to overcome typical error messages
¾ New features in 11i and set-up parameters
 2. Entering Expense Reports in 11i
¾Oracle Projects through pre-approved batches window
¾Oracle Self -Service Expenses (Web Expenses/Internet
Expenses) and imported into AP and then interfaced to
PA
¾Oracle Payables using the Invoice and the Distributions
window in AP and then interfaced into Oracle Projects.
¾Imported into Oracle Projects from an external source
and then processed through the Transaction Import
Process.
No longer supported in 11i are Oracle Project Time and
Expense and Oracle Personal Time and Expense (PTE)
 3. Setting Up in Payables
¾ Select the Expense Reimbursement Address as
Office/Home
(AP, Setup->Financials->HR)
¾ Automatically Create Employee as Supplier
(AP, Setup->Options->Payables->Expense Report)
¾ Accept or override the employee address
(AP, Setup->Options->Payment->Allow Address Change)
¾ Define/Determine the Expense Report Cost Account
(Auto accounting rules)
¾ Define/Determine the Expense Report Liability Account
(Auto accounting rules)
 3. Setting up in Oracle Projects
¾ PA: Summarize Expense Report lines
(SYSADMIN: Profile>System>Value–Application level)
¾ PA: Allow Override of PA Distributions in AP/PO
(Site, Application, Responsibility and User)
¾ PA: Auto approve Expense Reports (Application level)
¾ PA: Default Expenditure Organization in AP/PO (Site
Level)
¾ Invoice Batch Source = ”PA Invoices”
(PA Setup/System/Implementation Option /Billing )
4. Submitting the streamline Processes
¾ Submit two or more processes in one step.
¾ Options Available: DXES, DXEU, XES, XEU etc.
¾ Some processes use a lot of system resources (DXES, DXEU etc.).
We run the
I) PRC: Distribute Expense Report Costs separately
II) then use XES – Interface Expense Report Costs to AP
(Summarized) to submit PRC: Submit Interface Streamline
process to complete the rest of the processes.
 We may use any combination of streamline processes or perform
individual functions to invoke these interface processes. But they
must be invoked in the correct order for them to run successfully.
It is always advisable to use Streamline Process instead of
individual processes.
 5. PA Ù AP Integration Processes
Time to have some fun !!!
¾ We have a Web-based Custom Expense application (fully integrated
with Oracle Projects) using which all the employees fill up their
expense reports online.

¾ A Concurrent Program (SQL Script) is set up in Oracle Projects to

execute weekly to transfer the ‘APPROVED’ expense reports from the
web interface into the Project Accounting interface table
(Pa_transaction_interface_all).

¾ Following Information transferred during the web download:

Employee_number, expenditure_item_date, project_number,
task_number, expenditure_type, quantity, transaction_status_code
and expenditure_ending_date.
 5. Ooops … some more to say
Following Processes must be invoked to complete the
Expense Reports Integration
ÀPRC: Transaction Import
ÀPRC: Distribute Expense Report Costs
ÀPRC: Interface Expense Reports to Payables
ÀAP: Payables Invoice Import
ÀPRC: Tieback Expense Reports from Payables.
 6. Tables Involved during the Integration Process

a) PRC: Transaction Import

Transaction import loads transactions as pre-approved expenditure
items and expenditure batches are created as having a status of
‘Released’.
Data Transfer occurs from Î
pa_transaction_interface_all
(Project Interface Table)
Ë È Ì
pa_expenditure_batches_all, pa_expenditures_all,
pa_expenditure_items_all
( Project Accounting Tables )
 6 a) Tables Involved during PRC Transaction
Import

Data Flow from PA interface to PA

PA_TRANSACTION_INTERFACE_ALL
PA_TRANSACTION_SOURCES
PA_TRANSACTION_XFACE_CTRL_ALL

PA_EXPENDITURE_GROUPS_ALL

PA_EXPENDITURES_ALL

PA_EXPENDITURE_BATCHES PA_EXPENDITURE_ITEMS_ALL
 Just a little more info ...
¾ Transaction Import process generates two reports:
(1) An exception report listing all rejected transactions
(2) A summary report showing the successfully imported transactions.

From version 11i onwards, a new form called review transactions has
been added in Oracle Projects. (Navigation is: Expenditures ->
Transaction Import -> Review Transactions). This form is extremely
useful in expediting minor additions to the expenditure batches. It can
also be used to correct rejected transactions in the interface table using
this form.
Limitations of Transaction Import Process

™ Transaction Import detects only one error per transaction each

time you run the import process. If a single transaction has
multiple errors, you will need to run Transaction Import more
than once to discover all the errors.
Enhancements of Transaction Import Process in 11i
(1) Multi-Currency Transactions (2) Supplier Invoices.
The following columns for transactions can be imported, depending on the
options we specify for the Transaction Source:
(1) Employee Organization Override
(2) User-Specified Billable flag
(3) User-Specified Expenditure Reference
(4) User-Specified Original Transaction Reference (for adjusting transactions)
™Pre- and Post-Processing Extensions
™Expenditure Item Descriptive Flexfield validations
™Validation of Account Codes Provided for Accounted Transactions
™Adjusting or Reversing Imported Transactions in Oracle Projects (depending
on Transaction Source option)
™Allow Adjustments option for accounted transactions
As promised, here are those “Driving me crazy” exceptions

Rejection Code : PA_EX_PROJECT_CLOSED

Solution: Assign the expenses to a different Project .

Rejection Code : PA_EX_PROJECT_DATE

Solution: Assign the expenses to a different Project which was active during
the item date or Change the project start date to an earlier date.

Rejection Code: EI_DATE_AFTER_END_DATE

Solution: Change the expenditure_item_date or the
expenditure_ending_date.
 Some more goodies ...
Rejection Code: INVALID_END_DATE
Solution: Change the expenditure_ending_date to a valid week-ending date.

Rejection Code: INVALID_PROJECT

Solution: Check to make sure if the project exists.

Rejection Code: INVALID_EMPLOYEE

Solution: Check to make sure if the employee info exists in the projects.

Rejection Code: PA_EXP_TYPE_INACTIVE

Solution: Change the expenditure item date, expenditure type, or expenditure types.
 Some More Exceptions

Rejection Code: PA_EXP_TASK_TC

Solution: Make sure there are no overlaps in the pa_transaction_controls table for this
task_id and project_id within the expenditure item date/ending_date

Rejection Code: PA_EXP_TASK_EFF

Solution: Change the expense report task number to reflect the active task number.

Rejection Code: NO_ASSIGNMENT

Solution: This was one of the issues with our Import. Explanation
 This is like “ Buy 1 get 2 free “
The min(effective_start_date) for each employee in --> per_all_assignments_f
Should match ----->
effective_start_date in per_all_people_f table and date_start column in
per_periods_of_service table.

Rejection Code: NO_MATCHING_ITEM

Description: No eligible expenditure item exists in PA for this adjustment.
Solution: If the transaction is an adjustment with a negative quantity, and the
unmatched negative flag is not set to Yes, an original, approved, un
reversed expenditure item matching the transaction’s
employee/organization, item date, expenditure type, project, task, reversing
quantity, reversing cost and non-labor resource and non-labor organization
must exist. Also, the matching expenditure item must have been originally
loaded from the same transaction source.
Note: If the employee number is specified, transaction import ignores any value for the
organization and derives the organization value based on the employee’s
assignment. Transactions with anher expenditure type classes (other than Expense
Reports) do not require an employee number
 6(b) PRC : Distribute Expense Costs
Costing = Calculate the Expenditure and Assign to Project

PRC: Distribute Expense Report Pre-requisite for the generation of

revenue and Invoices for expense report expenditure items.

Auto-accounting - Critical piece of project costing

When this distribute process runs, it invokes the
Auto accounting function ‘Expense Report Cost Account’
and populates the respective Debit CCID (dr_code_combination_id
column) in the Pa_cost_distribution_lines_all table (cdl).

How PA Date is determined?

 PA Date is determined based on the first open or future
period that is on or after the expenditure_item_date.
 6 (b) Distribution of cost data in PA

PA_EXPENDITURES_ALL

PA_EXPENDITURE_ITEMS_ALL PA_EXPENDITURE_BATCHES

PA_COST_DISTRIBUTION_LINES_ALL
 Common Exceptions Encountered

1. Rejection Code: KEY_FLEX_FAIL-Invalid Accounting Flexfield and

AA_NULL_CCID- Auto Accounting Error: null ccid
Description: The GL account returned by Auto Accounting does not pass validation rules
defined for the gl account and the code combination id derived by AutoAccounting is
invalid respectively.
Solution: Check to see if the project code, task code and Organization_id are correct.
Find out which gl code the above combination will hit. Make sure you haven’t excluded
this particular GL code in the Cross-validation rules and make sure dynamic inserts are
turned on.

2. Rejection Code: AA_FAIL - Incomplete Autoaccounting Rule

Description: A GL account could not be determined for the cost distribution line, due to
incomplete Auto Accounting setup
Solution: Check to see if the Project_code, task_code, incurred_by_organization_id are
correct. Everything should be in sync in order to avoid this.

3. Rejection Code: NO_PA_DATE

Description: Project Accounting Period is not open
Solution: Make sure your PA Period is open.
 6(c) PRC: Interface Expense Reports to Payables

¾ PATTER process collects eligible Cost distributed Expense

reports and sends them to Payables Interface tables
¾ Invokes the auto accounting function ‘Expense Report
Liability Account’ ( populates cr_code_combination_id in
pa_cost_distribution_lines_all and
accts_pay_code_combination_id in
ap_expense_report_headers_all)
 PA Auto accounting rule takes precedence over the
employee’s default expense account when determining the
invoice liability account (and also it does not invoke Account
Generator/ Flexbuilder).
 How is GL Date determined?
¾ In Oracle Projects, the GL Date for costs is the end date of the
earliest open or future GL period that is on or after the latest PA
Date of the cost distribution lines included in an expense report.
¾ All cost distribution lines for an expense report are sent together to
Payables and use the same GL date which becomes the GL date of
the invoice in payables. Note:
¾ If expense reports from any source fail to post to Payables, we may
need to redistribute costs (using the PRC: Distribute Expense
Report Costs process)
¾ Typically, Auto-Accounting rules require occasional updates.
Transactions may fail during distribution and interfacing if the Auto-
accounting rules are incomplete.
6 (c) Interfacing Expense data from PA to AP

PA_COST_DISTRIBUTION_LINES_ALL

AP_EXPENSE_REPORT_HEADERS_ALL AP_EXPENSE_REPORT_LINES_ALL
Bugs and Exceptions?! Here you go
1. Problem: The process does not pick up expenditure items with
transfer_status_code=’P’ (pending). No error messages appear.
Solution: Set Automatic Release to ‘YES’ for PRC: Distribute
Expense Report Costs. (Note: 1068250.6, 1060896.6)

2. Problem: After running the PRC: Submit Interface Streamline

Processes with Streamline Option: DXEU, the process completes
with a status of “Error” and Rejection Reason – No Open Project
Accounting Period or Could not create a valid GL Date.
Solution: Verify all the periods are open in PA, AP and GL. (Note:
1080222.6)

3. Problem: After running the PRC: Submit Interface Streamline

Processes either individually or as a streamline, you get an error
‘Combination Missing’
 Solution?!
¾ Check if Auto accounting rules are setup correctly
¾ Open a TAR with Oracle
¾and then research the expense data based on the
following:=)
Remember, the following information is provided for research
purposes only.
Do not modify the data using SQL PLUS. Oracle will not support it.
 Investigation Step No. I
i) select * from pa_cost_distribution_lines_all
where transfer_status_code like ‘X’
and transfer_rejection_reason like ‘Missing data on record to be transferred%’
and cr_code_combination_id is null;

or

select * from pa_cost_distribution_lines_all

where expenditure_item_id in (select expenditure_item_id
from pa_expenditure_items_all
where cost_distributed_flag like ‘S’)

*** If zero rows are returned, then do the following query. Otherwise go
to ii)

select * from pa_cost_distribution_lines_all

where transfer_status_code like ‘T’;

If no rows are retrieved here also, then this fix may not help.
 Investigation Step No. II
If a few rows are retrieved, then you can assume that PRC: Interface Expense Reports
to Payables was successful and there were some problems with the next two
processes.

ii) select * from ap_expense_report_headers_all

where vouchno=0
and accts_pay_code_combination_id is null;

*** get the report_header_id for the retrieved rows

If no rows are retrieved, then this error may be due to some other reason..
iii) select * from ap_expense_report_lines_all
where report_header_id=&report_header_id;

If you have retrieved at least one row for i) and ii) and none for iii) then following may be
the fix for your problem.
 Here you go…..
Solution :

select count(*) from ap_expense_report_headers_all

where vouchno=0
and accts_pay_code_combination_id is null;

If you get the count in multiples of 100, then this is due to bug
#1551379
(Ref# TAR-13305123.6)
You have to delete one expense report and process the rest of the expense
reports first and then process one expense report separately. This will
resolve the issue.
This issue is finally resolved in 1701594 for versions 10.7, 11.0 and 11.5.
 6 (d) AP: Payables Invoice Import
¾ creates invoices and invoice distribution lines
(ap_invoices_all and ap_invoice_distributions_all) from
Payables Interface tables (ap_expense_report_headers_all
and ap_expense_report_lines_all).

 If you do not enable Automatically create Employee as

Supplier, you must manually enter the employee as a
supplier before submitting Payables Invoice Import.
6(d)Invoice Import Process at a glance

PA_COST_DISTRIBUTION_LINES_ALL

AP_EXPENSE_REPORT_HEADERS_ALL AP_EXPENSE_REPORT_LINES_ALL
Typical Exceptions During Invoice Import
1. Rejection Code: Error Code: AddrLine [1-3]
TooLarge:
Solution: Login to PA module, go to Setup, HR, Employees, Query the employee
for whom you have this error, then click on More, Addresses and change the
address line [1-3] and reduce the character length to 35 and do the import. It
should work fine.

2. Rejection Code: Error Code: Create Duplicate

Supplier
Description: This may be due to any of the following reasons:
i) When you try to create an expense report for an employee name that is
not already a supplier and a supplier name already exists for the same
employee .
ii) Login to AP module, go to Suppliers screen and query the employee
name and under Classification see if you have checked One Time
Check box.
Solution: If i) is true, you know what to do.
If ii) is true then Remove the One Time Checkbox.
 Here again...
3. Rejection Code: Error Code: Create EFT Site
Description: The Financials Option for payment method is Electronic.
The employee exists as a supplier in Oracle Payables, but is missing
bank info in Supplier site.
Solution: Enter the necessary bank information in the supplier site.

4. Rejection Code: Error code: Create EDI Site

Description: This is a Setup Problem. When we setup Supplier sites in
Payables, the site name should be either ‘OFFICE’ or ‘HOME’. If not,
then we will get this exception.
Solution: Create a new site called ‘HOME’ or ‘OFFICE’ for the
supplier.
 6 (e) PRC: Tieback Expense Reports from Payables
¾ Identifies Expense reports rejected by Payables
Invoice Import

¾ Reconciles Expense reports in Oracle Projects and the

related invoices in payables

¾ updates the purgeable_flag from ‘No’ to ‘Yes’ for each

expense report in the ap_expense_report_headers_all
table
 6 (f) Adjusting Project Related Expense Reports
¾ You can adjust an expense report in Oracle Projects at any
time, but you cannot interface adjustments to Payables
until an invoice exists in Payables and you have run the
tieback process.

¾ In order to process expense report adjustments, the

following processes must be invoked:
¾ PA: Distribute Supplier Invoice Adjustment Costs
¾ PA: Interface Supplier Invoice Adjustment Costs to Payables

¾ There is no need to run Payables Invoice Import for

adjustments to expense reports already interfaced or tied
back from Payables.
 Epilogue
¾ And so with a closing thought that although tremendous advances
have and are being made in this subject area to handle the processes
and tackle all arising problems, this paper strives to be a small step in
that direction and hopes to be a part of that tide in bringing to shore a
trove of vital information.
 Acknowledgements
• Ram Ganapathy – Dell Computer Corporation
Q&A
Thank You!
 Email Address
lakshmi@stonebluetech.com