Flowdown

This chapter covers the following topics:

Overview of Flowdown

Oracle Project Contracts enables users to configure flowdown of attributes, articles, terms and conditions, print forms, and standard notes to different business areas, such as Purchasing, Shop Floor, and Billing, on a need-to-know basis. The flowdown mechanism can also be used to provide subcontractors with the relevant or prime contract information.

Setting Up Flowdown

Define Attribute Groups

Contract attributes can be grouped for the purposes of flowdown. For example, you could create an attribute group called Administrative to group contract administration related attributes.

Attribute groupings are used to assign attributes to the attribute groups that have been defined. An attribute can only be assigned to one attribute group at a time. You can define flowdown by attribute or attribute groups. In the earlier example, contract administration related attributes such as date received, date approved, and award cancel date could be assigned to the attribute group called Administrative.

Define Article Subjects

Article subjects are used to categorize contract articles. Article flowdown is done through article subjects. Article subjects are defined as lookup codes in Oracle Contracts.

Define Terms and Conditions Types

Use Terms and Conditions Types to group terms and conditions for flowdown. Terms and conditions types are defined as lookups in Oracle Project Contracts.

Define Print Forms

You can define the printing forms that your customers and government agencies require for shipping, billing, and so on.

Define Business Areas

You can define various business areas for purposes of flowdown of contractual information. Some examples are Purchasing, Work In Process, and Quality.

Contract Flowdown Matrix

Use the Contract Flowdown Matrix to assign attribute groups, terms and conditions types, article subjects, print forms, and standard note types to various business areas. The matrix determines the flowdown data that is available to each business area.

Contract Flowdown Viewer

You view contract flowdown attributes using the Contract Flowdown Viewer in the appropriate business area. The Contract Flowdown Viewer is a self-service inquiry page and uses the contract/project reference in the business area to determine the flowdown information. Security setups are taken into consideration as part of the flowdown viewer process.

In iProcurement, the flowdown viewer is available in the Purchasing Summary or Requisition Summary windows using the Tools menu. The flowdown viewer uses the contract on the purchase order line to determine the flowdown information. If the contract number is not available at the PO line level, the flowdown viewer will use the project on the PO distribution to determine the contract to display. For example, you choose to flowdown the contract attribute priority code. You can have this information displayed on the flowdown viewer to your buyer or supplier or modify the printed purchase order form to include this information.

In Oracle Work in Process, you view contract flowdown information in the Discrete Workstation. The flowdown viewer uses the project on the WIP job to determine the appropriate flowdown information. If a project is linked to multiple contracts in Oracle Project Contracts, the list of contracts will be displayed for further selection.

In Oracle Shipping Execution, you view the contract flowdown information in the Shipping Transactions window using the Tools menu. The flowdown viewer uses the contract number, deliverable, project, and task on the delivery line to determine the flowdown information.

The flowdown viewer displays the following contract header information: contract number, type, status, project number, and description. For a selected contract, the flowdown details could include system attributes, terms and conditions types, article subjects, and standard note types. In the flowdown viewer, you can drill down to the line level for a selected contract and also view the system attributes, terms and conditions types, article subjects, and standard note types.

Implementation Notes

User attributes and document attachments in Oracle Project Contracts are not supported for flowdown purposes due to security issues.