This chapter covers the following topics:
Audit Automation in Oracle Internet Expenses works together with your rate and policy schedule setup to manage the auditing of employee expense reports. Audit Automation helps ensure that expense reports comply with the policies of your company without having to audit all expense report submissions.
The Audit Automation feature lets you automate several processes related to the auditing of expense reports. These include:
Selecting which expense reports to audit.
Identifying expense reports with policy violations.
Assigning selected expense reports to auditors through the audit queue.
Auditing expense reports with or without a receipt package.
Approving certain types of expense reports automatically without audit.
Labeling the audit status of all expense report confirmation pages.
Creating and updating a list of employees whose expense reports are to be audited.
The key components of Audit Automation setup are audit rule sets, the audit list, and audit list rule sets. Audit rules determine the criteria that Internet Expenses uses to select expense reports for audit. You can also make use of audit rules to automatically assign expense reports to auditors based on the receiptless audit rules. The Audit List is the list of employees whose expense reports are automatically selected for audit. While employees are on the audit list, each expense report that they submit is passed for auditing. Audit List Rules determine the criteria that Internet Expenses uses to automatically place employees on the audit list, as well as determining how long employees remain on the audit list.
Use the information in this chapter to set up Internet Expenses for audit automation. For information about auditing expense reports and managing expense report auditors, see: Oracle Audit Management.
Create one or more audit rule sets to automate the audit selection and auditor assignment of expense reports. An audit rule set contains the selection rules that Internet Expenses uses to select expense reports for audit. Rule sets also contain the receiptless audit rules that are used to automatically assign expense reports to auditors.
You can create audit rule sets that reflect the business requirements of each operating unit in your company. Each audit rule set can contain its own audit selection criteria, according to the business needs of each operating unit. You can update the values in an existing audit rule set, and you can delete an audit rule set by applying an end date, if it is not assigned to any operating unit.
After you create audit rule sets, assign them to the operating units in your company. You can, for example, assign the same audit rule set to each operating unit that uses the same business practices.
If an operating unit does not have an audit rule set assignment, then Internet Expenses does not use the Audit Automation feature. All expense report audits are paper-based only, and there is only this limited automatic approval process:
If the expense report contains credit lines only, Internet Expenses automatically approves the expense report.
If the expense report only contains expenses that do not require a physical receipt and justification, Payables automatically approves the expense report.
Before you can set up audit rule sets in Internet Expenses, you must:
Define your operating units. See: Defining Operating Units for more information.
Set up rate and policy schedules, if the use of schedules is part of your audit rule set or audit list rule set. See: Creating Policy Schedules and Creating Mileage and Per Diem Rate Schedules for more information.
Assign schedules to expense types, if the use of schedules is part of your audit rule set or audit list rule set. See: Defining Expense Report Templates for more information.
Define currencies and exchange rates, if you plan to use the rule Audit all expense reports greater than a specified amount.
Use the Create Audit Rule Set page to create a new audit rule set or to update an existing audit rule set.
An audit rule set contains four sections of information:
Header information
Audit selection rules
Receiptless audit
Confirmation page audit indicator
Enter an audit rule set name and description. You can optionally enter an end date. Audit Rule Set Name and Description are mandatory fields.
You cannot save an audit rule set that contains header information only. You must choose at least one option from the sections Audit Selection Rules, Receiptless Audit, or Confirmation Page Audit Indicator to create an audit rule set. These dependencies apply to the selection of audit rules:
You must choose at least one rule in the section Audit Selection Rules to make use of Receiptless Audit.
If you only use the section Confirmation Page Audit Indicator, and you assign this audit rule set to an operating unit, then Internet Expenses automatically approved all expense reports for this operating unit.
Choose the audit selection rules that you want for each audit rule set. Internet Expenses chooses expense reports for audit according to the rules you choose.
The audit selection rules do not work in a hierarchical manner. If more than one rule applies to an expense report, then the expense report is selected for audit with all of the audit rules that apply.
Notes on the audit selection rules:
Audit the specified percentage of all expense reports - If you choose this rule, you must enter a percentage value in the Audit percentage field. Internet Expenses randomly selects for audit the specified percentage of expense reports. Because rules do not work in a hierarchical manner, Internet Expenses may select for random audit one or more expense reports selected for audit according to other rules used by the audit rule set.
If you select the Contain credit lines only option or the Contain only expense types where receipt and justification are not required option, then Internet Expenses does not include in random audit the expense reports that match these criteria.
Audit all expense reports greater than a specified amount - If you choose this rule, Internet Expenses selects for audit all expense reports where the total expense report amount is greater than the amount specified for the rule. Enter the Amount and default reimbursement Currency to use for the rule.
For any expense report where the currency is not the default reimbursement currency specified by the rule, Internet Expenses converts the expense report currency to the default currency and calculates the expense report amount. Internet Expenses uses the exchange rate in the GL daily rates table that was in effect on the expense report submission date. If the calculated amount is greater than the amount specified by the rule, the expense report is selected for audit.
If there is no exchange rate defined in the GL daily rates table for the expense report currency on the expense report submission date, then the rule is ignored and the expense report is not selected for audit.
Audit all expense reports with required receipts - If you choose this rule, Internet Expenses selects for audit all expense reports with at least one expense line that requires a receipt. The selection does not consider whether or not the user provided the receipts.
Audit all expense reports with required justifications - If you choose this rule, Internet Expenses selects for audit all expense reports with at least one expense line that requires a justification. The selection does not consider whether or not the user provided the justification.
Audit all expense reports with policy violations - If you choose this rule, Internet Expenses selects for audit all expense reports that has policy violations such as duplicate expenses.
Audit expense reports of individuals on the audit list - If you choose this rule and assign this audit rule set to an operating unit, you can create an audit list rule set and assign this audit list rule set to the same operating unit, to automate the management of the audit list. If you do not assign an audit list rule set to this operating unit, then you can only add individuals to the audit list manually. See: Audit List Rule Sets for more information.
Audit all expense reports with receipts older than a specified time limit - If you choose this rule, Internet Expenses looks at the receipt date of all receipts submitted with the expense report. If at least one receipt date is older than the expense report submission date by the specified time limit, then the expense report is selected for audit.
Audit all expense reports that did not contain an available advance - If you choose this rule, Internet Expenses checks to see if the user who submitted an expense report has an available advance. If at least one available advance exists that is not applied, then the expense report is selected for audit.
Expense reports can be automatically assigned to the auditor based on the types of receipts or expense reports not requiring receipts. However for the expense report to be automatically assigned, the expense report must fall under the criteria selected in the audit selection rules. If an expense report falls under the audit selection rules and the automatic auditor assignment is setup, then the expense report gets assigned to the auditor automatically.
For receipt based expense reports, the option of automatic assignment to auditor can be specified. This is available for both the types of receipts, that is, Original and Imaged Receipts.
The point of time when the expense report should be assigned to the auditor can also be specified. There are 2 options, After receipts are received and After manager approval and receipts are received. Based on the option selected here, the expense report gets automatically assigned to the auditor provided the expense report falls under the criteria defined in audit selection rules.
Use the Receiptless Audit section to choose the rules that allow the auditing of expense reports that do not require receipts. You must choose at least one rule in the section Audit Selection Rules to use receiptless audit.
Internet Expenses first selects expense reports for audit based on the Audit Selection Rules, and then determines the expense reports available for receiptless audit based on the receiptless audit rules. Internet Expenses assigns each expense report available for receiptless audit to an auditor for the designated operating unit. Auditors must be defined to use receiptless audit rules. For more information, see: Creating Auditors.
Audit Automation divides expense reports into four audit categories:
Expense reports that do not require audit.
Expense reports that require audit with an original receipt package.
Expense reports that require audit with imaged receipt(s) required.
Expense reports that require audit but do not require any receipts.
Use the Confirmation Page Audit Indicator section to create an alphanumeric code for each audit category. If you choose this option, Internet Expenses prints the corresponding code that you create on the confirmation page of each expense report. For example, your code can say simply Paper Receipt-based audit, Imaged Receipt-based audit, Receiptless audit, Auto-approved, or you can create a code system known only to your AP department. This provides your accounts payable department with a convenient method for sorting receipt packages.
After you create audit rule sets, assign an audit rule set to each operating unit in your company. You can assign the same audit rule set to more than one operating unit. When you update an audit rule set, the changes you make apply to all of the assigned operating units.
If you do not assign an audit rule set to an operating unit, then Internet Expenses does not use the Audit Automation feature for this operating unit.
The audit list contains the names of the employees whose expense reports are automatically audited. While on the audit list, every expense report that the employee submits is passed for audit. The type of audit conducted--receipt-based or receiptless--depends on the selection criteria of the active audit rule set.
By default, all operating units can use the audit list and administrators can add employees to the audit list manually. If you want to automate the use of the audit list, you must assign the operating unit an audit rule set with the option “Audit expense reports of employees on the audit list” activated and create an audit list rule set.
The Audit List page contains a table of all employees currently on the audit list. The table displays employee name, organization, audit reason, and start and end dates. When the system date is later than the end date, Internet Expenses removes the employee from the audit list. From the Audit List page, you can choose options to update existing information for an employee or to add employees manually to the audit list.
Use the Maintain Audit List page to manage audit list information. For each employee, you can update:
Audit reason. If you enter a new audit reason, this change applies to the audit list only. This change is not applied to the employee's record in your HR system.
Start and End dates.
You can also use a custom program that accesses the public Audit List API to update employee status information. See: Audit List API.
You can add employees to the audit list in three ways:
Automatically in Internet Expenses, based on the criteria you define in the active audit list rule set.
Manually, using the Add Employees to Audit List page or the Audit Expense Reports page.
Using a custom program that accesses the public Audit List API.
If you have an audit list rule set assigned to an operating unit, Internet Expenses adds employees to the audit list automatically based on the criteria defined in the audit list rule set. See: Audit List Rule Sets for more information.
If Internet Expenses automatically adds an employee to the audit list who is already on the audit list, then the system updates the end date of the current audit list entry with the system date and creates a new entry. (If the employee's audit reason is Termination or Leave of Absence, then Internet Expenses does not create a new audit list entry.) The employee remains on the audit list according to the value that you set for audit list duration. See: Creating an Audit List Rule Set for more information.
You can add employees to the audit list manually at any time. There are two ways to add employees manually to the audit list:
Add Employees to Audit List page in the Internet Expenses Setup responsibility. Administrators can use this page to add one or more employees to the audit list.
Always Audit Employee on the Audit Expense Reports page. An auditor can decide to add an employee to the audit list after reviewing the employee's expense report.
When you add employees to the audit list manually using the Add Employees to Audit List page, Internet Expenses does not refer to the audit list duration setting for these employees. If you do not enter an end date, the employees remain on the audit list indefinitely.
When an auditor adds an employee to the audit list manually using Always Audit Employee on the Audit Expense Reports page, Internet Expenses uses the audit list duration setting.
To add employees to the audit list using the Add Employees to Audit List page:
Navigate to the Add Employees to Audit List page.
Use the Search function and the Select list to create a Selected list of employees to add to the audit list.
Enter an audit reason for each employee.
Enter a start date and end date for each employee.
If you do not add an end date, then the employee remains on the audit list indefinitely.
Save your work.
You can delete employees from the Selected list that you have created until you click Save.
Create one or more audit list rule sets to determine how employees are automatically added to the audit list. An audit list rule set contains:
Criteria that Internet Expenses uses to add an employee to the audit list.
Number of days that an employee remains on the audit list.
You can update the values in an existing audit list rule set. You can remove an audit list rule set by adding an end date, if it is not assigned to any operating unit. As with audit rule sets, you create one or more audit list rule sets and assign an audit list rule set to each operating unit in your company.
If an audit list rule places an employee on the audit list who is already on the audit list with an indefinite status (that is, no end date), then the new placement does not change the employee's indefinite status.
Use the Create Audit List Rule Set page to create a new audit list rule set or to update an existing audit list rule set.
An audit list rule set contains three sections of information:
Header information
Audit list criteria
Audit list duration
Enter Header Information
Enter an audit list rule set name and description. You can optionally enter an end date. Both Audit List Rule Set Name and Description are mandatory fields.
You cannot save an audit list rule set that contains header information only. You must at least complete the Audit List Duration section. If you create an audit list rule set that contains only header information and audit list duration, and you assign this audit list rule set to an operating unit, then Internet Expenses will not automatically add employees to the audit list. Internet Expenses will assign the audit list duration value to employees added to the audit list by an auditor using the Always Audit Employee button on the Audit Expense Reports page.
Enter Audit List Criteria
Choose the audit list selection criteria that you want for each audit list rule set. Internet Expenses automatically adds employees to the audit list according to the criteria you choose.
Receipt Package Received Date If you choose the criteria “Receipt package received after the maximum number of days” and set a maximum number of days, you must enter a Receipt Package Received Date on all expense reports. Once you activate and assign the audit list rule set, Internet Expenses automatically places employees on the audit list with:
Pending receipts greater than the maximum number of days allowed.
Receipts submitted but received after the maximum number of days.
Submit the Expenses Overdue Receipts Tracking concurrent program to use this rule. The program compares the expense report submit date to the system date, for expense reports that require receipts and the receipts have not been received. See: Expenses Overdue Receipts Tracking Program, Oracle Payables User's Guide for more information.
Set Audit List Duration
Enter a value in the “Number of days on the audit list” field. This is a required field.
If an employee that is on the audit list is added to the audit list again, then Internet Expenses creates a new entry for the employee and restarts the count of number of days.
After you create audit list rule sets, assign an audit list rule set to each operating unit in your company that you want to use the audit list. You can assign the same audit list rule set to more than one operating unit. When you update an audit list rule set, the changes you make apply to all of the assigned operating units.
If you assign an audit list rule set to an operating unit, you must ensure that you also assign an audit rule set to the same operating unit that has the option “Audit expense reports of employees on the audit list” activated, in order for Internet Expenses to use the audit list.
If you do not assign an audit list rule set to an operating unit but you do assign an audit rule set that uses the option “Audit expense reports of employees on the audit list”, you can still add employees to the audit list manually. In this case, Internet Expenses does not automatically add employees to the audit list or monitor the audit list duration.
Use the Audit List API to develop your own custom solution to maintaining the audit list. You can create programs to add employees to the audit list, update information for existing audit list entries, delete audit list entries, and extend the use of an existing audit rule set. For example:
Periodically load the terminated employees from your HR system to the audit list.
Update the audit reason status and dates of individual employees.
Enforce expense report audits for certain departments by creating department-specific audit reason codes in the Payables Lookups window and assigning employees in these departments to the audit list.
The AP_WEB_AUDIT_LIST_PUB package is created to database using the code residing in the audit list API files: apwpalas.pls, apwpalab.pls, apwvalvs.pls, and apwvalvb.pls. The audit list API files are located in the directory:
$AP_TOP/patch115/sql-
To identify an individual employee, the AUDIT_EMPLOYEE procedure in AP_WEB_AUDIT_LIST_PUB requires the employee's business group name and a value for at least one of these parameters:
employee id
employee number
social security number
e-mail address
Rules for creating an audit list entry
Rule 1: For each entry, you must include the proper employee identifiers, valid audit reason, and a start date. You can optionally include an end date.
Rule 2: For all audit reasons, you must include either a start date or an end date. You can include an end date without a start date only if the employee record contains an existing entry with the same audit reason. Adding an end date to an audit reason means that the employee is removed from the audit list.
Rule 3: Audit reasons follow these priorities: Termination overrides all other audit reasons; Leave of Absence overrides all audit reasons except Termination. The remaining audit reasons, both seeded and user-defined, have equal priority.
Rule 4: If the dates for the new audit list entry and the existing audit list entry overlap, then the entry with the higher priority audit reason overrides the lower priority audit reason.
Rule 5: If the dates for the new audit list entry and the existing audit list entry overlap, and the audit reasons for both entries have equal priority, then the newer entry overrides the existing entry.
Rule 6: If the dates for the new audit list entry and the existing audit list entry overlap, and the audit reason for both entries is the same, then the entries are merged.
Rule 7: There are no limitations on audit list entry dates. You can create both historical audit list entries and future-dated audit list entries.
Rules for deleting an audit list entry
Rule 8: For each entry, you must include the proper employee identifiers. You can optionally include a start date and/or an end date.
Rule 9: A delete does not refer to the audit reason. The delete procedure deletes all audit list entries for the given date range, regardless of the audit reason.
The examples in this section use tables to illustrate the use of the Audit List API with new and updated entries.
Example 1
Existing entry:
Employee | Start Date | End Date | Audit Reason |
---|---|---|---|
JFrost | 01-MAY-2004 | 30-JUN-2004 | Receipts Late |
New entry:
Employee | Start Date | End Date | Audit Reason |
---|---|---|---|
JFrost | 01-JUN-2004 | 30-JUN-2004 | Leave of Absence |
Result: Because the audit reason Leave of Absence has the higher priority, it overrides the existing Receipts Late entry, and ensures that the entries do not overlap. After the update, the audit list contains these entries:
Employee | Start Date | End Date | Audit Reason |
---|---|---|---|
JFrost | 01-MAY-2004 | 31-MAY-2004 | Receipts Late |
JFrost | 01-JUN-2004 | 30-JUN-2004 | Leave of Absence |
Example 2
Existing entry:
Employee | Start Date | End Date | Audit Reason |
---|---|---|---|
JFrost | 01-MAY-2004 | Termination |
New entry:
Employee | Start Date | End Date | Audit Reason |
---|---|---|---|
JFrost | 01-JUN-2004 | 30-JUN-2004 | Leave of Absence |
Result: The existing Termination entry overrides the new Leave of Absence entry. After the update, the audit list contains this entry:
Employee | Start Date | End Date | Audit Reason |
---|---|---|---|
JFrost | 01-MAY-2004 | Termination |
Example 3
Existing entry:
Employee | Start Date | End Date | Audit Reason |
---|---|---|---|
JFrost | 01-MAY-2004 | 30-JUN-2004 | Receipts Late |
New entry:
Employee | Start Date | End Date | Audit Reason |
---|---|---|---|
JFrost | 01-JUN-2004 | 15-JUN-2004 | Leave of Absence |
Result: The Leave of Absence entry overrides the Receipts Late entry. After the update, the audit list contains these entries:
Employee | Start Date | End Date | Audit Reason |
---|---|---|---|
JFrost | 01-MAY-2004 | 31-MAY-2004 | Receipts Late |
JFrost | 01-JUN-2004 | 15-JUN-2004 | Leave of Absence |
JFrost | 16-JUN-2004 | 30-JUN-2004 | Receipts Late |
Example 4
Existing entry:
Employee | Start Date | End Date | Audit Reason |
---|---|---|---|
JFrost | 01-MAY-2004 | 30-JUN-2004 | Receipts Late |
New entry:
Employee | Start Date | End Date | Audit Reason |
---|---|---|---|
JFrost | 01-JUN-2004 | 15-JUN-2004 | Policy Violations |
Result: Because the audit reasons have equal priority, the new entry overrides the existing entry. After the update, the audit list contains these entries:
Employee | Start Date | End Date | Audit Reason |
---|---|---|---|
JFrost | 01-MAY-2004 | 31-MAY-2004 | Receipts Late |
JFrost | 01-JUN-2004 | 15-JUN-2004 | Policy Violations |
JFrost | 16-JUN-2004 | 30-JUN-2004 | Receipts Late |
Example 5
Existing entry:
Employee | Start Date | End Date | Audit Reason |
---|---|---|---|
JFrost | 01-MAY-2004 | User-defined Reason |
New entry:
Employee | Start Date | End Date | Audit Reason |
---|---|---|---|
JFrost | 01-JUN-2004 | 15-JUN-2004 | Policy Violations |
Result: Because the audit reasons have equal priority, and because the existing entry does not have an end date, the new entry is inserted according to its start and end dates, ensuring that the employee remains on the audit list. After the update, the audit list contains these entries:
Employee | Start Date | End Date | Audit Reason |
---|---|---|---|
JFrost | 01-MAY-2004 | 31-MAY-2004 | User-defined Reason |
JFrost | 01-JUN-2004 | 15-JUN-2004 | Policy Violations |
JFrost | 16-JUN-2004 | User-defined Reason |
Example 6
Existing entry:
Employee | Start Date | End Date | Audit Reason |
---|---|---|---|
JFrost | 01-MAY-2004 | User-defined Reason |
New entry:
Employee | Start Date | End Date | Audit Reason |
---|---|---|---|
JFrost | 01-JUN-2004 | 15-JUN-2004 | Leave of Absence |
Result: Because the Leave of Absence entry has a higher priority than the existing User-defined Reason entry, the new entry is inserted according to its start and end dates, and then the existing entry continues without an end date. After the update, the audit list contains these entries:
Employee | Start Date | End Date | Audit Reason |
---|---|---|---|
JFrost | 01-MAY-2004 | 31-MAY-2004 | User-defined Reason |
JFrost | 01-JUN-2004 | 15-JUN-2004 | Leave of Absence |
JFrost | 16-JUN-2004 | User-defined Reason |
Example 7
Existing entry:
Employee | Start Date | End Date | Audit Reason |
---|---|---|---|
JFrost | 01-MAY-2004 | 30-JUN-2004 | Leave of Absence |
New entry:
Employee | Start Date | End Date | Audit Reason |
---|---|---|---|
JFrost | 01-JUN-2004 | 31-JUL-2004 | Leave of Absence |
Result: Because the new entry and the existing entry have the same audit reason, the entries are merged. After the update, the audit list contains this entry:
Employee | Start Date | End Date | Audit Reason |
---|---|---|---|
JFrost | 01-MAY-2004 | 31-JUL-2004 | Leave of Absence |
Example 8
JFrost is on the audit list from 01-MAY-2004 to 30-JUN-2004 due to Receipts Late. He requests a Leave of Absence for the future-dated period 01-AUG-2004 to 31-OCT-2004. The request is approved. After the update, the audit list contains these entries:
Employee | Start Date | End Date | Audit Reason |
---|---|---|---|
JFrost | 01-MAY-2004 | 30-JUN-2004 | Receipts Late |
JFrost | 01-AUG-2004 | 31-OCT-2004 | Leave of Absence |
On 15-JUL-2004 JFrost resigns. The audit list is updated with the employee's Termination and the API automatically deletes the overlapping Leave of Absence entry. After the update, the audit list contains these entries:
Employee | Start Date | End Date | Audit Reason |
---|---|---|---|
JFrost | 01-MAY-2004 | 30-JUN-2004 | Receipts Late |
JFrost | 15-JUL-2004 | Termination |
The system administrator wants to keep the audit list clean and deletes the audit list entries for terminated employees. After the delete procedure, the audit list does not contain any audit list entries for JFrost:
Employee | Start Date | End Date |
---|---|---|
JFrost |
Example 9
According to company policy, all Finance department employees are on the audit list indefinitely. This ensures that their expense reports are always audited. The process owner has created a custom audit list reason called Finance Personnel for this purpose. KJones joined the department on 01-MAY-2003. The audit list entry for KJones is:
Employee | Start Date | End Date | Audit Reason |
---|---|---|---|
KJones | 01-MAY-2003 | Finance Personnel |
Since KJones is intended to stay on the audit list as long as she works for the Finance department, any new audit list entries with same level of priority are inserted according to their start and end dates, ensuring that the employee remains on the audit list. For example, this entry:
Employee | Start Date | End Date | Audit Reason |
---|---|---|---|
KJones | 01-SEP-2003 | 31-OCT-2003 | Policy Violations |
updates the audit list in this way:
Employee | Start Date | End Date | Audit Reason |
---|---|---|---|
KJones | 01-MAY-2003 | 31-AUG-2003 | Finance Personnel |
KJones | 01-SEP-2003 | 31-OCT-2003 | Policy Violations |
KJones | 01-NOV-2003 | Finance Personnel |
Between 01-OCT-2003 and 31-DEC-2003, KJones is on a leave of absence. After the update, the audit list contains these entries:
Employee | Start Date | End Date | Audit Reason |
---|---|---|---|
KJones | 01-MAY-2003 | 31-AUG-2003 | Finance Personnel |
KJones | 01-SEP-2003 | 30-SEP-2003 | Policy Violations |
KJones | 01-OCT-2003 | 31-DEC-2003 | Leave of Absence |
KJones | 01-JAN-2004 | Finance Personnel |
31-MAY-2004 is the last day that KJones works in the Finance Department. This means that after this date the employee should not be permanently assigned to the audit list. After the update, the audit list contains these entries:
Employee | Start Date | End Date | Audit Reason |
---|---|---|---|
KJones | 01-MAY-2003 | 31-AUG-2003 | Finance Personnel |
KJones | 01-SEP-2003 | 30-SEP-2003 | Policy Violations |
KJones | 01-OCT-2003 | 31-DEC-2003 | Leave of Absence |
KJones | 01-JAN-2004 | 31-MAY-2004 | Finance Personnel |
Use the Audit Reasons API to create customized reasons for selecting expense reports for audit using the audit_expense report procedure in the AP_WEB_AUDIT_HOOK package. Your customized logic can either provide additional audit checks, or it can override the logic that Internet Expenses provides.
The AP_WEB_AUDIT_HOOK package resides in the files apwaudhs.pls and apwaudhb.pls in the directory:
$AP_TOP/patch115/sql-
If you introduce customized logic into the audit selection process, you may also need to define new audit reasons to appear on expense reports. You add these new audit reasons to the OIE_AUDIT_REASONS lookup type. See: Defining Payables Lookups for Oracle Internet Expenses.
Internet Expenses can be set up to meet the various requirements specified by local government authorities for expense receipts. These requirements are generally specified for income tax deductibility purposes. Internet Expenses can inform employees which expenses require receipts including the types of receipts required (original, imaged or both) in addition to the submission policy for each type of receipt during expense report entry process.
The system can be configured to prevent expense report submission when required imaged receipts are not attached or allow required imaged receipts to be submitted post expense report submission.
Automatic overdue and missing receipts tracking can be enabled such that notifications are automatically sent to employees inquiring about overdue or missing receipts. The system can be configured to either return expense reports when required receipts are missing or to sent employees notifications on how to handle missing receipts, which could include requesting the employee to send in a missing receipt declaration.
Payables clerks can use the audit module to receive receipt packets, while auditors can choose to short pay expense reports with more granular audit issues or alternatively waive receipts.
The system can also be configured to place the current expense report that has been approved by the auditor on payment hold for receipts that are overdue. In case, the current expense report is exported to Payables, future expense reports can be placed on hold.
The key components of Receipt Management setup are receipt rule sets, expense type receipt requirement rules, notification rule sets and hold rule sets.
Create a receipt rule set to enable support of imaged receipts handling that may be attached during expense report entry, or is faxed or is e-mailed after expense report is submitted. A receipt rule set can also be configured to enforce receipt rules during expense entry as well as missing receipts handling at the operating unit level.
A receipt rule set should be created as per the business requirements of each operating unit in your company. Each receipt rule set contains its own receipt-required policy that is primarily determined by local government regulations. You can update the values in an existing receipt rule set although this is not advised once a receipt rule set is assigned, and you can delete an receipt rule if it is not assigned to any operating unit.
After creating receipt rule set, assign them to the operating units in your company.
For example, assign the same receipt rule set to each operating unit that uses the same business practices.
Before you can set up receipt rule set in Internet Expenses, you must:
Define your operating units. See: Defining Operating Units for more information.
Define currencies and exchange rates before defining receipt required thresholds above a specified amount.
Use the Create Receipt Rule Set page to create a new audit rule set or to update an existing audit rule set that has not been assigned.
Select one or more of the options in the Receipt Required Rules or Receipt Missing Rules section to enable saving of a receipt rule set.
Choose one or more rules in the Receipt Required Rules section as well as the Imaged Receipt Type in order to enable Imaged Receipts setting and configuration of Imaged Receipt Rules.
If you only select an option from Receipts Missing Rules, and assign the receipt rule set to an operating unit, then Internet Expenses uses the Receipt Required rules configured in the Expense Template page at the expense item level and only original receipts would be required.
A receipt rule set contains four sections of information:
Header information
Receipt required rules
Imaged receipts rules
Missing receipts rules
Enter a receipt rule set name and description. Both Receipt Rule Set Name and Description are mandatory fields.
Choose the expense classifications that you want to require receipts for and specify the receipt amount threshold that determines when receipts are required for the classification. Not specifying a threshold amount means that all expense lines of the classification are required.
The following are the Receipt Required options:
Receipt Required Currency: This specifies the currency that the receipt required for threshold amount is entered in. Select the currency from the list of values. This becomes mandatory once a threshold amount is specified.
Require Receipts for Cash Expenses Lines: Select this option to require receipts for cash expense lines. This is optional. If selected, then enter the threshold amount above which the receipts are required for cash expense lines.
Require Receipts for Corporate Card Related Expenses Lines: Select this option to require receipts for corporate card charged expense lines. This is optional. If selected, then enter the threshold amount above which the receipts are required for credit card expense lines.
Note: Receipt required rules might be configured differently for corporate card charged expense lines since corporate card feed details can serve to act as a receipt depending on local government regulations.
Require Receipts for Mileage Expense Lines: Select this option to require receipts for mileage expense lines. This is optional. If selected, then enter the threshold amount above which the receipts are required for mileage expense lines.
Certain local governments require documentation for proof of mileage expense.
Apply Receipt Required rules to Negative Expense Lines: Select this option, to apply the same Receipt Required Rules configured above to negative lines. This is optional. If a negative expense line is entered in cash and other expenses, then the threshold amount of the cash expense line is checked by converting the negative amount into absolute amount and then comparing it with the threshold amount entered for cash expenses.
Types of Receipt Required: Select this option, to determine the types of receipts required. Whether only original receipt is required or only imaged receipt is required or both original and imaged receipts are required. This is mandatory and a minimum of one type of receipt must be selected.
This section of the Receipt Rule Set is enabled when Imaged option is selected for the Types of Receipt Required.
The imaged receipt rule specifies where in the expense report reimbursement process the imaged receipt needs be submitted by the employee.
Prevent submission if imaged receipts are not attached: When this option is enabled, the employee is not allowed to submit the expense reports unless the required imaged receipts are attached to the expense report.
Require Justification if required imaged receipts are not attached prior to submission: When this option is enabled, the employee must enter a missing imaged receipts justification for not attaching all required imaged receipts before being able to submit the expense report. This justification is visible to the approving manager in the manager approval notification as well as in the Audit Expense Report page for auditors to review.
Require Imaged Receipts to be attached prior to manager approval: When this option is enabled, employees can submit expense reports without required imaged receipts attached, but the manager notification is not generated and sent until:
The employee attaches the required imaged receipts and submits them from the Confirmation Page.
The employee faxes or e-mails the receipt packet for approval.
The auditor waives the receipts required and completes audit.
Require Imaged Receipts to be attached prior to payables approval: When this option is enabled, there is no restriction as to when imaged receipts need to be submitted, other than the fact that receipts are required prior to completion of payables approval. Oracle Payables can complete audit for an expense report with either original or imaged receipts even though the required imaged receipts are not attached.
Use the Receipt Missing section to configure rules that reflect the stringency of your company's policy for handling expense reports with missing receipts.
Allow employees to mark expense report as missing during expense report entry: When this option is enabled, employees are allowed to submit expense lines specifying that receipts are missing. On selecting the Missing Receipt option from the expense report details page, employees can enter expense lines without the required receipts for an expense report.
Allow Manager re-approval of missing receipt short paid expense reports: When this option is enabled and the auditor short pays one of the expense lines (say with an audit reason - image unclear) for any expense report, then for the short paid expense reports, the employee can seek manager re-approval. When the employee responds with the option of seek manager re-approval, then a manager approval notification is generated. Manager can then approve or reject the short paid expense report. If you do not wish for employees to see the approval of managers to override a short pay performed by the Payables department, then you should not enable this option.
Return Expense Reports with Missing receipts to employee: When this option is enabled and on running the Overdue Receipt Tracking program, all the expense reports with status missing receipts are returned to employee with returned status as long as expense report has not completed audit already. Expense report receipt status is marked as missing when:
employee marks all expense line as missing during expense report entry.
employee responds to Overdue Notification as Receipts Missing.
employee does not submit the receipts within the overdue days as specified in the notification rule.
If local government regulation accepts missing receipt declaration in place of missing receipts then you should not enable this option. Instead configure the Missing Receipt Notification message to reference to your company's policy for handling missing receipts and where to download the missing receipts declaration.
After you create receipt rule set, assign the receipt rule set to each operating unit in your company. You can assign the same receipt rule set to more than one operating unit.
If you do not assign a receipt rule set to an operating unit, then Internet Expenses does not use the receipt rule functionality for this operating unit.
Navigate to the Receipts Rule Set Assignment subtab using the Receipts tab.
Use the following steps to assign a receipt rule set:
Navigate to the Receipts Rule Set Assignments page.
Click Update for a particular operation unit or for the global rule set.
Select the name of the rule set.
Select the Effective Start Date.
Select the Effective End Date.
Click Add Another Row to add a different rule set to the operating unit.
Optionally, click delete to remove a rule assignment. It is allowed only when the Effective Start Date is not entered.
Click Save, if you want to save the information provided for further use.
Click Apply to implement the assignment.
Important: It is recommended not to change the receipt rule set options once it has been assigned to an operating unit. If requirement for the receipt rule changes, then the existing assignment should be end dated and a new assignment should be created.
Internet Expenses can be set up to override receipt requirement rules specified by the receipt rule set assigned to an operating unit for a particular expense type. Use the Expense Templates form to configure exception receipt requirement rules for a particular expense type. See: Defining Expense Report Templates for more information. Receipt requirement rules defined at the expense type takes precedence over the prevalent receipt rule set, although type of receipts required, imaged receipt submission rules and missing receipt rules will still be applicable from the prevalent receipt rule set. If an operating unit does not have a receipt rule set assignment, then Internet Expenses uses the receipt required rules defined in the Expense Templates form and the only receipt type required is Originals.
Note: Receipt required threshold amounts can be defined both in the receipt rule set and the expense report template form. The thresholds defined in the expense report template form takes precedence. Only when the receipt required for is set as Null in the expense report template, then the threshold amounts are considered from the receipt rule set.
Create one or more notification rule sets to determine when to send notifications to users for overdue or missing receipts for original or imaged or both receipts. You can create notification rule sets that reflect the business requirements of each operating unit in your company.
The notification rule set assigned to an operating unit works together with the Expenses Overdue Receipts Tracking concurrent program and the Expense Receipts Workflow. The program identifies overdue expense reports, based on criteria from the notification rule set, and invokes the Expense Receipts Workflow. The workflow initiates the process of sending notifications based on the values contained in the active notification rule set. See: Expense Receipts Workflow and Expenses Overdue Receipts Tracking Program, Oracle Payables User's Guide for more information.
You need to rerun the Expenses Overdue Receipts Tracking program to identify new overdue expense reports. Previously identified overdue reports are in independent workflow processes and will not be reprocessed by the program. How often you run the program depends on how up-to-date you want to be with sending notifications.
Tip: If you want to notify employees as soon as receipts are considered overdue, as defined in the notification rule set, then run the Expenses Overdue Receipts Tracking program daily. Otherwise, employees might be notified days after the overdue date, depending on when the program runs.
A notification rule set contains these rules and dependencies:
Send notifications for receipts received, overdue receipts received, or missing receipts. This applies to both original and imaged receipts.
Indicate in the Receipts Received Notifications section the notification behavior when receipts are received.
If the notification behavior for received receipts is "Notify individual when overdue receipts are received", then the Overdue Receipts Notifications section is mandatory for the rule set.
If the notification behavior for received receipts is any other value, then the Overdue Receipts Notifications section is optional. In this case, the rules for sending overdue receipts notifications is determined by the business requirements of your company.
Indicate in the Overdue Receipts Notifications section separate thresholds for:
When original and imaged receipts are considered overdue.
Number of days to wait before sending the next level of notifications to the user.
Use the Notification rule set assignments pages to assign the notification rule sets that you created to the operating units that you want. The notification rule set that you assign to an operating unit remains active during the effective period that you specify. If you do not enter an end date, then the notification rule set remains active indefinitely. To change notification behavior for an operating unit, you must apply an end date to the current notification rule set, then assign a new notification rule set.
When a notification rule set is assigned to an operating unit, Internet Expenses compares the expense report submission date to the system date to initially determine if receipts are overdue on an expense report. For all expense reports that have overdue receipts, Internet Expenses initiates the process of sending notifications, according to the notification rules.
You must assign a notification rule set to an operating unit to make use of notification rules. If an operating unit does not have a notification rule set assignment, then the Expenses Overdue Receipts Tracking concurrent program cannot detect overdue or missing receipts, and so you cannot call the Expense Receipts workflow.
Create one or more hold rule sets to determine the behavior for holding expense report payments to users because of overdue or missing receipts. You can create hold rule sets that reflect the business requirements of each operating unit in your company.
The hold rule set assigned to an operating unit works in conjunction with the Expense Holds workflow. The Expense Holds workflow manages the process of sending notifications regarding the placing of holds on expense reports and releasing holds on expense reports. See: Expense Holds Workflow for more information.
When you run the Expense Report Export program, the program places holds on expense report payments according to the rules contained in the active hold rule set.
A hold rule set contains these rules and dependencies:
Indicate in the Individual Payment Holds section when to begin holding payments on expense reports. If you want the rule to begin holds when receipts are overdue, enter the number of days after expense report submission that receipts are considered overdue.
If the operating unit uses the Both Pay scenario, indicate in the Credit Card Payment Holds section whether to create an invoice in Payables for the credit card provider. The default is to create the invoice and not place a hold on credit card expenses.
See: Credit Card Process Flows for more information about the Both Pay scenario.
If you choose the Hold credit card payment if credit card receipts required option, then if any credit card expense lines on an expense report require receipts and the receipts are not received, then the credit card provider invoice is not created in Payables.
Use the Hold rule set assignments pages to assign the hold rule sets that you created to the operating units that you want. The hold rule set that you assign to an operating unit remains active during the effective period that you specify. If you do not enter an end date, then the hold rule set remains active indefinitely. To change the behavior of holding payments on expense reports for an operating unit, you must apply an end date to the current hold rule set, then assign a new hold rule set.
You can only assign a hold rule set that contains rules for holding credit card payments to an operating unit that uses the Both Pay scenario.
You must assign a hold rule set to an operating unit to make use of hold rules. If an operating unit does not have a hold rule set assignment, then the Expense Holds Workflow cannot initiate the hold process.
A receipt rule set may be configured to require original receipts only, imaged receipts only or both original and imaged receipts.
The following functionality is given for each configuration:
If a receipt rule set is setup requiring original receipts only, then the expense report can be successfully exported without any holds once the original receipts are received.
If a receipt rule set is setup requiring imaged receipts only, then the expense report can be successfully exported on receipt of either original receipts or the imaged receipts are attached to the expense report. There may be cases where the scanner is not working and the users submit the original receipts. In such cases even though the receipt rule set is configured for imaged receipt only, receipt of original receipt allows the expense report to be successfully exported.
If a receipt rule set is setup requiring both original and imaged receipts then the expense report can be successfully exported without any holds once the original and imaged receipts are received.