Overview of Transaction Account Definition

You can configure rules in Subledger Accounting (SLA) to automatically derive account combinations. You can also enter the account combinations directly in the UI, or derive them by starting the invoice account coding workflow. However, both of these approaches involve manual intervention which ends up slowing the invoice processing.

Transaction Account Definition (TAD) can be used for any product feature that has accounting implications, and accesses the chart of accounts component while creating transactions.

Transaction Account Definition for Payables

Oracle Payables leverages the Transaction Account Definition (TAD) from SLA to automatically derive expense accounts and multiperiod accrual account on item, freight, and miscellaneous invoice lines on invoice creation. This applies to the invoices created either automatically by the import process or manually through the UI.

You can use TAD to configure a set of rules to derive accounts based on attributes (also called sources) from multiple objects. For example, you can check the attributes from Invoice header, lines, distributions, Payables setups, Projects, and so on, to build your own rules. You can use TAD to do either of the following.

Derive all segment values of the accounting flexfield separately, and then build the full account combination.
Derive (and overwrite) only some segment values, while still using the base account combination.

Note: You can't define your own sources to derive accounts. You must use the sources predefined by Oracle.

To review the available sources for configuring rules:

Navigate to the Setup and Maintenance page.
Search for the Define Subledger Accounting for Invoicing and Payments task list and then select the Manage Transaction Account Types task.
Click any of the listed transaction account types.

All the assigned sources are listed in detail.

Applicability

To derive account combination details for Payables invoice lines using TAD, you must ensure that these conditions are fulfilled.

Account derivation through TAD is enabled in Manage Invoice Options setup.
Invoice type is Standard, Debit Memo, or Credit Memo. It isn't applicable for Payment Request, or Prepayment.
Invoice line type is Item, Freight or Miscellaneous.
Invoice line isn't matched to a purchase order.
Distributions aren't yet generated for the invoice line.
Invoice line isn't canceled, and doesn't have account combination details or a distribution set either provided by the user or defaulted from any setups (Supplier configuration or Payables options).
Invoice isn't in incomplete status.

Deriving Accounts Using TAD

If the invoice meets the applicability criteria, invoice expense accounts are automatically derived through TAD for the eligible invoice lines when these events happen:

When invoices are created through the Payables Invoice Import process
When invoices are validated either online or through the Validate Payables Invoice process

You can manually force TAD-based account derivation from the UI by selecting the invoice line and clicking Derive Account. You can select multiple invoice lines for this operation. The application clears away any existing account combination or distribution set for the selected lines and begins the account derivation process.

Important: The applicability criteria still apply even while forcing the account derivation.

Deriving Multiperiod Accrual Account Using TAD

For multiperiod accrual accounting, the user must enter either all 3, or none of these multiperiod accounting attributes:

Start date
End date
Multiperiod accrual account

Entering partial values displays an error message to the user. This check ensures that the invoice has the required data to generate multiperiod accrual accounting.

However, this check restricts the use of the TAD to default multiperiod accrual accounts as it always forces the user to enter the account even before the TAD can be called. To allow the use of TAD to default multiperiod accrual accounts, there are changes in the standard behavior of multiperiod accounting as shown here.

Important: These changes are applicable only when the TAD is enabled in the Payables Invoice Options.

Process/Page Name	Changes for Multiperiod Invoice Lines
Invoice Import process	User needs to enter only the start date and end date fields, and leave the multiperiod accrual account blank for TAD to default it. However, if TAD can't derive the accrual account, then the invoice is rejected. This is the same as default behavior (no change).
Create Invoice page	User needs to enter only the start date and end date fields. They can either enter the multiperiod accrual account manually, or leave it blank for TAD to default it. If the multiperiod accrual account is blank, distributions for MPA invoice lines aren't generated when the user navigates to the Manage Distribution page.
Invoice Validation process	If the user leaves the multiperiod accrual account field as blank, TAD is called to default the field during invoice validation. The invoice lines where the multiperiod accrual account couldn't be defaulted by TAD are placed on a Multiperiod Accrual Account Required hold. The hold is automatically released when the multiperiod accrual account is available on the invoice line. Users can manually enter the missing account on the line or review the TAD setups, and ensure that rules are available to default an account in the next validation run. Users can review the errors, if any, on the Manage Holds page.