Configure Approval Rules for Requisitions Using Mapping Sets

Configure approval rules for requisitions using mapping set attributes. You can use mapping sets to configure approval authority by associating attributes from one or more dimensions and route requisitions for approval to the approvers defined in the configuration.

Sample Use Case for Configuring Approval Rules

To route requisitions for approval based on this approval authority matrix:

Category	Deliver-to-Location	Department	Requisition Amount Range (in USD)		Approver
Miscellaneous	Ashburn	Neurology	100	1,000	Terry.Smith
Miscellaneous	Bloomington	Neurology	100	1,000	Tracy.Davis
Medical Supplies	Ashburn	Neurology	1,000	10,000	Scott.Campbell
Medical Supplies	Bloomington	Neurology	1,000	10,000	Anne.Balmer
Medical Supplies	Ashburn	Cardiology	10,000	1,00,000	Bob.Boyle
Medical Supplies	Bloomington	Cardiology	10,000	1,00,000	Alister.Cook

To set this up earlier, you had to create 1 approval rule for each distinct combination of approval parameters such as number of locations, departments, and categories. This required you to configure many approval routing rules.

With this feature, you can now use mapping sets to configure the approval authority matrix and route requisitions for approval against the approval authority by creating a single approval rule. This significantly reduces the maintenance overhead associated with managing many rules. For approval, you can also route requisitions to a specific project role.

You model this requirement by performing these steps:

1. Create REQ_APPROVAL_MAPPING_SET_X and REQ_APPROVAL_DATA_SET_X mapping sets.
2. Create an approval rule using the appropriate Mapped Approval Attribute X.

X = number of mapping set approval configurations. You can't create more than 5 mapping set approval configurations using the feature.

The Mapped Approval Attribute 1-5 are associated with a pair of mapping sets such that the approval configurations from the respective mapping sets are executed when the attribute is used in an approval rule.

Attributes	Executes Approval Configuration from Mapping Sets with Short Name
Mapped Approval Attribute 1	REQ_APPROVAL_MAPPING_SET_1 and REQ_APPROVAL_DATA_SET_1
Mapped Approval Attribute 2	REQ_APPROVAL_MAPPING_SET_2 and REQ_APPROVAL_DATA_SET_2
Mapped Approval Attribute 3	REQ_APPROVAL_MAPPING_SET_3 and REQ_APPROVAL_DATA_SET_3
Mapped Approval Attribute 4	REQ_APPROVAL_MAPPING_SET_4 and REQ_APPROVAL_DATA_SET_4
Mapped Approval Attribute 5	REQ_APPROVAL_MAPPING_SET_5 and REQ_APPROVAL_DATA_SET_5

Step 1: Create Mapping Sets

REQ_APPROVAL_MAPPING_SET_1

To define this mapping set, select 4 input sources from the list of available input sources. The input sources represent these columns:

• PO Header Attribute1: Indicates the sequence in which the attributes specified in this mapping will be mapped with the corresponding data values are specified in the REQ_APPROVAL_DATA_SET_X mapping set.

• PO Header Attribute2: Indicates the attribute's technical alias name in the TableAlias.Column_Name format. You can use attributes only from these tables:

  Product	Table	Table Alias	Example Attribute Name
  Procurement	POR_REQUISITION_HEADERS_ALL	ReqHeader	ReqHeader.REQUISITION_TOTAL
  Procurement	POR_REQUISITION_LINES_ALL	ReqLine	ReqLine.CATEGORY_ID
  Procurement	POR_REQ_DISTRIBUTIONS_ALL	ReqDist	ReqDist.REQ_BU_ID
  Financials	GL_CODE_COMBINATIONS	ChargeAccount	ChargeAccount.SEGMENT3
  Project Management	PJF_PROJECT_PARTIES	ProjectParty	ProjectParty.PROJECT_ID

   In addition to the attributes available in the data model, you can use these transient attributes in the mapping sets:

  Attribute	Attribute's Technical Alias
  Requisition Amount	ReqHeader.Requisition_Amount
  Approval Amount	ReqHeader.Approval_Amount

• PO Header Attribute3: Indicates if the attribute is an input or an output variable for rule evaluation.

• PO Header Attribute4 - Indicates the operator used to validate the rule. Here's the list of supported operators:

  Data Type	Operator	Meaning
  String, Number	=	Equals
  String, Number	<>	Does not equal
  Number, Date	>	Greater than
  Number, Date	>=	Greater than and equal to
  Number, Date	<	Less than
  Number, Date	=	Less than and equal to

Here's the screen capture that illustrates how you can create a requisition approval mapping set:

REQ_APPROVAL_MAPPING_SET_1 Mapping Set for Named Approvers

To route requisitions to specific roles of the project associated with the requisition distribution, specify PROJECT_ROLES in the output row in the place of APPROVERS.

REQ_APPROVAL_MAPPING_SET_1 Mapping Set for Project Roles as Approvers

REQ_APPROVAL_DATA_SET_1

To define this mapping set, you must select the same number of input sources as the number of approval attributes you configured in the REQ_APPROVAL_MAPPING_SET_1 mapping set. In this case, you must select 6 input sources because the REQ_APPROVAL_MAPPING_SET_1 has 6 approval attributes. You can enter the attribute values in terms of an Id (unique identifier), alternatively, you can configure value sets to enter data using user-friendly values (business keys).

REQ_APPROVAL_DATA_SET_1 Mapping Set for Named Approvers

When using PROJECT_ROLES as the output, you must specify the project role name in the REQ_APPROVAL_DATA_SET_1. The requisition is routed to all users assigned to the project role.

REQ_APPROVAL_DATA_SET_1 Mapping Set for Project Roles as Approvers

Step 2: Configure the Approval Rule

After creating the mapping sets, configure an approval rule using the Mapped Approval Attribute 1 attribute.

Single Approver Routing Configured Using Set Up and Maintenance with Mapped Approval Attribute 1

To use Mapped Approval Attribute X in supervisory hierarchy and job-level routing, configure the approval rules using the Oracle BPM Worklist application.

Approval Rule Using Supervisory Hierarchy Routing Configured from the BPM Worklist Application

Steps to Enable

You don't need to do anything to enable this feature.

Tips And Considerations

• You can create a maximum of 5 mapping set approval configurations.

• Configure mapping sets under the Purchasing subledger application with the short name in the REQ_APPROVAL_MAPPING_SET_X format.
  • You must reference attribute names using predefined formats and only use the supported operators.

• In the approval rule, use the correct Mapped Approval Attribute X (where X will take the value from 1 to 5) corresponding to the mapping set you want to validate.

• You must specify the serial number in the first column of REQ_APPROVAL_MAPPING_SET_X mapping sets.

• Configure only 1 output attribute for each REQ_APPROVAL_MAPPING_SET_X mapping set. You must name the output attribute as APPROVERS when routing requisitions to named approvers or PROJECT_ROLES when routing requisitions to specific project roles.

• You must always add the output attribute as the last row in the REQ_APPROVAL_MAPPING_SET_X sets.

• When there are multiple projects associated with the requisition, approvals will be routed to all users that satisfy the role condition.

• When multiple rows of data match within REQ_APPROVAL_DATA_SET_X,  requisitions are routed for approval to the concatenated list of approvers.

• When multiple users have the same project roles, the approval will be routed to all of them.

• When there are multiple approvers, you must provide their usernames in a comma-separated list.

• When configuring mapping sets, use spreadsheets to deal with large data sets.

• You must always configure an approval rule to specify what should happen if Mapped Approval Attribute 1-5  returns a null value. You will get a null value in these cases:
  • Requisition data doesn't match with the values defined in the REQ_APPROVAL_DATA_SET_X mapping set.

  • An error occurred while evaluating the condition from a mapping set due to a data entry error, such as incorrect attribute names or extra spaces after an attribute or operator name.

Key Resources

• To know more about how to define mapping sets, refer to the How You Define Mapping Sets readiness training.

Access Requirements

Users who are assigned configured job roles that contain this privilege are able to set up this feature:

• Manage Approval Task (POR_MANAGE_APPROVAL_TASK_PRIV)

This privilege was available prior to this update.