Predefined Approval Flows for Oracle Contracts

In Oracle Contracts, you can configure approval rules for the approval of contracts, clauses, and terms templates. To do this, you use the Approvals Management Extensions of the Oracle Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) suite and Oracle Business Process Management Suite (BPM).

BPM provides the interface to administer the approval rules. BPM Worklist administrators can access the approval rules in the BPM Worklist. Oracle Contracts provides predefined approval flows or approval tasks and predefined rule sets for them. You can use the BPM Worklist to configure the rules for a predefined approval task rule set and configure the approval group for each task. Using Oracle JDeveloper, you can edit this flow and create additional approval flows for contracts with different approval requirements.

Oracle Contracts has three predefined approval flows or approval tasks, each with a predefined rule set for which you can configure the rules and approval groups based on your approval requirements, as seen in this table:

Approval Task	Rule Set	Approval Group	Default Approver in Group	Purpose
ContractsApproval (1.0)	ContractApprovalStage : ContractsApproval	ContractApprovalGroup	customer_contract_manager_vision_operations	To approve contract attributes or contract deviation attributes before using the contract
ContractClauseApproval (1.0)	ClauseApprovalStage : ContractClauseApproval	ClauseApprovalGroup	Business Practices Director Operations	To approve clause or term attributes before adding them to the Terms Library
TemplateApprovalHumanTask (1.0)	TermsTemplateApprovalStage : TemplateApproval	TemplateApprovalGroup	Business Practices Director Operations	To approve terms template attributes before using the terms template for a contract

As a contract administrator, you can see an Administration link displayed in the BPM Worklist. To create new rules or modify existing rules, click the Administration link, click the Task Configuration tab, select the required task in the side panel, click the Data Driven tab, and select the appropriate rule set. To create or modify approval groups, click the Administration link, click the Approval Groups tab, and select the required approval group.

The approval process is the same for a supplier contract and a customer contract. Therefore, when you submit a clause, terms template or contract for approval in Procurement or in Sales, the contract approval process is invoked, which in turn invokes a set of approval rules created in AMX to build the list of approvers. AMX then sends out approval notifications to the first set of approvers and then again to the next set of approvers in the approval list every time it receives a response to an approval notification. This process is repeated until all approvals are complete.

This figure shows how each approval rule is applied in turn to the clause, terms template, or contract, and how at least one must be satisfied for the clause, terms template or contract to be approved and activated.

To configure approval rules for Contracts, you can access approval tasks from the list of Tasks to be Configured using the following methods:

• Click the Setup and Maintenance link in the navigator and search for Approval Management tasks. Expand Define Approval Management for Customer Relationship Management and click on the Go to Task button in Manage Task Configurations for Customer Relationship Management.

• Click on the Administration link displayed in the BPM Worklist application and then click the Task Configuration tab.

The approval process is:

1. When the contract, clause, or terms template is submitted, based on whether it satisfies the task payload attributes of the approval rule and its conditions, it's routed to the approver or approval group specified in the approval rule. The approver or majority of approvers in the group can then do any of the following:

   • Approve the contract, clause, or terms template as is

   • A link for viewing the contract is included in contract notifications by default. However, the link can be hidden using personalization

   • Reject the contract, clause, or terms template

   If approved and the contract, clause, or terms template satisfies other approval rule attributes and conditions, the approval process continues. If rejected, the approval process ends.

2. If the contract, clause, or terms template doesn't satisfy any further approval rules, based on the last approval rule result, the approval process either ends or the contract, clause, or terms template is activated.

AMX configuration options for Oracle Contracts determine most of the actions that are available to the participants in the approval process. For example, as an approver:

• You can reject the contract, clause, or terms template.

  • By default, the approval process stops when the contract, clause, or terms template is rejected and the contract, clause, or terms template returns to draft status for further editing and resubmission.

  • By default, the next approver or approval group of the next applicable approval rule is notified when you approve the contract, clause, or terms template.

  • You can also request more information from the other approver, the person who submits for approval, or both. Such requests don't affect control of the approval process, but the person from whom information is requested receives a worklist notification.

• You can't edit a contract in pending approval status. You can enter comments in the Notification Task Details page and reject it, so that, the approval requester can edit it.

• You can perform ad hoc insertion of approvers.

• You can delegate your approval responsibilities to other approvers.

• You can claim the approval and respond. By default, the approval process stops at the first response and the response of the first approver that responds becomes the response for the approval group.

If you change the default settings of the AMX configuration options, then different actions or action outcomes become available to this approval flow.

The approval flows for Contracts contains the following predefined rule sets:

• Approval of contract based on estimated contract amount

• Approval by clause approval group based on contract intent

• Approval by template approval group based on contract intent

Approval of Contract Based on Estimated Contract Amount

The predefined rule set for approval of contracts is called ContractApprovalStage: ContractsApproval rule set.

The predefined rules include the following:

• Approval for a contract with no estimated amount

• Approval for contracts with an estimated amount that's more than 30,000

• Approval for contracts with an estimated amount that's equal to or less than 30,000

You can change the predefined rules, delete the rules, or add additional rules as needed, as seen in this table:

Rule	Field	Predefined Value	Description
Estimate_Amount_Rule1	Condition	Task.payload.getContractHeaderResponse.result.estimatedAmount	Applicable for a total estimated contract amount of 30,000 or less.
Estimate_Amount_Rule1	List Builder	Resource	The name of the approver
Estimate_Amount_Rule1	Response Type	Required	The approval notification requires a response.
Estimate_Amount_Rule1	Participants - Users	customer_contract_manager_vision_operations	The name or ID of the contract manager.
Estimate_Amount_Rule1	Participants - Groups	null	The group ID of the contract manager isn't required.
Estimate_Amount_Rule1	Participants - Apps Role	null	The role of the contract manager in the application isn't required.
Estimate_Amount_Rule2	Condition	Task.payload.getContractHeaderResponse.result.estimatedAmount	Applicable for a total estimated contract amount of more than 30,000.
Estimate_Amount_Rule2	List Builder	Approval Group	Configurable list of approvers.
Estimate_Amount_Rule2	Response Type	Required	The approval notification requires a response.
Estimate_Amount_Rule2	Approval Group	ContractApprovalGroup	The group of approvers configured to approve the contract.
Estimate_Amount_Rule2	Allow empty groups	True	The group may have only the one default approver of contract manager.
Estimate_Amount_Rule3	Condition	Task.payload.getContractHeaderResponse.result.estimatedAmount	Applicable for a total estimated contract amount of null.
Estimate_Amount_Rule3	List Builder	Resource	The name of the approver
Estimate_Amount_Rule3	Response Type	Required	The approval notification requires a response.
Estimate_Amount_Rule3	Participants - Users	customer_contract_manager_vision_operations	The name or ID of the contract manager.
Estimate_Amount_Rule3	Participants - Groups	null	The group ID of the contract manager isn't required.
Estimate_Amount_Rule3	Participants - Apps Role	null	The role of the contract manager in the application isn't required.

Approval by Clause Approval Group Based on Contract Intent

The predefined rule set for approval of contract clauses by the approval group is called ClauseApprovalStage : ContractClauseApproval rule set.

This rule set has two predefined rules:

• Approval by the group if the clause is of intent sell.

• Approval by the group if the clause is of intent buy

You can change the predefined rules, delete the rules, or add additional rules as needed, as seen in this table:

Rule	Field	Predefined Value	Description
SellIntentClauseApproval	Condition	Task.payload.getContractClauseApprovalRuleAttributesResponse.result.articleIntent	Applicable for approval of a new clause of intent sell.
SellIntentClauseApproval	List Builder	Approval Group	Configurable list of approvers.
SellIntentClauseApproval	Response Type	Required	The approval notification requires a response.
SellIntentClauseApproval	Approval Group	ClauseApprovalGroup	The group of approvers configured to approve the new clause.
SellIntentClauseApproval	Allow empty groups	False	The group must have one or more approvers.
BuyIntentClauseApproval	Condition	Task.payload.getContractClauseApprovalRuleAttributesResponse.result.articleIntent	Applicable for approval of a new clause of intent buy.
BuyIntentClauseApproval	List Builder	Approval Group	Configurable list of approvers.
BuyIntentClauseApproval	Response Type	Required	The approval notification requires a response.
BuyIntentClauseApproval	Approval Group	ClauseApprovalGroup	The group of approvers configured to approve the new clause.
BuyIntentClauseApproval	Allow empty groups	False	The group must have one or more approvers.

Approval by Template Approval Group Based on Contract Intent

The predefined rule set for approval of a terms template by a group of approvers is called TermsTemplateApprovalStage : TemplateApproval rule set

This rule set has two predefined rules:

• Approval by the group if the terms template is of intent sell.

• Approval by the group if the terms template is of intent buy.

You can change the predefined rules, delete the rules, or add additional rules as needed. This table describes these scenarios:

Rule	Field	Predefined Value	Description
Rule_1	Condition	Task.payload.getTermsTemplateResponse.result.intent	Applicable for approval of a new terms template of intent buy.
Rule_1	List Builder	Approval Group	Configurable list of approvers.
Rule_1	Response Type	Required	The approval notification requires a response.
Rule_1	Approval Group	TemplateApprovalGroup	The group of approvers configured to approve the terms template.
Rule_1	Allow Empty Groups	False	The group must have one or more approvers.
Rule_2	Condition	Task.payload.getTermsTemplateResponse.result.intent	Applicable for approval of a new terms template of intent sell..
Rule_2	List Builder	Approval Group	Configurable list of approvers.
Rule_2	Response Type	Required	The approval notification requires a response.
Rule_2	Approval Group	TemplateApprovalGroup	The group of approvers configured to approve the terms template.
Rule_2	Allow Empty Groups	False	The group must have one or more approvers.