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Workflow for Creating Purchase Orders and Releases

Overview

Purchasing integrates with Oracle Workflow technology to create standard purchase orders or blanket releases automatically from approved requisition lines. The workflow for creating purchasing documents automatically is called PO Create Documents. You can modify this workflow in the Oracle Workflow Builder to define additional business rules that determine when your approved requisitions are automatically converted into standard purchase orders and blanket releases. The PO Create Documents workflow does basically the same thing that AutoCreate does, except that it does so automatically.

In the Workflow Builder, PO Create Documents consists of several processes. Each of these processes is viewable in the Workflow Builder as a diagram whose objects and properties you can modify. Each workflow process consists of individual functions.

Prerequisite

Below is an example of a workflow process in the Workflow Builder. For more information on using the Workflow Builder to view or modify a workflow, see the Oracle Workflow Guide.

Example Workflow Process in the Workflow Builder

PO Create Documents Processes

The processes in the PO Create Documents workflow are as follows:

For each document that is created successfully by the PO Create Documents workflow, the PO Approval workflow is called to approve the document if you have allowed automatic approval. See: Approval Workflows.

There are also workflow processes for approving changes to purchase orders and releases. For more information about the change order workflow, see: Workflow Processes for Approving Change Orders.

You can use the Workflow Monitor to follow where certain documents are in a workflow process. See: Overview of Workflow Monitoring.

Customizing the Workflow

Prerequisite

Use the Oracle Workflow Builder to customize workflows.

Attention: When you customize a workflow, only those documents that are created after you customize it are affected by the customized workflow.

For detailed information on how to modify workflows in the Oracle Workflow Builder, see the Oracle Workflow Guide.

Like most workflows, PO Create Documents consists of the following components: processes, functions, messages, notifications, attributes, and lookup types. For detailed definitions of these components, see the Oracle Workflow Guide. Some of these workflow components are locked; others are unlocked, or available for modification to suit your business needs. Generally, you need to be experienced with both Purchasing and Workflow before modifying a workflow. However, there are some setup-level modifications you can make to a workflow, as described in the next section.

Choosing Document Creation Options

Prerequisite

The following three attributes in PO Create Documents can be customized. For each of these attributes you can change their values to 'Y' for Yes or 'N' for No. For information on opening workflows (also called "item types") in the Workflow Builder so that you can modify the attribute values, see: Opening and Saving Item Types.

Overall Document Creation / Launch Approval Process

The Overall Document Creation / Launch Approval process, which is the highest-level process of the PO Create Documents workflow consists of the functions and processes described below.

Overall Document Creation / Launch Approval Process (partial view)

Is Automatic Creation Allowed? (Function)

This function checks the "Is Automatic Creation Allowed?" attribute, which you can see in the Oracle Workflow Builder. If the Default Value of this attribute is 'Y' for Yes, then automatic document creation is allowed and "Verify Req Line Information" begins. You can prevent automatic document creation by setting the default value of this attribute in the Workflow Builder to 'N' for No.

Verify Req Line Information (Function)

This function retrieves all requisition lines available for processing and launches the "Verify Req Line Information" process for each requisition line.

Wait For Flow (Function)

This function waits for all the requisition lines to be processed by "Verify Req Line Information."

Group Req Lines Into Purchase Orders Or Releases (Function)

Once "Verify Req Line Information" finishes processing all the requisition lines, this function groups together requisition lines that have similar characteristics and allows them to be created onto the same document. For example, if two requisition lines have the same Supplier, Site, Currency, and Buyer, they are created on a single purchase order header.

Overall Document Creation / Launch Approval Process, Continued (partial view)

Launch Process To Create And Approve Purchase Order Or Release (Function)

This function initiates the "Create and Approve Purchase Order Or Release" process for each document. Then it initiates the PO Approval workflow. Purchase orders or blanket releases that match pre-defined approval criteria get approved automatically.

Remove Processed Req Lines From Temp Table (Function)

In the "Verify Req Line Information" process, there is a function, "Insert Req Line Into Temp Table As A Candidate For Creation." This function puts into a temporary table those requisition lines that contain enough information to at least attempt autocreation. These lines are picked up from this table later when certain requisition lines are grouped onto particular purchase orders or releases. Once these purchase orders or releases are created, the lines in this temporary table can be purged. That is what this function, "Remove Processed Req Lines From Temp Table," does.

Verify Req Line Information Process

The "Verify Req Line Information" process of the PO Create Documents workflow consists of the processes and functions described below.

Get Req Line Info (Function)

This function retrieves information from the requisition line and updates the PO Create Documents' attributes with the information. For example, the Currency Code attribute (under Attributes in the Workflow Builder) gets updated with information from the Currency field in the Requisition line.

Does This Req Line Require An RFQ? (Function)

This function checks to see if the following is true: RFQ Required is set to Yes (enabled in the Requisitions window), the profile option PO: Warn if RFQ Required before AutoCreate is set to Yes, and the requisition line has not been autocreated into an RFQ. If all of these are true, then this function returns "Yes." Otherwise, this function returns "No."

Does This Req Line Have Enough Information to Automatically Create a Document? (Process)

This process checks to see if the requisition line has enough and the correct information to automatically create a purchase order or blanket release. The individual functions that belong to this process are described in the section Does This Req Line Have Enough Information to Automatically Create a Document?.

Get The Source Document Type (Function)

This function checks for the source document type--blanket agreement or quotation--referenced on the requisition line.

Does the Req Line Have A One-Time Item? (Function)

This function checks for the type of item--one-time or predefined--used on the requisition line.

Get Release Generation Method From ASL (Function)

If the requisition line has a predefined item, this function checks to see if an approved supplier list (ASL) entry exists for that particular combination of item, supplier, and supplier site. Then the function retrieves the Release Generation Method specified in the approved supplier list.

If the Release Generation Method is either Automatic Release or Automatic Release Review, then the Creates Releases process in Purchasing will create a blanket release for this requisition line. If the Release Generation Method is Release Using AutoCreate, then the workflow can continue.

Should Workflow Create The Release? (Function)

This function checks the value of the attribute, "Should Workflow Create The Release?" If the value of this attribute is set to 'Y' for Yes, then the workflow continues. That is, the workflow tries to create the release; if it cannot, or if the value of this attribute is set to 'N' for No, then the workflow will not create the release; you must use the AutoCreate Documents window to create the release.

Insert Req Line Into Temp Table As A Candidate For Creation (Function)

This function puts into a temporary table those requisition lines that contain enough information to at least attempt autocreation. These lines are picked up from this table later when certain requisition lines are grouped onto particular purchase orders or releases. Once these purchase orders or releases are created, the lines in this temporary table are purged. (The function that does the purging, "Remove Processed Req Lines From Temp Table," is described in Overall Document Creation / Launch Approval Process.)

Continue Flow (Function)

This function tells the first "Wait for Flow" function in the "Overall Document Creation / Launch Approval Process" that "Verify Req Line Information" for a particular requisition line has been completed successfully. "Wait for Flow" now has to wait only for the other requisition lines to be processed.

Does This Req Line Have Enough Information To Automatically Create A Document?

The process "Does This Req Line Have Enough Information To Automatically Create A Document?" in the PO Create Documents workflow consists of the processes and functions described below.

Does The Req Line Have Valid Supplier Information? (Function)

This function checks to see if a valid Supplier and Supplier Site exist for the requisition line.

Does The Req Line Have Valid Source Document Information? (Function)

This function checks to see if valid source document information (from a blanket agreement or quotation) exists for the requisition line. Specifically, it checks the source document type, the source document, and the source document line.

Get Buyer (Process)

This process retrieves buyer information for the purchase order. It retrieves a valid buyer's name from one of the following sources: the buyer field from the requisition line, the default buyer from the item definition in the Master Item window, or the default category assigned to a buyer in the Define Buyers window. When creating a release, the process retrieves the buyer's name from the blanket agreement. The process is described in more detail in Get Buyer Process.

Create and Approve Purchase Order Or Release (Process)

The "Create and Approve Purchase Order Or Release" process of the PO Create Documents workflow consists of the functions described below.

The "Create and Approve Purchase Order Or Release" process actually creates the documents. For those documents created successfully, a notification is sent to the buyer. If "Is Automatic Approval Allowed?" is set to 'Y' for Yes, then the PO Approval workflow is launched.

Create Purchase Order Or Release (Function)

This function creates a standard purchase order or blanket release depending on the information on the requisition line.

Purchase Order Or Release Has Been Created (Function)

If the document is created successfully, this function sends a notification to the buyer.

Is Automatic Approval Allowed? (Function)

This function checks the value of the attribute, "Is Automatic Approval Allowed?". If it's set to 'Y' for Yes, then the PO Approval workflow is launched. The default value for this attribute is 'N' for No.

Launch Document Approval Process (Function)

This function launches the PO Approval workflow. See Approval Workflows.

Continue Flow (Function)

This function tells the second "Wait for Flow" function in the "Overall Document Creation / Launch Approval Process" that the process "Create and Approve Purchase Order Or Release" has completed. "Wait for Flow" now has to wait only for the other documents to be processed.

Get Buyer Process

The "Get Buyer" process tries first to get the buyer from the requisition line, through the "Get Buyer From Req Line" function. If that fails, then "Get Buyer From Item" tries to get the buyer assigned to the item in the Master Items window. If that fails, "Get Buyer From Category" tries to get the buyer assigned to the Category on the requisition line; if more than one or no buyers are assigned, then this function fails.

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