Oracle Payables uses templates created in the Templates tab of the Payments Manager to simplify pay run processing. A payment process request template predefines invoice selection criteria, payment attributes, processing instructions, and specifies how validation failures should be handled.
Payment process request templates enable you to:
Minimize data entry by saving you from re-keying frequently used values, which simplifies and expedites pay runs.
Retrieve cash requirements for the invoices that will be selected for payment by running the Schedule Cash Requirements Report.
Schedule payment process requests to run on a repeating basis.
Submit specific payment process requests by specifying a template that is used as a parameter and which contains all the information needed for submitting the particular payment process request.
Use a template as a starting point for submitting pay runs.
The first step in creating a payment process request template is to specify template header information. The information in a header uniquely defines the template, thereby making it easy for you to query.
Templates can be categorized by types to enable you to quickly find the appropriate template. Template types are particularly useful in large enterprises because templates are not identified by organization unit.
You can specify invoice payment selection criteria in the Scheduled Payment Selection Criteria subtab. Selection criteria determine which invoices will be selected for payment in the payment process request.
The Scheduled Payment Selection Criteria subtab includes the following factors that you can use to limit the selection of invoices for a pay run:
supplier type
payee (supplier)
payment method
A payment method, as indicated above, is a payment attribute on a document payable, which indicates the medium by which the first party payer, or deploying company's operating unit and legal entity, will make a payment to a third party payee, or supplier. Examples of payment methods are checks printed in-house by the payer, checks outsourced to the bank for printing, and wires.
The Scheduled Payment Selection Criteria subtab enables you to conveniently specify multiple pay groups, payment currencies, legal entities, and operating units from which the template will select the scheduled payment invoices.
For example, if you specify the All radio button for operating units, the selection process will select scheduled payments for all operating units for which you use the template to submit a request. If you select the Specify radio button, you can specify operating units and the selection process will only select scheduled payments for those operating units.
For information on setting up payments methods, see:
Payment attributes can be specified in the Payment Attributes subtab. For a pay run, you do not need to specify only a single bank account or a single payment process profile. Instead, you can manage a large group of selected documents payable in a pay run by paying from multiple bank accounts and using different payment instruments. This occurs if you assigned the appropriate bank accounts and payment process profiles to specific organizations in the Complete Document Assignments: Payment Process Request <name> page.
On the other hand, if you wish to specify how all the documents payable in a pay run will be paid, you can specify a single disbursement bank account and payment process profile in the template using the Payment Attributes subtab. If you mistakenly specify an inappropriate bank account or payment process profile for a document payable, then the payment process pauses and requires you to provide these values in the Complete Document Assignments: Payment Process Request <name> page. An example of this would be where the user's selection criteria selects an invoice that has a payment method that is not assigned to the specified payment process profile.
A payment process profile, as referred to above, is a payment attribute assigned to documents payable, and therefore to payments, which specifies their handling. Payment process profiles include specifications for payment formatting and transmission. The selection of a payment process profile is driven by the payment method assigned to a document.
For information on payment process profiles, see:
The pay run processing instructions can be specified in the Process Automation subtab. This region specifies whether the pay run process will pause for review or be fully automated. If issues arise during payment processing that require your input, the process pauses, regardless of your options. You can select one or more of the following options in this subtab:
Maximize Credits
If this check box is selected in the Process Automation subtab, then during invoice selection, if there is any credit for a payee after interest and payment withholding calculations, the system groups all scheduled payments for the payee site together to be paid on one payment, based on grouping rules. If the sum is negative, the system reduces the credit amount to zero.
Note: Do not use this feature if you want to group payments by Due Date. If the enterprise uses Japanese Bank Charges or Extended Withholding to calculate payment withholding, Oracle recommends that you refrain from using this feature because it could reduce the payment amount to less than zero and the scheduled payments would be rejected. Also, if your bank account does not allow zero payments, then Oracle recommends that you not use this feature. If your fiscal authority allows zero payments, you can customize your payment format to include zero amount payments or specify zero amount payments for applying credits.
Stop Process for Review after Scheduled Payment Selection
If this check box is selected in the Process Automation subtab, the pay run pauses after invoices have been selected and the status of the payment process request updates to Invoices Pending Review. Clicking on the Start Action icon navigates you to the Payment Process Request: Selected Scheduled Payments page to review the invoices selected for scheduled payment, add or remove scheduled payments from the request, or change payment amounts.
Calculate Payment Withholding and Interest during Scheduled Payment Selection
If this check box is selected in the Process Automation subtab, the following calculations occur:
For each scheduled payment subject to interest, the system calculates the interest due.
For those invoices subject to withholding, the system calculates withholding tax for invoices that belong to an operating unit where tax is withheld at payment time.
Stop Process for Review after Creation of Proposed Payments
If this check box is selected in the Process Automation subtab, the Build Payments program runs to group the invoices into payments and the pay run pauses after payments have been built. Clicking on the Start Action icon navigates you to the proposed payments in the Review Proposed Payments: Payment Process Request <name> page of the Payment Process Requests tab.
You can choose whether to have payment instructions created immediately after the pay run reaches a status of Completed or schedule the Create Payment Instructions Program to run periodically at a specified time.
If you want immediate payment processing, you can select the Automatically Initiate When Payment Process Request is Complete option from the Create Payment Instructions drop-down list so the Create Payment Instructions program starts immediately when the payment process request completes.
Note: If you select this option, you are required to specify a payment process profile in the Payment Attributes subtab.
The Create Payment Instructions program then creates payment instructions for those payments. Electronic instructions are transmitted to the bank. If they are printed instructions, printing is initiated.
This option also ensures that payments from this payment process request will not be combined with payments from other payment process requests when the system builds the payment instructions.
Alternatively, you can set the Create Payment Instructions option to Wait for Standard Request Submission. In this scenario, an enterprise typically schedules the Create Payment Instructions Program to run periodically. An enterprise would choose this option to take all built payments from multiple payment process requests and build fewer payment instructions.
Validation failure criteria can be specified in the Validation Failure Results subtab. In this subtab, you specify the processing instructions for handling failures during validations.
During processing of the payment process request, validations are performed for the documents payable. If any document fails validation, this instruction tells the system which documents to drop from the payment process request: just the document that failed, all documents for the payee, stop the payment process request for review, or reject all documents in the payment process request.
Similarly, during processing of the payment process request, validations are performed for the payments. If any payment fails validation, this instruction tells the system which payments to drop from the payment process request: just the payment that failed, all payments in the payment process request, or stop the payment process request for review.
Note: Because tax can be calculated based on thresholds (for example, withhold at rate A after you have paid X amount), the system cannot drop a subset of documents if an operating unit calculates withholding tax at payment time. Therefore, when such a document fails validation, the system fails all documents for the payee that are in the payment process request.
Note: The Validation Failure Results subtab page does minimal validation that any invoices exist based on the invoice selection criteria you enter. For example, if you specify a pay group and supplier, the system does not validate that any invoices exist with that combination. When the actual payment process request runs, it searches for invoices that meet the criteria listed within the operating units to which the user has access. If no invoices match, then the payment process request cancels because it finds no invoices that match the criteria. Users are advised to keep this in mind when entering invoice selection criteria in templates or payment process requests.
Oracle Payables recommends that you run the Cash Requirements Report using the template to confirm that the template is selecting invoices that you expect, before using a new template for scheduling invoice selection.
For information on setting up disbursement system options, see Step 13. Setting Up Disbursement System Options.
For information on validations, see:
You can specify any customized criteria in the Additional Information subtab.