Order Management enables you to hold an order, return, order line, or return line from continuing to progress through its workflow by utilizing the holds feature. Holds can be applied manually or automatically based on a set of criteria you define, such as a credit check hold.
You can define as many different holds as you need to manage your business. You can also multi-select orders, returns, order lines, or return lines from the Order Organizer and apply or release holds.
Order Management performs an automatic credit check on your customers, based on credit rules and credit limits you define. You can set credit limits for a total of all the customer's orders and of individual order amounts; assign tolerance percentages; and exclude certain customers, types of orders, or payment terms from credit checking entirely. You can also place a customer's account on hold so that no new sales orders can be progressed for that customer.
Note: For a line level credit check and hold, the credit management request will not be displayed and can be viewed on the Process Messages window.
Order Management evaluates orders and lines for credit checking in the following order:
The application evaluates the total order amount with the specified order limit. Even for line level checking, the application evaluates the total order amount, but places a hold on lines in case of credit check failure. If the order and line amount exceeds the order limit, then credit checking fails.
If Oracle Credit Management (OCM) is installed, then Order Management checks for overdue invoices. If the application finds overdue invoices, then credit checking fails
If OCM is installed, then Order Management calculates the exposure and evaluates it against the specified credit limit. If the exposure amount exceeds the credit limit, then credit checking fails.
If credit check failure occurs at any one or more levels of credit checking, then the application applies a hold on the order or line. Additionally, if you have installed OCM, then Order Management submits a credit management review and passes the reason(s) of credit check failure as messages to OCM. These messages enable the credit manager or analyst reviewing the case folder to determine the exact reason for the credit check failure. Order Management proceeds with credit check evaluation for all levels one by one even if one level fails and creates one case folder in OCM for any one or more cases of credit check validation failure.
For updated orders, the credit check process honors manually released holds as long as the increase in order amount is less than a specified tolerance limit. Additionally, for these updated orders, if you change the bill to site of an order keeping the site within the same customer and have not defined credit limits for the selected site, then the credit checking process does not redo credit checking. See: Defining Credit Check Rules, Oracle Order Management Implementation Manual
You can specify the recipient of the credit check hold notification by setting the applicable user or a role as the value of the OM: Credit Check Notification Recipient profile option. See: Profile Options and Order Management Profile Option Descriptions and Settings topics in Oracle Order Management Implementation Guide. If no value is specified for the profile, then the notification goes to the user that created the order.
During credit checking, a difference in the exposure or outstanding balance calculation process is based on the Include Tax and Include Freight and Special Charges check boxes of the credit check rule. The difference is as follows:
If you have enabled both check boxes, then the credit checking process considers tax on order lines and freight charges.
If you have enabled only Include Freight and Special Charges, then the credit checking process does not consider tax on order lines or freight charges.
If you have enabled only Include Tax, then the credit checking process considers tax on order lines and not on freight charges.
Hold sources enable you to apply a particular hold to a group of existing orders, returns, or their lines, and to new orders or lines meeting your hold criteria. Hold sources are valuable when you want to hold all current and future orders for criteria such as:
Bill To Site
Created By
Creation Date
Customer
Deliver To Site
Item
Line Type
Option Item
Order
Order Currency
Order Type
Payment Term
Payment Type
Price List
Project Number
Task
Sales Agreement Number
Sales Channel Code
Ship To Site
Shipping Method Code
Source Type
Top Model
Warehouse
For example, you create a hold source to hold an unreleased item. Once the item is available, you remove the hold source for the item, and all holds on individual order lines are released. A hold source can:
Hold all existing orders, returns, or their lines and new orders, returns, or their lines that meet your hold source criteria
Hold some existing orders, returns, or their lines and new orders, returns, or their lines from the Order Organizer window
Hold only new orders, returns, or their lines that meet your hold criteria
Please refer to the Holds Information Tab section in the Order Inquiry chapter for more information.
The Create Hold Sources Window can be launched from the Tools Menu. The Operating Unit field on the Criteria Tab of the Hold Sources window will default from the Sales Order Form (if it is set) or from your default Operating Unit. The LOV for the field will show all Operating Units that you have access to. An Operating Unit is required before you can specify hold source criteria. Clearing or changing the Operating Unit will clear the hold source criteria.
The Applicable Also To region consists of the All Operating Units box and the Operating Unit LOVs. You can define a hold source for all operating units you have access to or for specified operating units. By default, the Operating Unit field is populated based on your default operating unit. You can specify that the hold source that you created is also available in all operating units or specified operating units.
Create Customer or Site Based Hold Sources from the AR Customer Form
When you check the Credit Hold check box on a profile tied to a Customer, it will create a Global Customer based hold source and put all Orders for that Customer in all Operating Units on hold. Un-checking that check box will release that hold source and release all orders put on hold based on that hold source.
A hold source will be created in every OU where that customer has a site defined and every OU that has an order for that Customer. Every time a new site is defined for that customer (in an OU where there were no sites previously defined) AR will call Order Management to create a Hold Source in that OU.
When you check the Credit Hold check box on a profile tied to a Customer Site or Address, the application will create a Site based Hold Source in the Operating Unit that the site is defined in. This will also put all lines using that site on hold. You can release such Hold Sources only by un-checking the Credit Hold checkbox on the Customer or Site profile. You can release the individual orders or lines on hold from Order Management.
Additionally, the Apply Credit Hold Based On system parameter enables you to select the customer level where the credit hold is to be applied. The application can place orders on credit hold at order level based on Sold To Customer of the order when you set the system parameter to Sold To Customer or if you have not provided any value (default behavior). The value Header Level Bill To Customer places the order on credit hold if you have selected the Credit Hold check box for the Bill To Customer of the order. The value Line Level Bill To Customer places the order lines on credit hold if you have selected the Credit Hold check box for the Bill To Customer of the order line. This provides the flexibility of putting all the order lines belonging to multiple Bill To Sites but under same Bill To Customer on credit hold without having to select the Credit Hold check box for each site.
List of Criteria that you can use in a Hold Source
| First Hold Criteria | Second Hold Criteria (Dependant on First Hold Criteria) | Hold Level |
|---|---|---|
| WAREHOUSE | - | LINE |
| Line Type | LINE | |
| Shipping Method Code | LINE | |
| Deliver To Site | LINE | |
| Source Type Code | LINE | |
| ITEM | Shipping Method Code | LINE |
| Deliver To Site | LINE | |
| Price List | LINE | |
| Project Number | LINE | |
| Source Type Code | LINE | |
| Line Type | LINE | |
| SALES AGREEMENT | Price List | LINE |
| Payment Term | LINE | |
| Shipping Method Code | LINE | |
| Deliver To Site | LINE | |
| Line Type | LINE | |
| TOP MODEL | Option Item | LINE |
| PROJECT NUMBER | Task Number | LINE |
| CUSTOMER | Source Type Code | LINE |
| Bill To Site | LINE | |
| Ship To Site | LINE | |
| Deliver To Site | LINE | |
| Price List | LINE | |
| Line Type | LINE | |
| Payment Terms | LINE | |
| BLANK | ORDER | |
| Order Type | ORDER | |
| Payment Type | ORDER | |
| Transaction Currency Code | ORDER | |
| PRICE LIST | Transaction Currency Code | ORDER |
| ORDER TYPE | Transaction Currency Code | ORDER |
| Line Type | LINE | |
| CREATION DATE | Created By | LINE |
| SALES CHANNEL CODE | - | ORDER |
| PAYMENT TYPE CODE | ORDER/LINE | |
| SHIPPING METHOD CODE | LINE |
Order Management automatically releases holds when you supply a hold expiration date. Once the date is reached, the order can proceed along its workflow. Releasing a hold source releases all the orders, returns, and lines to which that hold source applied.
Note: You must set up and run Release Expired Holds concurrent program on a nightly basis to take advantage of the expiration date based release of holds.
Users with the ability to edit the sales order and users with view-only access to sales orders but with requisite authorization can release orders that have been put on credit check hold.
Order Management enables you to control which responsibilities are able to define, apply, and remove holds.
Through the Order Management responsibilities and associated menus, you control who has the authority to define new holds or update existing ones. For each individual hold you define, you can also define which responsibilities have the authority to apply or release the hold. For example, you may have a quality hold that can be applied by any responsibility, but can be removed only by a Quality Assurance Supervisor responsibility.
Order Management enables you to specify the activity that the hold prevents. For example, if your policy is not to commit raw materials to an order that has been placed on credit check hold, you would prevent the scheduling of the order line. There are two types of activity specific holds: Line Invoicing activity specific hold, workflow uses header level invoicing. All the lines will be placed on hold as the activity will be 'On Hold'. Header Invoicing activity specific hold is applied on the order, workflow uses line level invoicing. All the lines will be placed on hold as the hold is at order level.
Note: Header invoicing activity specific hold can be applied only at the order level. Similarly, Line Invoicing activity specific hold can be applied only at the line level.
Order Management enables you to apply as many different holds as you need on a single order, return, order line, or return line. If there are two or more holds on an order or order line, order processing will continue only after all holds are removed.
Order Management maintains a complete audit trail of holds applied or removed so you can track who applied or removed each hold, the date it was applied or removed, and why.
All holds sources can be viewed in the Order Organizer and Sales Orders window. Use the Additional Order Information window or the Additional Line Information to see the status of your hold sources and how the hold affects the order's workflow. You can see the name of the hold, the level (such as customer, site, or item), the hold-until date, the release date, and who released the hold. If you are viewing a line, you see the holds for the line; if you are viewing an order, you see the holds for the order and for all of the lines.
In the Additional Order Information and Additional Line Information windows, the Applied Date, Applied By, Released Date, Released By and Release Reason fields enable you to view the hold details.
You can use the Outstanding Holds Report to review all active holds for a particular customer or item and evaluate the effect on customer service and revenue. You can also use the Hold Source Activity Report to review holds placed and removed for a particular hold source during a specified time period.
From the Sales Orders window, select Additional Order Information from the Action button and select Holds.
The GSA hold ensures that a specific group of customers always receives the best pricing. For example, in the United States, this customer group usually consists of government customers that purchase products from a list of pre-qualified suppliers. An order with the same discount level for any other customer outside the group is automatically placed on hold for further review.
Automatically Apply Order Holds
You can check orders for conformance with certain business metrics and automatically place holds against the order if they are violated. Business metrics include (but are not limited to):
Credit checking failure
GSA pricing violation
The credit check failure hold and GSA violation hold are standard holds in Order Management. These holds are automatically applied if the order satisfies certain business rules.
Lines that are part of an ATO Model, a Ship Together Model or Included Item line will be shown as On Hold in a column named Cascaded Hold in the lines and line summary blocks of the Sales Order Pad/Order Organizer.
The Pick Release does not release any part of a configuration if any order line within the configuration is on hold, unless the Ship Model Complete item attribute (for an order line item within the configuration) is set to No.
If Oracle Configurator is installed, when you modify a configuration within a booked order, Oracle Configurator validates the new configuration and places the Configurator Validation Hold on invalid configurations to prevent further processing.
You can automatically review the business metrics (or criteria) that caused the hold to be applied at activities in the order workflow. The appropriate holds should be released if the order or order line no longer violates the given business metric.
Note: Credit check failure hold and GSA violation hold are automatically released if the order or order line is updated and no longer violates the business rule due to which the hold was applied.
You can apply holds to returns similar to holds for orders. By placing the Check Holds activity in workflow corresponding to return processes, this stops the return processing if there are any holds on that specific return. Activity-specific holds can also be defined for activities used in returns workflow.
You can use holds to prevent an approval notification from being sent. The Check Holds activity can be placed before the approval notification in the workflow and until the check holds activity is completed with a result of No Holds, the notification will not be sent.
You can apply a hold on a given item from being sold to a specific customer. This feature supports the various export requirements such as Table of Denial Orders and export licenses.
Oracle Order Management Implementation Manual, Defining Holds.