Oracle Approvals Management (AME) is a self-service Web application that enables you to define business rules governing the process for approving transactions in Oracle applications that have integrated AME.

What are the advantages of using Oracle Approvals Management?

Oracle Approvals Management enables you as a business user to specify the approval rules for an application without having to write code or customize the application. Once you define the rules for an application, that application communicates directly with AME to manage the approvals for the application's transactions.

Are all the AME features mentioned in this guide available within integrating applications such as iExpenses or SSHR?

You should review the product documentation to see if a particular feature such as parallel approvers is available in the integrating application you are interested in. AME delivers new features in each release; therefore it is possible that there will be a time lag between delivery and implementation by any given development team.

What kind of approval hierarchies are supported?

You can define approvals by job, supervisor hierarchy, positions, or by lists of individuals created either at the time you set up the approval rule or generated dynamically when the rule is invoked. You can link different approval methods together, resulting in an extremely flexible approval process.

Can you use the same rules for different applications?

Yes. You can define rules to be specific to one application or shared between different applications.

How can you ensure that the rules you create are valid?

AME has built-in testing features that enable you to confirm the behavior of new or edited business rules before live execution.

How is a transaction in progress affected by changes in your organization?

As AME recalculates the chain of approvals after each approval, a transaction is assured to be approved under the latest conditions, regardless of organizational changes, changes to transaction values, rule changes, or currency conversions.

What is a deviation?

A change to the standard approver list generated by AME for approval of transactions is a deviation. AME generates a standard approver list based on the rules set up for transaction types, either by the Approvals Management Administrator or the Approvals Management Business Analyst. Any change to this standard approver list is a deviation.

Can I capture transaction deviations generated to an approval list?

Yes, you can capture deviations generated to the standard approver list by running the Approvals Deviations report.

How can I track the deviations?

You must set the configuration variable Record Approval Deviations at transaction type level to Yes to track deviations.