Run the Geography Name Referencing process to validate address elements in location tables, such as HZ_LOCATIONS and HR_LOCATIONS_ALL, against geographies in the Master Reference Geography Hierarchy. For each address, or location record, the program identifies which master reference geography an address element maps to, if any. Oracle E-Business Tax uses this mapping information for business-specific purposes such as tax calculation.
Geography Name Referencing is based on Geography Hierarchy validations data and setup. See: Managing Validations.
This table describes the validation mapping of the United States country structure to the HZ_LOCATIONS table, for the North America address style.
| Geography Type | Maps to Attribute | Tax Validation | Geography Validation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Country | COUNTRY | Yes | Yes |
| State | STATE | Yes | Yes |
| County | COUNTY | Yes | No |
| City | CITY | Yes | Yes |
| Postal Code | POSTAL_CODE | No | Yes |
An address in HZ_LOCATIONS has address elements as shown in this table.
| HZ_LOCATIONS Column | Address Element Value |
|---|---|
| ADDRESS1 | 500 Oracle Parkway |
| CITY | Redwood City |
| COUNTY | Santa Clara |
| STATE | |
| POSTAL_CODE | 94065 |
| COUNTRY | United States |
The Geography Name Referencing process runs on the HZ_LOCATIONS table and processes this address. The program:
Checks for the address style associated with this address, for this example, the North America address style. The program can use the corresponding validation mapping setup from Geography Hierarchy for the next step.
Compares each address element, or HZ_LOCATIONS attribute, that is mapped to a geography type in the US country structure, against the corresponding master reference geography defined in Geography Hierarchy. This table describes the results of this comparison for each element in the above address.
| Geography Type | HZ_LOCATIONS Column | Address Element Value | Master Reference Geography | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Country | COUNTRY | US | United States | Address element is validated and mapped to the master reference geography, because the address value is a defined code or alternate name. |
| State | STATE | CA | Based on the other entered address elements, the program can extrapolate and map to CA as the state if CA is the only possible value. For example, there are no other states with the San Mateo county and Redwood City combination. | |
| County | COUNTY | Santa Clara | San Mateo | Address element is not valid and therefore not mapped to the master reference geography. Mapping status is Error. However, if the program can find a unique correct value, as with the state, then the address element is corrected and mapped accordingly. |
| City | CITY | Redwood City | Redwood City | Address element is validated and mapped to the master reference geography. |
| Postal Code | POSTAL_CODE | 94065 | The master reference geography value is not available, so the mapping status is Error. |
Provides the results for this and all other processed addresses in the concurrent program log. The log specifies mapping status and explains why records receive the Error status.
As indicated in the Geography Hierarchy validation mapping, the Country, State, County, and City geography types are used for tax validation. For any address, tax is calculated based on the master reference geographies that each address element is mapped to, as a result of Geography Name Referencing. For the address in this example, if the State and County address elements cannot be mapped, then tax validation and calculation cannot occur for State and County tax, but can for Country and City tax because those address elements are validated and mapped.
For the countries that you run Geography Name Referencing for:
Define the Geography Hierarchy country structure. See: Defining Country Structures.
Define geographies for each geography type in the country structure. See: Viewing and Defining Geographies and Updating Geographies.
Map geography types in the country structure to location table attributes, and specify geography usage. See: Managing Validations.
Set these profile options:
HZ: Batch Size for committing records in Geography Name Referencing process
HZ: Number of workers for a given Geography Name Referencing request
Suggestion: If performance of the Geography Name Referencing process seems low, check with your database administrator about increasing the number of workers.
Location Table Name: Select the table with the address records that you want to process, either HZ_LOCATIONS or HR_LOCATIONS.
Run Type: Specify to process all records, only records that previously resulted in error, or only new records that this program has never processed.
Address Usage: Specify to run the program for either the tax or geography validation usage, or both. The program provides results that correspond to address elements and geography types with the selected usage.
Country: Enter the country to process addresses for.
Location ID From and Location ID To: Enter a range of location IDs to identify the addresses to process.
Start Date and End Date: Enter a date range to process only addresses that are active within this range.