Oracle Approvals Management (AME) is a web-based application that is integrated with Oracle Workflow and enables you to define business rules to control your approvals processes.
With AME, you use the following components to define your approvals processes. They are associated with a transaction type for a particular application.
Attribute - this is a business variable, for example, a salary amount, user ID, or workflow process name.
Condition - a condition compares an attribute value with a set of allowed attribute values. For example, a condition could look at a salary amount. If the salary is greater than a specified value, a particular approver list is created.
Approval type and approval specifications - these components define the type of approver list that is generated. For example, to generate a supervisor-based approver list with 5 levels, you use the 'supervisory level' approval type with the 'requires approval up to the first 5 approvers' approval specification.
Rules - a rule links the other components together by associating one or more conditions with the approval type and approval rule.
For more information on the components used in AME, see: Oracle Approvals Management Implementation Guide
Oracle SSHR delivers an AME configuration that emulates functionality delivered in the PL/SQL package. This configuration delivers a supervisor-based approvals hierarchy using AME rules.
The default AME configuration consists of:
a single AME transaction type 'SSHRMS' with
the following conditions:
WORKFLOW_PROCESS_NAME
MID_PAY_PERIOD_CHG
the following rules:
SSHR rule for at most 10 Approvers in supervisor chain
Requires approvals to the top of the approval hierarchy or to 10 levels above the initiator, whichever comes first
SSHR Payroll Contact inclusion rule
Requires pre-approval from payroll contact if the transaction results in a mid-period pay change
Oracle SSHR provides the following AME attributes to help you define your approvals processes:
| Attribute | Description |
|---|---|
| HR_TRANSACTION_CREATION_DATE_SS | Transaction creation date |
| HR_IS_ASSIGNMENT_CHANGE_SS | Includes change to assignment data |
| HR_IS_SUPERVISOR_CHANGE_SS | Includes supervisor change |
| HR_IS_TERMINATION_SS | Includes termination change |
| HR_IS_LEAVE_OF_ABSENCE_SS | Includes absence change |
| HR_TERMINATION_REASON_SS | Termination reason |
| HR_LENGTH_OF_SERVICE_IN_YEARS_SS | Length of service (years) |
| HR_PROPOSED_JOB_ID_SS | ID of proposed job |
| HR_PROPOSED_POSITION_ID_SS | ID of proposed position |
| HR_PROPOSED_GRADE_ID_SS | ID of proposed grade |
| HR_PROPOSED_LOCATION_ID_SS | ID of proposed location |
| HR_PROPOSED_PAYROLL_ID_SS | ID of proposed payroll |
| HR_ASSIGNMENT_CHANGE_REASON_SS | Proposed assignment change reason |
| HR_ASSIGNMENT_CATEGORY_SS | ID of proposed assignment category |
| HR_APPRAISAL_TYPE_SS | Appraisal type |
| HR_SELECTED_PERSON_ID_SS | ID of selected person |
| HR_PAY_BASIS_ID_SS | ID of payroll basis |
| HR_SELECTED_PERSON_PROPOSED_SUP_ID_SS | ID of proposed supervisor |
| HR_IS_PERSON_BASIC_DETAILS_CHANGE_SS | Includes change to basic details |
| HR_IS_SELECTED_PERSON_ADDRESS_CHANGE_SS | Includes address change |
| HR_IS_SELECTED_PERSON_CONTACT_CHANGE_SS | Includes contact change |
| HR_IS_RELEASE_INFORMATION_SS | Includes change to release information |
| WORKFLOW_PROCESS_NAME | Workflow process name |
| CURRENT_ASSIGNMENT_ID | ID of current assignment |
| CURRENT_EFFECTIVE_DATE | Current effective date |
| HR_PROPOSED_SALARY_BASIS_SS | Proposed salary basis |
| HR_ABSENCE_TYPE_ID_SS | ID of absence type |
| HR_IS_MID_PAY_PERIOD_SS | Includes mid-period change to pay |
For more information on using attributes, see: Oracle Approvals Management Implementation Guide.
To meet your business needs, you may add additional rules, conditions, or attributes within the delivered SSHRMS transaction type, or you can define a custom transaction type.
For more information on configuring AME rules, conditions, and attributes, see: Oracle Approvals Management Implementation Guide
It is relatively easy to make minor changes to the delivered AME configuration and some examples are provided below.
To define a different approval level for all SSHR workflow processes:
For example, to specify two approval levels: The approval level is currently defined in the rule 'SSHR Rule for at most 10 approvers in Supervisor chain'. You would edit this default rule and change the approval level for the supervisory level approval type to 'requires approval up to the first two superiors at most'.
To define a different approval level for a specific workflow process:
First you create a new condition with the attribute WORKFLOW_PROCESS_NAME and enter the workflow processes which will have the different approval level as the attribute values.
Then you create a new rule, for example, '2 approvers in supervisor chain'.
Use the 'supervisory level' approval type with the 'requires approval up to the first two superiors at most' approval
Finally, attach your new condition to the rule.
To define a new approval level (if the delivered approvals do not meet your requirements):
You create a new approval (for example, 'requires approval up to the first 15 superiors at most') in the 'supervisory level' approval type.
To define a particular user as the final approver, or final authority (even if they are not the last person in the approval chain):
You create a List Modification Condition and specify a user, for example, a manager, as the final approver. You would add this list modification condition to your rules so that the approval chain would stop at this specified approver. Alternatively, you could create a new rule, add the approval type for final approver and add the WORKFLOW_PROCESS_NAME condition so that this final approver rule would apply to selected processes.
For more information on the configuration options offered by AME, see: Oracle Approvals Management Implementation Guide
For information about function parameters associated with AME, see Supplied Functions
For descriptions of function parameters, see Menu Function Parameter Descriptions