Traditional systems like Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) alone will not suffice anymore as the workforce is filled with tech-savvy millennials and Gen Z workers. They are looking for quick, intuitive, and remotely accessible solutions. Enterprises that want to stay competitive will have to adapt to new trends and modern solutions as they become digitally transformed. A big part of the transformation involves reducing the time spent on Oracle EBS month-end accruals with streamlined automation.

Automation of month-end accruals addresses the business benefits, key features, and architecture. It involves digitally transforming manual vendor accrual processes to an automated web-based dashboard and integrating Oracle EBS and ERP systems.

Extending the on-premises ERP to the cloud

Digital transformation in extending the on-premises ERP systems to a web/ mobile platform in the cloud reduces the infrastructure cost by promoting the BYOD culture (Bring Your Own Device). It helps increase the employees’ productivity as they can conduct business transactions on the go.

Oracle EBS Mobile Apps offers a payable accrual process for vendors. Automation of the process includes a user interface that enables entering and submitting the accruals. Vendor accrual automation enables seamless interactions between different business units in the organization and reduces the process closure time. Automation helps optimize the workflow and reduces labour costs. For automation of the vendor accrual process to be successful, the solution must be implemented and integrated with multiple enterprise modules keeping user needs/ customizations in mind to create maximum value and optimize the available features.

Features of vendor accrual automation

The Vendor Accruals Automation application is role-based, where a particular user (role-based) can view the data based on the actions taken by their direct reports. The role-based users include financial planning and analysis (FPA), general ledger (GL), GL manager, system admin, and auditor. Other enabled roles include requestor, budget owner, project manager, FPA manager, accrual owner, etc. It has features such as:

  • Open PO accrual dashboard: The open PO Accrual dashboard has the open PO lines for a particular month and is accessible to all the role users.
  • Open PR accrual dashboard: This dashboard is accessible to all the role-based users and is similar to open PO.
  • Open Projects accrual dashboard: The open projects dashboard has all the open project lines for a given month.
  • Open PO/ PR status dashboard: Open PO/PR status dashboard provides information about the pending lines for each entity.
  • Aged open PO accrual dashboard: Aged Open PO dashboard acts as a repository of PO lines that has been open for more than three months. This dashboard is read-only, and the user cannot take action on these lines. These lines will also be available in open PO, and the user can only take action in the open PO dashboard.
  • Closed PO accrual dashboard: The closed PO dashboard provides details about the closed PO lines between the GL periods, irrespective of whether a PO has gone through the certification process in the dashboard.
  • Accrual reports: Accrual report provides information about the PO/PR lines that have been certified/ decertified. It includes the manual accrual lines, timestamp of each role certification, the journal batch, and the date it was created. You can view the report for the last twelve GL periods.
  • On-hold reports: The on-hold report has all the PO/PR lines certified by FPA with zero accrual amounts. This report is a repository to show all the PO/PR lines, and since they are certified, there are no journal entries.
  • Project accrual report: Project Accrual report is similar to the Accrual report. It lists all the project lines that have completed the certification process.
  • Project on-hold report: Project On hold report is similar to on-hold reports and gives you information on project lines certified by FPA with zero accrual amounts.
  • Accrual at a glance: Accrual at a Glance view is for auditing purposes. It gives the auditor access to the pending number of lines and pending accrual amount with each role.
  • FPA manager dashboard: The FPA users and FPA managers have a metrics view with a graphical representation of the month-end accrual process with this dashboard.
  • GL manager dashboard: From this dashboard, GL users and GL managers can view metrics concerning the overall status of month-end accruals.
  • System Admin: The system admin dashboard is used only by the system administrators. They control the access given to users and can add other users as system admins and as auditors.
  • Delegate dashboard: In the delegate dashboard, FPA can delegate their lines to another FPA based on the dates or forever. The delegate dashboard is for FPA view only. It can assign PO/PR and project lines to accrual owners who may not be associated with a particular PO/PR and project line.

Business benefits of vendor accrual process automation

By implementing the automated vendor accrual solution, enterprises achieve:

  • Streamlined PO management and approvals
  • Faster overall process time
  • Reduced redundancy and duplication of effort
  • Reduced costs in resources and infrastructure
  • A complete integrated workflow between different Oracle modules to manage the accrual process
  • Seamless and collaborative interactions between different departments
  • Secure integration with back end systems
  • Scalability through a web-based system
  • Customized solutions to ensure prompt usability to meet employee needs
  • Minimized human intervention leading to zero errors

Digital transformation is all about automating manual processes to save time and effort towards an improved bottom line. It is also about engaging employees to become strategists instead of data crunchers. Vendor accrual automation application enhances business workflow between various module interfaces such as active directory, corporate emails, Oracle iProcurement, Oracle general ledger, Oracle purchasing, and Oracle projects. All role-based users can log in to the application, perform the required action in real-time, reduce redundancy, improve coordination between different business units, and earn greater ROI.

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