Author: Luke Darbyshire, Order to Cash Practice Lead, Namos Solutions
In our usual quarterly release blog posts we like to discuss a particular feature that gives us ideas about all the ways it can add value for our clients. Reading the 23B release notes however, the feature that most excited me was not some swish new functionality being added to Oracle Cloud, but rather the Ideas Lab.
In 23B, in the Payables process flow alone, there are 5 new features ready to drop that are based on Ideas posted to Cloud Customer Connect. Before we get to the details of these features, it is worth reflecting on this proof of the impact that all of us as users of Oracle Cloud can have on how the functionality grows and develops. While it can be frustrating at times when an Idea you’ve posted or upvoted doesn’t seem to be progressing, 23B proves how much we can gain by engaging with the Ideas lab.
PAYMENT METHOD SELECTION IN CASH ADVANCE REQUEST
From 23B you can give users the option to select a Payment Method when submitting a Cash Advance. Common use cases for Cash Advances will include currency when travelling overseas, or low value incidentals that historically would have been paid out of the office’s petty cash tin. Both are scenarios where an actual cash advance may be required rather than a bank transfer. Moreover, where urgent reimbursement is required for immediate spend, it may be necessary to make a same day payment rather than waiting for the next regular BACS run.
In such scenarios, rather than the Payment Method needing manual update once the expense has transferred to Payables, this feature enables selection of the right Payment Method at initial input.
AUTOMATIC REEVALUATION AND RELEASE OF DUPLICATE INVOICE HOLDS
This feature enables the automatic removal of duplicate holds from invoices once the necessary changes have been made to the invoice to resolve the duplication. A simple change, but a great quality of life improvement that removes a manual step and eliminates the risk of an invoice remaining unpaid once the issue has been resolved.
MATCHING OF INVOICES WITH PURCHASE ORDER LINES WITH SUPPLIER CREDIT FROM SUPPLIER PORTAL
Back in 23A, new functionality was released to enable matching invoice lines to negative PO lines. 23B builds on this functionality by also enabling this feature for invoices created through the Supplier Portal, providing additional supplier self-service and therefore delivering efficiencies in Payables.
AUTOMATIC RESUMPTION OF PAYMENT PROCESS REQUEST AFTER PAYMENT APPROVAL
Quality of life improvements abound in 23B – we no longer have to manually kick a Payment Process Request into the next stage of processing after approval. While a minor tweak, it removes an unnecessary extra step that can result in payment runs stalling after approval.
INVOICE ACCOUNTING DATE DISPLAY FOR LINES TRANSFERRED FROM PAYABLES TO FIXED ASSETS
Payables isn’t keeping all the quality of life improvements to itself – from 23B we will be able to see the accounting date of Payables invoices in the Fixed Assets Additions Infotile and Prepare Source Lines page. This will more easily surface a key datum in Fixed Assets, negating the need to drill down to the transaction to see when it accounted, as well as provide additional options for filtering and sorting Payables invoices.
While writing this post I’ve checked in on a couple of Payables related Ideas I’ve voted on and would be embarrassed to admit how excited I am about (updating the payment currency on an invoice, and being able to process multicurrency transactions in non-ledger currency internal bank accounts). Both are currently flagged as options for a future release, so I don’t think 23B will be the last we see of Payables Ideas paying off.
As ever, please get in touch to talk about how Namos can help leverage these new features or the other ways we can support you in maximizing the value of your Oracle Cloud investment.
About Namos Solutions
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