What's New

Update 23A

Revision History

This document will continue to evolve as existing sections change and new information is added. All updates appear in the following table:

Overview

HAVE AN IDEA?

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GIVE US FEEDBACK

We welcome your comments and suggestions to improve the content. Please send us your feedback at oracle_fusion_applications_help_ww_grp@oracle.com.

DISCLAIMER

The information contained in this document may include statements about Oracle’s product development plans. Many factors can materially affect Oracle’s product development plans and the nature and timing of future product releases. Accordingly, this Information is provided to you solely for information only, is not a commitment to deliver any material, code, or functionality, and should not be relied upon in making purchasing decisions. The development, release, and timing of any features or functionality described remains at the sole discretion of Oracle.

This information may not be incorporated into any contractual agreement with Oracle or its subsidiaries or affiliates. Oracle specifically disclaims any liability with respect to this information. Refer to the Legal Notices and Terms of Use for further information.

Optional Uptake of New Features (Opt In)

Oracle Cloud Applications delivers new updates every quarter. This means every three months you'll receive new functionality to help you efficiently and effectively manage your business. Some features are delivered Enabled meaning they are immediately available to end users. Other features are delivered Disabled meaning you have to take action to make available. Features delivered Disabled can be activated for end users by stepping through the following instructions using the following privileges:

• Review Applications Offering (ASM_REVIEW_APPLICATIONS_OFFERINGS_PRIV)
• Configure Oracle Fusion Applications Offering (ASM_CONFIGURE_OFFERING_PRIV)

Here’s how you opt in to new features:

1. Click Navigator > My Enterprise > New Features.
2. On the Features Overview page, select your offering to review new features specific to it. Or, you can leave the default selection All Enabled Offerings to review new features for all offerings.
3. On the New Features tab, review the new features and check the opt-in status of the feature in the Enabled column. If a feature has already been enabled, you will see a check mark. Otherwise, you will see an icon to enable the feature.
4. Click the icon in the Enabled column and complete the steps to enable the feature.

In some cases, you might want to opt in to a feature that's not listed in the New Features work area. Here's how to opt in:

1. Click Navigator > My Enterprise > Offerings.
2. On the Offerings page, select your offering, and then click Opt In Features.
3. On the Opt In page, click the Edit Features (pencil) icon for the offering, or for the functional area that includes your feature.
4. On the Edit Features page, complete the steps to enable the feature.

For more information and detailed instructions on opting in to new features for your offering, see Offering Configuration.

Opt In Expiration

Occasionally, features delivered Disabled via Opt In may be enabled automatically in a future update. This is known as an Opt In Expiration. If your cloud service has any Opt In Expirations you will see a related tab in this document. Click on that tab to see when the feature was originally delivered Disabled, and when the Opt In will expire, potentially automatically enabling the feature. You can also click here to see features with Opt In Expirations across all Oracle Cloud Applications.

Feature Summary

Project Management

Project Management Common

Service Excellence Continuing Investments

In this update, improvements are available in the following areas:

PROJECT MANAGEMENT COMMON

• Oracle Digital Assistant for Project Time Capture and Project Management Skills Enhancements: Increased the digital assistant’s ability to detect what the user is trying to achieve and any entities, like a project name, they've provided to add context to their request. Powered by neural networks and machine learning, additional training models focus on various lengths and styles of chargeable project and task names, plus a variety of ways to indicate the amount of time worked. Regularly scheduling Refresh Dynamic Entities for Project Management Digital Assistant Skills process further increases the digital assistant's ability to exactly match project names and numbers in conversational requests.

COST MANAGEMENT AND CONTROL

• Project Costing – Unprocessed Transactions Real Time OTBI Subject Area Enhancement: New measures to display the count of costed transactions and count of uncosted transactions are available under Unprocessed Transaction Details > Unprocessed Transaction Measures folder.

GRANT MANAGEMENT

• Federal Financial Report Enhancement: The expiration date of the report matches with the expiration date (02/28/2025) posted by Grants.gov.

• Projects – Grants Management – Award Funding Real Time OTBI Subject Area Enhancement: Unique Entity Identifier of the institution is available in the Institutions folder.

PLANNING, SCHEDULING, AND FORECASTING

• Project Issues Task Association: Link project issues to tasks so that the closure of issues can drive task completion. Project managers and team members can create issues for tasks, milestones, and gates, automatically listing them as work items for driving task progress. They can set task completion criterion for each work item to mark the task as complete when all associated work items meet their criteria.

Business Flow:

1. Create an issue in the Manage Issues page and link to an existing project task.
2. On the Manage Project Plan page, right-click on the project task where the issue is linked and navigate to the Manage Work items dialog.
3. Set the task completion criteria for the issue type work item to drive the task completion.

When current status meets the set task completion criteria, task percent and physical percent is updated, and task is marked complete.    

Project Issue Association to a Project Task with Task Completion Events

Based on Idea 628330 from the Project Management Idea Labs on Oracle Cloud Customer Connect.

• Task Copy and Paste in Financial Projects Using the New Project Planning User Experience: Copy and paste tasks in financial projects to quickly add new work to the project plan. Previously, copy and paste of tasks was available for non-financial projects only, but with this update, a task can be copied and pasted for financial projects, including all the financial attributes of the task.

  • Select only a single task to copy. You cannot select and copy multiple tasks at the same time.

  • You can copy and paste lowest level tasks any time.

  • If you select to copy a summary task in expanded version, then only that task is copied and the subtasks tasks are not copied. Alternatively, collapse the summary task to copy and paste that task and all of its subtasks.

  • If constraints and dependencies are present on either the copied task or the summary under which they will be pasted, then they will be applied.

    • If there are constraint violations, then you get to choose what to do.

    • If there are no constraints or dependencies, then the pasted tasks will inherit the project start date as the default start date.

Steps to Enable

You don't need to do anything to enable this feature.

Get News Feed Suggestions On Your Next Likely Actions

Get suggestions on your next likely actions in your news feed layout. This feature is currently in Controlled Availability and is available in Oracle Fusion Cloud Financials and Oracle Fusion Cloud Project Management. Artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms predict and suggest the actions each user is most likely to take during a session. The algorithms use historic navigation behavior and patterns of each user and users like them to determine which navigation target they’re most likely to visit.

Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications have a wide range of functionality and it can sometimes be difficult to know how to navigate to a task. With news feed suggestions, you can get to the tasks that matter faster. For example, if reviewing and approving expense reports is a task commonly performed by managers in your organization, new managers will receive a suggestion in their news feed to perform that task. Or if a few team members are entering performance goals, other members of that team see this task as a suggestion in their news feed.

Business benefits include:

• Receive recommendations in your news feed on your next likely actions during that session
• Discover actions that other users like you have taken within Fusion
• As an administrator, you can pin specific task flow pages as a suggestion to raise the visibility of the task

Suggestions Tab in the News Feed Layout Showing Six Recommendations

Steps to Enable

To enable this feature, you need to log a Service Request (SR) through My Oracle Support and request for a promotion code. This feature is currently in Controlled Availability and requires a promotion code. For details, see Fusion Global FIN/PPM: How to Apply for News Feed Suggestions Under Controlled Availability (Doc ID 2915308.1).

Billing and Revenue Management

Automatic Release on Approval of Project Contract Invoice

Automatically release project contract invoices on approval using Workflow or the user interface. Skip the manual release invoice step and move project contract invoices through to Receivables faster.

The project contract invoices are automatically released when they are approved using the Invoice Overview or Manage Invoices, or Invoice Details pages or when they are approved using In-app or email approval notifications.

The business benefit of this feature is the manual process of releasing a project contract invoice is avoided, thereby making the transfer of a project contract invoice to Receivables more streamlined.

Steps to Enable

• You must enable the Release invoices on approval option on the Specify Customer Contract Management Business Function Properties setup page for a contract business unit, after which the project contract invoices belonging to the business unit are released automatically on approval. This option is enabled by default when a new contract business unit is configured, for existing business units this option needs to be enabled.

You must set the Invoice Numbering Method to Automatic and disable the Require credit memo reason option on the contract business unit so that the project contract invoices are released automatically on approval.

Tips And Considerations

• If you do not require approval for project contract invoices object then you can configure the auto-approval rule in the workflow so that the invoices are auto-approved and released automatically on submission of the invoice.

• To help you to take advantage of this new feature, we have improved the defaulting when you configure a new contract business unit using the Specify Customer Contract Management Business Function Properties setup page.
  • Invoice Batch Source in the Customer Billing defaults to CONTRACT INVOICES.
  • Invoice Batch Source in the Internal Billing defaults to CONTRACT INTERNAL INVOICES.
  • Require manual entry of transaction type option is disabled by default.
  • Require credit memo reason option is disabled by default.

• Invoices approved using the Approval of a single submitted invoice action of the Project Contract Invoices REST API can be released using Release of a single approved invoice action.

Key Resources

• Based on Idea 511836 from the Project Management Idea Labs on Oracle Cloud Customer Connect.

Access Requirements

To use this feature, you need the below-mentioned role.

• Job Role Name and Code:
  • Project Billing Specialist (ORA_PJF_PROJECT_BILLING_SPECIALIST_JOB)
  • Contract Setup (ORA_OKC_CONTRACT_SETUP_DUTY)

Increased Limit in Assigned Project Process Configurators for a Revenue or Invoice Method

Assign more process configurators to a revenue or invoice method, which then get automatically assigned to any new revenue or bill plans created with that revenue or invoice method. Combine more process configurators to meet unique business needs.

The main benefit of this feature is that you can assign up to a maximum of 10 process configurators to a revenue or invoice method. For example, you could assign multiple fixed price revenue recognition, cost of goods sold accrual and reversal, and loss accrual and reversal process configurators all to the same revenue or invoice method, as can be seen in the following image:

Create Revenue Method

Steps to Enable

You don't need to do anything to enable this feature.

Key Resources

• Based on Idea 570003 from the Project Management Idea Labs on Oracle Cloud Customer Connect.

Access Requirements

To use this feature, you need the following role:

• Job Role Name and Code:     
  • Project Application Administrator (PJF_PROJECTS_APPLICATION_ADMINISTRATOR_JOB).

Project Contract Invoice Update Using a REST API

Update attributes in the project contract invoice header and line that are editable in the UI using a REST API. In addition, a number of additional attributes are now available when retrieving invoice details, including bill to customer, submitted by, and project information, as well as the invoice acceptance date and net invoice indicator.

You can update the following attributes using the REST API:

• Invoice Date
• Invoice Comment
• Billing Instructions
• Taxation Country Code
• Document Subtype Code
• Invoice Header Additional Information
• Invoice Line Number
• Invoice Line Description
• Output Tax Classification
• Tax Exemption Certificate Number
• Tax Exemption Reason Code
• Assessable Value
• Transaction Business Category Code
• Intended Use
• Product Fiscal Classification
• Product Category Code
• Product Type Code
• User-Defined Fiscal Classification
• Translated Description
• Ship-to Account Number
• Ship-to Site
• Invoice Line Additional Information

The business benefits of this feature are:

• System integrators, administrators, and developers can create new or extend existing integration and automation solutions for the update of project contract invoices.

• You can also leverage complementary offerings such as the Oracle Visual Builder Add-in for Excel to create user-friendly workbooks to perform the update of project contract invoices.

Steps to Enable

Review the REST service definition in the REST API guides to leverage (available from the Oracle Help Center > your apps service area of interest > APIs & Schema). If you are new to Oracle's REST services you may want to begin with the Quick Start section.

Key Resources

• Related Help:
  • REST API for Oracle Fusion Cloud Project Management guide available on the Oracle Help Center.
  • Developing Integrated Spreadsheets Using Oracle Visual Builder Add-in for Excel is documented here.

Access Requirements

To use this feature, you need one of these roles:

• Job Role Name and Code:     
  • Project Integration Specialist (ORA_PJF_PROJECT_INTEGRATION_SPECIALIST_JOB)       
  • Project Billing Specialist (ORA_PJF_PROJECT_BILLING_SPECIALIST_JOB)

Cost Management and Control

Apply Budgetary Control on Internally Sourced Requisitions Expensed to Projects

Check for funds availability, reserve funds against project control budgets, and account encumbrances, if applicable, when you raise internally sourced requisitions that are expensed to sponsored and nonsponsored projects. You can create internal requisitions for expense destination items and charge the transfer cost to the project by including project costing details in the distribution, but you must check funds availability before submitting the requisition. If budgetary control applies to your transaction, funds are reserved as a commitment either on approval or submission, based on the reservation point of the ledger and business unit budgetary control options.  On receipt of the transfer order, the Create Receipt Accounting Distribution process reserves the receipt cost and liquidates the commitments.  The Import cost process liquidates the receipt reservation and reserve funds, and imports the transfer order costs from the Supply Chain Inventory Receipts application as project costs. For sponsored projects, you can view control budget balances on the Manage Awards page, and for nonsponsored projects, you can use the Budgetary Control Analysis Report.

These screenshots illustrate the feature.

1. For the Requisition transaction type, Project internal material transfer to expense subtype transaction type, enable the Budgetary Control and Encumbrance Accounting option.

2. Create requisition for expense destination with project costing details.

3. After the transfer order is shipped and received, and the transfer order receipts are accounted in Oracle Supply Chain Receipt Accounting, import and review transfer order costs as project costs.

Transfer Order Delivery Costs Imported as Project Costs and Viewed on the Manage Project Costs Page

Funds Reservation Details for Project Costs

View Project Control Budget Balances for Sponsored Projects

You can enable budgetary control and encumbrance accounting for the project internal material transfer to expense transaction subtype to:

• Track funds availability and funds consumption on critical project control budgets.
• Check for funds availability for internal material transfer requisitions that are expensed to projects.
• Track and account encumbrances on internal material transfer requisitions expensed to projects.

Steps to Enable

Use the Opt In UI to enable this feature. For instructions, refer to the Optional Uptake of New Features section of this document.

Offering: Manufacturing and Supply Chain Materials Management

Feature: Project-Driven Supply Chain

After you opt in, you must perform additional steps to enable project-driven supply chain. For instructions, refer to the Steps to Enable section in the Segregate and Manage Project-Specific Inventory feature, available in the Oracle Inventory Management Cloud What's New, update 20A.

Below are the additional steps needed to apply budgetary control on internally sourced requisitions expensed to projects:

• Enable budgetary control for the ledger, business units assigned to the ledger, and the project accounting business function.

• Enable the Project internal material transfer to expense transaction subtype in Manage Budgetary Control for the business function Requisitioning.

• Additionally, ensure budgetary control is enabled for the receiving business function and the Receiving for internal expense transfer transaction type. This is also required for projects to perform the necessary budgetary control functions for these costs at the time of import to projects.

• Two new journal line rules are added for the Project Costing subledger application. These are the new rules:
  • Same Line Project Encumbered Burden Cost Liquidation for Requisition for same line burdening enabled projects.
  • Separate Line Project Encumbered Burden Cost Liquidation for Requisition for separate line burdening enabled projects.

These new rules ensure relieving of burden encumbrances for the requisition, since receipt accounting only relieves the encumbrance for the raw costs. If your ledger is assigned with a user-defined subledger accounting method, add these new journal line rules to your Burden and Inventory journal rule sets and recompile your subledger accounting method for encumbrances to be accounted successfully for internal material requisitions expensed to projects.

Tips And Considerations

• You can use this feature only for internal material transfer requisitions for expense destinations, with project costing details at the distribution level created in Self Service Procurement UIs.   

• You can’t use this feature with requisition import (FBDI and Purchase Request Web Service) as requisition import doesn’t support internal material transfers.

• You can use this feature in REST resources, and Responsive Self Service Procurement application. But notice that, when applicable, funds are reserved only after approvals are completed.

• The requisition costs will be available as committed costs on the Manage Committed Costs page until the transfer order is received. After receipt of the transfer order is complete, the Manage Committed Costs page stops displaying these costs as commitments in projects and will also not be available as actual costs until these costs are imported into projects.

• Budgetary control can be set for a project, project and top resource, or award and funding source segments. When a resource-level budgetary control is being used, resources for a project that are used in the internal material transfer requisitions can be defined in the resource hierarchy and budgeted to prevent fund reservation failures.   

• If you enable budgetary control for the transaction ledger and business unit, then budgetary control validation is performed against project control budgets existing within the same ledger.   

• Any changes to the budgetary control enablement for the Project internal material transfer to expense transaction subtype impact the budgetary control for existing transactions of this subtype.

Any adjustments to existing project costs that are internal material transfer to expense destination, and weren't originally budgetary controlled, become eligible for budgetary control in projects after budgetary control is enabled as outlined in the Steps to Enable section. Adjustments made to previously nonbudgeted project costs related to internal material transfers to expense destinations will only have newly adjusted amounts budgeted.

Key Resources

• For more information on budgetary control and encumbrance accounting, refer to these topics:
  • Overview of Budgetary Control and Encumbrance Accounting
  • Overview of Project-Driven Supply Chain
  • Overview of Budgetary Control

Access Requirements

• Users with any of the following predefined job roles are automatically able to participate in the project-driven supply chain process:
  • Warehouse Operator (ORA_INV_WAREHOUSE_OPERATOR)
  • Shipping Manager (ORA_WSH_SHIPPING_MANAGER)
  • Shipping Agent (ORA_WSH_SHIPPING_AGENT)
  • Receiving Agent (ORA_RCV_RECEIVING_AGENT_JOB)
  • Cost Accountant (ORA_CST_COST_ACCOUNTANT_JOB)
  • Project Manager (ORA_PJF_PROJECT_MANAGER_JOB)
  • Project Administrator (ORA_PJF_PROJECT_ADMINISTRATOR_JOB)
  • Project Accountant (ORA_PJF_PROJECT_ACCOUNTANT_JOB)
  • Project Billing Specialist (ORA_PJF_PROJECT_BILLING_SPECIALIST)
  • Supply Chain Application Administrator (ORA_RCS_SUPPLY_CHAIN_APPLICATION_ADMINISTRATOR)

• If you're maintaining your own configured job roles: no new privileges were introduced to support the Apply Budgetary Control on Internally Sourced Requisitions Expensed to Projects feature.

Budget Account Derivation for Cost Adjustments

Use Budget Account Transaction Account Definition to rederive the budget account for cost adjustments. Doing so ensures the transaction is validated correctly and the ledger-based control budget displays accurate balances when costs are transferred from one project or task to another, and the project or task determines one or more segments in the control budget.

Here's a screenshot that shows supplier costs from Payables that have been transferred to another task:

Cost Transfer

Verify the budget account in the View Funds Results window, invoked using the Funds Status icon. Please note in this example, the control budget is set up to use only one of the segments as the controlling segment.

Budget Account for the Original Cost

A different budget account is derived for the new cost based on the account rule assigned to the Project Costing Budget Account transaction account type for the Transaction Account Definition (TAD).

Budget Account for the Transferred Cost

For comprehensive reporting, use the Budgetary Control Analysis Report, as shown below.

Same Budget Account for the Original and Reversing Cost

Different Budget Account for the Transferred Cost

The business benefit of this feature is that it enables you to control costs from Payables accurately when you transfer the costs from one project or task to another.

Steps to Enable

Use the Opt In UI to enable this feature. For instructions, refer to the Optional Uptake of New Features section of this document.

Offering: Project Financial Management  No Longer Optional From: Update 23C

To set up the budget account rule for cost transactions:

1. Define the account combination rule using the Manage Account Rules setup and maintenance task for the Project Costing application. Below is an example where the rule is set up to derive different accounts based on the task charged.

Account Rule

2. Assign the rule above to the Project Costing Budget Account transaction account type in the Manage Transaction Account Definitions (TAD) page for the Project Costing application. Activate the below TAD.

Transaction Account Definition

3. Assign the TAD to the ledger and Project Costing subledger application in the Manage Subledger Accounting Options page.

Ledger Accounting Options

Key Resources

• Related Help
  • Set Up Default Budget Account in the Project Management Implementation user guide.
  • Project Cost Adjustments in the Using Project Costing guide.
  • Budgetary Control Analysis Report in the Using Financials for the Public Sector guide.

• Based on Idea 577054 from the Project Management Idea Labs on Oracle Cloud Customer Connect.

Access Requirements

To perform project cost adjustments, you need the following roles:

• Duty Role Name and Code:
  • Project Cost Transaction Processing (ORA_PJC_PROJECT_COST_TRANSACTION_PROCESSING_DUTY)

• Job Role Name and Code:
  • Project Accountant (ORA_PJF_PROJECT_ACCOUNTANT_JOB)
  • Grants Accountant (ORA_PJF_GRANTS_ACCOUNTANT_JOB)

To define the account rule, you need the following job role:

• Project Application Administrator (ORA_PJF_PROJECTS_APPLICATION_ADMINISTRATOR_JOB)

Rounding Rule Changes to Display of Rounded Currency Amounts of Project Costs

View rounded values of currency amounts in project costing pages and reports according to defined currency precision and rounded using the half up rounding rule. Previously the pages and reports in the Costs work area displayed rounded amounts using a half even rounding rule. In order to provide a consistent user experience for display of rounded amounts with the default half up rounding rule used by subledger accounting, pages and reports in the Costs work area will follow the half up rounding rule for displaying rounded amounts. For example, an unrounded value of USD 2.905 will now be displayed rounded, as USD 2.91.

Rounding rules determine how unrounded amounts stored in the database are displayed in the context of the currency and its precision defined in the application. Various rounding rules exist, each with their own functional usage, like half up, half down, up, down, half even, half odd, etc. The table below illustrates the various rounding rules using an unrounded value of USD 2.905 as an example. The currency in this example is USD, with a precision of 2 decimal places. The rounding rule will be applied when the application tries to round the decimal places in an unrounded value to the precision associated with the currency, which is 2 in this example.

The Create Accounting process follows the default rounding rule of Nearest and rounds accounted amounts to the precision specified for the applicable currency. Differences in the rounding rules used to display costs in the Costs work area and in accounting resulted in decimal-level discrepancies to be observed in certain scenarios. With these changes, decimal discrepancies will be addressed for most use cases. Project Costing will continue to store unrounded amounts in the database to ensure accuracy in downstream processing and other in-house calculations. For example, a project cost transaction with a value of 2.905 is now rounded using the Nearest rule. This ensures that this transaction has the same value in the Manage Project Costs search results as well as the View Accounting page.

Projects cost and accounting view

Changes have also been made to the quantity and cost calculation logic for adjustments to project cost transactions when the quantity being adjusted has more than 2 decimal places. This is to ensure the final adjusted amounts and quantities will always be equal to the originally adjusted transaction's quantity and amount. If applicable, the adjustment history will reflect a message for the originally adjusted transaction, informing users of any decimal adjustments made to the quantity of adjusted transactions.

The business benefits of this feature are:

• Consistency in display of project costs and accounted amounts for project cost transactions across pages and reports in the Costs work area.

• Excel exports and sum of the total amounts within Excel will be consistent with the amounts displayed in the user interface.

• Adjustments to project cost transactions having quantity values with more than two decimals numbers, will be accurate in both the adjusted quantity and amounts for the adjusted transactions.

Steps to Enable

You don't need to do anything to enable this feature.

Tips And Considerations

• If you use OTBI reports to reconcile amounts between Projects and General Ledger or would like to validate project costs with project invoices for cost-only reimbursable billing, it is recommended that you edit the formula for the required amount columns in the applicable Project Costs subject area or reports. As shown in screenshot below, use the ROUND() function and the aggregation rule for that column as SUM if you would like the totals of the column to show the sum of the rounded amounts. This will ensure that the amounts you are reconciling between the subledger and general ledger are rounded to the currency precision using a common rounding rule.

OTBI - Edit Column Formula

• The rounding rule changes are presently limited to only to pages and reports in the Costs work area of the Project Costing subledger application.

• The default rounding rule defined in the Accounting Options for the Project Costing subledger application is 'Nearest' and we recommend that you do not make any changes to this. This is to ensure accounted amounts for projects costs are always consistent with the amounts shown in the Project Costing work area pages.

Key Resources

• Subledger Accounting Setup for Rounding Rules

Access Requirements

There are no new roles and privileges that are required to use this feature.

Planning, Scheduling, and Forecasting

Actuals Reported at Level Planned on Task Hierarchy

Project actual costs or revenue for resource assignments are reported at the level planned on the task hierarchy. For example, Actuals incurred at the lowest level task are reported against the task where the resources are planned. Planning is more flexible since project costs and revenue can be tracked against the summary level plan without having any unplanned assignments at the lowest level task.

Project managers and project administrators can collect costs and accrue revenue for forecasting at summary level.

Associate Project Costs at Summary Level - Project Plan Type Settings

Associate Project Costs and Revenue at Summary Level - Financial Plan Version Settings

The business benefit is that project managers and project administrators can avoid the extra effort of breaking down the project's resource plan; required to avoid unplanned costs and the downstream impacts of these on the forecast.

Steps to Enable

You don't need to do anything to enable this feature.

Tips And Considerations

• The Associate project costs to summary task assignments check box isn't available for selection if the Set unplanned assignments as planned assignments or Use third-party software for scheduling check box is selected.

• The Associate project costs or revenue to summary tasks check box is available for selection only when the Plan Class is set to Forecast and the Planning Level is set to Project and all tasks.

• Select these check boxes in the project plan type and financial plan type settings so that project costs get associated in line for both the financial project plan and forecasts.

Key Resources

• Related Help:
  • Create Financial Plan Types in the Implementing Project Financial Management and Grants Management guide.
  • Create Project Plan Types in the Implementing Project Financial Management and Grants Management guide.

• Based on Idea 582691 from the Project Management Idea Labs on Oracle Cloud Customer Connect.

Access Requirements

To use this feature, you need these privileges or roles:

• Privilege Name and Code:
  • Manage Project Forecast (PJO_MANAGE_PROJECT_FORECAST_PRIV)
  • Manage Project Forecast Working Version (PJO_MANAGE_PROJECT_FORECAST_WORKING_VERSION_PRIV)

• Duty Role Name and Code:
  • Project Management Duty (ORA_PJF_PROJECT_MANAGEMENT_DUTY_ABSTRACT)

• Job Role Name and Code:
  • Project Manager (ORA_PJF_PROJECT_MANAGER_JOB)
  • Project Administrator (ORA_PJF_PROJECT_ADMINISTRATOR_JOB)

Additional Payload Attributes for Project Status Workflow

Create advanced project status workflow approval rules based on the attributes of related business objects, providing greater control when transitioning a project through the status lifecycle. For example, create a project status approval rule which evaluates whether an approved cost budget exists prior to allowing a project to become active.

This release introduces the following project status approval workflow attributes for configuring rules in BPM Worklist:

* Note that the folder ProjectStatusNotificationApprovalPayloadType > projectStatusApprovalEventInfo also contains the above attributes.

Example

Consider the use case where a project should not be made active until a baselined version of the approved cost budget is created. This requirement can be satisfied as follows:

1. Configure a workflow-enabled project status. Users will transition projects to this status when they are ready to be made active. For example, "Submitted".

2. Configure rules in the ProjectStatusNotificationApproval task in BPM Worklist to automatically approve or reject project status changes based on the existence of a baselined approved cost budget. For example:

3. (optional) Personalize approval notifications to inform recipients why a project status change approval has been automatically accepted or rejected.

The business benefits of this feature are:

• Unify the business process for managing the status of a project with managing financial project plans, budgets and forecasts.

• Improved financial control of a project, for example, preventing a project from being made active until the approved cost or revenue budget is baselined.

Steps to Enable

You don't need to do anything to enable this feature.

Tips And Considerations

• This feature is limited to new attributes for the project status approval workflow only.

• This feature does not include any changes to the notifications associated with project status approval workflow, although said notifications can be personalized by customers if required (refer to the Key Resources section for more details).

• When setting workflow rules to automatically approve or reject a status change, you may wish to personalize the associated workflow notifications to ensure that recipients are aware of why the approval task was automatically approved or rejected. For example, if you create an approval rule to automatically reject a project status change if there is no approved cost budget, you may wish to include a corresponding message in the title or body of the approval notification.

Key Resources

• Related Help:
  • The Project Foundation Configuration: Types and Categorizations > Project Statuses > Project Status Change Workflow topic in the Implementing Project Financial Management and Grants Management guide.
  • The Configurable Workflow Notifications > Overview of Configurable Workflow Notifications in Project Management topic in the Creating and Administering Analytics and Reports for Project Management guide.

• Based on Idea 534184 from the Project Management Idea Labs on Oracle Cloud Customer Connect.

Access Requirements

To modify workflow rules, you need one of these roles:

• Job Role Name and Code:
  • Project Application Administrator (ORA_PJF_PROJECTS_APPLICATION_ADMINISTRATOR_JOB)
  • Application Implementation Consultant (ORA_ASM_APPLICATION_IMPLEMENTATION_CONSULTANT_JOB)

Financial Project Plan Updates Using File-Based Data Import

Update existing financial project plans using File-Based Data Import, or FBDI. For example, end date resource assignments across multiple tasks at the same time and add new assignments as the staffing plan for the project changes.

Processing Mode - Create and Update

The business benefits with reduced maintenance effort, as mass changes can be made to resource assignments when projects change scope.

Steps to Enable

You don't need to do anything to enable this feature.

Tips And Considerations

• If the scope of work increases and the financial project plan line dates are pushed out to increase the duration, then the resource assignment date modifications will be updated to accommodate the new scope of the work.

• If the scope of work reduces and the financial project plan line dates are pulled in to reduce the duration, then the resource assignment date modifications will be updated to accommodate the reduction in scope of the work.

• Download and review the latest import template in the File-Based Data Import (FBDI) for Project Management guide. To prepare and import data using the template, follow the instructions in the Instructions and CSV Generation tab within the template.

• Processing mode specifies the type of operation that's performed on the resource assignments:
  • Create - Creates financial project plan resource assignment records. This is the default value.
  • Update - Updates existing financial project plan resource assignment records.

Key Resources

• Related Help:
  • Import Financial Project Plans in the File-Based Data Import (FBDI) for Project Management guide.

Access Requirements

To use this feature, you need one of these privileges and roles:

• Job Role Name and Code:
  • Project Integration Specialist (ORA_PJF_PROJECT_INTEGRATION_SPECIALIST_JOB)
  • Project Application Administrator (ORA_PJF_PROJECTS_APPLICATION_ADMINISTRATOR_JOB)
  • Project Administrator (ORA_PJF_PROJECT_ADMINISTRATOR_JOB)
  • Project Manager (ORA_PJF_PROJECT_MANAGER_JOB)

Manually Entered Revenue Amounts Retained on Financial Plans

Changes to quantity, raw cost, or burdened cost do not change manually entered revenue amounts. Also, when refreshing rates, the revenue isn’t recalculated based on the rate derivation logic to fetch rates from rate schedules defined in plan settings when the revenue calculation method is set to Manual entry. This gives priority to manual entry regardless of the need to update or refresh other parts of the plan.

Revenue Generation Method - Manual Entry

Lets project managers and project administrators plan and maintain cost and revenue amounts in the same budget, but independently of each other.

Steps to Enable

Use the Opt In UI to enable this feature. For instructions, refer to the Optional Uptake of New Features section of this document.

Offering: Project Financial Management  No Longer Optional From: Update 23C

For the financial plan version, in the plan settings, the Revenue Generation Method must be set to Manual entry.

Tips And Considerations

• Revenue amounts are retained even if the quantity for rate based resources is updated or rates get refreshed after refreshing amounts.

• By default, the manually entered revenue amounts are retained on financial plans. However, you must set the Revenue Generation Method to Manual entry on the budget and forecast versions to get the benefit of the revenue amounts being independent of the cost amounts in the same version.

Key Resources

• Related Help:    
  • Create Financial Plan Types in the Implementing Project Financial Management and Grants Management guide

Access Requirements

To use this feature, you need one of these privileges and roles:

• Privilege Name and Code:
  • Manage Project Budget Working Version (PJO_MANAGE_PROJECT_BUDGET_WORKING_VERSION_PRIV)
  • Manage Project Budget (PJO_MANAGE_PROJECT_BUDGET_PRIV)
  • Manage Project Forecast Working Version (PJO_MANAGE_PROJECT_FORECAST_WORKING_VERSION_PRIV)
  • Manage Project Forecast (PJO_MANAGE_PROJECT_FORECAST_PRIV)

• Job Role Name and Code:
  • Project Administrator (ORA_PJF_PROJECT_ADMINISTRATOR_JOB)
  • Project Manager (ORA_PJF_PROJECT_MANAGER_JOB)

Project Forecasts with Periodic Columns, Advanced Resource Selection, and Multiple Version Views

Expedite project forecasting with an updated user interface that matches the latest experience already available in project budgeting. Changes include a periodic column layout for forecast lines, revised selection of resource assignments that includes profile images and selection of multiple transaction currencies, and a revised versions page that includes both a table and list view. The benefit with the new user interface is an easier management of periodic information on the forecast lines.

The Overview section displays scorecards of the approved primary forecast version. You can manage forecast versions using the Actions menu in the list view.

Manage Multiple Forecast Versions Using the Enhanced Manage Forecast Versions Page

Managing assignments for selected tasks is easier as you can:

• Search for resources using name, role, class, or it’s alias simultaneously.
• Select multiple resources with same currencies by using the Fill down values from selected resource icon.
• Identify resources with ease with the help of thumbnail images.
• Assign new resources efficiently using the Hide Prior Assignments link when large number of resources are assigned to tasks.

Manage Assignments for Selected Tasks

Managing a forecast version is easier as you can:

• Create and save personalized layouts to display the required columns using the Personalize Layout option from the Layout drop-down list.
• Use the periodic navigator to pan across the periodic information in the personalized layout.
• Review planning options with a single click.

Personalized Layout with Periodic Information

Watch a Demo.

Business Benefits

• Increased productivity by creating a forecast version with a single click using the Create Forecast Version icon. Optionally, create a forecast version using the creation methods from the Create Forecast Version drop-down list.

• Expedited forecast version creation by assigning multiple resources to plan lines simultaneously and search for resources using name, role, class, or alias.

• Simplified and efficient management of a forecast version by personalizing columns and managing multiple period amounts directly from the Edit Forecast page.

• Minimized training by letting project managers and project administrators try the enhanced user interface while working on the application by selecting the User selected interface option when opting for this feature.

Watch a Demo.

Steps to Enable

Use the Opt In UI to enable this feature. For instructions, refer to the Optional Uptake of New Features section of this document.

Offering: Project Financial Management  No Longer Optional From: Update 24C

The behavior for each of the opt-in choice is as follows:

Tips And Considerations

• If you opted for the user selected interface, you can get early feedback about the enhanced user interface. Project managers and project administrators can toggle between the enhanced and classic user interface using the Set Preferences menu. For the step-by-step instructions to toggle between these user interfaces, click the information icon in the Manage Forecast Versions page.

Toggle the User Interface

• The personalization of columns is retained even if you toggle from the enhanced user interface to the classic user interface.

• Any customizations on the classic user interface won't be carried forward to the enhanced user interface.

• The Overview section in the Manage Forecast Versions page is collapsed by default. The scorecards are based on the approved primary forecast version. 

• Use the list view in the Manage Forecast Version page when managing forecast versions using hand-held or touch devices. To view additional columns, use the table view.

Key Resources

• Watch the Project Forecasts with Periodic Columns, Advanced Resource Selection, and Multiple Version Views Demo
• Based on Idea 557988 from the Project Management Idea Labs on Oracle Cloud Customer Connect.

Access Requirements

To use this feature, you need these privileges or roles:

• Privilege Name and Code:
  • Manage Project Forecast (PJO_MANAGE_PROJECT_FORECAST_PRIV)
  • Manage Project Forecast Working Version (PJO_MANAGE_PROJECT_FORECAST_WORKING_VERSION_PRIV)

• Duty Role Name and Code:
  • Project Management Duty (ORA_PJF_PROJECT_MANAGEMENT_DUTY_ABSTRACT)

• Job Role Name and Code:
  • Project Manager (ORA_PJF_PROJECT_MANAGER_JOB)
  • Project Administrator (ORA_PJF_PROJECT_ADMINISTRATOR_JOB)

Work Item Planning for Innovation Management Proposals Using the New Project Planning User Experience

Plan for Oracle Innovation Management proposals using the new planning user experience. Set task completion criterion for each work item to automatically mark the task as complete when all associated work items meet their criteria.

Prerequisite:

1. Create proposals in the Innovation Management offering.

Business Flow:

1. Right-click a project task and select the Manage Work Items option.
2. Create a new work item of the type proposals and set the task completion event.

Proposal Associations to a Project Task with Task Completion Events

Business benefits include:

• Timely delivery of proposals in the product development lifecycle by tracking them in the project plan.
• Increased productivity with automated workflow for completing project tasks based on the status of proposals.

Steps to Enable

You don't need to do anything to enable this feature.

Tips And Considerations

Work items supported with new project planning:

NOTE: For additional information on Issues, see the Project Issues Task Association Service Excellence feature

• A task completion event can be set only for lowest-level tasks.

• Task progress can’t be updated manually if there are work item associations for a task with a completion event set. A task is marked as completed and the percent complete value is updated to 100% only when all work items associated with the task meet the completion criteria.

• Search for a proposal requires typing ahead at least three characters. The project manager role will have access to proposals out-of-the-box.

• Innovation Management's concepts and requirement specifications are planned for a future release and can currently be accessed using the Manage Work Items page.

Unchanged from previous releases:

• Creating work items from the Manage Work Items page.
• Existing work item associations with change orders, items, deliverables and negotiations.

Key Resources

• Related Help:
  • Project Plan Tasks and Schedule chapter in the Using Project Execution Management guide.
  • What's new for Update 20A: Expedite Your Project Planning With a New User Experience.
  • What's new for Update 20C: Work Item Planning For Negotiations and Project Deliverables Using The New Project Planning User Experience.
  • What's new for Update 21C: Work Item Planning for Items and Product Change Orders Using the New Project Planning User Experience

Access Requirements

To use this feature, you need the following privileges and roles:

• Job Role Name and Code
  • Project Execution (ORA_PJF_PROJECT_EXECUTION_ABSTRACT)

Project Asset Management

Project Asset Line Retrieval Using a REST API

Retrieve project asset lines and asset line details using a REST API. For capital projects, often large numbers of project assets exist and this REST API facilitates accessing the data for reporting and integration purposes.

The business benefit of this feature is that you can now quickly view all assigned and unassigned asset lines that are associated with a business unit, project, or asset, using a single REST API command.

Steps to Enable

Review the REST service definition in the REST API guides to leverage (available from the Oracle Help Center > your apps service area of interest > APIs & Schema). If you are new to Oracle's REST services you may want to begin with the Quick Start section.

Tips And Considerations

To invoke REST APIs from Excel, consider using the Oracle Visual Builder Add-in for Excel.

Key Resources

• Related Help:
  • REST API for Oracle Project Portfolio Management Cloud guide, available on the Oracle Help Center.
  • Developing Integrated Spreadsheets Using Oracle Visual Build Add-in for Excel.
  • There are examples of how to build integrated workbooks using Oracle Visual Builder Add-in for Excel on Oracle Customer Connect. Search for posts in the Project Management category starting with the text "Did you know?"

Access Requirements

To get assigned and unassigned asset lines using REST API, you need the following privileges, respectively:

• Manage Project Capital Assets Service (PJC_MANAGE_PROJECT_CAPITAL_ASSET_LINES_SERVICE_PRIV)

The privileges listed above are both included in the following duty role:

• The duty role listed above is assigned to the following job roles:
  • Project Integration Specialist (ORA_PJF_PROJECT_INTEGRATION_SPECIALIST_JOB)
  • Project Application Administrator (ORA_PJF_PROJECTS_APPLICATION_ADMINISTRATOR_JOB)
  • Project Accountant (ORA_PJF_PROJECT_ACCOUNTANT_JOB)

Project Management

Common Rates for Project Labor Resources Across Financial and Work Planning

Plan labor resources in Manage Project Resources using the common source of truth for resource rates. This allows project managers to estimate the cost of project labor resources with improved accuracy earlier in the planning phase. For example, rather than manually maintaining the resource rates in Manage Project Resources, use the resource rates as defined in the rate schedules or project overrides.

In financial projects, while performing high-level planning in Manage Project Resources page by adding or updating the resources, get the resource rates from the rate schedules or project overrides based on the settings defined in the Manage Project Financial Settings page. This helps in determining project projections for cost and revenue accurately.

In addition, use Refresh Rates action on the Manage Project Resources page to get the latest rates in the project. For example, obtain the latest rates for resources who received a promotion or job change.

View the cost and bill rates when adding a resource to the project

This benefits the business by standardizing rate derivation across work and financial planning thus helping project managers to estimate the project cost and revenue with improved accuracy.

Steps to Enable

Use the Opt In UI to enable this feature. For instructions, refer to the Optional Uptake of New Features section of this document.

Offering: Project Execution Management  No Longer Optional From: Update 24A

Tips And Considerations

• This feature is applicable in financially-enabled projects only. In nonfinancial projects, resource rates are always defaulted from the rates defined in Manage Project Enterprise Resources page.

• Manage Project Plan continue to use the rates from Manage Project Resources.

• Bill rates for the project resources are derived only if the project is associated to a single contract and rate definitions are specified at the contract level.

• Any manual updates to resource rates in Manage Project Resources won't be considered when managing financial aspects of the project such as financial plans, budgets, and forecasts. In addition, refreshing rates will remove the overrides and default to standard rates from rate schedules or overrides based on the project settings.

Key Resources

• Related Help:

  • Rate Schedules for Project and Financial Planning

• Based on Idea 554766 from the Project Management Idea Labs on Oracle Cloud Customer Connect.

Access Requirements

To use this feature, you need one of these roles:

• Project Manager (ORA_PJF_PROJECT MANAGER_JOB)

Resource Prevalidation when Exporting Projects from Microsoft Project to Project Management

Export projects from Microsoft Project into Project Management only when all the resources included in the file exist in Project Management. If resources don't exist as project enterprise resources, then the process stops the export and reports the issues.

Resource Validation when Exporting from Microsoft Project into Project Management

The business benefit of this feature is that it offers the certainty that all resources were properly onboarded in Project Management prior to any export activity from Microsoft Project. This will avoid creating resources that will be only visible for a single project or that an incorrect resource was assigned to a project.

Steps to Enable

You must install the latest version of the Microsoft Project Integration with Project Management using the following steps:

1. If you have an existing version of the Microsoft Project Integration with Project Management, then you must uninstall that client version by selecting Uninstall from the Oracle Fusion Projects ribbon in Microsoft Project. 

2. From the Navigator, open the Project Management work area.

3. Open the Actions panel tab and select Install Microsoft Project Integration to download the latest client.

4. Save the client, extract the installation files to a local folder, and run setup from that folder. Make sure Microsoft Project is closed before running the installation.

5. After the Microsoft Project Integration client is installed, open Microsoft Project.

6. From the Oracle Fusion Projects ribbon, select the Change Environment icon and enter the URL for Oracle Project Management Cloud.

Tips And Considerations

• The project manager must have all the resources already onboarded as project enterprise resources before exporting a project from Microsoft Project.

• In order to uniquely identify a labor resource, the resource's email must be entered in Microsoft Project.

Key Resources

• Related Help:
  • How Microsoft Project Works with Project Management topic in the Using Project Execution Management guide.
  • Microsoft Project Prevalidation Messages topic in the Using Project Execution Management guide.

• Based on Idea 583951 from the Project Management Idea Labs on Oracle Cloud Customer Connect.

Access Requirements

To use this feature, you need the Project Manager role (ORA_PJF_PROJECT_MANAGER_JOB).

Resource Management

Enhanced Talent Profile for Project Resource Requests and Fulfillment

Use the Enhanced Talent Profile in Project Resource Management. Project Resource Management supports multiple content sections for each content template that it tracks for resources (Competency, Language, Membership, Education, Honor, Certification). Select specific content sections to use in requests and in the evaluation of resources to fulfill those requests.

These are the business benefits of this feature:

• Project managers can use multiple content sections to gain greater precision when requesting resources. For example, the competency Business Intelligence Reporting has both technical and functional aspects to it. Set up the talent profile with the competency content sections of Technical Competencies and Functional Competencies with Business Intelligence Reporting residing in the value sets of both sections. Create a project resource request specifying Business Intelligence Reporting from the Functional Competencies section to indicate the need for a resource with functional knowledge of this competency.

• Resource managers can search and evaluate resource suitability for a request based on the qualification and content section combination. For example, evaluate resources for the resource request for an advanced functional competency in Business Intelligence Reporting. Resources with that competency and proficiency in the Functional Competencies section of their talent profile are presented as the most suitable candidates.

Steps to Enable

Use the Opt In UI to enable this feature. For instructions, refer to the Optional Uptake of New Features section of this document.

Offering: Project Execution Management  No Longer Optional From: Update 25D

• In order to opt in to this feature, the Enhanced Talent Profile must be implemented in Oracle Fusion Talent Management.

• Upon initial opt in, all active content sections in the supported content templates are available for project resource requests.  However, if only a subset of the content sections are applicable in project resource management, they can be set in Manage Project Resource Management Implementation Options.

• After opting in and specifying content sections, run the Maintain Search Index job to recreate the search index based on content item and content section combinations.

• To track resource travel preferences when evaluating resources, it is necessary to select the applicable work requirements content section used to capture this information. This is set in Manage Project Resource Management Implementation Options.

Tips And Considerations

IMPORTANT NOTE:

• Draft, open or in-process resource requests created before opting into this feature do not have the content section specified for requested qualifications. If you use Search and Evaluate with these requests, qualification match scoring is not available.  One of the following approaches is recommended in these cases:
  • Fulfill or cancel these requests prior to opting in.
  • After opting in, update these requests with the desired content section for each requested qualification.

• Update project roles after opt-in to specify content sections for roles that were set up with default qualifications prior to opting in.

• A qualification can be in multiple content sections.  Specify a qualification multiple times on a project resource request as long as the qualification and content section combination are unique.

• Resource qualification scoring is based on a combination of qualification, proficiency and content section.

• Content sections that are found in draft, open or in-process requests or active project roles cannot be removed from use in Manage Project Resource Management Implementation Options - Content Sections for Resource Search and Evaluate section.

Key Resources

• Related Help:
  • Upgrading Oracle Cloud HCM Profile Management (Doc ID 2421964.1).
  • Using Enhanced Talent Profiles in the Talent Management guide.

Access Requirements

To use this feature, the following privileges or roles are required:

• Project Manager (ORA_PJF_PROJECT_MANAGER_JOB)
• Resource Manager (ORA_PJF_RESOURCE_MANAGER_JOB)
• Project Application Administrator (ORA_PJF_PROJECTS_APPLICATION_ADMINISTRATOR_JOB)

Program Management and Reporting

Program Action Plans and Issues

Program managers use action plans to track various situations that arise when managing programs. They play an important role in effectively communicating expected resolutions and program activities, along with a set of actions needed to achieve them. For example, create action plans to mitigate risk due to unexpected events or to quickly correct errors in business processing. Also use them to help with program administration activities such as rolling out the program, working with staffing managers, and completing retrospectives. Collaborate with your project managers and stakeholders to define the plan and assign actions to individuals or assign the entire action plan for a project to the project manager, giving them control to define and assign action items.

Program Action Plans; Actions for an Action Plan

Action plans also display on the program Headlines page, with warnings where action items aren't completed by the targeted need-by date.

Action Plan Headlines

Project managers and team members use Project Execution to manage and follow the issues and action items created by action plans. Project managers view and manage action plans in the context of their projects; team members address action items using the My Work navigation. Notification sign-up is available for project managers and team members using My Profile on the Project Manager Dashboard and Team Member Dashboard.

Project Manager and Team Member Issues and Actions

Action plans are created as issues. The following REST API is available to manage issues and action items.

• Project Issues

Business Benefits

• Action plans help program managers mitigate risks and manage administrative activities that contribute to the overall success of the program. Used as a collaboration and communication tool, you can clearly define the action plan and action assignments; removing any ambiguity, as everyone knows what their actions are. Monitor progress as action items are closed by their assignees and outstanding items are tracked against need-by dates.

• Notifications inform owners about new action plan assignments and progress updates. Project managers and team members can set preferences for the notifications they want to receive.

• Action plans and their close reasons and resolution commentary contribute to the overall program retrospective, providing insights for both current and future programs.

Steps to Enable

You don't need to do anything to enable this feature.

Tips And Considerations

• Only action plans created for program projects are displayed on the Project Management Issues and the My Work Issues pages for project managers and team members.

• While you can assign action items to any employee, if you'd like them to mark the actions as finished in the application, they'll need the Team Collaborator security access role.

• Close all action items before closing the action plan. Reopen an action plan by setting the status to new or in progress and providing a summary of why it's being reopened.

Key Resources

• "Project Programs" chapter in the Using Project Performance Reporting guide
• "Project Issues" chapter in the Using Project Execution Management guide
• REST API for Oracle Project Portfolio Management Cloud guide
• Program Manager, Project Manager, and Team Collaborator in the Security Reference for PPM guide
• Securing ERP guide
• What's new for Update 22B: Program Management and Reporting
• What's new for Update 22D: Program Management and Reporting

Access Requirements

To use this feature you need these privileges or roles:

• Privilege Name and Code:
  • Manage Project Program (PJS_MANAGE_PROJECT_PROGRAM)
  • Manage Project Issue Action Items (PJE_MANAGE_PROJECT_ISSUE_ACTION_ITEMS)
  • Manage Project Issues (PJE_MANAGE_PROJECT_ISSUES)

• Job Role Name and Code:
  • Program Manager (ORA_PJF_PROGRAM_MANAGER)
  • Project Manager (ORA_PJF_PROJECT_MANAGER)
  • Team Collaborator (ORA_PJF_TEAM_COLLABORATOR)

Program Management Enhancements for Reporting and Stakeholder Communication

Program managers publish program communication reports to share the health of their program and encourage stakeholder collaboration and insight. Program managers and stakeholders can now download a published report as a portable document format (PDF) for viewing, printing, and forwarding.

Download Published Communication Report

Program managers can automatically add to the content catalog by creating new content groups for their templates. Content groups enable you to add several attributes to a layout at once. For example, create a Margin Summary group and add, edit, and arrange its attributes and textual content using the layout capabilities. You can then reuse the newly created group in any of your templates. For example, you can add the Margin Summary content group below the report header in one template, and below the Executive Summary in another.

Click-to-Add Your Defined Group to Your Template

The following REST API is available to manage content catalog objects: 

• Project Program Communication Catalogs

Business Benefits

• Expands the reach of your program communications, enabling recipients to review your communications in PDF format in addition to, or instead of, viewing the report in the application. For example, you can forward your downloaded PDF report as an email attachment.

• Increases the speed with which you can build your communication report layout; you can quickly add predefined groups of attributes from the content catalog to create template layouts that work for you. You also have the flexibility to organize similar metrics and text-type content into content groups based on your reporting needs.

Steps to Enable

You don't need to do anything to enable this feature.

Tips And Considerations

• The published report is downloaded as a portable document format (PDF) file.
• The unique name you give to your content group appears as the group's heading when added to your layout.

Key Resources

• Related Help:
  • "Project Programs" chapter in the Using Project Performance Reporting guide.
  • REST API for Oracle Project Portfolio Management Cloud guide.
  • Program Manager and Project Executive in the Security Reference for PPM guide.
  • Securing ERP guide.

• What's new for Update 22B: Program Management and Reporting

• What's new for Update 22D: Program Management and Reporting

Access Requirements

To use this feature, you need these roles:

• Privilege Name and Code:
  • Manage Project Program (PJS_MANAGE_PROJECT_PROGRAM)
  • View Project Program (PJS_VIEW_PROJECT_PROGRAM)

• Job Role Name and Code:
  • Program Manager (ORA_PJF_PROGRAM_MANAGER)
  • Project Executive (ORA_PJF_PROJECT_EXECUTIVE)

Grant Management

Award Funding Amount Updates on Contract

Propagate the funding amount updates to the contract lines seamlessly as and when receiving funding amount modifications from a sponsor. This eliminates the need to navigate to the Contracts work area and manually amend, update, and resubmit the contract.

Use the Update Contract button in the Award Funding page to indicate the funding amount changes and to associate any new projects to the contract line.

Update Contract - Single Contract Line

Update Contract - Multiple Contract Lines

On Submit, when contract status is Active or Expired, the contract is amended and the contract is submitted for approval. When the contract status is Draft or Under Amendment, once the update is done successfully, you can choose to submit the contract for approval.

The business benefits of this feature is increased efficiency in managing the funding amount in one place and streamlining the updates to the contract.

Steps to Enable

You don't need to do anything to enable this feature.

Tips And Considerations

• To add new contract lines or delete existing project associations or inactivate project associations, you must navigate to the Manage Contracts page.

• Funding amount and associated projects are updated from Award page only when the award/contract status is in Draft, Active, Under Amendment or Expired.

• You must provide an amendment effective date if the contract is in Active or Expired status and the amendment effective date must be within the start date and end date of the award.

• Even if the total contract amount is the same as the total funding amount for the external funding source or there are no new project associations, you can open the Update Contract window to make any changes to move the amounts between contract lines when there are multiple contract lines.

Key Resources

• Based on Idea 501964 from the Project Management Idea Labs on Oracle Cloud Customer Connect.

Access Requirements

To use this feature, you need one of these roles:

• Grants Administrator (ORA_PJF_GRANTS_ADMINISTRATOR_JOB)
• Grants Department Administrator (ORA_PJF_GRANTS_DEPARTMENT_ADMINISTRATOR_JOB)
• Principal Investigator (ORA_PJF_PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR_JOB)

Multiple Accounts and Letters of Credit for Sponsor

Associate multiple customer accounts for a sponsor such that the letter of credit number can be defined for each account. The letter of credit number for a sponsor account is important for accurate reimbursement from the sponsor. Also, this avoids creating different sponsor records for different customer accounts.

The screenshot shows an example of a federal sponsor having multiple accounts in the Manage Sponsors page, with each account having its own letter of credit number.

Manage Sponsors - Account for Eye Institute

Manage Sponsors - Account for Heart Institute

When updating the contract using the Submit Contract button, you can choose to change the defaulted bill-to and ship-to accounts, as needed. The letter of credit number from the selected bill-to account is used when generating revenue and invoices for the award.

Submit Contract

Defining multiple accounts for the sponsor provides the business benefit of accurate billing and reimbursement of costs using the correct letter of credit account. 

Steps to Enable

You don't need to do anything to enable this feature.

Tips And Considerations

• Prior to this feature, all accounts for a customer, if used in a contract bill plan (as a bill-to account), used the LOC details from the account referenced in the sponsor. With this feature, that account assigned to the sponsor prior to this feature would be upgraded as the primary account for the sponsor. Unless each account is assigned to the sponsor, the other accounts used in the contract bill plan will use the LOC details of the sponsor account assigned as primary. If you want to use different LOC details for each account, then it's recommended that the accounts are assigned to the sponsor with specific LOC details.

• Changing the bill-to account on the bill plan could impact the LOC details (such as being an LOC to non-LOC or change the LOC number). This is because the LOC details are read from the sponsor account. When revenue and invoice transactions exist, changing the bill-to account impacting the LOC details or changing the LOC indicator isn't allowed. 

• In OTBI, retrieve the LOC details from the Sponsor Account folder, shown below. Any existing OTBI reports showing LOC details from a sponsor would work, however you may need to change these reports to get the LOC details for the specific sponsor account, as needed.

Sponsor Account Folder Details in OTBI

• Award SOAP will use the sponsor account assigned as the primary for the bill-to and ship-to account when submitting the contract for an award. Use the Award REST resource If you need to use specific sponsor accounts as bill-to and ship-to accounts when submitting the contract for an award.

• A party or account merge could update the bill-to account on the contract bill plan, resulting in the LOC number also getting updated. When this happens, the generated revenue and invoice for the contract should be adjusted to reflect the correct LOC details.

• The sponsor account and related sponsor account details are now stored in a new table GMS_SPONSOR_ACCT_DETAILS_B. The sponsor account and related sponsor account in the GMS_SPONSORS_B will be retained for previous data but for any new sponsors, these columns will be blank and the new table will store the sponsor account information. Also, the interface table and translation table for the new table are GMS_SPONSOR_ACCT_DETAILS_INT and GMS_SPONSOR_ACCT_DETAILS_TL, respectively.

Key Resources

• Related Help:
  • Manage Sponsors in Implementing Project Financial Management and Grants Management.

• Based on Idea 562286 from the Project Management Idea Labs on Oracle Cloud Customer Connect.

Access Requirements

To define the multiple accounts for the sponsor, you need the following privileges or roles:

• Privileges:
  • Manage Grants Sponsor (GMS_MANAGE_GRANTS_SPONSOR_PRIV)

• Job Roles:
  • Project Application Administrator (ORA_PJF_PROJECTS_APPLICATION_ADMINISTRATOR_JOB)

To associate the sponsor account to the award or contract, you need one of the following privileges or roles:

• Privileges:
  • Manage Award (GMS_MANAGE_AWARD_PRIV)

• Job Roles:
  • Grants Administrator (ORA_PJF_GRANTS_ADMINISTRATOR_JOB)
  • Grants Department Administrator (ORA_PJF_GRANTS_DEPARTMENT_ADMINISTRATOR_JOB)
  • Principal Investigator (ORA_PJF_PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR_JOB)

Project Cost Distribution Using Award Funding Patterns

Define funding patterns to distribute project costs to awards and funding source combinations. Specify an expenditure item date range and task level to apply distribution rules that automatically split sponsored project costs. Automating the distribution ensures charging accuracy and removes the need to manually enter the award charging instructions. Grant administrators manage the funding patterns to ensure proper cost distribution throughout the duration of the sponsored project.

This new functionality, commonly referred to as “Award Distribution”, is set up and managed in the Grant Management offering and enables more efficient project cost capture across the procure to pay lifecycle and during import of costs from third party systems.

Funding patterns are created and maintained by Grant Administrators and are the core object of the functionality. The funding patterns are created once the project is funded by one or more award and funding sources.

Funding Pattern Search

Funding Pattern Maintenance

Project costs captured on requisitions, purchase orders, and accounts payable invoices can be distributed using applicable funding patterns by leaving the Contract Number and Funding Source fields blank.

Requisition with Blank Contract and Funding Source

When ready, you can use the new Distribute Project Costs action to distribute the costs entered using the funding pattern sets and rules to ensure accurate charging.

Requisition Distributed by Funding Pattern

Grant Accountants and Administrators can resolve errors by viewing failed distributions in the Project Cost Distribution Results page in real time with procurement staff, or simulating the same action in the Manage Project Costs work area, with the new Test Award Distribution functionality.  The cause of the error can be viewed and resolved accordingly. In the Manage Project Costs work area, the Test Award Distribution function will also display successful distributions to simulate the results of error resolution. This is only a simulation. The Import Project Costs action continues to be the function that creates costs on a project.

Manage Project Costs Simulation

If you chose to view the results, the list of costs, funding patterns, distribution sets, and rules used will be presented with a simulated successful or failed distribution.

View Project Cost Distribution Results

Grant accountants can also manage third party cost integrations that will leverage the funding patterns on costs imported with blank contract / award and funding patterns. If active funding patterns exist, the costs will be distributed using the associated sets and rules and any errors can be managed and tested as illustrated above.

Manage Third Party Cost import

Watch a demo.

The business benefit of this new feature is that it reduces the complexity associated with manually splitting distributions at cost capture and increases the accuracy of meeting the obligations associated with awards from both external and internal funding sources.

Steps to Enable

Use the Opt In UI to enable this feature. For instructions, refer to the Optional Uptake of New Features section of this document.

Offering: Grants Management  No Longer Optional From: Update 23C

You will need to opt-in to this feature in the Setup and Maintenance work area. The feature will always be enabled from update 23C onwards.

• The feature is at the highest level of Feature Opt-in for the Grants Management Offering

• Once you enable this feature, the following activities are required to enable the functionality:
  • Create Funding Patterns
    • Use the newly created awardFundingPatterns REST object to automate the creation and update of funding patterns
  • Set Funding Patterns to Active to enable:
    • Ability to leave Contract / Award and Funding Source values blank on sponsored projects in procurement and accounts payable distributions
    • Action to Test Award Distribution in Manage Project Costs work area

Tips And Considerations

You can use funding patterns to distribute project costs only if the funding patterns are in Active status.

Key Resources

• Watch Project Cost Distribution Using Award Funding Patterns Readiness Training
• Related help:
  • Using Grants Management

• Based on Idea 517345 from the Project Management Idea Labs on Oracle Cloud Customer Connect

Access Requirements

To use this feature, you need these privileges and roles:

• Privilege Name and Code:
  • Manage Award Funding Patterns (GMS_MANAGE_AWARD_FUNDING_PATTERNS_PRIV)
    • Allows users to manage award funding patterns assigned to a sponsored project.
    • Rolled up to Duty Role - Award Management (ORA_GMS_AWARD_MANAGEMENT_DUTY)
  • Distribute Award Project Costs and Quantities (PJC_DISTRIBUTE_AWARD_PROJECT_COSTS_AND_QUANTITIES_PRIV)
    • Allows users to initiate the Award Distribution process, which matches the costs and quantities provided to available award funding patterns, distributes costs as appropriate, and displays the results.
    • Rolled up to Job Roles:
      • Grant Management
        • Grants Accountant (ORA_PJF_GRANTS_ACCOUNTANT_JOB)
      • Procurement
        • Buyer (ORA_PO_BUYER_JOB)
        • Purchase Order Authoring (ORA_PO_SPO_CREATION_DUTY)
        • Category Manager (ORA_PON_CATEGORY_MANAGER_JOB)
        • Procurement Contract Administrator (ORA_PO_PROCUREMENT_CONTRACT_ADMIN_JOB)
        • Advanced Procurement Requester (ORA_POR_ADVANCED_PROCUREMENT_REQUESTER_ABSTRACT)
        • Procurement Preparer (ORA_POR_PROCUREMENT_PREPARER_ABSTRACT)
        • Procurement Requester (ORA_POR_PROCUREMENT_REQUESTER_ABSTRACT )
        • Contingent Worker (ORA_PER_CONTINGENT_WORKER_ABSTRACT)
        • Employee (ORA_PER_EMPLOYEE_ABSTRACT)
        • Requisition Self Service User (ORA_POR_REQUISITION_SELF_SERVICE_USER_DUTY)

IMPORTANT Actions and Considerations

From time to time, Oracle replaces existing Cloud service features with new features or removes existing features. When a feature is replaced, the older version may be removed immediately or at a future time. As a best practice, you should use the newer version of a replaced feature as soon as the newer version is available.

Remember to review all upcoming opt in changes in the Opt In Expiration section.

KNOWN ISSUES / MAINTENANCE PACK SPREADSHEETS

Oracle publishes a Known Issues document for every Update to make customers are aware of potential problems they could run into, and the document provides workarounds if they are available.

Oracle also publishes Maintenance Pack and Statutory Maintenance Pack documentation of bugs that are fixed in the monthly or statutory patching.

To review these documents, you must have access to My Oracle Support:

Oracle Fusion Cloud Project Management Known Issues and Maintenance Packs (Doc ID 1545504.1)

DEPRECATION OF OLDER DIGITAL ASSISTANT SKILL VERSIONS

The Digital Assistant and its skills continuously receive updates as they get smarter and provide enhanced conversational experiences. Check for updated versions every release in the Skill Store. Versions stop working when the underlying platform version becomes inactive, at the longest 2 years after release.

We recommend that you stay up to date and use the most current skills.