HowTo Restrict Both An Account And Item Range for Purchasing Approvals? (Doc ID 367698.1)

Goal

Approval limits are setup so there are 3 restrictions:
-only a specific charge account is used
-there is a not to exceed amount range
-there must be a specific item range used

It is best to explain this by using specific examples but any variations in charge accounts, item ranges and amounts would have the same results.

In this test case Purchase Orders (PO) should only be approved (by a specific approver) if they have a charge account of 01-000-1410-0000-000, the PO is less than $20,000 and f40000 falls within the item range:

Confirm the Document Types Setup for Standard POs has 'Owner Can Approve' enabled

Add a new approval group with the following restrictions:

  Document Total 20,000
  Account Range Include 20,000 low: 01-000-1410-0000-000   high:01-000-1410-0000-000
  Item Range Exclude 20,000 low: 000000000   high:ZZZZZZZZZ
  Item Range Include 20,000 low: f40000   high:f40000

Test 1: Create a PO with Item f40000 and account 01-000-1410-0000-000 for $500 this will approve successfully as expected.

Test 2: Create a  PO for $5,000, item f20000 and account 01-000-1410-0000-000, which will approve automatically. This PO should have failed based on the Item Range include of f40000 only. 

Test 3:  Revise the Approval Group setup as follows:

Document Total 20,000
Account Range Include 20,000 low: 01-000-1410-0000-000 high:01-000-1410-0000-000
Item Range Exclude low: f10000 high:f70000
Item Range Include 20,000 low: f40000 high:f40000

Run the Fill Employee Hierarchy process. 

Create a new PO for $2,000, item f20000 and account 01-000-1410-0000-000

This time the PO will fail (get stuck in process) and this is what is expected.

From testing it appears that the Excludes must be set for the exact range that you do not want valid and Includes for the range
you do want valid for the Item Range.  Test1 failed because the Item Range was not specific with a low of  0000000000 and high of ZZZZZZZ, but worked with a low of f10000 high of f70000. 

The Oracle Purchasing Users Guide 'Defining Approval Groups', page 1-30 discusses how the Account Range range automatically defaults to Exclude (Purchasing does not automatically include everything) but the Item Range defaults to Include. But having to include a specific Item Range in the Exclude is not discussed.

Solution

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