EEX 9.1+: Vendor's Last Activity Date Field Not Properly Updated By Stage Payments Process (Doc ID 2068780.1)

Last updated on FEBRUARY 01, 2024

Applies to:

Symptoms

ISSUE:

A problem on the delivered design has been detected regarding the functionality around the Vendor's Last Activity Date field (Record Field PS_VENDOR.LAST_ACTIVITY_DT), which is not getting updated whenever an Expense Report transaction approved for payment is Staged containing at least one line with Payment Type of Credit Card Vendor. As a result, for the Vendors configured specifically as Expenses Credit Card Vendors, this field is never updated, and potentially causing the Vendor to be wrongly set into INACTIVE status by the Inactivate Vendors Application Engine Program (AP_VNDSTATUS) even though transactions and payments may have been generated against it recently.

Currently there is no Warning Message, nor indication of any type that the Vendor is Inactive when a new Expense Report transaction is created, approved, or even staged for payment, and as such, it confuses the users, as they see new transactions being created against that Vendor on a daily basis, while the Last Activity Date of the Vendor is kept with a value of years ago.

REPLICATION STEPS:

   - Log into the FSCM Online Application as User ID VP1
   - Navigate to: Set Up Financials/Supply Chain > Product Related > Expenses > Payment Information > Payment Type
   - Open the existing Payment Type AMX
   - Make sure to have the following settings:
        - Reimbursement Recipient = Vendor
        - Vendor Set ID = SHARE
        - Vendor ID = USA0000030
        - Vendor Location = 1
        - Address = 1
   - Navigate to: Set Up Financials/Supply Chain > Product Related > Expenses > Management > Corporate Credit Vendor
   - Open existing Card Issuer AMEX
   - Make sure to have the following settings:
        - AP Business Unit = US001
        - Vendor Set ID = SHARE
        - Vendor ID = USA0000030
        - Vendor Location = 1
   - Navigate to: Travel and Expenses > Manage Employee Information > Update Profile
   - Open the Expenses Profile from existing Employee ID KU0021
   - Make sure to have the following settings at the Organizational Data tab:
        - GL Unit = US001
        - Department ID = 13000
        - Supervisor ID = KU0005
   - Make sure to have the following settings at the Corporate Card Information tab:
        - Business Unit = US001
        - Card Issuer = AMEX
   - Navigate to: Vendors > Vendor Information > Add/Update > Vendor
   - Open the existing Vendor ID USA0000030
   - Note that at the Summary tab, the Last Activity Date = May 26th 2000
   - Log into the FSCM Online Application as User ID EXA1
   - Navigate to: Employee Self-Service > Travel and Expense Center > Expense Report > Create
   - Define Employee ID KU0021, and click on ADD button
   - Proceed to create a brand new Expense Report, with one transaction line, making sure the Payment Type is AMX, and link the Employee's Corporate Card
   - Submit the Expense Report for approval
   - Log into the FSCM Online Application as an Expenses Approver User
   - Navigate to: Manager Self-Service > Travel and Expense Center > Approvals > Approve Transactions
   - Locate the submitted Expense Report, open it, and approve the transaction for payment
   - Log into the FSCM Online Application as User ID VP1
   - Proceed to complete the below actions against the affected Expense Report:
        - Run Post Liabilities process
        - Run the Stage Payments process
        - Create a brand new Pay Cycle specifically targeting the Expense Report transaction
        - Run Payment Selection
        - Run Payment Creation
        - Run all remaining processes so that the Pay Cycle is placed into Completed status
        - Run the Update Paid Statuses process
        - Run the Payment Post process
   - Navigate to: Vendors > Vendor Information > Add/Update > Vendor
   - Open the existing Vendor ID USA0000030
   - Note that at the Summary tab, the Last Activity Date is still pointing to May 26th 2000, even though Pay Cycle has generated a payment
   - Navigate to: Vendors > Vendor Information > Maintain > Inactivate Vendors
   - Create a brand new Run Control ID with the below options:
        - Run Control ID = GCS
        - Set ID = SHARE
        - Update Vendor = Y
        - Log Vendor Processed = Y
        - Date = December 31st 2014
        - Click on the COUNT VENDORS button
   - Launch the Inactivate Vendors Application Engine Program (AP_VNDSTATUS)
   - Navigate to: Vendors > Vendor Information > Add/Update > Vendor
   - Open the existing Vendor ID USA0000030
   - Once completed the run of the Inactivate Vendors Application Engine Program (AP_VNDSTATUS), our Vendor ID USA0000035 has been set:
        - Status = INACTIVE
        - Last Activity date = Today’s Date

To gather more information concerning this scenario and its related problem, refer to the available Replication Steps Word Document here linked containing the complete configuration and the replication steps necessary to reproduce the issue.

ACTUAL RESULT:

The Inactivate Vendors Application Engine Program (AP_VNDSTATUS) sets to a Status of INACTIVE those Suppliers/Vendors defined as Expenses Credit Card Vendors, even though Expense Report transactions have been entered into the system, and may have just been paid, or even be yet outstanding. Once the Vendor Status has been set to Inactive, the Pay Cycle will no longer pick up outstanding transactions for that Vendor, and as such, reimbursement payments may get delayed, and even penalty fees be generated against the Employee/Company for the same reason.

EXPECTED BEHAVIOR:

The Vendor's Last Activity Date field (Record Field PS_VENDOR.LAST_ACTIVITY_DT) should not only be updated by Vendor Maintenance, Voucher Creation, and PO Dispatch, but also when Expense Report transactions are Staged For Payment, as this will make note to the settings of the Credit Card Vendor that a new transactions has been raised for them, and it has been approved, and eventually staged for payment. This would keep in sync Expenses and Payables modules in the usage of specific Expenses related Vendors. 

Changes

Cause

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