Configuring Oracle Financials Cloud for use with Kofax AP Essentials

Before you can use the Oracle Financial Cloud integration with Kofax AP Essentials, you must:

  • Create a user account that Kofax AP Essentials will use to access Oracle Financials.

  • Set up master-data synchronization using one of these methods:
    • Oracle REST API - This is the recommended method which requires the least amount of setup.
    • Oracle reports - To use this method, you must create a coding combination report and create a job for the coding combination report in Oracle Financials. This procedure requires knowledge of SQL.

Completing these procedures exposes Oracle's coding combinations to Kofax AP Essentials, so you can use them for account coding.

Creating a user account

  1. Kofax AP Essentials works inside Oracle Financials Cloud as a user. Therefore, you must create a user account in Oracle Financials Cloud with the appropriate permissions needed to enable cooperation between Kofax AP Essentials and Oracle Financials Cloud. Kofax AP Essentials uses these endpoints in Oracle Financials Cloud:

Endpoint Methods Purpose
REST API
currenciesLOV GET Testing the connection with Oracle Financials Cloud.
preferredCurrenciesLOV GET Synchronizing currency master data.
itemsV2 GET Synchronizing items master data.
disbursementPaymentMethodsLOV GET Synchronizing payment method master data.
suppliers GET Synchronizing supplier master data.
paymentsExternalPayees GET Retrieving the default payment method of a supplier. This method is used during supplier synchronization and export.
taxClassifications GET synchronizing tax classification master data.
purchaseOrders GET Synchronizing purchase orders.
linesToReceive GET Retrieving the delivered quantity for purchase order line.
invoices GET/POST
  • GET - Gets the invoiced quantity for purchase order lines.

  • POST - Creates invoice records in Oracle Financials Cloud.

ERP SOAP Web Service API
submitESSJobRequest Used to start the report job that provides coding segments and general-ledger account values.
getESSJobStatus Retrieving the completion status of the job.
downloadExportOutput Retrieving the report job results.

The ERP SOAP Web Service API is used to provide general-ledger account and coding segment values which requires a complex setup in Oracle Financials Cloud. Alternatively, you can use Microsoft Excel to import coding data to Kofax AP Essentials.

The procedures for creating a users and rolls within Oracle Financials Cloud are provided here as a guide, however, discrepancies can occur. For more complete information, please refer to Oracle Financials Cloud documentation. The goal in these procedures is to create a user Oracle Financials Cloud and add that user to a role which lets Kofax AP Essentials work with Oracle Financials Cloud.

Create a user in Oracle Financials Cloud

First you create a user in Oracle Financials Cloud, which you will add to role later.

  1. Log in to Oracle Financials Cloud as a user with permission to create user accounts and roles.
  2. Navigate to Security Console and select the Users tab.
  3. Click Add user account, and use the view that appears to specify a new user.

    Use a descriptive name that identifies the user as Kofax AP Essentials.

  4. Click Save and Close.

Create a role in Oracle Financials Cloud

Create a role in Oracle Financials Cloud and add the previously created user to it.

  1. Log in to Oracle Financials Cloud as a user with permission to create user accounts and roles.
  2. Navigate to Security Console and select the Roles tab.
  3. Search for the accounts payable specialist role (ORA_AP_ACCOUNTS_PAYABLE_SPECIALIST_JOB).
  4. In the search results, select Copy Role from the drop-down menu and select Copy top role and inherited roles in the dialog that appears.
  5. Click Copy Role.
  6. Specify the Role Name, Role Code and Description. Use a descriptive name and code that identifies the role as Kofax AP Essentials
  7. Click Next.
  8. Click Add function Security Policy and use the dialog that appears to add a custom privilege which runs a report job to import general-ledger accounts master data to Kofax AP Essentials.

    In practice, you might skip this step and return to it later, after you have added the reports described later in this topic.

  9. Click Next to navigate to the Data Security Policy view.
  10. Edit the Grant to Business Unit policy.
  11. In the Edit Data Security Policy dialog, select All values in the Data Set box and click OK.
  12. Click Create Data Security Policy to specify the rights needed to get delivered quantity values for purchase order lines.
  13. In the dialog that appears:
    • Select Inventory Organization as the Database Resource.

    • Select Manage Receiving Transactions in the Actions box.

    • Select All Values in the Data Set box.

  14. Click OK and click Next.
  15. Click Add Role.
  16. Add the warehouse manager role (ORA_INV_WAREHOUSE_MANAGER_JOB), so Kofax AP Essentials can access the linesToReceive REST API endpoint.
  17. Click Add Role Membership and then click Cancel to close the dialog.
  18. Click Next and click Add User.
  19. In the dialog that appears, select the user you created in the previous procedure and click Add User to Role.
  20. Click Next.
  21. After reviewing your changes, click Submit and Close.
  22. After your new user and role is created, log in to Oracle Financials Cloud as the new user and make sure you create invoices with the new user account.

    Note that it can take up to 10 minutes before the new user is accessible via th API.

Oracle REST API setup

Setting up master-data (coding segment) synchronization using the Oracle REST API is the recommenced setup method and does not require any configuration in Oracle, other than user account creation above. Later, in Kofax AP Essentials, you enable the Synchronize master data using Oracle REST API setting in the target system settings, and specify the coding segments you want to synchronize.

After you set up user accounts according to the procedures above, you can configure Kofax AP Essentials for use with Oracle Financials Cloud. You do not need to perform the Oracle reports setup below.

Oracle reports setup

Setting up master-data (coding segment) synchronization using Oracle reports requires knowledge of SQL. If possible, we recommend using the Oracle REST API method above instead. To use Oracle reports for master data synchronization, you must create a coding combination report and create a job for the coding combination report in Oracle Financials.

Create a coding combination (segment values) report

Create and test a coding combination report.

  1. Log in to Oracle Financials Cloud as a user with the BI Administrator privilege.
  2. Navigate to Navigator > Tools > Reports and Analytics.
  3. Click Browse catalog.
  4. Click New and select Data model.
  5. Click the Properties node and specify a model description, such as "Coding segment values for Kofax AP Essentials."
  6. Click the Data sets node.
  7. In the view that appears, click and select SQL Query.
  8. Specify a descriptive name for the query, and set the Data Source to ApplicationDB_FSCM.
  9. Specify an SQL Query to extract the segment values you need.

    Example:

    select ATTRIBUTE_CATEGORY as Type, Value, Description from FND_VS_VALUES_VL where ATTRIBUTE_CATEGORY in('EXAMPLE_VALUE_1','EXAMPLE_VALUE_2','EXAMPLE_VALUE_3') and ENABLED_FLAG='Y'

    Replace "'EXAMPLE_VALUE_1','EXAMPLE_VALUE_2','EXAMPLE_VALUE_3'" with all of the segment value codes you use. You can find the codes in Oracle setup and maintenance. You can add any conditions you need to your SQL query.

  10. Click OK.
  11. Optionally click Validate to validate your query and switch to the Data tab to check data returned by the query.
  12. Save the model in the Shared folders/Custom/Financials folder.
  13. Create a report based on this model, with the output set to XML. Make sure there are no other output types.

Test the report

Test the newly created report to make sure it produces the expected output.

  1. Navigate to the Oracle Financial Reporting Center
  2. Select the All tab and search for your report.
  3. Click the report to check its data.

Create a job for the coding combination report

After you create the coding combination report, create a job to run the report.

  1. Oracle Financials Cloud, navigate to Setup and Maintenance.
  2. Search for "Manage Enterprise Scheduler Job Definitions".
  3. Click Manage Enterprise Scheduler Job Definitions and Job Sets for Financial, Supply Chain Management, and Related Applications.
  4. Click to create new job definition.
  5. Make sure the job has these settings:

    Setting Value
    Display name Kofax AP Essentials coding combinations or any descriptive value
    Name rso-coding-segment-values or any descriptive name
    Path financials/extract or any valid value
    Application Name General Ledger
    Job Application Name FscmEss
    Job Type BIPJobType
    Default output format XML
    Allow Multiple Pending Submissions True
    Report ID The report ID is the full path and name of the report file, for example:

    Custom/Financials/Kofax AP Essentials GL-Accounts Report.xdo

    To find the file name, navigate to the reports catalog and check the Properties dialog of the report. The file name is a combination of the report Name and the composite Signature, which is found in the Custom Properties settings.

Test the job

Test the newly created job and make sure it runs the report correctly:

  1. Navigate to Navigator > Tools > Scheduled Processes.
  2. Click Schedule new process.
  3. Search for the job you created above.
  4. Click Submit, wait for process to complete and check the result.