Oracle is continuously working to improve the features and functionality of its Cloud Apps software. The latest updates were released in early March and offer a range of updates in Billing, Cost, Planning, Resource, Program, and Grant management. Oracle’s 24C Quarterly Release continues to build on the enhancements delivered in 24B by introducing several new or enhanced features to better support its Oracle Cloud PPM customers.
In Project Management Common
Continuing investments in service excellence driven by customer ideas.
Projects REST API Security Enhancements:
This feature allows you to enable selective access to projects in your PaaS solutions. For example, in any custom integration leveraging the Projects REST API, Project Managers or Administrators will only have access to those they are authorized to manage.
Approvals Work Area with Enhanced User Interface and Adaptive Search for Project Management:
This enhancement leverages the Approvals Work Area with Enhanced User Interface and Adaptive Search feature delivered in 24A. With this enhancement, users can now leverage the search capabilities within the Approvals Work Area.
In Billing and Revenue Management
Oracle has made significant improvements in this area over the past several Quarterly releases.
Milestone Billing and Revenue Recognition Enhancements:
The following enhancements build on the Milestone Billing and Revenue Recognition solution update delivered in 24B:
- Use the milestone dimension to track and analyze the milestone lifecycle in multiple Oracle Transactional Business Intelligence (OTBI) subject areas
- Use the milestone dimension to track and analyze the milestone lifecycle in multiple Oracle Transactional Business Intelligence (OTBI) subject areas.
- Allow Project Managers and Project Administrators to provide comments to Approvers and track the status of milestones through the status change history window.
- Import contracts and milestones from external applications using Enterprise Contracts File-Based Data Import.
- Use REST APIs to create and maintain milestones in contracts and project plans.
Service Excellence Continuing Investments for Billing and Revenue Management (Customer Submitted Idea):
Deletion of Credit Memos for LOC-enabled Awards (Idea 636283)—Users can now delete a credit memo or credit invoice in draft, approved, or rejected status for LOC-enabled Awards using the Delete Invoices ESS process. Furthermore, this flexibility reduces the manual work for billing specialists to review and process unwanted credit memos or credit invoices to Receivables and generate a rebill standard invoice.
Cancel Project Contract Invoice REST API:
Crediting actions of canceling invoices can now be performed via a REST API on single and multiple standard project contract invoices. The cancel invoice crediting action using the REST API is allowed on standard invoices in Release, Transferred, or Accepted status. In addition, the project contract status must be Active, Expired, or Under-amendment status with versioning. When the cancel crediting action is performed on an original standard invoice using a REST API, a credit invoice is created, which is the reversal of the original invoice or the reversal of the remaining amount of the original invoice (based on Idea 730325).
Flexible Billing Event Adjustment Processing:
Users now have more control over billing event adjustment processing by allowing the update of event types and billing events. The additional flexibility eliminates the need to define new event types and change corresponding business processes, thus improving operational efficiency. This flexibility also enables existing events to reflect the corrected bill amounts after a crediting action.
Receivables Transaction Type in the Project Contract:
This functionality allows the Contract Administrator to select the Receivables Transaction types in the list of values on the Billing Tab of the project contract header. Currently, only Transaction Types not associated with a sub-class (such as Prepayments) are supported. Prepayment support is coming in an upcoming release.
Improvements to Real-Time WIP Reporting:
Improved reporting capability through the addition of new attributes and measures to the bill transactions subject area in OTBI, such as a normalized attribute for unit price. So, corresponding additions to the bill transactions REST API, such as billing status and WIP amount, will improve customer reporting and integration capabilities and support the delivery of the upcoming Redwood-based user experience for managing bill transactions.
Improved Contract Approvals Experience with Enhanced UI and Adaptive Search:
Contract approvals can now leverage the Adaptive Search capabilities to tailor your approvals for efficient processing.
Enchant Apps has a team of Oracle Cloud experts across all modules. If you are interested in learning more or have a project where you need Oracle cloud expertise, feel free to contact us!