R12 Federal Financials Features

R12 Federal Financials Features

Note: This page hasn’t been updated yet for 12.1.  Please be sure to also research 12.1 enhancements in addition to the items identified below.

This page is going to be a work in progress, but I’m going to try and post items out here that can help anyone trying to identify and understand more about R12 features applicable to Federal Financials customers.  Obviously every agency’s needs, processes, module configurations and environment are different, but hopefully this would aid in putting a business case together for upgrading to R12. The Release Content Documents (RCDs) on Metalink & the R12 documentation certainly provide more detail and should be consulted, along with numerous other online resources. I’ve tried to post some references to the RCDs where applicable to assist in pointing readers to further detail. Please comment on any additions or changes you think should be included on this page.

As of v 12.0.6, there aren’t too many enhancements exclusively attributable to the Federal market, but there is a lot of new features/functionality that are relevant.

Subledger Accounting Architecture (SLA)

I won’t go into much detail here on SLA because there’s certainly a lot of resources about it, but in my mind, its easily the #1 reason for upgrading to R12 for Federal Financials customers. The upgraded accounting model replaces the problematic USSGL Transaction Code functionality with a rules-driven, automatic GL posting engine. SLA will allow many agencies to retire extensions built around the transaction code process and provides for simultaneous posting of budgetary and proprietary entries. For further info check out, my SLA for Federal Financials presentation: (R12 SLA for Federal Presentation). (R12_Financials_RCD-4.1)

Multi-Org Access Control (MOAC)

MOAC is a significant enhancement to any agency of any size and certainly to the Federal Shared Service providers. MOAC allows for multiple Operating Units to be implemented while still enabling the streamlined processing available with one operating unit. An example is where an agency may have different organizations entering AP transactions so that the data can be secured, but wants a consolidated payment file going to Treasury for disbursements Use of multiple operating units provides segregation of data by OU allowing data to be reported/ inquired on/secured by OU where desired. (R12_Financials_RCD-4.4)

FV: Budget Entries/Distributions now allowed for Expired Funds

For Federal Customers who need to move money around in expired funds, this can now be done through the Fed Admin Budget Distribution Functionality instead of having to create manual journal entries.

Example of a entering a FV Budget Transaction for an Expired Treasury Symbol

GL: Sequential Numbering created at time of posting journals

In 11i, journal document sequencing is a bit problematic in that it assigns journal sequence numbers at the time the journal is first saved. This can lead to gaps in the journal numbering if a journal is deleted prior to posting, something Auditors don’t really like to see. R12 provides the capability to have journal sequence numbers without gaps since journal sequence numbers can now be assigned at the time of posting. (R12_Financials_RCD – 4.3.2.4.1)

GL: Replacement for Disabled Accounts

Federal Year-End processing can be improved by new functionality to define a replacement account for disabled accounts, whereas in some instances in the past, I’ve seen Federal customers needing to re-enable disabled accounts as part of the year-end process, then disable them after close. (R12_Financials_RCD-4.4.2.7)

SLA: 3^rd Party Control Accounts

The capability to track these new accounts can allow better recognition of receivables/ payables by customer/supplier (R12_Financials_RCD-4.4.2.14)

AP Invoice Lines

R12 expands AP Invoice functionality to include Invoice lines (in addition to Header & Distribution). The capability for line level approvals and to store additional attributes with the transaction seems to be the primary benefit (R12_Financials_RCD-5.17.2.5).

PO/AP: Advances and Financing Payments

R12 enhances the capability to provide advances and financing payments to vendors per contract terms. (R12_Financials_RCD-5.17.2.6.1)

PO/AP: Retainage

R12 provides the capability to withhold fixed amount/percentage based payments to vendors until contract completion per contract terms. This may be referred to as Retainage or contract holdbacks. (R12_Financials_RCD-5.17.2.6.2)

PO/AP: Progress Payments

R12 enhances the capability to make progress payments to vendors. (R12_Financials_RCD-5.17.2.6.3)

AP: Enhanced Disbursement Process

R12 Streamlines the process to select and send payment vouchers to Treasury for disbursement, by eliminating redundancy in invoice selection processes. (R12_Financials_RCD-5.18.2.1)

AR: Refunds Enhancements

R12 provides an automated/seamless process to generate refunds to be disbursed through AP from Customer balances (R12_Financials_RCD-5.22.2.4/R12 AR ug 5-58)

AR: Enhancements to Bill Presentment Architecture

Multiple enhancements to provide additional flexibility in creating bills comprised of data across R12 (not just AR) (R12_Financials_RCD-5.3)

iProc/AME: Enhanced Requisition capabilities

R12 supports parallel approvals (routing documents to multiple approvers) to meet more complex Federal approval routing requirements. R12 supports FYI notifications to support Federal notification requirements. R12 supports Requisition approval hierarchies by positions. R12 provides a new Graphical representation of the approval chain to help. (R12_Advanced_Procurement RCD-3.1.2.6)

iProc: Confirm Receipt Enhancements

When an invoice is matched to a PO set for 3-way match, yet a receipt is not yet entered, R12 will send notification to remind the receipt to be entered. Should enhance prompt payment accuracy. (R12_Advanced_Procurement RCD-3.1.2.10)

PO: Usability Enhancements w/the Buyer’s Work Center

Should enhance efficiencies for maintenance of Commitment and Obligation transactions. (R12_Advanced_Procurement RCD-3.4.2.1)

Procurement Contracts: User Defined Variables with PL/SQL procedures as Source

This allows the creation of user variables used on the contracts to pull data from other areas in the application automatically, streamlining the population of some data elements needed for FPDS-NG reporting. Previously, user-defined variables needed to be manually populated which caused some duplication of effort. (R12_RUP6_RCD- 12.2.1.1)

PA: Enhancements to Expenditure Inquiry

R12 provides additional attributes to support expenditure inquiry. (R12_Projects RCD-3.5.3.2)

PA: Add’l Supplier Cost Adjustment functionality

R12 allows adjustments to supplier costs to be made for additional types of conditions. (R12_Projects RCD-3.5.3.5)

R12 Federal Financials Differences from 11i