Oracle is dedicated to enhancing the features and functionality of its Cloud Apps software. The latest updates, released in early March, bring a host of improvements in areas such as Billing, Cost, Planning, Resource, Program, and Grant Management. This Quarterly Release builds on the solid foundation established in version 25B by introducing new and refined features that aim to better support Oracle Cloud PPM customers.

In Billing and Revenue Management

Oracle has made significant improvements in this area over the past several Quarterly releases.

Bill Transaction Adjustment Prevention During Contract Amendment

This new feature enables users to optionally prevent bill transactions from being marked for adjustment following project contract amendments using a configurable option on the contract setup. The new feature, Adjust Transactions During Contract Amendments, can be disabled in the contract type setup, which in turn causes previously invoiced or revenue recognized bill transactions to not be marked for adjustment upon amendment of the contract.  This functionality eliminates the need to delete unwanted credit memos and reverse and re-book revenue for a project contract because of project contract amendments.

Project Role Rate Schedule for Contract Bill Plans

Project Roles can now be associated with a contract bill plan to support the application of bill rates based on project role. Project rate schedules can be shared across multiple contracts and bill plans, thus eliminating the overhead of maintaining project role-based rates on every bill plan. The Project Role Capture on Timecards feature delivered in 23D supports the identification of the project role on the OTL Timecard, thus ensuring accurate billing when the transactions are processed in Project Billing.

Service Excellence Continuing Investments for Billing and Revenue Management (Customer Submitted Idea)

1. Acceptance Confirmation of Standard Invoices and Credit Memos Regardless of Transaction Source: This feature now sets the status of standard invoices or credit memos in project contracts to “Accepted” by the Confirm Invoice Acceptance Status in Receivables scheduled process when they are imported into Receivables and are in a Complete status, regardless of the transaction source setup.
2. Prepayment Enhancements: Prepayment applications can now be optionally controlled only to be applied when the prepayment invoice has been fully paid in Receivables. There is a new setting, Prepayment Invoice Applications, which controls how prepayment applications are applied based upon the following values:
   • Use Paid Payments Only – Requires the prepayment invoice to be fully paid.
   • Use Any Prepayment – Allows for prepayment application billing events entered for a project contract line that cross-reference prepayment request billing events to be included on a standard invoice, regardless of the payment status of the project contract prepayment invoice.
3. Column Management for the Bill Transactions Page: Users can now configure which columns are displayed and reorder columns on the Bill Transactions page. Additional columns have been added, such as Business Unit and Contract Name.
4. Revenue Management Integration Status Reporting: The negotiated value and the satisfaction of performance obligations can now be compared between Enterprise Contracts, Project Billing, and Revenue Management. Project Contract Lines and Project Contract Revenue Distributions not interfaced to or fully processed in Revenue Management can be easily identified to assist in the investigation and resolution of reconciling differences between the three applications. Reporting improvement consists of additional integration-related attributes for inclusion in custom Business Intelligence Publisher reports.
5. Exclusion of Recoverable Tax in Receipt Amount Billing: When the Use Receipt Amount for Billing option delivered in 18C is leveraged, the receipt amount used to bill the customer will exclude any recoverable tax when expense receipts are in the same currency as the invoice currency on the bill plan. This ensures any tax calculated on sales invoices is not added to the recoverable tax from expense receipts.

Generate Reports on Contract Requests and Key Terms Using OTBI

A new and exciting subject area titled “Enterprise Contracts – Contract Request Real Time” has recently been introduced. This invaluable resource is designed to enhance our capability to report on contract requests and essential terms, providing a streamlined overview that will facilitate better decision-making and improve overall contract management processes.

Option to Not Copy Documents During Contract Amendment

Users now have the flexibility to decide whether to include contract documents when making amendments to existing contracts. This new feature can be easily managed through the Contract Type settings, where users simply need to check the “Copy Documents to the Amended Contract” option. Furthermore, all versions of the contract, along with their associated supporting documents, are now conveniently showcased in the Documents tab of the contract. This enhancement provides a clearer view and easier access to all relevant documentation throughout the contract’s lifecycle.

Mass Update Contract Internal Contact

The Mass Update Contract Internal Contacts process, previously known as Assign Contract Owner, has undergone significant enhancements. This upgraded process now not only allows for the seamless updating of the contract owner but also extends its functionality to include updates for the internal party contact, deliverable contact, and deliverable requestor associated with contracts. This comprehensive approach ensures a more efficient management of contract-related communications and responsibilities.

In Cost Management and Control

Distribute Payroll Costs to Projects Using Organizations (Customer Submitted Idea)

To further improve the capabilities to interface payroll costs to Project Costing for those organizations leveraging Labor Schedules, Oracle has now delivered the ability to distribute payroll costs based on the Organizational Hierarchy. This new feature can be leveraged to distribute payroll costs for a specific Business Unit and Department, or it can be leveraged to distribute payroll costs for the Child Nodes of the Organization. The solution will require configuration changes in Labor Distribution, Payroll, Projects, and potentially OTL. Therefore, a thorough proof of concept must be designed and executed to determine whether the functionality meets your business needs.

Service Excellence Continuing Investments for Cost Management and Control (Customer Submitted Idea)

1. Descriptive Flexfields for Project Labor Distribution Rules: This feature allows users to gain granular control over their labor schedule data and manage additional attributes tailored to their specific needs, directly within the management of the labor scheduling area.
2. Oracle Transactional Business Intelligence (OTBI) Investments: Both the Projects – Labor Distribution Cost Analysis Real Time and the Projects Labor Schedule Analysis Real Time knowledge areas have been updated to support reporting labor schedule details. Additionally, payroll-costed attributes have been added to the following to support analysis of timecards based on their distribution eligibility and processing status to identify and resolve exceptions:
   • Project Costing – Actual Costs Real Time
   • Project Costing – Expenditure Item Performance – Real Time
   • Project Costing – Unprocessed Transactions Real Time

In Project Asset Management

A new project type capitalization option allows assets to be generated automatically when capital costs are created in procurement to an expense or inventory destination, thus eliminating the manual effort and processing of data to define and assign project assets. This functionality applies to the following:

• Item costs for receipts to an inventory or expense (accrued at receipt) destination.
• Supplier invoice costs matched to purchase orders to an expense (not accrued at receipt) destination.
• Supplier invoice costs do not match purchase orders.

As part of this offering, project asset units are automatically updated when receipt returns, receipt corrections, invoice cancellations, or invoice quantity corrections occur for assets that have not been capitalized.

Additionally, create a maintenance asset for project purchases that have an inventory or expense (accrued at receipt) destination, and automatically establish a relationship between the maintenance asset, project asset, and corresponding fixed asset without manual intervention. The application creates a single maintenance asset, project asset, and fixed asset for non-serialized items. In contrast, a unique project asset is created for each serial number associated with the receipt of a serial-controlled item. The maintenance assets will be created in Oracle Fusion Cloud Maintenance, project assets in Oracle Fusion Cloud Project Management, and the fixed assets in Oracle Fusion Cloud Fixed Assets.

In Planning, Scheduling, and Forecasting

Budget and Forecast Notes in Project-Related OTBI Subject Areas (Customer Submitted Idea)

With 25C, users can now view notes in the Project Control – Budgets Real Time and Project Control – Forecasts Real Time areas for reporting. These notes can be used in reports to provide context for understanding changes and decisions throughout the project lifecycle, including the budgeting and forecasting areas. This functionality builds on improvements from 25B, which added support for notes in the project, project plan, project progress, and project invoice subject areas.

Change Order Automation for Project Scope Adjustments

This builds on the 25B Change Order Automation for Financial Project Plan Amount Adjustments feature by extending support to scope tracking. Change assessors can now perform a detailed impact assessment to track scope changes and automatically update the project plan upon change approval. Task additions and updates can now be automatically loaded to the Project Plan upon stakeholder approval.

Change Order Budget Comparison

Change Assessors can now ditch relying on different reports or mentally comparing figures to review the budgetary impacts of change orders. With 25C, comparisons can now be performed side-by-side on the Manage Change Order Budget Impact form, which provides a view of the proposed changes next to the current state information. This immediate visual comparison makes it much easier to spot discrepancies between what was planned and understand how each proposed change affects the overall budget.

Real-Time Project Cost and Revenue Updates for Project Forecasts

The ability to seamlessly integrate Cost and Revenue data into the forecasting process has been enhanced through the introduction of a new Financial Plan Type setup option. Previously, users were limited to importing actual amounts into the forecast only when the refresh actuals feature was activated. This update streamlines the forecasting process, allowing for a more dynamic and comprehensive view of financial projections by automatically incorporating critical financial data without the need for manual refreshes.

In Grants Management

Award Creation with System-Generated Award Numbers Using File-based Data Import (Customer Submitted Idea)

When the auto-numbering feature is activated for contracts associated with grants, the Financial Business Data Integration (FBDI) tool becomes a vital resource for importing awards. This enhanced capability streamlines the process significantly, allowing for the seamless loading of awards through FBDI without being constrained by the existing award numbering configurations. As a result, users can experience increased efficiency and flexibility in managing grant-related contracts.

Service Excellence Continuing Investments for Grant Management

1. Award Funding Pattern Existence Evaluation Using a Rest API: Determine whether an active funding pattern exists for all or one project, using the award funding patterns REST API custom action of Active Award Funding Patterns Exist. This action can be used to evaluate whether to require the award and funding source when integrating project costs from third-party software.
2. Funding Pattern Budgetary Controls Integration Data in OTBI: Budgetary controls integration attributes are now available in the Projects – Funding Pattern Analysis Real Time subject area.

In Resource Management

Assignment Workflow Notification and Open Resource Request Enhancements (Customer Submitted Idea)

The following notification enhancements have been delivered to improve communication and efficiency in managing resource requests and assignments:

• Provide resources with additional details when they are assigned to a project, including the project number, total assigned hours, and project calendar hours.
• Project Managers and other selected participants are notified when a resource is confirmed on a project from within project management.
• A new filter is added for reviewing open and in-process resource requests, enabling resource managers to review these requests quickly.

Variable Weekly Assignment Creation and Maintenance in the Resource Schedule Gantt Chart

Resource Managers can now seamlessly assign labor resources directly within the interactive Gantt chart. This innovative feature allows them to define specific variable weekly allocations tailored to the ever-evolving demands of each project. By doing so, they can ensure that resources are meticulously aligned with the project’s needs in real time, optimizing efficiency and enhancing productivity throughout the project’s lifecycle.

In Conclusion

The 25C Quarterly Update for Oracle Cloud Project Portfolio Management (PPM) introduces several enhancements, many of which are driven by valuable feedback from our customers. These improvements are designed to optimize workflows, enhance user experience, and provide more robust project management capabilities tailored to the needs of project-centric organizations. With these updates, you can expect increased efficiency in managing resources, improved project tracking, and a more intuitive interface that streamlines collaboration across teams.

To fully leverage these enhancements and understand their implications for your organization, we encourage you to connect with your Project Partners consultant today. They can provide insights tailored to your specific needs and help you navigate these exciting changes.

Read the complete update release notes here.