AME: Approval Management Engine

To change approval workflows AME (Approval Management Engine) can be used. It provides variable options to change workflows without dealing with coding. Some seeded workflows are designed to work with AME though some are not and custom workflows can be designed compatible too. I think this is an essential property for new workflows to be manageable.

"The purpose of Oracle Approvals Management (AME) is to define approval rules that determine the approval processes for Oracle applications.
An approval rule is a business rule that helps determine a transaction's approval process. Rules are constructed from conditions and actions. For example an approval rule can be as follows:
If the transaction's total cost is less than 1,000 USD, and the transaction is for travel 1-2 Oracle Approvals Management Implementation Guide expenses, then get approvals from the immediate supervisor of the person submitting the transaction.



The approval rule's if part consists of zero or more conditions, and its then part consists of one or more actions. A condition consists of a business variable (in AME, an attribute) and a set of attribute values, any one of which makes the condition true. An action tells AME to modify a transaction's approval process in some fashion. The conditions in the sample rule in the graphic refer to two attributes: the transaction's total cost, and the transaction's purpose. The sample rule's action tells AME to add the requestor's supervisor to the transaction's approver list.
AME enables you to define rules that express a wide variety of approval rules. For example, rules that:
• Require subject-matter-expert approval
• Require managerial approval
• Create exceptions for rules requiring managerial approval
• Substitute one approver for another in special cases
• Revoke a manager's signing authority in special cases
• Grant a manager extra signing authority in special cases
• Generate a production that assigns a value to a variable name such as the value
digital certificate to the variable name eSignature."

"AME responsibilities in 11i.AME.A are assigned directly to the users. However, In R12 or 11i.AME.B and higher, AME responsibilities are assigned indirectly to users through roles. The roles are assigned to the users by the SYSADMIN user using the User Management responsibility. Once the roles are assigned, the AME responsibilities are automatically available to the users without specifically assigning the AME responsibilities to the users." (User Guide) That means responsibilities should not be added to users manually!
AME grants are given by using Functional Administrator responsibility> Grant screen.

EBS responsibility to create AME conditions and rules: Approval Management Business Analyst.

Workflows can work with or without AME, for example in Purchasing module this can be done via setting Approval Transaction Type in Document Types screen.

Approvals Management Implementation Guide should be seen for more information.