Oracle Release Update: The best features in 21D

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What’s new in 21D?

When reviewing the 21D release notes, there were features which immediately caught our attention. These features put a smile on our faces, below you can read why! We have divided the features in 3 domains, HCM, Finance and Supply chain/ Procurement.

 HCM

1. Mass Download Document Records And Attachments

Mass download of Document Records are introduced. Customers were already able to use mass upload functionality to enter all employee documents into HCM, but extraction was more difficult. In this release, it becomes possible to download all document records based on the person name or Document Type. So you can either download all documents at once for a specific person, or all documents of a specific type (for example passports) accross the application. All the attachments are then extracted in a zip file and include a overview file.

2. Enter Repeating Absences

You can now enter repeating absences in the responsive self-service absence screens. This is a functionality that was available in the older UI but was not yet introduced in the new responsive screens. For example, you can now schedule a daily or weekly recurring absence that occurs a specific number of repeats or until a specific date

3. View More Details for Goals In Check-Ins

The Goals and Check-in process in HCM Cloud is more streamlined and integrated. It was already possible to view Goals and comment on Goals within Employee/Manager Check-ins. To edit the goals, a user needed to navigate back to the Goal section. In 21D, it becomes possible to view more details about Goals, edit Goals from within the Check-in and trigger any approvals. The notes from multiple Check-Ins or on the Goals page are visible in one overview, which eliminates the need to search for notes in a specific Check-In document.

Finance

1. Configurable Import Submission Options for Journal Creation Spreadsheet,

A long-anticipated feature for end users is now available. It is possible to control the display of submission options when loading journals using the Create Journal in Spreadsheet task. You can create specific lookup values to set up default submission options or hide specific options. For example, if your organization always immediately posts journals to General Ledger, its now possible to remove the option to ‘Save to Interface’. Or if you have the requirement to validate the descriptive flexfields, remove the option ‘Submit without validation’. This way the options are custom to your organization’s needs and less prone to errors.

2. Rule-Based Asset Book Defaulting for Invoices Transferred from Payables

If your organziation has many asset books, selecting the correct asset book could be difficult when processing invoices. As of 21D it is now possible to assign a default asset book to source lines transferred from Payables based on the COA segments of the asset clearing account including balancing segment, cost center, and natural account. The prerequisite is to have a unique asset clearing account for each asset book to transfer Payables invoices to the correct asset book. If this prerequisite is met it will reduce handling time in the Payables department and your capitalization process will become more efficient.

3. Collections Strategies by Transaction Type

Strategy assignment has become more flexible. You can define and run strategies and strategy tasks for individual transactions now as well by transaction type. For example, create a strategy and assign transaction type A, B and C to the strategy, and create/add a specific number of tasks for each transaction type. The ‘Process Strategy Task’ will evaluate the transaction type of each transaction and assigns the strategy tasks accordingly.

Supply Chain / Procurement

1. Dual Unit of Measure:

Dual Unit of Measure (UOM) is introduced in the complete Procurement SCM flow. Setup your Oracle Cloud applications so you can order, price, receive, pick, pack, and ship an item that you enable with primary and secondary UOM tracking.

For example, you might stock and sell meat in cases, but price it in pounds. Each case of meat has a different price because the total weight in pounds varies from one case to the next, but you need to give your buyers an estimated price for each case.
You can use the dual UOM solution to meet this requirement. It’s an end-to-end, integrated solution that works across the Oracle Cloud applications and helps you: Simultaneously track an item in the primary UOM and secondary UOM throughout your order-to-cash process and procure-to-pay processes.

2. Quick Actions:

Quick actions functionality is also now introduced within Procurement. This delivers easy navigation from the homepage. Makes life much easier, less clicks needed to go your forms!

3. Reduce inventory when a sales order does not require picking or shipping:

In certain situations, you need to reduce on-hand quantity in your warehouse, allocate cost, and recognize cost of goods sold without performing picking, packing and shipping when you fulfill a sales order.  For example, when you deliver the item through an over-the-counter transaction, or when you record sales orders in Oracle Order Management Cloud for an already completed point-of-sale transaction, so that amount of on-hand quantity that you needed to fulfill the sales orders is reduced in Oracle Inventory Management Cloud with accurate costing and accounting transactions.

Conclusion

This top 3 per domain will no doubt bring a smile to your face, especially because none of these features require extensive or complicated configuration.