Maximize Returns from Oracle Internet Expenses by enabling Corporate Credit Cards

Venkat Natarajan

Sr. Applications Manager

Rambus Inc.

www.rambus.com

Himani Shah

Senior Consultant

Ubex Corporation

www.ubex.com

NorCal OAUG Training Day 2007

17th January 2007

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Agenda

• Introduction• Background• Solution• Benefits• Credit Card Process• Oracle Functionality• Implementation • Tips• Summary• Q&A

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About Rambus

Rambus is one of the world's premier technology licensing companies specializing in the invention and design of high-speed chip interfaces.

• Revenues : ~$165M (2005)

• Employees : 400 approx

Visit www.rambus.com for more information

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Agenda

• Introduction• Background• Solution• Benefits• Credit Card Process• Oracle Functionality• Implementation • Tips• Summary• Q&A

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Business Scenario

• Oracle Internet Expenses module used only for out of pocket expenses• Employees created expense reports online• Employees submitted receipts to AP• Expense report sent online for manager approval • AP verified receipts & reimbursed employee

• Corporate credit cards issued to Senior executives (less than 10)

• Approval, Accounting and Reconciliation of credit card expenses done manually

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Challenges

• No systematic and/or scalable business processes for existing corporate credit cards expenses• Expense reporting and approval for credit card

expenses was manual (on paper)• Accounting & reconciliation was manual – very time

consuming during period end

• Cumbersome process for ad-hoc purchases and travel expenses• Employees/admins had to bear upfront out-of-pocket

expenses for company purchases • Misc/Urgent purchases were processed via Purchase

requisition. • Small value expense reimbursement was a hassle

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Agenda

• Introduction• Background• Solution• Benefits• Credit Card Process• Oracle Functionality• Implementation • Tips• Summary• Q&A

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Solution

• Implement Corporate Credit Cards in Oracle Internet Expenses• Upload credit card transactions data file from credit

card provider to Oracle• Process all credit card transactions via expense

reports using Oracle standard functionality

• Issue Corporate Credit Cards to employees for business expenses

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Corporate Credit Solution

Sign credit card policy

Receive corporate credit card

Business expenses

Pay by credit card Submit expense report

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Agenda

• Introduction• Background• Solution• Benefits• Credit Card Process• Oracle Functionality• Implementation • Tips• Summary• Q&A

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Benefits – Simplify Expense Reporting

• Do not bear upfront out of pocket charges for company expenses by using credit card

• Save the hassle of collecting and submitting paper receipts for credit card expenses

• Easily create expense report by selecting credit card transactions

• Enter credit and cash expenses in the same report

• Company does not need to provide cash advances to employees for business & travel expenses

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Benefits – Reduce AP Overheads

• Eliminate the paperwork of receipt submission for credit card expenses since the credit card statement serves as a receipt

• Eliminate the process of verifying and filing receipts

• Increase accounting accuracy (accounting flows directly from the online expense reports)

• Enable efficient accrual of expenses as expense transactions are loaded into the ERP system automatically within few days

• Enable efficient reconciliation of credit card statement

• Reduce the number of cash expense reports

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Benefits - Tighten Internal Controls

• Enforce online approval of credit card expenses • Enforce expense policy• Audit expenses online• Report and drill down on all expense transactions

(cash & credit) for easy expense analysis and management reporting

• Capture expenses as soon as data is received from the credit card provider, thus making the financial statements more accurate

• Review detailed transaction information in the expense report – e.g. flight details for airline tickets like flight numbers, dates, starting and ending location

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Benefits - others

• HR• Provide corporate credit cards as a perk for

employees

• IT/Finance• Scalable process

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Agenda

• Introduction• Background• Solution• Benefits• Credit Card Process• Oracle Functionality• Implementation • Tips• Summary• Q&A

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Corporate Credit Card Process

Employees use credit card

Employees create expense report and submit for approval

AP reconciles credit card statement at month end and

settles payments*

Employees are notified to submit expense report

Manager approves the expenses

Transactions downloaded from

bank and uploaded to Oracle daily

* Method depends on payment options setup

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Corporate Credit Card Process• Employees use credit cards for business expenses at various

merchants

• The merchant posts the transactions to the credit card provider

• A daily automatic interface downloads expense transactions from the credit card provider and uploads into Internet Expenses

• Employees are notified by email to submit expense reports when new transactions are available (via standard concurrent program)

• Employees create their expense reports by reviewing the transactions

• The expense report goes to the employee’s manager for approval.

• At month end, AP reconciles the credit card statement and settles the payments with the credit card provider / employee. Reconciliation is easy since all the credit card transactions are loaded into the system on daily basis.

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Expense Report Creation

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Credit Card Setup Options• Company Pay option – The company pays the credit card

provider for all expenses charged on the credit cards. Any personal employee expenses are offset against the cash expenses or need to be reimbursed by the employee to the company

• Individual Pay option – The employees are responsible for paying the entire credit card bill. They are reimbursed by the company for the business expenses based on the expense reports

• Both Pay option – The employees pay the credit card provider for the personal expenses and the company pays the credit card provider for business expenses

Tip : Please note that all credit card providers do not support all of the above options for their corporate credit card products. Please ensure that you select a credit card provider that supports the option that you wish to implement.

Accounting and processing are different for the above options. Please refer Internet Expenses User Guide for details.

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Oracle Standard functionality

• Transaction loader programs • Standard programs available for American Express, Bank of

America Visa, US Bank Visa, Visa VCF 4, MasterCard CDF3, Diner’s Club. Custom loader program needed for others.

• Automatic credit card creation in Oracle • New credit cards are automatically created by matching credit

card holder info in the transaction file to the employee name in Oracle HR.

• Default expense types based on Merchant Category Codes • Map MCC codes to expense types during setup• Expense types drive expense account while auto-accounting

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Oracle Standard functionality• Personal transactions

• Personal transactions are accounted appropriately• Employee has liability to pay

• Disputed transaction• Mark transactions as disputed • Track history of related communications• Adjust transaction against credit provided by bank

• Standard reports and escalations for outstanding transactions • Run standard reports to determine status of outstanding

transactions. Concurrent programs can send escalation notifications for un-submitted expense reports.

• Audit features • Audit expenses by expense type, amount, date range,

employee, policy violation etc. Many options available.

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Systematic Controls Examples of controls to manage the usage of the

Corporate Credit Cards• Credit limit *

• Card level credit limit• MCC code level – e.g. Airline transactions could have a higher

credit limit than Restaurant transactions

• Merchant Category Codes *• Restrict the MCC codes where the credit card can be used • E.g. Jewelry & pet stores could be out of scope

• Justification required field • Enable a mandatory justification field for certain expense types• This helps the approver and the expense report auditor verify

adherence to company policy

* Check with credit card provider for offering details

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Agenda

• Introduction• Background• Solution• Benefits• Credit Card Process• Oracle Functionality• Implementation • Tips• Summary• Q&A

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Setups • Transaction load

• Setup daily transaction load with credit card provider• Setup ftp site • Handle file encryption

• Define Profile Option – set OIE:Enable Credit Card to Yes • Setup Credit Card Program• Define Card Policy

• Transaction age limit

• Setup expense type mapping• Create a payables lookup code for MCC codes• Create mapping rules to map MCC codes to card expense types• Assign card expense types to expense report templates

• Testing – obtain dummy transaction files from your credit card provider for testing

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Standard responsibilities used

• Payables Super User• Internet Expenses Setup and Administration• Internet Expenses• Internet Expenses Auditor• Internet Expenses Audit Manager• Internet Expenses Help Desk• Internet Expenses Reporting and Analysis

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Useful Customizations

• Automated transaction loader program • Standard transaction loader program requires the file name of

the transaction data file with full path as a parameter• To avoid the manual load of files, a custom program reads the

filename and automatically launches the Oracle standard transaction loader program

• Credit cards transactions accrual report • Custom report lists the journal entry for accruing all the outstanding

credit card transactions at period end• Derives the natural account based on the MCC code and the cost

center based on the employee’s department• Summarizes amounts by the GL code combination.• Report output loads in to Oracle GL via ADI• Speeds up expense accrual at month

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Tips

• Functional• Implement a corporate credit card policy• Start with a pilot set of cards (up to 5) and complete

1-2 period closes• Designate a Credit Card Administrator

• Technical• Get the latest Internet Expenses patch sets (a lot of

new functionality has been added)• Test the process for details since documentation may

be at a high-level• The inactive employee workflow does not work if you

have a shared HR installation

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Summary

Oracle Internet Expenses provides a user-friendly interface to create Expense Reports and route them for approval and reimbursement.

Enabling the Corporate Credit Card functionality simplifies the Expense Reporting process further, both for your employees and your Finance department.

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About Ubex

Ubex Corporation is a premier provider of end-to-end solutions based on Oracle Applications

Ubex is an Oracle Certified Partner

Visit www.ubex.com for more information

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Other Ubex Events Today

•Ubex Booth • Visit Booth # 14 today • Enter for a chance to win a Nintendo Wii !!!

•Other Ubex Presentations• Credit Management - An easy solution for evaluating

customer creditworthiness

(Room 212 at 11:15 AM)

• AME (Approvals Management Engine) with iProcurement – A better solution

(Room 207 at 1:30 PM)

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Contact Information

Venkat Natarajan

venkat_natarajan@rambus.com

Himani Shah

himani.shah@ubex.com

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Q & A