• Bill Transaction Synchronization on Billing Event Update or Delete:
  • In the 23 C release, the ability to generate Bill Transactions on Cost Import was delivered under Controlled Availability. 23D delivered the ability to generate Billing Transactions when Billing Events are created. With release 24A, the functionality has been extended to automatically synchronize changes to bill transactions if the related project billing events are updated or deleted. This functionality is delivered under Controlled Availability. The intent of creating Billing Transactions upon Cost Import and/or Billing Event creation is to allow for the real-time record of WIP Transactions. To enable this functionality, an SR must be logged with Oracle Support.
• Accounting Date Filter for Inception to Date Actual Cost Configurator Sources in Project Currency (Customer Submitted Idea):
  • The Accounting Date filter can be configured for the Inception to Date Cost Revenue Configurator Sources in Project Currency to calculate the Inception to Date Actual Cost based on the project cost distribution accounting date. This option applies to Percent Spent revenue recognition requirements with project cost accrual transactions or with time card or expense report cost transactions in the subsequent open periods.
• Manage Contract Validations:
  • This enhancement allows users to set contract validation rules of type Warning and enable or disable them as required.  In addition, the severity of the validation can be changed from Warning to Error to prevent the contract from progressing.
• Manage Signed Contract Documents:
  • Within the Documents Tab, signed contract documents are managed within their own Document Category. This functionality supports both electronically and manually signed contracts.
• Support Date and Number Data Types in Party Descriptive Flexfield (Customer Submitted Idea):
  • Users can now set the data types for the attributes associated with the Contract Parties DFF.
• Sign Contracts with Adobe Acrobat Sign (Customer Submitted Idea):
  • Requires licensing from Adobe Acrobat Sign.

In Cost Management and Control

• Budgetary Control for Project-Specific Procurement to an Inventory or Work Order Destination:
  • Funds check capabilities have now been extended to support funds availability confirmation, reserve funds against control budgets, and account for encumbrances, if applicable, when procuring material to an inventory destination for sponsored and non-sponsored projects. In addition, this capability also applies to procuring material directly to a work order destination from a project-specific manufacturing or maintenance work order.
• Oracle Payroll Cost Distribution to Projects Using Labor Schedules (Customer Submitted Idea):
  • This enhancement closes a significant gap we have encountered with clients that require actual payroll costs in Oracle Projects Cloud. If the Oracle Payroll solution via Oracle Cloud HCM has been implemented, payroll costs can be distributed to projects using labor schedules. This functionality supports the ability to go back and get any costs that may have been missed by setting up a labor schedule or pay element later than planned. In addition, any changes in payroll will be re-distributed to projects if payroll costing information changes or retro payroll costs are generated.

In Planning, Scheduling and Forecasting

• Additional Attributes for My Projects (Customer Submitted Idea) have been added to the My Projects page to allow searching by the following:
  • Customer
  • Organization
  • Classification Category
  • Classification Code
• Additional measures have been added to the My Projects page has been added to include the following:
  • ITD Budget Margin in Project Ledger Currency
  • ITD Actual Margin in Project Ledger Currency
  • ITD Commitment Cost in Project Ledger Currency
  • ITD Actual Revenue in Project Ledger Currency
  • ITD Actual Cost in Project Ledger Currency
  • PTD Budget Revenue in Project Ledger Currency
  • PTD Actual Revenue in Project Ledger Currency
  • PTD Budget Cost in Project Ledger Currency
  • PTD Actual Cost in Project Ledger Currency
  • PTD Budget Margin in Project Ledger Currency
  • PTD Actual Margin in Project Ledger Currency
  • Project Ledger Currency
• Change Order Automation for Project Budget Adjustments (Customer Submitted Idea):
  • The delivery of this functionality closes yet another gap in Cloud PPM that has required customers to leverage a PaaS solution or process Change Order Impacts manually – which can lead to errors. With this functionality, Impacts can now be added to Change Orders at the Project/Task/Resource level to support accurately updating budgets and forecasts accurately based upon Change Order amounts.

In Resource Management

• Mandatory Qualifications for Assigning Resources to Projects:
  • Project Roles and Resource Requirements can now be associated with Mandatory Qualifications. The Mandatory Qualifications are leveraged during the Resource Search process to exclude all those resources that do not possess the Mandatory Qualifications.
• Maximize Productivity with Detailed Assignment Tracking and Schedule Approvals:
  • In 23C, Oracle delivered the Gantt-based view for managing resource assignments. Further enhancements were delivered in 23D to allow Resource Managers to Edit Assignment Information, Review Assignment Schedule Adjustments, and Edit or Delete Resource Events. In 24A, Oracle has now delivered the capability to:
    • View Hours by day to support editing these values.
    • Approve or cancel assignment adjustments directly in the Gantt chart.

In Conclusion

As you can see, a number of improvements are coming to Oracle Cloud PPM with the 24A Quarterly Update, most of which came from customers. What do these updates mean for your project-centric organization? Reach out to your Project Partners consultant today.

View the complete Oracle Fusion Cloud Project Management Update 24A here.