After some additional testing, the Entitlement Balances functionality is working fine. One of our testers discovered note 473272.1 on Metalink which appeared to be similar to our problem. The issue was resolved by extending our payroll calendar out by another two years. Oracle has logged Bug 5743838 in which part of this issue is described.
The screen shot below show a successful calculation in June 2010 after the extension of the payroll calendar.
Release 12.1 includes a useful addition to Absence Management. Employees and Managers can now use Self Service to calculate leave accruals based on an effective date. The new tab in the Absence Management function, named "Entitlement Balances", is shown below.
A user simply inputs the desired date and hits the "Go" button. The accrual is calculated as of the date entered. This is useful for both employees and managers wishing to view accrual balances on a given date.
This new functionality appears to work well within the current plan year. Curious to see what would happen if I entered a date in the next year, I tried 01-Jan-2010. I immediately received an error indicating a problem with a user defined function in the accrual formula "PTO_PAYROLL_CALCULATION". We'll have to take a closer look at this to see what is happening. I would fully expect someone to try a date far into the future, so we'll need a more graceful ending than a framework error page.
Even with that small issue, the new Entitlement Balances functionality looks like a useful addition to both Employee and Manager Self Service.
There has been a lot of back and forth between our DBA's and Oracle Support overnight, but so far, we are not much closer to a resolution. Our initial problem was escalated to development and a bug was logged ( Bug 8553240 ). After our OWC session with development, Oracle sent us a file to place in the Class Path of our test instance. The idea is that the supplied file will create extra debug statements to help track down the issue. Unfortunately, the supplied file has not so far generated any information.
Luckily, our DBA's have been working closely with our internal Java developers and have passed some suggestions back to Oracle. We are now waiting for Oracle Development to supply a new Java class file incorporating some of those suggestions.
Testing the Appraisals functionality in 12.1 started out smoothly. I selected the appraisal template, updated competencies, entered performance ratings and goals. Then I clicked the submit button and it all stopped. I received the standard framework error "You have encountered an unexpected error. Please contact the System Administrator for assistance. "
A few more tries with a different responsibility, different user, turned off personalizations, etc. Same error on submit. I have an SR open with Oracle and conducted an OWC session with development today. This is the first "Show Stopper" (for Appraisals) as far as my testing in 12.1 is concerned. The frustrating part is that the appraisal itself appears to work fine, it might be workflow related.
I'm hoping for a quick resolution now that Oracle Development is involved and I'll let you know more as the SR progresses.
I completed testing of the OTL functionality to import timecard data in a .csv format without any issues. I do need to make a note that a user helping out with testing this feature experienced intermittent issues. The issues seemed to center around "expenditure type class combinations". I need to do some additional investigating since I didn't run into these errors. From the screen prints below, you can see one of my test imports into OTL. I was able to save and submit this timecard without any problems.
Recent Timecards screen with "Upload Timecard" button.
Select the time period and browse to the location of the .csv file.
The .csv file is loaded.
After a small workflow related issue was resolved, I was able to complete the majority of OTL testing with no additional issues to report. The one function left to test is the timecard import from a .csv file. Although the import functionality is not rolled out to all users at KBACE, I am told it does come in handy for our back office people who often work multiple projects in the same week. I'll test that early next week and hopefully be able to report that import works as expected.
My OTL testing is nearly complete. The only real issue encountered so far was a problem with workflow. The test script I was executing required that the approver reject the timecard, sending it back for correction. Logged in as the approver, I rejected the timecard and then logged in as the submitter. Unfortunately, when I logged in as the submitter, the timecard was still showing a status of "Submitted". I waited a few minutes to be sure the background process had time to run, and checked again. The timecard remained in "Submitted" status, never showing the "Rejected" status I was expecting.
I logged back in as the approver and was able to see that an error had occured and that "Applsys.Wf_deferred_r" had errors. I sent the error message over to our technical side and they were able to track down the issue, noted in Metalink document 577875.1. I was then able to retest and everything worked as expected.
Running through OTL test scripts is not exactly exciting work, but the error showed why it is important to have good test scripts. The submit and approve steps worked fine. It was only when testing a submit/reject scenario that the issue with workflow appeared. Take the time to test every possible combination of steps that might occur. It is the only way you can be (mostly) sure of no big surprises once the applications goes into production.
Our implementation of Employee Self Service is fairly straight forward. Basic personal information, work information, payslips, online W2, W4 and a form to update skills for our KBACE resume.
First, what didn't work. Payslips. The current phase of our testing is using a scrambled instance. Clicking on Payslips brings up a form that says "There are no Payslips for the pay period you can view. Please contact the System Administrator or Payroll Manager." Payslips will have to be tested at a later date.
The link to update my KBACE resume skills also did not work. The error message was a bit more ominous "Forbidden - You do not have permission to access this document". It looks like maybe a low level permissions issue with the database or file system. Probably a quick fix for one of our DBAs.
The Online W2 was also not available for the current year, but selecting the W4 brought me to the Federal W-4 and allowed me to update my filing status. I also had a link to my state withholding pdf which rendered correctly.
Personal information , basic details, is view only. I was able to make changes to phone numbers, address, and emergency contact information.
So the bulk of the functions worked as expected. And with the exception of the skills update, no errors to report for 12.1
In version 12.1, Oracle made some changes to the user interface. One of those changes was the merge of the "Time Entry -> Recent Timecards" screen with the "Timecard Search" screen.
The old version of the OTL menu appears below:
The old version of the screen for Recent Timecards (Navigation Time and Expenses -> Time Entry ) appears below. Note the sub tabs labeled Time Entry and another for Timecard Search.
In 12.1, we now get a slightly modified menu with "Time Entry" and "Timecard Search" replaced by "Recent Timecards":
Selecting Recent Timecards brings us to the new merged screen. Notice that the sub tabs for "Time Entry" and "Timecard Search" have been replaced by the "Recent Timecards" sub tab.
The merged screens are meant to provide for a cleaner user interface. Although you don't really save any time in navigation, it appears to be one of those small changes that slowly make for a more mature product.
