Reporting, Analytics, and Period Close
Standard reports
Payables provides operational reports such as the Invoice Register, Payment Register, Invoice Aging Report (buckets by due date or invoice date), Cash Requirement Report, Supplier Balance Report, Payment Process Request Status Report, withholding tax reports, and the Payables Period Close Exceptions report. The exceptions report is the practical checklist for close: unvalidated invoices, unapproved invoices, unaccounted transactions, and payments not confirmed.
Analytics
OTBI subject areas for Payables cover invoices, payments, suppliers, holds, and discounts, with real-time data and drill-down to the transaction. Dashboards and infolets give balances and payables due. Use OTBI for analysis and Oracle Analytics Publisher for formatted operational reports; the two serve different purposes.
Period close sequence
Best practice is: validate all invoices, resolve holds and exceptions, run Create Accounting, review and correct accounting errors, transfer to GL, post in GL, then reconcile the Payables liability to the GL balance. Close the Payables accounting period only after accounting and transfer complete. Closing Payables does not close GL, and closing GL does not close Payables.
Worked example
At January close, the exceptions report lists three unvalidated invoices and one PPR in Needs Attention. Validate the invoices, fix the payment profile mismatch, complete the PPR, run Create Accounting, transfer to GL, post, then reconcile the Payables liability balance to the GL liability account.
Traps
Transferring to GL before Create Accounting leaves entries behind. Aging by invoice date differs from aging by due date. A PPR in Needs Attention is not a paid invoice; it must be corrected and completed.