Introduction
Once a
purchase order or purchase agreement is approved, changes will inevitably be
needed — a price renegotiated, a delivery date pushed out, or simply an
internal charge account corrected. Oracle Fusion Procurement manages this
through change orders, and the behaviour of those change orders is entirely
driven by one setup object: the Change Order Template.
This guide
walks through what the template controls, the exact setup steps to configure
it, and how to verify the configuration once it is in place — with references
to Oracle's own documentation and community discussions at the end.
What
the Change Order Template Controls
A change
order template is a set of guidelines that lets an organisation define what
constitutes an internal change versus an external change to a procurement
document over its lifecycle. Templates are defined per document type, and only
one template can be active per business unit at a time, although multiple
inactive versions can exist for testing or historical reference.
|
External change order Modifies a supplier-relevant
attribute as defined in the template, such as price, amount, or contract
terms. Commercial organisations call this an amendment; Federal organisations
call it a MOD. An external change increments the document revision number and
is communicated to the supplier for acknowledgment. |
|
Internal change order Modifies an attribute that is
not relevant to the supplier, such as a descriptive flexfield or a specific
attachment category. An internal change order does not increment the revision
number and is not sent to the supplier, but it is still fully logged and
visible in the change history. |
Prerequisite:
Roles and Access
Configuring
change order templates is a Procurement Applications Administrator activity,
performed in the Setup and Maintenance work area. Make sure the implementer has
the standard procurement setup duty roles assigned before starting; this task
is not exposed to buyers or category managers.
Step-by-Step
Setup
Step
1: Navigate to the task
1.
Go to the Setup and Maintenance
work area.
2.
Select Offering: Procurement.
3.
Select Functional Area:
Purchasing (or Purchase Agreements, depending on document type).
4.
Open the task: Manage Change
Order Templates.
Step
2: Create a template per document type
1.
Select the Document Type you are
configuring — Standard Purchase Order, Blanket Purchase Agreement, or Contract
Purchase Agreement.
2.
Create a new template, or copy an
existing one as a starting point if you are standardising across business
units.
3.
Give the template a clear,
descriptive name that reflects its document type and business unit, since
multiple inactive templates can coexist.
4.
In my case; I am just selecting the
seeded one for our quick review
·
Attributes
are available for Header, Lines, Schedule, attachment and contract
·
I
am adding here screen for header and lines, you can further explore
Step
3: Classify attributes
1.
Within the template, review the
full attribute list — these represent the fields available on the order or
agreement header and lines.
2.
For each attribute, set the
enable/disable flag. Enabling an attribute means the change order engine tracks
changes to it.
3.
For each enabled attribute, this
is the flag that actually drives revision numbering and supplier communication,
not the enable flag alone.
4.
Save the attribute
classification.
Step
4: Activate the template
1.
Set the template's status to
Active. Remember only one template can be active per business unit and document
type combination at any time.
2.
If you are updating an existing
active template rather than replacing it, confirm the change does not
retroactively affect change orders already in progress.
Step
5: Link the template on the Procurement Business Function
1.
Task: Configure Procurement
Business Function.
2.
Open the Document Types tab.
3.
For each document type, confirm
the Change Order Template field references the template you just activated,
alongside the document's layout.
4.
In my case, following screenshot
shows the Purchase Order Change Template assigned to Purchase Order Document
5.
Save and close.
Attribute
Classification Reference
|
Attribute example |
Typical classification |
Effect when changed on an approved document |
|
Unit price
/ negotiated amount |
External |
Revision
incremented; supplier notified and asked to acknowledge |
|
Quantity |
External |
Revision incremented; supplier notified and asked
to acknowledge |
|
Contract
terms / need-by date |
External |
Revision
incremented; supplier notified and asked to acknowledge |
|
Internal charge account / project code |
Internal |
No revision increment; no supplier notice; change
is logged |
|
Certain
descriptive flexfields / attachment categories |
Internal |
No
revision increment; no supplier notice; change is logged |
How
to Verify the Configuration
•
Approve a test purchase order,
then change a price or quantity. Confirm the revision number increments and the
supplier acknowledgment step appears.
•
On the same test order, change an
internal attribute such as a charge account. Confirm no revision increment
occurs and no supplier notice is generated.
•
Open the View Change History page
on the test order and confirm both the external and internal changes are
visible, even though only one incremented the revision.
•
Attempt to withdraw a change
order while it is pending approval or supplier acknowledgment, to confirm the
withdrawal action is available before final application.
Implementation
Notes
•
Internal versus external only
affects revision incrementing and supplier communication; it does not remove
the need for internal approval. An internal change order still requires
approval.
•
Because only one template can be
active per business unit and document type, agree the internal/external
classification during CRP rather than adjusting it repeatedly after go-live,
since every reclassification changes supplier-facing behaviour going forward.
•
Archiving happens at three
points: when the initial version of the document is approved, when a change
order is approved, and when a change order is cancelled and its changes
discarded.
References
• Oracle Help Center — Internal andExternal Change Orders, Procurement documentation
• OracleCloud Customer Connect community discussion — What is the purpose of Manage
• BizInsight Consulting Blog — Change Orders in Oracle Fusion Purchasing, Part 2, Shriram Gupta