Part 1: Adding new fields to the R12 Payment Funds Disbursement XML file

Hands up if you or someone you know has customised the standard 11i (or earlier) Format Payments program (APXPBFOR.rdf) to add additional fields, change the cheque / check layout or something similiar??

Now, hands up if you have customised the RDF for your 11i BACS or electronic paymentfile??

Crikey… there are a lot of hands up out there.

In fact, I also have worked on lots of sites in the past where we have ‘tweaked’ the content and layout of these seeded 11i payment documents. For example, on my current project, there is a requirement to add some descriptive flexfield data from the invoice record (ap_invoices_all)
onto the cheque.

Well, the good news is…
From R12, the Payments module has replaced the previous Payables functionality and has reimplemented all the templates using XML Publisher :-)

And the bad news is…
From R12, the Payments module has replaced the previous Payables functionality and has reimplemented all the templates using XML Publisher :-(

OK – that was a poor attempt at humour – but from the technical and work-load perspective, the upgrade to Payments really is a double edge sword:
You get all of the great XML Publisher functionality BUT you have to re-implement any customisations to your payment instructions!

Luckily for us, Oracle has made it relatively easy to configure the R12 payment instructions and add new fields, content and layout. They have provided:

1) - A PL/SQL Package ‘IBY_FD_EXTRACT_EXT_PUB‘ to add additional tags to the XML file created during the Discbursement Process.
2) - Loads of RTF and ETEXT presentation templates for BACS, cheque printing and other payment types.

In my next post, I’ll take you through the steps to add new fields and tags to the XML file created by the XML Publisher data definition ‘Oracle Payments Funds Disbursement Payment Instruction Extract 1.0’.