We all know Oracle releases quarterly updates, and the release of the year is here: “Oracle Financials 24A Release.” This brings a variety of new features and upgrades to improve function- ality & expedite procedures, enhance workflows, empower data driven decision-making, and im- prove user experience. This update offers a plethora of interesting new features and chan- ges. As with any significant update, careful tes- ting is necessary to guarantee a seamless tran- sition and prevent any glitches.

Insufficient testing and poorly executed modifi- cations might risk business continuity and per- haps cause system outages. Oracle clients re- quire a thorough testing plan for the Oracle Cloud Financials 24A update to prevent this. Compre- hensive testing, enabled by test automation, allows users to focus on maximizing the new features that Oracle has made available.

What’s New in the Oracle 24A Release?

Human Capital Management

Additional features added by Global Human Resources include Oracle Grow template integration, longer task expiry, journey editing, and new task kinds. Updates to hiring procedures, roles, and compensation features, along with pages created by VBS and mass download filters, are among the elements of the Redwood experience.

Redwood Talent Management offers AI-powered features such as feedback generation, AI-driven profile construction, AI-enabled goal setting, and enhanced performance evaluation.

Recruiting brings new developments in AI and enhances the internal candidate experience. Talent Management offers Suggested Successors and Best Features for the Redwood succession planning process. AI-powered goal development is included in goal management. Opportunity Marketplace adds fresh functionality, and Learning offers more options and automated suggestions.

Financials Supply Chain Management

The Oracle Financials 24A release enhances sourcing, limited availability, supplier qualification management, procurement contracts, external purchases, item replacement, supply chain management, and sourcing.

Some Technical Updates

The Oracle financials 24A upgrade includes improvements to HCM, recruiting, Talent Management, learning, and Absence Management. It also adds a new topic area to Workforce Scheduling, and an expanding characteristic is Global Payroll.

Functional Changes from the Oracle Cloud Financials 24A Release

• Payables: A new report called the Payables Exception Report makes it possible to examine invoice exceptions categorized by exception type and to link particular exceptions to resources for analysis and resolution. The campaign manager can now choose suppliers for dynamic discounting campaigns based on currency, payment terms, and methods. This maximizes campaign efficacy by allowing the manager to select suppliers with more extended payment periods.
• Receivables: Users can sweep invalid Receivables Transactions to a later Accounting Period by utilizing the programs "Review transaction information without sweep" and "Sweep transactions to next accounting period." Receivables transactions can have their third-party tax registration numbers automatically assigned to them at the time of transaction formation. When creating a Receivables transaction, the user can automatically give the legal entity third-party tax registration number to the bill-to-customer.
• General Ledger: Attachments Audit can be enabled on the journal attachments files to track and evaluate all attachment actions, including download, update, deletion, and insert/check-in. A subset of the values assigned to the primary ledger and associated legal entities in the primary balancing segment can also be applied to the Secondary Ledger. In situations when the primary ledger represents several legal entities or nations, this effectively allows organizations to populate subsidiary ledgers for particular legal entities.
• Expected Financials: Users now have the ability to auto-post journals across all ledgers and assign them the data access set. This will streamline the journal entry procedure, minimize manual efforts, and provide accuracy in financial reporting.
• Taxes: To streamline tax compliance procedures, Oracle has integrated Avalara's automatic tax partner integration. This integration guarantees compliance with tax laws, expedites tax computations, and lowers error rates.
• Expenses: To ensure accuracy and compliance, costs resubmitted are evaluated using audit standards to identify duplicate expenses. Organizations can reduce fraudulent activity and improve cost management procedures by automating the detection of duplicate payments.

What are the best practices for testing the Oracle Cloud Financials 24A Release?

• The testing parameters decide which tests are crucial and which are not during the quarterly Oracle Financials Cloud update.
• Implement sanity testing as soon as possible to ensure business continuity.
• Determine which business procedures related to finances should be automated and which ones still require manual testing.
• To demonstrate the variations between releases, use impact analysis reports.

Technological improvements anticipate with the Oracle Cloud Financials 24A Release

• You can download and install the most recent version of the Oracle ADF Desktop Integration add-in, which is version 5.1.5.26625, right now.
• With the Oracle 24A release, deprecated Business Intelligence View Objects (BIVOs) can no longer be extracted using BI Cloud Connector.
• Additional data items will be included in the Receivables XML invoice extract as required by different national legislation. Therefore, there is less need for implementation-specific modification.
• Using the Oracle Financials 24A release, alternative payer name mapping rules for Japanese client bank accounts can be bulk-uploaded via the Zengin Format for Japan REST API.

Opkey’s Role in Facilitating the Transition

Opkey is a platform for no-code automation that makes strategic testing easier. This is important for business continuity during updates like the introduction of Oracle Financials 24A release. Its codeless automation, compatible with more than 150 technologies and 12+ ERPs, simplifies testing. While configurable reporting provides insights into flaws and coverage, the user-friendly user interface streamlines test case administration.

Opkey easily interfaces with Azure DevOps and GitHub, facilitating teamwork and expedited delivery. Organizations can effectively manage updates with Opkey's managed Oracle Cloud quarterly certification. Its impact analysis reports, advisory documents, and pre-built library expedite testing and cut down on update timeframes from weeks to days.

Opkey improves productivity and system stability by facilitating an easy upgrade to the most recent Oracle Cloud release. Opkey provides a complete solution to help businesses smoothly transition to the Oracle Financials 24A release. Opkey helps businesses in accelerating testing procedures by providing pre-built accelerators, comprehensive advising documents, and impact analysis reports. This optimizes the advantages of the most recent updates while reducing downtime. 

Wrapping Up

The Oracle Financials 24A release is a calculated investment in the future of your financial operations. This version helps firms become more financially agile and make better decisions by emphasizing user experience, process automation, and data-driven insights. There are advantages and disadvantages to the Oracle 24A edition. Additionally, Opkey automation testing can be essential to enabling a seamless transition for the company. Through implementing a complete testing plan, using automation tools, and keeping up with industry developments.