Oracle® Insurance Rules Palette 10.1.2.0 E59346-01

Suspense Overview

Suspense and accounting functionality (Chart of Accounts in Admin Explorer) can work in tandem or separately. Best practice is to implement both and have them work together to provide information on financial activities related to a company. 

The Prototype Company provides an example of suspense processing that supports multiple currencies. View the prototype example for additional information.  

How Suspense Works

Money can be posted directly to a policy or entered into a suspense record. Part of the suspense record or the entire record can be attached to a policy.   

Accounting processes based on criteria indicators set on the Chart of Accounts and the optional ChartOfAccountsSpecifications rule. The ChartOfAccountsSpecifications rule allows the use of indicator values on the suspense record that control which suspense account(s) the money is apply to. 

If money cannot be applied directly to a policy, then it is usually entered as a suspense record at the company level through the Suspense screen, which may also invoke account processing.  

When the entire suspense amount is disbursed, the suspense item is closed. If only a portion of the suspense item is disbursed, then the suspense item remains open. Any disbursed amount is added to the suspense record's attached amount.

If the disbursement activity is reversed, then the amount of the disbursement is returned to suspense and the suspense is be reopened if it had been closed. The amount returned is subtracted from the suspense record's attached amount.

Suspense Accounts

A suspense account is an account that is used to temporarily store money until a decision is made about where the money will be allocated. It identifies where the money came from and allows the money to be used as payment to one or more policies. Suspense accounts are set-up in the Rules Palette from the Admin Explorer tab in the Chart of Accounts folder.  

Suspense Records

Suspense records can be created from the Suspense screen in OIPA, or they can be generated by the GenerateSuspense business rule when it is attached to a transaction that is processed in OIPA. If a suspense record is created on the Suspense screen, it can then be selected on the Suspense Search tab of a transaction's Activity Detail screen for use by that transaction, provided the transaction is configured to display the Suspense Search tab.

A transaction may be both configured to display the Suspense Search tab of the Activity Detail screen and have the GenerateSuspense business rule attached. In this case, if a suspense record is selected from the Suspense Search tab, that record will be attached to the transaction. If a suspense record is not selected from the Suspense Search tab, then the GenerateSuspense business rule will be used to generate a new suspense record, which will then be attached upon the processing of the transaction.

A unique suspense number is generated with each suspense record for identification purposes. Suspense records are written to the suspense account(s) for a company's general ledger. These records temporarily hold money until an activity generates a process to disperse or apply the money. Suspense records are created in OIPA and are associated with existing suspense accounts.     

High Level View of Suspense Configuration

The following list provides an overview of the major steps involved in setting up suspense in OIPA. Follow the links to pages for more information on each specific step in the process.

1. Set up suspense accounts in the Admin Explorer using Chart of Accounts.
2. Configure Suspense Screens.
   • Configure the Suspense Screen and/or Suspense Screen Overrides.
   • Configure the Suspense Search Screen.
3. Configure Suspense Refund
   • Configure the transaction that will activate the refund. Typically client level activities are used for suspense refunds.
   • Configure the suspense refund number in the transaction.
   • Configure the suspense section in the transaction.
   • Configure the disbursement section in the transaction.
4. Configure Suspense Accounting.
   • Configure the suspense or multisuspense element in a transaction that is configured to apply money to policies from a suspense account. OIPA uses the suspense element to capture the suspense number and amount from an activity and apply it to the associated suspense record. The suspense record's Attached Amount is updated by adding the amount entered in the activity to the Attached Amount. The Attached Amount starts at zero, and once the amount equals the suspense amount, the record is closed.
   • Configure the GenerateSuspense business rule if suspense should automatically be generated for activities that move money into a policy. This rule creates accounting detail for a supplied field amount in order to establish a relationship between the amount and a suspense record.
   • Configure the MaintainSuspense business rule if the user needs to be able to change suspense field values and generate accounting through a collection of multiple suspense tickets. This rule should be attached to a transaction. Refer to the XML Configuration guide for a complete explanation of the elements and attributes for this rule.