In Oracle Self Service Procurement, Special Handling is a requisition type—not a shipping instruction. In healthcare, it supports the process commonly called Bill Only: goods have already been consumed or implanted, and procurement must create the financial and audit record without sending a conventional fulfillment request.
1. What Special Handling enables
- Capture Bill Only details such as physician and date of service on both the requisition and purchase order.
- Create a PO without communicating it to the supplier.
- Create the receipt automatically when eligibility rules are met.
- Use catalog items or manually entered requisition lines.
You can define multiple types, including Bill Only and Bill and Replace. Each type can control its own attributes and processing behavior.
| Option | What it controls |
|---|---|
| Header and line DFFs | Clinical and transaction context such as physician, date of service, lot, serial, or other attributes. Available capacity includes 20 text, 10 date/time, and 10 numeric fields. |
| Supplier consistency | Whether all lines must use the same supplier. |
| Buyer review | Whether a buyer must review the resulting purchase order. |
| Negotiated | Best understood here as the touchless-processing flag. |
| Automatic receipt | Whether Oracle should create the receipt automatically when the line is eligible. |
| Approval routing | Allows rules to distinguish a named Special Handling type. |
| Buyer assignment | Buyer Assignment Rules by Special Handling Type were described as roadmap functionality, not currently available when this guide was published. |
2. Prepare security and Redwood
Special Handling requires the Redwood requisition experience. Assign privileges according to responsibility rather than placing every privilege in an end-user role.
| Audience | Privilege | Code |
|---|---|---|
| Requester | Create Requisition with Special Handling | POR_CREATE_REQUISITION_WITH_SPECIAL_HANDLING |
| Procurement administrator | Manage Special Handling Type | PO_MANAGE_SPECIAL_HANDLING_TYPE_PRIV |
| Application administrator | Manage Application Descriptive Flexfield | FND_APP_MANAGE_DESCRIPTIVE_FLEXFIELD_PRIV |
Separate requester and setup access
Requesters need permission to create the transaction. Configuration privileges belong in administrative roles because they alter shared types and descriptive flexfields.
3. Configure the descriptive flexfields
Configure the DFF in the same way as other application flexfields, using Special Handling Attributes for Header or Special Handling Attributes for Line. Create a context for each meaningful group of attributes—for example, Bill Only Header and Bill Only Lines. The context is what appears when you configure the Special Handling type.
4. Configure the Special Handling type
Name and describe the type, select its header and line DFF contexts, and define processing controls. A typical healthcare Bill Only design uses Negotiated for touchless buying and Automatically Create Receipt.
Recommended design review
Confirm who owns each attribute, whether it belongs at header or line level, which fields are required, whether mixed suppliers are allowed, and whether the downstream PO should require buyer intervention.
5. Suppress supplier communication
Configure the supplier site so Special Handling orders are not communicated. This prevents a Bill Only PO—created after the clinical event—from being interpreted as a new order to fulfill.
Test communication suppression
A Bill Only PO should support matching and payment without triggering fulfillment. Test the supplier site, document method, and resulting PO behavior before enabling the process broadly.
6. Create a Special Handling requisition
- Select the actionUse the requisition action menu to start Special Handling.
- Choose the typeSelect Bill Only, Bill and Replace, or another configured type.
- Enter attributesComplete the header DFF values in the side panel.
- Add linesShop the catalog, use a Smart Form, or enter a requisition line.
Once the type is active, Redwood displays an indicator on the requisition page. Use the same action menu to review, change, or cancel the Special Handling details.
Shopping then behaves much like a standard requisition: users can add catalog items, use Smart Forms, or enter lines manually. If the selected type includes lot or serial attributes, adding an item prompts for those DFF values. A DFF that is not required can be skipped.
7. Understand the technical limitations
| Area | Limitation or behavior | Implementation response |
|---|---|---|
| Line operations | Grouping, duplication, and splitting do not work. | Train requesters to create the intended line structure directly. |
| Seeded types | Oracle supplies types that may not fit the organization. | Disable unwanted types rather than presenting confusing choices. |
| DFF redesign | Changing the DFF design of an active type may be difficult. | Consider disabling and replacing the type after impact analysis. |
| Attribute visibility | The same DFF values appear on requisitions and purchase orders. | Choose labels and content appropriate for both documents and audiences. |
| Internal transfers | Special Handling does not support internal transfers. | Use an appropriate inventory or transfer process instead. |
| Receipt routing | Automatic receipts are direct and the destination must be expense. | Validate destination and receipt routing in the test matrix. |
| Lot or serial control | Auto-receipt does not work when the inventory item itself requires lot or serial entry at receipt. | Distinguish informational lot/serial DFFs from item controls defined in PIM. |
Lot as a DFF is not the same as item lot control
You can auto-receive an expensed, non-lot-controlled item while recording a lot value in a Special Handling line DFF. You cannot auto-receive an inventory item whose PIM definition requires the lot or serial to be entered during receiving.
8. Validate the complete Bill Only flow
- The requester has the Special Handling creation privilege, without unnecessary setup privileges.
- Header and line DFF contexts display the intended clinical fields and validation.
- The correct Special Handling type is visible; unwanted seeded types are disabled.
- Negotiated, buyer review, supplier consistency, and auto-receipt settings match the operating model.
- The supplier site does not communicate Bill Only orders.
- Approval rules correctly identify the Special Handling type.
- Catalog, Smart Form, and manual-line paths behave as expected.
- The generated PO retains the required attributes.
- Eligible expense lines receive automatically and ineligible controlled items do not.
- Invoices can match without creating an unintended supplier fulfillment request.
Final takeaway
Special Handling turns Bill Only from an off-system exception into a governed Oracle Fusion process. The value comes from coordinating configuration across security, DFFs, requisition types, suppliers, approvals, purchasing, and receiving—not from enabling a single checkbox.