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Release Strategy WF
Release Strategy WF
The procurement department of a company consists of multiple buyers who are responsible for
buying goods from the market.
Since purchase order is a legal document and it goes to the vendor, it is very much important to
control the process to avoid any errors or unauthorized transaction.
Because of the legal implications of Purchase orders, it is very much required to control the
procurement process by introducing approvals
There is a hierarchy of people like the buyer who creates the order and different levels of
purchasing managers to supervise and control the procurement process.
Can be integrated with the email system so that approvers do not have to wait or enquire about
status of particular transactions.
Workflow allows process owners to keep an eye on deadlines, provides statistics on the length of
time to complete work processes, determine the workload with regard to individual employees and
save processing time.
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Level 4 : > 1,00,000.00 INR – Approver6 (can delegate to any Approver1 / Approver2 / Approver3 /
Approver4 / Approver5)
We need to go through the following Customization path in order to configure Release Strategy :
SAP Easy Access -> Materials Management -> Purchasing -> Purchase Order -> Release Procedure for
Purchase Orders
Business Requirement:
We need to define which fields would be used to determine the release strategy. This fields
constitute the Characteristics in Release Determination. We need to create a Characteristic for
every field.
ZPO_EKGRP – Purchasing Group (001, 002, 003, 004, 005) – Datatype CHAR 3
ZPO_GNETW – Total Net Order Value – Datatype CURR (15, 2) Unit INR
For a full list of fields that can be used to determine the release strategy, use tccode SE11
communication structure CEKKO.
If we want to make use of a field which is not available in CEKKO, we add that field in structure
CEKKOZZ available within CEKKO, we would need to make use of the user exit M06E004 -> Changes
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to communication structure for releasing purchasing document. The field added in CEKKOZZ should
be reflected in Header Data of transaction code ME21N -> Create Purchase Order.
The characteristics have been grouped together to form the following class – ZPO_HPPTCL
Note: We can create any new Class assigning it to the relevant Characteristics but the Class Type
should always be 032.
Configuration Path : SPRO -> Purchasing -> Purchase Order -> Release Procedure for Purchase
Orders -> Define Release Procedure for Purchase Orders.
Select Release Codes –
There would be 6 Approvers involved in the Release Procedure. Hence, 6 Release Codes W1, W2,
W3, W4, W5, W6 are created.
The Workflow Role has been selected as 1 from the dropdown list, since this is related to workflow
release strategy without using a user exit.
Select Release Indicator
We would use 2 Release Indicators –
0 – Blocked
2 – Released.
Changeable indicator determines how the system would react when a purchasing requisition or
purchasing document is changed after the change of the release procedure.
Select Release Strategies
Since we have 4 approval levels, We would create 4 new Release Strategies – R1, R2, R3, R4.
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Step 4: Maintain Classification – The Classification data can be maintained from the Classification
Tab in Release Strategies or from Transaction Code CL20N.
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Go to Agent Assignment -> Create from Menu and assign the relevant Approver IDs
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Check whether object category BO and Object Type BUS2012 are assigned and is active.
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Go back to initial screen and Activate the workflow builder and Save.
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Check whether linkage is activated for object type BUS2012 Receiver type WS20000075 by clicking
on detail button.
Substitution in PO Workflow:
In SAP, the inbox is generally the “SAP inbox” accessed via transaction code SBWP. SAP also lets
you flow the tasks into Lotus Notes and Outlook.
Business Requirement
Substitutes are essential so that a users work items can be seen and executed by a defined
replacement user. This ensures that work is not left unattended if someone is out of the office
unexpectedly.
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A workflow sitting unapproved in the inbox of a manager who is on a month-long vacation could be
a problem for the organization.
To address such issues, SAP workflow provides a substitution mechanism. The manager/approver
nominates a substitute for the duration of his or her absence.
https://blogs.sap.com/2016/08/16/concepts-in-workflow-release-strategy/?fbclid=IwAR3-jbZ9l_6tmpa4LoxK16tyXmQNgNqtUJOlj7OujVJWZp3_EMh… 13/23
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A substitution profile defines what tasks a substitute approver sees in his/her inbox
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Setting up substitutions:
An approver can pick a substitute for a given time period and assign the substitute a profile.
To pick a substitute from SBWP, go to Settings -> Workflow settings -> Maintain substitute
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Select the user ID, use a validity period, Add the ‘substitution profile’ 0003 and check on
‘Substitution Active’
Business Requirement:
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Once a PO is created and it is subject to release strategy based on the defined criteria, Workflow is
triggered. There are several ways for an appropriate approver to release the PO for further
processing.
Directly from R/3 System logon using a transaction code
From email – Offline or Online
Offline Approval – when an approver can approve the PO without SAP GUI installed in his system /
outside the office network
Online Approval – when an approver gets a link in his email notification to release a PO with the
help of which he is directed to the SAP transaction to approve the PO.
Using Mobile Apps based on SAP Fiori
1. From System Logon – Relevant Approvers can approve the PO from R/3 system using transaction
ME28 for list of releases or ME29N for single release.
The notification also appears in SAP Inbox which can be accessed using transaction SBWP
https://blogs.sap.com/2016/08/16/concepts-in-workflow-release-strategy/?fbclid=IwAR3-jbZ9l_6tmpa4LoxK16tyXmQNgNqtUJOlj7OujVJWZp3_EMh… 18/23
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Prerequisites
Configuration of release strategy is done with Workflow
Fiori Add-On Components are installed on
your system
SAP Gateway to use add-on component
Same configurations need to be done as before through SPRO customizations.
The Fiori App Details for configuring PO Approval in App based devices can be obtained from
following link.
https://blogs.sap.com/2016/08/16/concepts-in-workflow-release-strategy/?fbclid=IwAR3-jbZ9l_6tmpa4LoxK16tyXmQNgNqtUJOlj7OujVJWZp3_EMh… 19/23
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3. Scroll down to “Buyer” Section and Click “Approve Purchase Orders” logo
Select the Purchase Order number on Left side to look into details
You can also see the items details such as Price, Discount and any other information.
Now user have option to click on “Approve” Button or “Reject” Button or “Forward” button.
Approver can also maintains his comments while approving the purchase order and these comments
get maintained in the purchase order header level text
Deadline monitoring defines the time span with in which a job is scheduled to End.
Business Requirement:
If a workflow task (say, approval of the PO) is not executed within the specified time, Escalation
happens. It may be required to inform his/her immediate superior / colleague regarding the
activity if the approver misses on the deadline.
The particular work item is then terminated and the subsequent step (Mail) is executed.
Configuration:
Use transaction SWDD Workflow WS20000075 -> Go to User Decision step, click on the Latest End
Tab
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After selection “Work Item Creation”, choose an offset of 5 minutes. This means that work item
must be executed within 5 minutes of the creation, if not this would trigger.
Enter recipient details to whom the message to be escalated, if the work item is not executed
within 5 minutes after work item creation.
Use transaction code SWWA to check how the deadline monitoring program is scheduled in
program.
Status Monitoring
Business Requirement:
In order to monitor a PO status at a particular time point, for eg., with which approver a PO is
stuck, or the workflow steps undergone by a particular PO, we need to run some standard reports
which enables Status Monitoring of the Work Items.
Status Monitoring of PO’s awaiting approval can be viewed using transaction SWI6.
Go to transaction SWI6 and give Object Type BUS2012
The report provides information on Status of PO s for which release strategy has been
triggered.
Audit Trail:
Business Requirement:
As part of Audit Requirement, one might be interested to see who all are involved in approving a
given PO. It is required to check the SAP User IDs that actually processed the approval workflow. In
order to meet such requirements, there are certain standard SAP transactions which can be used.
In order to check PO Release History, one can use standard report ME2N
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One can also make use of the standard Workflow SWI6, SWIA, etc to check on the Audit relevant
reports (We can search in TSTC table with transaction code SW* in order to check on the workflow
relevant report transactions)
Transaction Code SWWL can also be used to delete Workflows based on their status.
Transaction SWIA can be used to manually complete the workflow instead of deleting it.
Business Requirement:
In SAP, Roles and Authorization plays a vital order in order to restriction a transaction / Activity to
the concerned user only. In PO Approval Workflow as well, it is very important that the Approvers
are provided appropriate role in order to release a PO at a level defined for them by the
management. For eg., A Level 1 Approver should not be authorized to approve a PO for level 2 or A
level 2 Approver does not require interventions to approve PO at level 1.
For this reason, appropriate authorizations need to be set up in the user profiles where they
user/approver would be given access to the relevant Release Code and Release Group only to
which they are authorized to.
This is a Basis activity to provide the appropriate Authorization for release codes to the approvers.
https://blogs.sap.com/2016/08/16/concepts-in-workflow-release-strategy/?fbclid=IwAR3-jbZ9l_6tmpa4LoxK16tyXmQNgNqtUJOlj7OujVJWZp3_EMh… 22/23
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I have tried to explain the basic settings for configuring a PO workflow release strategy. Although the
basic workflow configuration may be done by a Functional Consultant, help of a workflow consultant
would be required in order to accommodate more complex business scenarios. This blog would give you a
basic idea on the functionalities we can perform parallel to configuring the business workflow.
I hope you have enjoyed going through the configuration steps and scenarios. Any suggestions to this
would be highly appreciated.
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