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Author's profile photo Anjan Paul
Anjan Paul
March 21, 2019 2 minute read

YES!! Customer CAN create CUSTOM Flexible Workflow for specific requirement.

Context:

As we already know SAP came up with new predefined  Flexible workflow template in  S4Hana which is completely different from normal ECC workflow.  From Flexible Workflow customer  can directly assign  work dynamically based on  condition to different layer of persons or do different activity.  Customer will get  high benefit using Flexible Workflow in terms of  save Time for determination of approver  and also in terms of automation of their business  process or easily assign work overload to others  .

 

Development:

In this blog I am showing the simple  custom demonstration which will block Sales order after  change without any  printing.

 

There have a custom flexible  workflow developed .

 

But to developed a Flexible workflow lots of  custom objects need to developed including cross client objects. Snapshots of some objects summary showing below.

 

 

Configuration:

 

Now Configure the flexible workflow like below.  Agent will  be determine based on Badi.

 

 

In the Badi,  users  are populated   for approval.

 

 

 

Business Process:

NOW start the Sales order change or create process.

 

 

Now Approver will get their  workitem in their  Fiori inbox for approval or rejection.

 

 

After approval it is visible that,  Delivery Block set for No Printing.  You have done .

 

 

Conclusion:

Though in this document simple process shown, but the developments need lots of efforts including cross system development. Though SAP might come up with new Flexible workflow scenario every  new  release.    Customer can easily configure it as per their requirement to feel the power of dynamic automation .  So it is always  desirable to use standard scenario  .

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      14 Comments
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      Author's profile photo Jim Perry
      Jim Perry

      Thanks Anjan for the article - we recently implemented several flexible workflows in the Purchasing area but had a few concerns. If you have solved for these please share:

      • We have variable step approval process. Depending on the value of a PO for example, we may have 3, 4, or up to 10 approvals. We have configured 10 steps in this process. If the PO is a lesser value we may only need 1 approval. Our issue is that the workflow will continue to generate the next step even after our last logical approval. We need a way to end this workflow, and release the PO at any point in the 10 step process.
      • Background steps are very handy in classical workflows. They can be used in all manner of processing from setting status, calling additional applications, emails etc...In the flex workflow we are only supplied with one dialog step. Is there any process to add a background step (no agents) to allow for this type of background processing?
      • Flexible WF leverages the same task for every approval step. Can we add/change information on this task for a specific step in the process? This would allow us to customize the information sent to a given approval group.

      Thank you!

       

      Author's profile photo Alan Rickayzen
      Alan Rickayzen

      Hi Jim,

      Good Questions. I know you're not alone with questions like this so here are some answers.

      1. Using the Manage Workflow app you can configure 10 small simple workflows, or one workflow with conditional steps, or a combination (e.g. if approvals 5-8 are identical other than the the approver aka agent-determination). The seismic change between flexible workflow and classic Business workflow is that the workflow handles the approval, and the application handles the consequent action (e.g. document release). So the problem you're describing doesn't occur.
      2. These are handled by coded exits in the flexible workflow. Simpler to implement and more robust.
      3.  Flexible workflow doesn't have to use the same task. You can have different Tasks and a different Ux experience for the different steps/approvals. I agree, that most S/4HANA apps deliver just one task per approval type, but this does not have to be the case. I guess you are asking for more flexibility here, which is something worthy of serious consideration.

      Best regards,

      Alan

      Author's profile photo Paul Bakker
      Paul Bakker

      Hi Jim. I am new to Flexible Workflows and am faced with the same issue (#1). Some POs require 5 approvals, some require 10.

      Did you manage to resolve it? I read Alan's response below but don't quite understand what he is proposing. He suggested 10 "small simple workflows"?

      thank you.

      Author's profile photo Alan Rickayzen
      Alan Rickayzen

      Thanks for the blog Anjan 🙂

      It's great to hear the perspective from consultant's point of view. Flexible workflow is progressing nicely in terms of adoption by the applications in S/4 and functionality (https://blogs.sap.com/2019/05/06/new-to-workflow-in-sap-s4hana-release-1905) so I really appreciate the effort you put into researching the bespoke usage.  It's worth pointing out that in SAP S/4, sales orders are already enabled for flexible workflow so the customer can configure their own workflows without the need for any development.

      Author's profile photo Anjan Paul
      Anjan Paul
      Blog Post Author

      Thanks Alan for your  appreciation :).  At the time of writing this blog  this scenario not presents in 1809 on premise edition in my system. Thanks SAP for bringing this scenario for customers.  This  blog is for showing we can create custom flexible workflow  if  any scenario not available in standard.

       

      Thanks again.

      Author's profile photo Mandadi Shanker Reddy
      Mandadi Shanker Reddy

      Hi Anjan,

      I'm new to S/4 HANA, Can we extend a custom workflow from ECC6.0 to S/4 HANA 1905. Please advise

       

      Thank You

      Author's profile photo Joachim Freitag
      Joachim Freitag

      Hi,

      Where can I see what BADI is used in what flexible workflow?
      e.g. the badi used in PR or PO approvals

      Joachim

      Author's profile photo Tufan Maity
      Tufan Maity

      Can you please let us where these PO workflow data are stored in S/4 Table.. We want to send An exception is reported/triggered if changes are made to PO approval authority thresholds.

      Author's profile photo Ashish Gautam
      Ashish Gautam

      Hi Anjan,

       

      Nice Blog.

      I am in search of any specific BADI for agent determination for SAP Sales (SD) flexi workflow or any enhancement you can suggest for agent determination /maintain

      Author's profile photo Konstantinos Sofios
      Konstantinos Sofios

      Hello,

      I am looking for a BADI for agent determination regarding my SAP SD Credit memo Flexible workflow.

      Did you find any BADI?

      Thanks in advance,

       

      Author's profile photo Ankit Mehrotra
      Ankit Mehrotra

      Are there ways to extend the preconditions with document custom fields check ?

      Author's profile photo Ckristhian Molina
      Ckristhian Molina

      Good morning Anjan Paul

      I made a copy of the standard task WS02000471 Release of Purchase Requistion Item, add a precondition "Created by" when doing the respective tests, it shows me this message in the purchase request in the Approval Details tab.

      "The steps cannot be loaded. Please try again later. If the problem persists, contact support."

      Note: in the My inbox app you can see the purchase request that must be authorized

      I remain attentive to your comments

      Author's profile photo Ankit Mehrotra
      Ankit Mehrotra

      Hello,

      How can we extend the workflow start condition ? Let's say we want to trigger approval workflow if a specific Advanced Variant Characteristic value is chosen. How can we achieve this ?

      Author's profile photo Kishor Sarode
      Kishor Sarode

      Hi Anjan,

      Can you share necessary steps for creating custom flexible workflow, as I have requirement to create custom workflow in tax and revenue management, where standard flexible workflow is not available.

       

      Regards,

      K S