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Author's profile photo Cherry Chen

Configure Flexible Workflow for Purchase Order

Configure Flexible Workflow for Purchase Order

1 Purpose

This document describes how to optimize the PO approval process by using App Manage Workflow for Purchase Orders. The flexible workflow allows you to use either the automatic, one-step, or even multi-step approval.

You can do the following with App Manage Workflows for Purchase Orders:

· Determine the approver of the workflow, for example, the manager of the last approver, or directly assign a specific user

· Define start conditions for a workflow and for each approval step, and the order in which the start conditions of existing workflows are checked

· Add new steps to a workflow at any time

· Add new workflows, copy existing ones or modify them according to your requirements

Business Background (For Example):

A group company has two subsidiary companies, one is company 1010, and another is company 1020.

For company 1010, all purchase orders should have the approval process. No approval process is needed for company 1020.

Ø Total net amount of purchase order is smaller than or equal to 500 EUR, then the PO needs the approval of the purchasing manager and the project manager.

Ø Total net amount of purchase order is greater than 500 EUR and smaller than or equal to 6000 EUR, then the PO needs to be approved by the purchasing manager, project manager, and the resource manager.

Ø Total net amount of purchase order is greater than 6000 EUR and smaller than or equal to 150,000 EUR, then the PO needs to be approved by purchasing manager and project manager, resource manager and manager.

Ø Total net amount of purchase order is greater than 150,000 EUR and smaller than or equal to 400,000 EUR, then the PO needs to be approved by purchasing manager, project manager, resource manager, manager, and VP.

Ø Total net amount of purchase order is greater than 400,000 EUR, then the PO needs to be approved by purchasing manager, project manager, resource manager, manager, VP, and President.

The following release condition for purchasing approval is carried out for Company Code 1010:

2 Overview Table

The documentation consists of configuration steps provided in the table below.

Step

App

Business Role

Configure Flexible Workflow for Purchase Order

Manage Workflows for Purchase Orders

SAP_BR_ BPC_EXPERT

3 Procedure

Test Step #

Test Step Name

Instruction

1

Log onto Fiori Launchpad

Log onto the SAP Fiori launchpad using the Configuration Expert role.

2

Access the App

Open Manage Workflows for Purchase Orders.

3

Check Automatic Release of Purchase Order

In Workflows list, choose Automatic Release of Purchase Order, make sure workflow Automatic Release of Purchase Order is in active status.

Note

The Automatic Release of Purchase Order is delivered by SAP. By default, this workflow is activated.

4

Create Flexible Workflow

On the screen Manage Workflows, choose Add to create Flexible Workflow.

Create step 1

On the New Workflow screen, make the following entries:

Name: Test Workflow for Purchase Order

In the PRECONDITIONS area, select Company Code of purchase order is 1010.

In STEP SEQUENCE area, choose Add.

On the New Step screen, make the following entries:

Name : PO 0-500 EUR

Type: Release Purchase Order

Go to the RECIPIENTS area:

Assignment By: User

User: Select User with Purchasing_manager from F4 help.

Step to be completed by: One of the recipients.

In the PRECONDITIONS area, choose Total net amount of purchase order is greater than 0 EUR

Choose Add and go back to the New Workflow screen.

Create step 2

In STEP SEQUENCE area, choose Add.

On the New Step screen, make the following entries:

Name : PO 0-500 EUR

Type: Release Purchase Order

Go to the RECIPIENTS area:

Assignment By: User

User: Select User with proj_manage_comm from F4 help.

Step to be completed by: One of the recipients.

In the PRECONDITIONS area, choose Total net amount of purchase order is greater than 0 EUR

Choose Add and go back to the New Workflow screen.

Create step 3

In STEP SEQUENCE area, choose Add.

On the New Step screen, make the following entries:

Name : PO 501-6000 EUR

Type: Release Purchase Order

Go to the RECIPIENTS area:

Assignment By: User

User: Select User with resource manager from F4 help.

Step to be completed by: One of the recipients.

In the PRECONDITIONS area, choose Total net amount of purchase order is greater than 500 EUR

Choose Add and go back to the New Workflow screen.

Create step 4

In STEP SEQUENCE area, choose Add.

On the New Step screen, make the following entries:

Name : PO 6001-150000 EUR

Type: Release Purchase Order

Go to the RECIPIENTS area:

Assignment By: User

User: Select User with manager from F4 help.

Step to be completed by: One of the recipients.

In the PRECONDITIONS area, choose Total net amount of purchase order is greater than 6000 EUR

Choose Add and go back to the New Workflow screen.

Create step 5

In STEP SEQUENCE area, choose Add.

On the New Step screen, make the following entries:

Name : PO 150001-400000 EUR

Type: Release Purchase Order

Go to the RECIPIENTS area:

Assignment By: User

User: Select User with SAPVP from F4 help.

Step to be completed by: One of the recipients.

In the PRECONDITIONS area, choose Total net amount of purchase order is greater than 150000 EUR

Choose Add and go back to the New Workflow screen.

Create step 6

In STEP SEQUENCE area, choose Add.

On the New Step screen, make the following entries:

Name : PO > 400000 EUR

Type: Release Purchase Order

Go to the RECIPIENTS area:

Assignment By: User

User: Select User with SAPPRESIDENT from F4 help.

Step to be completed by: One of the recipients.

In the PRECONDITIONS area, choose Total net amount of purchase order is greater than 400000 EUR

Choose Add and go back to the New Workflow screen.

5

Save Manage Workflow

Choose Save.

6

Activate Workflow Item

Choose Activate on the top right of the screen.

Note

  1. Make sure each approval users have assigned business role SAP_BR_PURCHASING_MANAGER to have the PO approval authorization.
  2. The Purchase Order approval must be an employee user.
  3. When defining the recipients for a workflow step (in the app Manage Workflows for Purchase Orders), you can select the following agent determination rules, for example:

· Manager of Workflow Initiator

· Manager of Workflow Initiator’s Manager

· Manager of Last Approver

To ensure that these rules work, you must define the relationships of managers and employees.

In the Import Employees app, before you actually import the data for the employees creation.

See the documentation that is available for this app: Import Employees

https://help.sap.com/viewer/0bebd08dffca45afa67b1f751199afd0/1911.500/en-US/1b32df57f8c2073ee10000000a4450e5.html

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      7 Comments
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      Author's profile photo Eric Tong
      Eric Tong

      Good blog

      Author's profile photo Vijayendra Tiwari
      Vijayendra Tiwari

      Thanks for the detailed information 🙂

      Author's profile photo Anup Nair
      Anup Nair

      Very well explained!

      Author's profile photo Anup Nair
      Anup Nair

      #workflow

      Author's profile photo Sai Giridhar Kasturi
      Sai Giridhar Kasturi

      useful information. thanks for sharing..

      Author's profile photo Zhiping Yu
      Zhiping Yu

      Thanks for sharing.

      Author's profile photo azeem nargund
      azeem nargund

      Guys,

      I need your valuable answers.

      We need to update a new finance manager's name in the PO workflow, is there any easier way to do this or do we have to delete the condition and update the new approver's name,

      Your answers are highly appreciated