Flexible Workflow Steps

Dear SAP Friends,

Welcome to another interesting topic, Flexible Workflow

In this blog will see steps on how to activate Flexible workflow.

Just a quick overview of Flexible workflow

1.       It’s a Release strategy of PR & PO

2.       Easy to maintain & Understand no Transport Requests are required

Note:- TR will be generated when we activate Flexible workflow in IMG and remaining are non-TR based. System wise we can maintain.

3.       Only one Release strategy can be used at a time either classic or Flexible Workflow

4.       Need to Activate Flexible Workflow

5.       FWF is maintained in Fiori “Manage Workflows for Purchase Order”

FWF- Flexible Workflow

Refer SAP S/4HANA Flexible Workflow Overview and Comparison with SAP Business Workflow by Alan Rickayzen

Now let’s see first how to activate FWF

1.       Go to IMG → Materials Management → Purchasing → Purchase Order → Release Procedure for Purchase Orders → Activate Flexible Workflow for Purchase Orders

2.       Activate which document type you want to have FWF

–         It’s based on document type for ex:- NB we can have FWF and UB we can have Classic Workflow

3.       Once done save. Transport request will be generated

4.       Now open “Manage Workflows for Purchase order” App

5.       Choose add

6.       Give Workflow name and description for understanding purpose

Even we can set timelines for PO release status

7.       Go to start conditions tab

As per business requirement, we can select the precondition to start the workflow

Only if the condition met then only created PO will be coming to workflow or else it will be released automatically

We can have more conditions as per business requirements.

8.       Go to step sequence and choose add to maintain more conditions like a responsible person, PO values etc.

9.       By default, Step type will be set to Automatic release of PO drop down and change to release of PO

10.  Go to Recipient and select Role / User as per business

–         User means we can select specific user-id

–         Role means, that role has to be assigned to responsible person user-id

Note in order to have responsible persons User ID’s and there Names to be displayed in users list means we need to create Employee and assign to Business partner refer to https://blogs.sap.com/2019/07/17/employee-as-a-business-partner-and-synchronization-with-hr-data/

Select a responsible person from the user’s list

If you selected multiple users for release, we have an option like one of the recipient approval is enough or all approvals is required, we can select as per requirement

11.  Go to step condition to add conditions like Currency, PO value, Material group, Company Code etc,

If wanted we can keep or else leave blank as we already maintain precondition in the initial stage.

12.  Once done click on add

13.  And then save

14.  And then activate

Once it’s activated we can’t edit only deactivate or delete

With this, we completed all the required steps

Now, let’s check we maintained all correctly or not.

Will create PO

During Workflow creation we maintained 2 conditions

–         Document type = NB

–         PO Value greater than 20 USD

Both conditions our PO fulfil’s

PO created

Now if I open PO in change mode will get below information

It triggered FWF.

Now let’s Approve / release PO

Open My Inbox App.

As one PO is in my bucket for approval on tile only we can see notifications 😉

We have the following options

–         Approve

–         Reject

–         Show log

–         Claim (initiate process)

–         Forward

If you feel it must be approved by someone else, not by you, we can do it.

–         Suspend (Hold)

Now let’s Approve PO

It’s done

If you are going on vacation like how we keep out of office mail with backup contact person 😜 same, we can do hear as well

In my inbox app click me area and select manage my substitutes

By selecting planned leave or unplanned leave 😂 Click add new substitute

By selecting from date and to date

Save

Now whatever PO is create and triggered to FWF it will go to my substitute

If you want to see all the list of POs’ that you approved so far there is an app for that as well

My Outbox

Note:- all above content doesn’t have sensitive info so don’t waste your time for reporting

If the same My Inbox App is configured in mobile means, see the beauty of SAP Fiori

Encourage Fiori and get the most advanced features of it and make life easy and smooth.

Please share, Like and Comment anything else you want to share or add points.

Thanks & Regards

Ruthvik Chowdary

SME – S/4 HANA Manufacturing & Procurement

SAP Ariba P2P