Defining Workflows In Sourcing and Procurement

Watch the following video to learn the functions of defining flexible workflows.

In SAP S/4HANA Cloud, you can use the flexible workflow to define condition-based approval workflows for procurement documents, such as purchase requisitions, purchase orders, or supplier invoices. The flexible workflow enables you to define approval processes according to your requirements. You can set up automatic, one-step, or multi-step approval workflows. You can assign one or more approvers to each step. You can define approvers by role or assign individual users or teams as approvers. The approvers can then approve or reject the corresponding work items in the My Inbox app.

You can define flexible workflows for different procurement documents using the corresponding Manage Workflows for Business Object app. For instance, ​the Manage Workflows for Purchase Orders​ app is used for purchase orders.

Role Configuration Expert - Business Process Configuration (SAP_BR_BPC_EXPERT) is required to define the workflows.

You need to define the flexible workflows if you don't want the default workflow to be used. For instance, you must define the approval workflow if you do not want all purchase orders approved automatically. After you define the workflows, the corresponding active default workflow is used if none of the start preconditions is met. If you define your own default workflow, you must ensure that it is positioned at the end of the defined order and it is active. This workflow is used as soon as the start preconditions for a workflow are met. Defining the order ensures that only one workflow is started, even if several workflows have matching start preconditions.

Watch the following video to learn how to define a workflow and approve, which uses a two-step approval for purchase orders as an example.

There are several preconditions available in flexible workflows that you can use according to your business requirements. Start conditions are used to trigger the workflow. You can also add preconditions to a specific step; this precondition applies only to that particular step. You can define several preconditions where all the preconditions must be fulfilled together, or you can also specify alternative preconditions, which can trigger the workflow if the alternative preconditions are met.

Using the Recipients tab in the workflow step, you can assign approvers to each step. You can define approvers by role or assign individual users (business user) or teams as approvers.

You can select from several options available as Roles for workflows for different purchasing documents according to your business requirements.

For most of the purchasing documents, there are two different step types. The Automatic Release of Purchasing Document and the Release of Purchasing Document that allows you to assign an approver. You must use the Step Type Release of Business Object to assign approvers to the workflow step. For Supplier Invoices, there is no Automatic Release of Business Object as Step Type available.

You can make a step optional in the defined workflow. Additionally, using the step property, Exclude Restricted Agents, it is possible to exclude agents from being the recipients/approvers of a workflow. For instance, you can exclude the purchase order creator from being the approver of the same purchase order.

You can inform the workflow approver about the deadline for pending approvals when using flexible workflows. Define a deadline for completing a workflow step, for example, releasing a blocked invoice within one day. You can notify the approver(s) about the pending work items by marking a step as overdue or sending an e-mail notification.

As a prerequisite, an e-mail template needs to be maintained. You can define several deadlines and assign separate, predefined emails.

You can change the resulting behavior of your workflow. For instance, you can select from the available result actions to change the resulting behaviour when a purchase order is rejected.