Outlining Workflows for Purchase Requisitions

The flexible workflow for purchase requisitions allows you to define one-step or multi-step approval processes for purchase requisitions according to your requirements. Approvers can then approve or reject corresponding work items in the SAP Fiori app My Inbox.

Options for the approval of purchase requisitions:

• Overall release: The entire purchase requisition is approved. This type of approval is also referred to as header-level approval.

• Release of purchase requisition items: The items of a purchase requisition are approved individually. This type of approval is also referred to as item-level approval.

You can define the workflow scenarios for each of the options for regular purchase requisitions and for central purchase requisitions if you are using Central Procurement respectively.

Watch the following video to learn how to use the Flexible Workflow for Purchase Requisitions.

You can adjust the default settings, if required.

By default, for purchase requisitions, the flexible workflow is active for the document types NB (standard purchase requisition) and NBS. For type NBS, the overall release is defined.

For self-service requisitioning, the default document type is NB, unless you define a different document type in the app Default Settings for Users. For the document type NB, item-level approval is defined. So by default, purchase requisitions are approved at the item level, and the approval is performed automatically.

Note

A prerequisite for automatic approval is that the default workflow Workflows for Purchase Requisitions is active in the configuration step Activate Flexible Workflow for Purchase Requisitions.

The main activities for defining workflows are done in the app Manage Workflows for Purchase Requisitions. This is a mandatory step for using flexible workflows for purchase requisitions.

Role Configuration Expert - Business Process Configuration (SAP_BR_BPC_EXPERT) is required for defining the workflows.

Using the app Manage Workflows for Purchase Requisitions, you create the workflows, define the preconditions, assign recipients, define the order in which the preconditions are checked, and activate or deactivate the workflows.

As soon as the start preconditions for a workflow are met, this workflow is used. Defining the order ensures that only one workflow is started, even if several workflows have matching start preconditions.

Note

• If none of the start preconditions are met, the active default workflow Automatic Approval of PR is used, provided that it is active.

• If you define your own default workflow, you must ensure that it is positioned at the end of the defined order and that it is active.

The following table shows the roles and the apps that are used in the business process.

You can define the Start Conditions for a workflow, which determines when a particular workflow should be picked up. The preconditions that you can select are determined based on whether the workflow is for the overall release or an item-level release of a purchase requisition.

• In the Start Conditions section, you can choose, for example, Company Code of Purchase Requisition for the overall release of purchase requisitions. Note that this precondition is applicable only if all items of the purchase requisition have the same company code. In the case of limit items, if the start condition of the workflow is based on the net amount or total net amount, the expected value of the limit item is considered. You can configure additional preconditions using BAdIs Providing Additional Conditions for Scenarios and Value Evaluation of Additional Conditions for Scenarios in the Custom Fields and Logic app. You can add multiple preconditions, if required. The workflow starts only if all the preconditions are satisfied.

The previous figure shows an overview of the approval workflow in Self-Service Requisitioning.

• Use of class-based workflow scenarios in the Manage Workflows for Purchase Requisitions SAP Fiori app for approval of purchase requisitions.
• Support for several new features, such as workflow simulation for purchase requisitions.
• Ability to add deadlines for identifying the workflows that are overdue for pending approval.
• Use of the Edit and approve purchase requisition option in the My Inbox SAP Fiori app to enable relevant approvers to partially edit some purchase requisitions while they are in the approval process.
• Deadline monitoring for the purchase requisition workflow.
• Determination of the workflow initiator's manager for approval process in the Purchase Requisitions Line Item approval scenario.
• Send email notifications when a purchase requisition is approved or rejected, by choosing the required email template and the recipient in the Workflow Notifications section. In the list of recipient roles that can be selected, you also have the Workflow Initiator role.
• Choose Responsibility Management teams as recipient roles while adding workflow steps to the workflows corresponding to the scenarios for overall release.

Define the reviewers or people responsible for monitoring the progress of the workflow. You can also define the corresponding step conditions and deadlines. When a workflow is started, all the reviewers are notified. The reviewers can then track the progress of the workflow.

Make use of an additional option Exclude Restricted Agents Determined by BAdI that is available under Exclude Restricted Agents

• Monitoring the Progress of PR Approval Workflow through the Workflow Lifecycle
• Multiple Reviewers with different step conditions/agent determination rules
• Simple to configure Reviewer Steps
• Deadlines can be configured for reviewer tasks
• Approval workflow step conditions and agent determination rules are available for reviewer steps configuration
• Reviewers receive notifications on the reviewer tasks
• Approval details show the reviewers who have received the reviewer task
• Reviewer task is also restarted when Approval Workflow is restarted

It is possible to skip a step in flexible workflow for purchase requisitions. For example:

• You can mark one or more steps as optional.
• If a step is skipped, the system continues with the next step.
• The workflow history log provides detailed information on skipped steps, for example, the agent could not be determined, but the workflow should continue.

Create, read, update, and delete material and service limit items using the Purchase Requisition OData API. Configuration experts can define workflows for Purchase Requisitions containing limit items.

• Improved integration to include enhanced limit items using the Purchase Requisition OData API, for example, from an external system.
• Enhance Purchase Requisition workflow for limit items.
• Two additional OData parameters for limit items :
  • ExpectedOverallLimitAmount - The amount expected to be spent on the limit item.
  • OverallLimitAmount - The maximum amount that can be spent on the limit item.
• If the start condition of the workflow is based on the net amount or the total net amount, the expected value of the limit item is considered.

You can define workflows for purchase requisitions containing limit items. If the start condition of the workflow is based on the net amount or the total net amount, the expected value of the limit item is considered.

Choose to exclude restricted agents from being approvers of the purchase requisitions created by them.

On choosing the option Exclude Requestors in Exclude Restricted Agents, requestors/creators of purchase requisition will not receive requisitions created by them for approval in their inbox.

The Exclude Requestors option is not relevant for automatic release of purchase requisitions.

After exclusion, if no recipients are determined, the workflow moves to error, unless the step is marked as optional.

You can define the deadline by which the step should be completed, beyond which an overdue notification is sent to the approver. The workflow deadline can be specified in minutes, hours, days, or workdays.

Workdays are determined based on the factory calendar. The factory calendar can be defined using the BAdI -Determination of Factory Calendar for Workflow Deadline (MMPUR_PROC_WF_FACTORY_CALENDAR). If there is no custom logic defined, all days of the week are considered workdays.

You can view and edit fields in the purchase requisition, for header and item level approval. Approvers can change the account assignment for purchase requisitions with header level approval. You can view and edit header notes.

You can extend the application by adding custom fields and adapting the UI.

You can choose decision reasons before making a decision on the requisition.

You can view the web service ID and the material and edit the delivery date for header and item level approval.

The following fields are editable at the item details level:

• Account Assignment Category
• Distribution Indicator
• Account Assignment Details

View and edit limit items in purchase requisitions.

Choose the document type while adding attachments to purchase requisition items. You can choose either For Internal Use or For External Use based on whether the communication is intended for internal or external stakeholders.

View details of the Review Steps, if any, under Approval Details. This contains the list of reviewers or people responsible for monitoring the progress of the workflow.

As an approver, you can edit the contact information (Purchasing Group, Requisitioner) of the purchase requisition, if required. This is applicable for both header and item level approval.

• Improved process efficiency through availability enablement of direct edit.
• Reduced time and effort due to maintenance of precise/correct purchasing group and requisitioner.
• Applicable for both header and item level approval.

You can use the My Inbox app to make important decisions with mobile or desktop devices anywhere and anytime. Using the app My Inbox, you can approve, reject, or request rework of purchase requisitions.

You can view the purchase requisition header or item object page embedded in My Inbox app.

You can view and download GOS attachments in workflow items corresponding to the scenario Overall Release of Purchase Requisition. GOS attachments are the attachments that have been added to the purchase requisition using the Create Purchase Requisition - Advanced app.

The following video shows you how to edit and approve a purchase requisition using the SAP Fiori app My Inbox.

Configure workflows with step type Overall Release of Reworkable PR and Release of Reworkable PR Item to enable approvers to send back purchase requisitions or items to requestors for rework. Configure the resultant action for Rework Requested exception as Repeat Step, Restart Workflow or Continue

On configuring workflows with step type Overall Release of Reworkable PR or Release of Reworkable PR Item, purchase requisitions or items that are subject to these workflows can be sent for rework.

Note

Only purchase requisitions of origin 'S' (Self-Service Procurement) and 'R' (Realtime) can be sent for rework. Central purchase requisitions and requisitions created from external systems cannot be sent for rework.

The resultant action after rework can be configured as follows:

• Repeat Step - The same workflow step is repeated.
• Restart Workflow - The workflow starts again from the beginning.
• Continue - The workflow continues with the subsequent step.

Note

If the rework changes are restart-relevant, the workflow is restarted irrespective of the resultant action chosen.

Using this app, you can configure workflows to approve the centrally managed purchase requisitions as an administrator. The app provides several options to define preconditions for the release of centrally managed purchase requisitions. It also provides options to determine the approvers of their release. The approval process can be either automatic, or a one-step or multi-step process. If a workflow with one or more steps is activated and the configured start conditions are fulfilled, the approval process is initiated.

You can:

• Define your workflow process.

• Define start conditions for a workflow, such as the company code, purchasing group, purchasing organization, and total net amount. You can also use the value help enabled for these filters to define the start conditions for a workflow.

• Define the step sequence in which the start conditions of the existing workflows are checked.
  Note

  If you have defined several workflows, the start conditions are checked in the order you have defined them. As soon as the start conditions for a workflow are met, the workflow is used. This ensures that only one workflow in the list of your defined workflows is started, even if several workflows have matching start conditions.

• Navigate to the details of a workflow.

• Activate or deactivate a workflow.

• Copy an existing workflow and modify it according to your requirements or add a new workflow. You can configure the workflow as follows:

  • Define properties such as description and validity period.

  • Under the section Preconditions, choose a company code, for example. These criteria must be fulfilled for the workflow to start.

  • Add one or more step sequences. For each step sequence, define recipients and preconditions. You can define the order of the steps and you can delete unnecessary steps.

• Set workflow deadline in workdays.

• Define the workflow steps using the Workflow Administration role.

• Define review steps in addition to the workflow steps.

• Use Responsibility Management to determine the workflow approvers of the document. To determine the workflow approvers of the document, you can use the existing roles such as the Agent Determination using BAdI, Manager of Last Approver, or you can use the role Central Purchasing delivered by Responsibility Management.

• Use the feature Automatic Release of Centrally Managed Purchase Requisition delivered by SAP as an alternative option. By default, this workflow is activated.

  Note

  • Configuration of the overall release of purchase requisition documents in connected systems is not recommended if items of the same documents are already configured for approval in the hub system.

  • If you have rejected a purchase requisition item that was created in the SAP ERP connected system using the workflow process, then the approval status for the purchase requisition item is set to Release Refused. Furthermore, you cannot edit such purchase requisition items in the connected systems.

For centrally managed purchase requisitions, the approver can edit the purchase requisition before approving it. The approver can navigate to the connected system to edit the purchase requisition and approve it with updated information.

• Completion of the purchase requisition in all aspects before approval.
• Flexibility for approver to update the information for respective purchase requisition before approving, instead of rejecting and relying on the purchaser or employee to update and return it for approval.
• Use the My Inbox app along with a centrally managed application to navigate to the purchase requisition in the connected system.
• Use the centrally managed application to refresh the data for approval after making the changes in the purchase requisition.

Critical changes made to an existing purchase requisition re-triggers the workflow. You can change the default conditions according to your business requirements to determine if the restart of the approval workflow should be triggered. You can maintain this in the following ways.

You can override the default conditions that control the restart of the approval workflow for purchase requisitions using the configuration app Manage Conditions to Restart Flexible Workflow in the Manage Your Solution app. Using this configuration app, the restart of Purchase Requisitions approval can be stopped for specific attributes.

Column SS Proc. is applicable for purchase requisitions created from the self service purchase requisitions app Create Purchase Requisition. By default, the attributes relevant for self-service procurement are selected and editable. The attributes that are not editable indicate that they are not applicable for self-service procurement. These are purchase requisitions with creation indicator, ESTKZ = S, that is, self-service procurement

Column Prf. Proc. is for Purchaser role is applicable for the purchase requisitions created from the Create Purchase Requisition Advanced and Manage Purchase Requisition Professional apps. By default, the attributes relevant for professional procurement are selected and editable. The attributes that are not editable indicate that they are not applicable for professional procurement. These are purchase requisitions with creation indicator, ESTKZ = R, that is, Realtime (manual).

Note

If the PR type is Material requirements planning (ESTKZ = 'B'), irrespective of NB or NBS, this SSC UI configuration is not considered for the workflow restart. Only PR types self service procurement and professional purchase requisitions can be controlled with SSC UI configuration.

You can deselect the attributes that on change should not restart the approval workflow.

To decide which critical changes lead to a restart, you can create an implementation using Business Add-In (BAdI) Define Conditions to Restart Flexible Workflow in the Custom Fields and Logic app.

You can use BAdI Define Conditions to Restart Flexible Workflow ( MM_PUR_S4_PR_WFL_RESTART) to further control the restart approval workflow based on attribute values. Create an implementation in Define Conditions to Restart Flexible Workflow using the Custom Fields and Logic app. An example implementation is provided for reference with the BAdI. This BAdI can be used to influence the approval restart of purchase requisitions with any creation indicator.

Note

Custom fields are not currently supported for this BAdI.

Example: There is no need to restart the approval of purchase requisitions for a particular plant. Assume the plant is 'ABCD'. The following code snippet can be implemented using the Custom Fields and Logic app.

IF PURCHASEREQITEMSCURR-PLANT = 'ABCD'. "Purchase requisition plant
CLEAR RESTARTWORKFLOW.
ENDIF.