Looking for Documentation on Purchase Order Workflow and PO Release Strategy

[Trant, David]

Thanks for your excellent tips.  The white paper was especially thorough.  =
I have another question for the group:
 
In the standard functionality (purchase order release strategy and workflow=
 WS 20000075), there does not seem to be any mechanism to reject a purchase=
 order.  In ME28, you either release the PO or you don't.  The cancel relea=
se seems to only apply after the fact if someone releases and later changes=
 their mind.  Likewise, the workflow watches for cancellation or significan=
t changes, but simply ends that instance should those occur.  We'd like a m=
anager to be able to actively reject an approval with a descriptive reason =
sent back to the requestor.  It seems the standard functionality allows a m=
anager to simply not release the PO, in which case it just sits there indef=
initely.
 
My expectation is that we will modify the standard workflow to add some "ac=
cept / reject" pushbuttons to the approval step.  Of course, this will add =
a keystroke for routine approvals similar to confirm end of processing.  Ca=
n anyone confirm that I'm on the right track here and am not missing someth=
ing in standard delivered functionality to provide for such a rejection?
 
Thanks,
David
 
 -----Original Message-----
From:   SAP Workflow [mailto:Owner-SAP-WUG at MITVMA.MIT.EDU]  On Behalf Of Sch=
einoha John
Sent:   Thursday, February 12, 2004 3:00 PM
To:     SAP-WUG at MITVMA.MIT.EDU
Subject:        Re: Looking for Documentation on Purchase Order Workflow and PO Re=
lease Strategy
 
David,
 
  We have been using the Line-item Approval PO Requisition workflow
template since 2000.  Here is some information regarding documentation,
tips, tricks, and pitfalls we have/are encountering:
 
1.  Documentation - Besides the SAP on-line help regarding the PO
Requisition workflows (which is pretty well written), SAPtips.com also
has documentation regarding workflow troubleshooting and debugging.  The
application they use in their documentation is the PO Requisition
workflow process.  They do a good job of explaining the release strategy
configuration and how it ties into the PO Requisition workflow process.
You might want to check this out.
 
2.  In our Release strategy we include the Purchase Group and Material
Group data as classification values that help indicate which release
strategy a po Req line item will be assigned to.  We have 85 active
Purchasing Groups, 67 active Material Groups, 12 Release Strategy
Groups.  Each Release Strategy Group consists of five different release
strategies for dollar approvers 1 to 5 for each release group.  Long
story short, you might want to be careful as to what data element values
you include in your release strategy classification.  The maintenance of
these release strategies could get cumbersome if you have data elements
that are volatile as to the different number of values that get added or
deleted to their respective data element (example Purchase Groups and
Material Groups).
 
3.  Potential Pitfall - The line item PO requisition workflow process
is great.  One problem we are currently trying to address is the
situation where multiple line items are created at smaller amounts where
an executive VP would not be part of the approval process, yet the total
PO Requisition amount is of a great enough value that an executive VP
should be part of the approval process.  SAP supplies an overall release
workflow template.  I activated it in our development environment.  It
seemed to behave the same way the line item workflow template behaves.
I did not notice any difference in the two templates.  Could be my own
lack of knowledge regarding the overall release template.
 
   To further the problem at my company, we have more than one plant
assigned to a division, with more than one division reporting to the VP
of Production.  Therefore we are struggling with developing the business
rule(s) to determine the release strategy of the overall value of the PO
Requisition.  My gut feeling is we will have to create more that one
overall release strategy for PO Requisitions created where more than one
plant is used in the multiple line item PO Requisitions.  The bottom
line to this is I do not believe SAP provides a way to approve PO
Requisitions at the Line item level and also at the overall total value
of the PO Requisition.  If anyone has a solution to this problem, please
let me know.
 
   Also in the classification section of the Release strategy, if you
use the total value as a classification value, you can not set the value
equal to a range (example >=3D 25,000 <=3D 100,000).  The reason is you can
not set a currency value to a range.  SAP will allow you to do it to
quantities and dates but no currency.  This is in the F1 help when
trying to establish the classification rules for the total value
element.  Sure would be nice be able to set currency ranges for this
classification value.  I'll write an OSS to SAP asking for
assistance/clarification on this matter.
 
 
   This the current state of our PO Requisition workflow process.  If
you have any questions or concerns, please contact me.
 
 
Good Luck,
 
 
 
John Scheinoha
Briggs & Stratton Corporation
(414) 256 - 5136
scheinoha.john at basco.com
 
>>> David.Trant at andrew.com 02/12/04 11:47AM >>>
I've noticed a fair amount of activity lately on purchasing workflow
which I've found very enlightening.  Like Kim looking for documentation
earlier, I'm on a quest for presentations, white papers, etc., on
implementing purchase order approval.  I didn't find anything in the
ASUG presentation archives under procurement or workflow/webflow and
searching the WUG archives has yield either too little or too much
information depending on my search parameters.
 
We've had basic PO functionality for quite some time, but without
release strategy (our approvals have been manual).  We are currently
adding both release strategy functionality and the corresponding
workflow piece to purchase orders for one location, with plans to roll
the functionality out globally over the next year.  The SAP online help
is relatively straightforward, but I'm looking for the tips, tricks and
pitfalls that the documentation doesn't cover, plus guidance on how to
best configure our characteristics, map release groups/codes to the
organization, satisfy authorization and audit requirements, etc.
 
Any good reading out there on the subject that someone could point me
to?
 
Thanks,
David
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