Payment Release Process (SAP Library

Payment Release Process

Purpose

For each workflow variant, you can specify the amount from which a payment release should be triggered.

You can differentiate between one, two, and three-level release. This enables between one and three people to be involved in the release procedure, thus supporting both dual and triple control.

Prerequisites

You have made the following settings in Customizing:

Release approval procedure

(document type and amount for each workflow variant)

Assign persons with release authorization

In order to do this, you must first create release approval groups that can be entered in the customer and vendor master records.

Depending on these criteria and the release level, you can assign release authorizations in the form of organizational objects (job, position, organizational unit) in Customizing. If you do not define any criteria (such as release approval groups), the system takes the initial value of these criteria when the payment program is run. For example, if the system was unable to determine the release approval group, the release approval procedure and the employees with release authorization are determined on the basis of release approval group zero.

Process Flow

Minimum requirements:

The payment release function must be activated.
The relevant document type must be defined.
An item containing the following specifications must be created for employees with release authorization:

Workflow variant
Initial release approval path
Initial level
Maximum amount

Employees with release authorization can also be determined and assigned by user exits at each stage of the release approval procedure.

Result

If, when the payment run is made, the system could not determine an employee with release authorization, then it sends a message to the inbox of every person who has been assigned the task "payment release". Only after all these people have released the payment will the payment block be removed.

If a line item is refused for release, it is forwarded to the clerk who entered it for correction. After the document has been changed, the payment release procedure begins again. If changing the line items necessitates further actions, these must be defined within the Workflow component. The event CHANGED has been preconfigured for this purpose in the standard workflow model. If you run this event, the system assumes that the line item was rejected for payment. However, the item is NOT forwarded for correction to the clerk who entered it.

If an item is cleared before it is released, the payment release procedure is terminated (event CLEARED).