Show TOC

Process documentationApproval Workflow Locate this document in the navigation structure

 

You can use this process to check, approve, or reject items of purchasing documents. You can also discuss any open questions about the items of the document with the requester. This document focuses on the approval of shopping carts, as this is the most sophisticated process in terms of configuration variants.

As a document creator, you can approve your own documents if one of the following conditions is met:

  • The approval process has been customized accordingly.

  • The document creator has been specified as substitute.

  • The approval work item has been forwarded to the document creator.

  • The document creator has been added as an ad hoc approver.

To use this function, you must activate the Customizing switch Approval by Document Creator (SRM_700_APF_APPR_BY_CREATOR) in Customizing for SAP Supplier Relationship Management under   SRM Server   Cross-Application Basic Settings   Business Workflow   Activate/Deactivate Approval by Document Creator  .

Prerequisites

You have made the appropriate settings in SAP Solution Manager under   <project name>   Configuration   SAP SRM <release>   Basic Settings for SAP SRM   Cross-Application Settings   Business Workflow   Process-Controlled Workflow  .

In particular, you have carried out the following configuration steps:

  • You have defined at least one process schema containing the whole sequence of all possible completion and approval levels.

  • You have assigned a Business Rules Framework (BRF) event ID (used for level validation), the subworkflow ID, and the work-item task ID (both used for agent determination) to each process level.

Process

The process-controlled workflow framework integrates tightly with the SAP Business Workflow during the workflow process. The SAP Business Workflow drives the process with templates and is responsible for creating work items. The process-controlled workflow provides the process schema containing all possible process levels.

  1. The system determines the process schema using the rules defined in the BRF, and starts a new instance of this schema.

  2. The SAP Business Workflow starts a new instance of the main workflow template WS40000014, which is responsible for the overall process control. The template works through the process levels defined in the process schema.

  3. The subworkflow template WS40000015 is responsible for process level evaluation. It determines whether the process schema contains further process levels to be carried out. The process level evaluation runs in loop cycles and is repeated each time a process level has been finished, provided that no level restart has been requested.

    This subworkflow contains only background tasks that communicate with the process-controlled workflow. Based on rules or Business Add-Ins (BAdI), the system checks whether or not a specific process level must be activated.

    In addition, the items of the shopping cart are assigned to decision sets, if necessary.

  4. Depending on the process level type of the activated process level, the system starts one of the following subtemplates:

    Note Note

    If there is more than one decision set for the shopping cart, the corresponding number of subworkflow template instances is started.

    End of the note.

  5. The system determines the agent for the current process level and generates work items, as described in Agent Determination. The agent receives the work item in the Universal Worklist (UWL) in the SAP NetWeaver Portal.

  6. To process the work item, the agent can access the appropriate application window directly from the work item and approve or reject the items of the document.

    As an alternative, the agent can use the shortcut decision function of the UWL. To do this, the UWL provides pushbuttons that can be used to approve or reject the document immediately without checking the items.

  7. Steps 3 through 6 are repeated for each process level of the current process schema.

  8. Depending on the settings in Customizing, users involved in the approval process, for example, document creators or approvers, receive a notification when the approval process is completed. For more information, see Customizing for SAP Supplier Relationship Management under   SRM Server   Cross-Application Basic Settings   Event and Event Schema for Alert Management   Define Recipient of Notifications  .

  9. At process end, the system can send a work item for acceptance to the contact person for the document.

    You can configure the system accordingly in Customizing for SAP Supplier Relationship Management under   SRM Server   Cross-Application Basic Settings   Business Workflow   Process-Controlled Workflow   Business Process Configuration   Define Process Levels  .

    The requester can also select Work Item to Requester at Process End in the approval process overview while creating a shopping cart. The system then sends a work item at process end even if this has not been configured in Customizing.

    Note Note

    In most cases, the contact person for a document is the document creator. This is the case for requesters of shopping carts and purchase orders. However, some documents, such as invoices entered in the Supplier Self-Services application, are sent to the SAP SRM system in XML format and are created there by a technical user. For these documents, the system determines a user to assume responsibility for the document and to serve as contact person. This user can be, for example, the creator of the preceding purchase order. The system also determines an internal contact person if a supplier, that is, an external business partner, enters a document directly in the SAP SRM application. The contact person is responsible for verifying the document data.

    End of the note.

  10. The recipient of the work item can now accept the decision, which ends the process.

    However, as long as the recipient has not yet accepted the decision, it is possible to change the document, even if all items have been rejected. Changing the document results in the system calling back all work items, creating a new work item for the contact person, and possibly restarting the approval process.