Workload Distribution
This process describes the automatic assignment of a purchasing group or purchasing organization to the following documents:
External requirements
Purchase orders
Contracts
RFx
Use this process to distribute the workload of documents among the purchasers in your company. Assigned documents automatically appear for processing in the worklists of the purchasers that belong to the purchasing group or organization. The documents are automatically assigned to the purchasing group according to given criteria. This speeds up the entire procurement process, since documents do not have to be assigned manually in order for the purchasers responsible to process them.
It is also possible to reassign documents that have already been assigned to a purchasing group or organization — if the purchaser responsible for the group or organization is absent, for example.
The system administrator has implemented and activated the Business Add-In (BAdI) BBP_PGRP_ASSIGN_BADI. Here the rules covering the assignment of purchasing groups to documents are defined. This BAdI contains a method for each type of document to be assigned:
BBP_SC_PGRP_ASSIGN for external requirements
BBP_PO_PGRP_ASSIGN for purchase orders
BBP_CT_PGRP_ASSIGN for contracts
BBP_BI_PGRP_ASSIGN for RFx
For more information, see the Customizing for Supplier Relationship Management under .
Note
If you do not define any rules, the system distributes the documents to a standard purchasing group or organization, as defined in your organizational plan.
You can reassign these documents manually or redefine assignment rules in the above-mentioned BAdI and rerun the automatic workload distribution. To do this, you set the filter value ONLINE in the BAdI BBP_PGRP_ASSIGN_BADI. For more information, see Workload Redistribution.
Process Flow
The workload distribution process is outlined below. The three diagrams show the process for requirements. Details of each diagram are described underneath each diagram.
Caution
Documents cannot be assigned to purchasing groups that are themselves assigned to different purchasing organizations. Besides, purchasing groups and organizations must reference the same logical system in the back-end.
Workload Distribution for Requirements
Part A

A purchasing requisition is sent to SAP SRM, where it is converted into an external requirement.
Upon creation of the external requirements, method BBP_SC_PGRP_ASSIGN of the BAdI BBP_PGRP_ASSIGN_BADI applies the distribution rules.
If the requirement conforms to the rules, it is automatically assigned to the correct purchasing group (in this example, purchasing group 01).
If no assignment rules are maintained in the BAdI, the standard purchasing group (as defined in the organizational plan — in this example, 99) is assigned. The standard purchasing group is also assigned to the shopping carts that are created in SAP Supplier Relationship Management. In this case, you can proceed as follows:
Assign a purchasing document manually
Define the assignment rules and have the system automatically reassign a purchasing group.
If you do not redistribute the workload, the requirement retains the standard purchasing group.
Note
One purchase requisition can have multiple lines, each of which is assigned to a different purchasing group. This is not shown on the above diagram.
For more information, see Workload Redistribution.
Part B

The following applies to requirements to which a purchasing group or organization was assigned in Business-Add-In BBP_PRGP_ASSIGN_BADI and to requirements assigned a standard purchasing group or organization (as described above) that retain this group.
Depending on your Customizing settings (1/1a), the requirement is passed to the Sourcing
application so that a source of supply can be assigned (either automatically or manually in the application Carry Out Sourcing
).
For more information, see Sourcing .
The method BBP_PO_PGRP_ASSIGN of Business-Add-In BBP_PGRP_ASSIGN_BADI applies the assignment rules. If necessary, a different purchasing group is reassigned to the external requirement (in this example, purchasing group 02).
A purchase order - with purchasing group 02 - is created from the requirement. This purchase order appears for processing in the worklist of the purchaser(s) responsible for purchasing group 02.
PART C

You have created a purchase requisition and sent it to SAP SRM, where the system converts it into an external requirement.
You order a shopping cart in the SAP SRM system.
The purchase requirement is available in the sourcing application.
You can manually assign a purchasing organization or a purchasing group
Workload Distribution for POs, Contracts, and RFx
A purchasing group is assigned to the PO when it is created from a requirement in the Sourcing
application. For more information, see above, section B points 2 and 3.
The contract or RFx is handled in the same way. The method BBP_CT_PGRP_ASSIGN of Business-Add-In BBP_PGRP_ASSIGN_BADI is applied when a contract is created and a purchasing group or organization is assigned. When you create an RFx, a purchasing group or organization is assigned by means of method BBP_BI_PGRP_ASSIGN.
Note
A PO, RFx, or contract can contain multiple items. Since the purchasing group or organization is maintained at header level, each purchasing group or organization is assigned to the same item.
Restrictions
Changing the purchasing group or organization by means of workload distribution and redistribution does not require approval – that is, no change version is generated. If a document is changed, the historical version is automatically assigned to the new purchasing group or organization. In the standard settings, changes to the active document are updated to the change version. If variances between the active document and the change version are permitted, you can set the appropriate flag in the function module.
Reporting
For more information, see Workload Redistribution.
External Requirements
Depending on your Customizing settings, external requirements to which the system could not automatically assign a valid source of supply appear in the worklist of the user(s) belonging to the assigned purchasing group or organization.
For more information, see Sourcing .
For more information on configuring sourcing, see the Customizing for SAP Supplier Relationship Management
under
Contracts, Purchase Orders, and RFx
Contracts and purchase orders appear in the worklists (in the applications Process Contract
and Process Purchase Order
respectively) of the user(s) belonging to the assigned purchasing group. From here, they can be processed as normal.
For more information, see Purchase Orders, Central Contracts, and RFx
Note
In the header data of the contract and purchase order, you can choose the link in the Purchasing Group
field to display the members of the assigned purchasing group, plus their telephone numbers.