SAPtips4On Logistics

Please Release Me:

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February / March 2007 Volume V Issue 1

SAP Purchasing Release Strategies Made Easy

®

By Jocelyn Hayes, SAPtips Director of Consulting and Training

Editor’s Note: The words “SAP” implementation. Each step offers tips chasing groups to be synonymous
and “easy” are rarely used in the same to help you tiptoe through the poten- with Cost Centers. This allows you to
sentence, but SAPtips Practice Direc- tial minefield of gotchas. not require the Cost Center on pur-
tor Jocelyn Hayes is ready to prove it chase requisitions.
can be done. In her debut article she Step 1: Determine the Corporate
sets out a four-step strategy that is Purchasing Approval Matrix Tip #2 – If you require the cost center
not only practical, but achievable. In This can actually represent the on the requisition, you do not have
fact, Jocelyn has employed this strat- most difficult step in any organiza- to require the G/L account number,
egy at multiple installations, across tion. but you should, because most users
a variety of purchasing methodolo- do not know how to select the correct
gies with great success. Her secret for Tip #1 – Encourage purchasing poli- G/L account. If you do not require
success? Jocelyn says it’s all about cy makers to keep it simple. the G/L Account on the purchase
keeping it simple. requisition, it is not required on the
The reason here is not to make the Purchase Order (without a custom
implementer’s job easier, but to make developed user/field exit). If your
Yes, I know, you are skeptical. But it easier for people responsible for purchasing agent forgets to add the
Purchasing Release Strategies can entering purchasing requisitions to G/L account, the receiving depart-
be made easy if you understand the know who must approve the requisi- ment will get an error when they
fundamental concepts of how to con- tion. I cannot tell you how many times try to receive, because SAP does not
figure them and to follow the KISS I have agreed to implement a com- know how to post the material docu-
principle (keep it simple, stupid). In plex release strategy, only to go back ment.
this article, I will point out some tips later and simplify. Why? Because the
and tricks I have learned through user community complained that it Figure 1 illustrates the example I
implementing Purchase Requisition was too difficult to figure out who will follow for this article. I will use
Release strategies at seven different was responsible for holding up their two values from which to determine
client locations with very different requisition from becoming a Pur- the release strategy:
purchasing approval methodologies. chase Order.
This article will also explore some 1. Purchasing group
tricks to managing the constantly In my experience, most companies
changing security roles and assign- base purchasing approvals on Cost 2. Overall value of purchase
SAPtipsJournal

ments due to company reorganiza- Centers. I have implemented pur- requisition

tions or attrition.
Department Position Approval Limits
This article is written using SAP 101 Manager Up to $10K
R/3 Enterprise (4.7). It is applicable
for all SAP R/3 and mySAP® ERP. 101 Director Up to $50K
It does not cover Workflow for Pur-
101 VP Up to $100K
chasing Release Strategies. For more
information on workflow scenarios, 101 CFO Everything over $100K
reference:
102 Manager Up to $5K
http://help.sap.com/saphelp_470/helpdata/
en/1d/ea9d9c7aca11d194b70000e82dec10/ 102 Director Up to $50K
frameset.htm
102 VP Up to $200K

The Four-Step Process 102 CFO Everything over $200K

I will present a four-step process
to lead you through the setup and Figure 1: Approval Matrix Example

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February / March 2007 Volume V Issue 1

The Example presented in this • the overall amount of the pur- CEBAN. This table stores what fields
article is for an Overall Release pro- chase. are available in the release strategy
cedure. This means that when some- determination. Figure 2 shows where
one approves the requisition, they These two parameters equate to to correlate the characteristic to the
are approving the entire requisition, characteristics. The characteris- field used for determination from
and not each line. This simplifies tics must be represented by values CEBAN.
the action required of the approvers, entered in the purchasing document.
because they only have to approve In this scenario, the characteristics Tip #3 – If the field you want to use
once, but it does restrict you from will be: for the release strategy does not exist
allowing your users to combine pur- in the CEBAN communication struc-
chase requisitions across depart- • Purchasing Group – to represent ture, (a custom field, for example)
ments. the department you can use the following user exits:

Step 2: Configuration • Overall value of requisition • M06B0003 - For item-wise

SAP has published a decent note release
that includes a pdf document (Note To determine what parameters
207490) with steps on how to com- are available as characteristics, run • M06B0005 – For overall release
plete the configuration. Below, we’ll transaction SE11 and view table
discuss the three components
of configuration: (A) Create
Characteristics, (B) Create
Class, and (C) Define Release
Strategy.

To start, navigate the IMG

(Implementation Guide)
using transaction SPRO. Fol-
low the menu path:

Materials Management >

Purchasing > Purchase Req-
uisition > Release Procedure
> Procedure with Classifica-
tion, then

A) Create Characteristics:
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In Step 1, you probably

developed an approval matrix
in Excel or on a napkin. Now
you need to translate that
Release Strategy. What you
need to ask is, “what are the
parameters that determine
the approval person?”

In the scenario illustrated

in Figure 1, the parameters
that determine the approval
person are:

• the department request-

ing the purchase Figure 2: Create Characteristic Additional Data Screen

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February / March 2007 Volume V Issue 1

Tip #4 – Notice in Figure 2 how

the “Not Ready for Input” box is
checked in the Procedure for Value
Assignment area. I cannot tell you
how many times this has stung me!
Make sure you deselect it. Otherwise,
it will prevent a value from being
assigned to your characteristic and
your release strategy will not work!
It does serve a purpose, in the case
when the value is inferred by object
dependencies, but that is only appli-
cable when Characteristics are used
in Variant Configuration for configu-
rable make-to-order materials in the
Sales and Distribution module.

Once you complete the Reference

to Table/Field, SAP will import the
characteristic formats from the data
dictionary (the SAP table/field defi-
nition). If you click on the Basic Data
tab, you will see the data format and
value assignment pulled in from the
data dictionary field definitions.

Figure 3: Create Characteristics Basic Data Screen

Tip #5 – SAP will carry over default screen, make sure you use the Class
values to the value assignment por- Type 032, which is the class type for
tion (shown in Figure 3). Make sure Release Strategy. See Figure 4.
you pay close attention to whether it
There are many allows intervals (which you will want C) Define Release Strategy
SAPtipsJournal

in the case of a range of values, like

advantages to value of requisition) and if it allows Here we’ll discuss 5 steps for your
multiple values (which you will want Release Strategy definition: Release
using one release if you plan to use one release strategy Group, Release Codes, Release Indi-
for multiple departments or purchas- cators, Release Strategies, and finally
strategy for multiple ing groups). There are many advan- we’ll discuss the tie in to Workflow.
tages to using one release strategy for
departments. multiple departments, including ease 1. Create Release Group
of configuration and ease of security In this step, you create release
role setup. groups (Figure 5). A release
group will have the same release
B) Create Class levels and strategy. In the sce-
nario illustrated back in Fig-
Once you have created your char- ure 1, there will be two release
acteristics, you must assign the char- groups needed because the
acteristics to a class. On the first approval interval values are dif-

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February / March 2007 Volume V Issue 1

Figure 4: Create Class – Assign Characteristics

ferent between the two depart-

ments. If there were a third
department that had the same
approval interval values, it
could share a release group and
the release strategy would be
for more than one department
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(or in this example, purchasing

group).

Tip #6 – You can only have ONE

CLASS per release “type”. Release
type is defined as “overall release”
or “item-wise release”. This can be
quite a limitation if you have a com-
plex approval structure. You can
have characteristics that are assigned
to the class, but not utilized in the
release strategy.

2. Create Release Codes

A release code is an identifier
that is associated with the per-
son responsible for approving Figure 5: Create Release Groups

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February / March 2007 Volume V Issue 1

the purchase requisition (Figure

6).

Tip #7 – You can utilize a customer

user exit for purchase requisitions,
M06B0001, to define the workflow
and generate notification and work
list objects for the person responsible
for the approval.

3. Create Release Indicators

A release indicator shows the
release status of a purchase req-
uisition. In the standard system, Figure 6: Create Release Codes
a purchase requisition release
status is either “Blocked” or
“RFQ/Purchase Order”. The
“RFQ/Purchase Order” status
indicates that the Purchase Req-
uisition has been fully released
and can now be converted into
an RFQ or Purchase Order.

In the standard system, SAP will

not allow changes to the quantity,
unit of measure, or price when an
approver is executing the release
transaction. If you require that other
fields, such as delivery date, plant,
etc., not be modified via the release
transaction, follow TIP #8.

Tip #8 – If you want to allow certain

fields to be changed during or after
a release, you can modify the Field
Selection Key. To modify the Field
Selection Key, follow the menu path
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in the IMG: Materials Management >

Purchasing > Purchase Requisition >
Define Screen Layout at Document
level. Once you have created a cus-
tom field selection key, you should
create a custom release indicator by
maintaining a new entry in the “Cre- Figure 7: Change Release Indicator
ate Release Indicators” screen.

It is also possible to configure the 4. Create Release Strategies For each release level (or code)
release to not be restarted if the A Release Strategy is a com- you will define the prerequisites
amounts have only changed a speci- bination of the Release Group required to get to that release
fied percentage. To do this, enter “4 and Release Code. The Release level, release status, and the
- Changeable, new release in case of Group combines the release characteristic values that place
new strategy or value” and a per- codes (think of them as release the release into that release
centage in the “Value chgs” field, as levels) and each combination level.
shown in Figure 7. gets assigned a release strategy.

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February / March 2007 Volume V Issue 1

I have never experienced a busi-

ness rule that allowed a higher-level
approver to approve a purchase req-
uisition prior to or simultaneously
with a lower level approver. In other
words, I have not had a client that
wanted the purchase requisition
release to go to the approval queue
of a director at the same time as the
same approval request went to the
manager. Directors usually wants
their manager to approve the expense
before they approve it. So, it makes
completing the Release Prerequisites Figure 8: Release Prerequisites
screen easy to complete (even though,
when you view the screen, it is very
confusing). I just check the boxes in
the lower left corner, as in Figure 8.

In the classification screen shown

in Figure 9, you assign the values or
ranges of values to the Release Strat-
egy.

Tip #9 – Be sure you have entered

the characteristics value assignments
correctly. If you have not selected
to allow an “interval value” for the
“total value of requisition” amount,
you will not be able to enter a range
in the characteristic value assign-
ment.

5. Workflow: Assign Release Codes

to Release Point

Note: You only have to perform

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this step if you wish to link this

release procedure to Workflow,
and are not using customer exit
M06B0001.

Here’s a brief description of how

Purchase Requisition Release Strate-
gies work in SAP.

1. When the purchase requisition Figure 9: Release Strategies: Classification

is saved, SAP determines which
type of release is required for 2. Then, SAP determines what class class are associated to the values
the document type. In this case, to use for this type of release. in the purchase requisition.
the document type is NB and
is flagged in configuration for 3. Once the class is determined, the 4. With the data up to this point,
Overall release. characteristics assigned to the SAP determines which release

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February / March 2007 Volume V Issue 1

strategy to invoke and then fol- Object Transaction Check Message Type Notes
low through with any workflow (Target) (BD64)
activities. Characteristics: BD91 CT04 CHRMAS Don’t worry
PURCHASING_GROUP about IDOC
Step 3: Security PR_VALUE error message
Security can be the most time “Object S2L3
consuming activity in developing (T16FS) not
release strategies – particularly if found”
you have used multiple characteris- Class: BD92 CL03 CLSMAS
tics to define your release strategies PR_RELEASE
and you have multiple release levels. Class Type:
Again lies that recurring theme of 032
“Keep It Simple”. Also, not that you
Class: BD93 CL03 CLFMAS
don’t want the job security for your
PR_RELEASE
Basis Security Administrators, but
Class Type:
you want the change process to not 032
be overly complex, so you can react
quickly when there is a major com- Figure 10: Sample Transaction Codes
pany reorganization.

Tip # 10 – For SOx compliance, do Conclusion

not use the * function when defining In this article I attempted to lay
the roles in security. This will allow the groundwork and provide some
some folks to have approval author- good tips to help beginner SAP Con-
ity when they should not. figurators journey down the path to
developing a Purchasing Approv-
You should set up a role for each al solution. Purchase Requisition
Release Group / Release Strategy release strategies have always ranked
combination. For further security, high on my list of the “tricky” con-
include either in this role or another figuration challenges (others include
role, the restriction for other values Condition Techniques and Account
that you have assigned as character- Assignments for Inventory Manage-
istics, such as Purchasing Group. ment). But, with a little time and
commitment, you too can master this
Step 4: Transport Classes skill!
and Characteristics
This is the most overlooked step in
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the process. The transport you cre- Jocelyn Hayes, Director of Consult-
ated in Step 3 in your “Gold” SAP ing and Training for SAPtips, has
Configuration client, does not include over ten years of SAP experience. She
the values you associated to the char- has enjoyed a successful consulting
acteristics. They are stored in char- career for a Big 4 firm as well as inde-
acteristic value tables that must be pendently. Jocelyn’s focus primarily
moved through your SAP environ- has involved the Logistics modules
ments via the ALE (Application Link of SAP, and has she also developed
Enabling) function. ESA Roadmaps using NetWeaver™
tools, including Visual Composer, XI,
Tip #11 – Don’t forget to request Enterprise Portal, and BI. She also
your ALE with your transport. led a CRM Business Process Reengi-
neering project. Contact Jocelyn at
Figure 10 is a sample spreadsheet Jocelyn.Hayes@ERPtips.com. ≈
of transaction codes, which you can
provide to your Basis team.

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