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@sap retail | purchase release | retail | sap mm
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https://blogs.sap.com/2013/09/18/setting-up-purchase-order-release-strategy/ 1/18
8/20/2018 Setting up Purchase Order Release Strategy | SAP Blogs
hierarchy of people like the operator or the buyer who creates the
order and purchasing managers to supervise and control the
procurement process. Since purchase order is a legal document and it
goes outside the company to the vendor, it is very much important to
control the process to avoid any errors or unauthorized transaction.
When the Purchase order is processed further for goods receipt and
invoice verifications, there will be accounting entries generate and it
creates Accounts Payable entries (AP).
Because of this reason and legal implications of Purchase orders,
it is very much required to control the procurement process by
introducing approvals. For the same, SAP has provided a concept
of release strategy. In release strategy, there are different
released codes which are used for designated users. The release
code is a two character ID allowing a person to release (clear, or
approve) a purchase requisition or an external purchasing
document. The release codes are basically controlled via a system
of authorizations (authorization object M_EINK_FRG). The user
with specific release code assigned can perform a respective
release in a purchase order. For example, the user who creates
the purchase order is assigned the lowest level release code.
When the purchase order is saved or checked, system will trigger
the Release Strategy for that document depending on the defined
criteria. In the purchase order which is required to be released by
a higher level user, there will be a Release Strategy tab on header
of the PO document. In this tab, system shows all the levels of
release codes who are involved in approving the purchase order.
Following practical example will demonstrate the purpose of
release strategy and its implementation in SAP.
A company where there is following approval mechanism used in
procurement department needs to have a release strategy in SAP.
If the value of Purchase order is less than 500.00 USD, it
can be approved by a Purchase Manager and then can be
processed further.
When the Purchase order value exceeds 10000.00 USD, in
addition to the purchase manager, it requires an additional
approval of Head of Department.
If the value of PO is more than 50000.00 USD, then it needs
an approval of Vice President once it is approved by the
Manager and then by HoD.
https://blogs.sap.com/2013/09/18/setting-up-purchase-order-release-strategy/ 2/18
8/20/2018 Setting up Purchase Order Release Strategy | SAP Blogs
Strategy in SAP
https://blogs.sap.com/2013/09/18/setting-up-purchase-order-release-strategy/ 3/18
8/20/2018 Setting up Purchase Order Release Strategy | SAP Blogs
Purchase Order
https://blogs.sap.com/2013/09/18/setting-up-purchase-order-release-strategy/ 4/18
8/20/2018 Setting up Purchase Order Release Strategy | SAP Blogs
As soon as you enter the structure name and field name, system will
generate a warning message “Format data taken from Data Dictionary
(press enter)”. This warning message indicates that the data type of the
characteristic will be taken from the data dictionary of this structure in SAP.
Now navigate to Values tab and provide the document types which are
required in this release strategy. For this example, we are taking
https://blogs.sap.com/2013/09/18/setting-up-purchase-order-release-strategy/ 5/18
8/20/2018 Setting up Purchase Order Release Strategy | SAP Blogs
Please note that in the characteristic values tab, these values are not
available as a F4 selection. So they must be typed correctly and it
should match exactly with the document types used.
We need to make sure that these characteristics are used only in class
which is made up for Purchase order release. For this purpose we need
to provide the restriction in characteristic. Provide class type 032 in the
restriction tab to achieve this.
https://blogs.sap.com/2013/09/18/setting-up-purchase-order-release-strategy/ 6/18
8/20/2018 Setting up Purchase Order Release Strategy | SAP Blogs
https://blogs.sap.com/2013/09/18/setting-up-purchase-order-release-strategy/ 7/18
8/20/2018 Setting up Purchase Order Release Strategy | SAP Blogs
So this way we have created the following characteristics for our release
strategy.
https://blogs.sap.com/2013/09/18/setting-up-purchase-order-release-strategy/ 8/18
8/20/2018 Setting up Purchase Order Release Strategy | SAP Blogs
Now the next step is to assign the earlier characteristics to this class.
Please note that those characteristics are restricted to be used only
in class type 032 which type this class is to be created.
Finally save the class. This concludes the rst step for setting up the
release strategy.
https://blogs.sap.com/2013/09/18/setting-up-purchase-order-release-strategy/ 9/18
8/20/2018 Setting up Purchase Order Release Strategy | SAP Blogs
After the class is ready, the next is to con gure the elements required
in release strategy. Following elements are required.
Release Groups
Release Codes
Release Indicator
Release Strategies
Workflow
Use following SPRO path for con guring these elements of release
strategy.
When you click on this option, system will give sub options to proceed
further. Please select Release Group. Keep the cursor on Release Group
and click on Choose button.
https://blogs.sap.com/2013/09/18/setting-up-purchase-order-release-strategy/ 10/18
8/20/2018 Setting up Purchase Order Release Strategy | SAP Blogs
Use following SPRO path for con guring these elements of release
strategy.
When you click on this option, system will give sub options to proceed
further. Please select Release Codes. Keep the cursor on Release Codes
and click on Choose button.
Click on New Entries to create the Release codes for our release
strategy. Number of release codes depends on number of approval
levels. Here only two release codes are created which are 10 and 20
for Buyer and Manager respectively. Please note that these release
codes are to be created under the same release group which we have
con gured in previous tab. Click on Save to save your entries.
Use following SPRO path for con guring these elements of release
strategy.
https://blogs.sap.com/2013/09/18/setting-up-purchase-order-release-strategy/ 11/18
8/20/2018 Setting up Purchase Order Release Strategy | SAP Blogs
When you click on this option, system will give sub options to proceed
further. Please select Release Indicator. Keep the cursor on Release
Indicator and click on Choose button.
This screen indicates release id for initial and released status. Release
ID 0 indicates Blocked status and with release ID 1 it is Released
status. The eld Changeable contains the parameter which will
de ne how the system reacts if a purchasing document is changed
after the start of the release procedure. Means once the order is
released, we can still change the values in purchase order which will
trigger a new release status. If the eld is allowed to change, we can
de ne the % of change allowed.
Use following SPRO path for con guring these elements of release
strategy.
When you click on this option, system will give sub options to proceed
further. Please select Release Strategies. Keep the cursor on Release
Strategies and click on Choose button.
Click on New Entries button and give your release group. After giving
the release group, provide appropriate Release strategy and
description.
Now suppose you want to keep only one level of approval for all PO below
100.00 USD and 2 level of approvals for PO greater than or equal to 100.
To achieve this we need to have two release strategies. First release
strategy will have only 1 release code and only value less than 100.00
USD is to be selected from characteristic BP_NETVAL. For the Purchase
https://blogs.sap.com/2013/09/18/setting-up-purchase-order-release-strategy/ 12/18
8/20/2018 Setting up Purchase Order Release Strategy | SAP Blogs
order having value greater than or equal to 100.00 USD, we will create
another release strategy which will have both the release codes as we
need two level approvals in this case. The following steps are
demonstration of second release strategy (with 2 approvals). The same
steps needs to be followed for another strategy.
https://blogs.sap.com/2013/09/18/setting-up-purchase-order-release-strategy/ 13/18
8/20/2018 Setting up Purchase Order Release Strategy | SAP Blogs
the below screen it is clear that when the document is created when
both the release status are at initial condition.
When the rst level of release is done means when it is released by a user
having release code 10, the overall status is still Blocked. When the
document is released by a higher level user having release code 20, the
documents overall status will be Released. Once it is done click on
Continue button.
Next step is to select the classi cation values for the selected
characteristics in release class. Click on Classi cation button to
proceed.
https://blogs.sap.com/2013/09/18/setting-up-purchase-order-release-strategy/ 14/18
8/20/2018 Setting up Purchase Order Release Strategy | SAP Blogs
Here it is required to select all the values from all the characteristics. If
you have multiple values in characteristic, you have to select the values
which you want to involve in the release strategy. Select a characteristic
row and click on Choose button bottom.
Use following SPRO path for con guring work ow for the above
con gured release strategy.
When you click on this option, system will give sub options to proceed
further. Please select Work ow. Keep the cursor on Work ow and
click on Choose button.
Click on New Entries button to create records for involved users. Specify
the Release group, appropriate release code and User ID in Agent ID
column. Please make sure the user ids are speci ed with Agent type US
which indicates that mentioned agent name is a User id of SAP. You have
to create each line for each users who are involved in this process and
should be attached to an appropriate release code.
This is the end of release strategy con guration. With this con guration,
we are set to create a purchase order to test our release strategy.
Please note that if the purchase order is not released, buyers will not be
able to print the Purchase Order. Also in Goods Receipts will be shown
with Message no. ME 390 – Purchasing document XXXXXXX not yet
released
https://blogs.sap.com/2013/09/18/setting-up-purchase-order-release-strategy/ 15/18
8/20/2018 Setting up Purchase Order Release Strategy | SAP Blogs
Purchase Order with Release Strategy has tabs at the end of the Header.
This allowed the buyers to check the release status of the Purchase
Order.
The person with the release authorization has to use ME28 to release the
Purchase Order.
—–End of Document ——
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Former Member
Hi Amit,
Regards,
Shiva V
Former Member
https://blogs.sap.com/2013/09/18/setting-up-purchase-order-release-strategy/ 16/18
8/20/2018 Setting up Purchase Order Release Strategy | SAP Blogs
Thank You!
Sambhaji Barse
Daniel Brennan
First, great article. Very clear and walks the user step-by-step through the
process. I have one question though…we would like a single level of approval, and
we’d like anyone in our production team to be able to release any PO. From my
understanding, in the work ow con guration, only one username can be speci ed
for each combination of Group, Code, and User Type. Is there a way to do this at
a less granular level?
Thanks,
Dan
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