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Case Study of SAP-SRM Approval

SAP-EBP Shopping Cart n-step Dynamic Parallel Approval This article explains development and configuration of an SAP-SRM Shopping cart Approval process with dynamic nstep Parallel Branch.

Abstract: An implementation which requires the EBP system to handle more than one approval sequence
in parallel and independent of each other can use this document as the implementation guide. For example, one sequence for managerial approval and other for special item category sequence, which go in parallel and independent of each other.

Introduction: EBP is an SRM (Supplier Relationship Management) system provided by SAP. It includes all
the functionalities required for a procurement system. EBP supports Creation, Maintenance and Approval of Shopping cart, Catalogs, Creation, maintenance and Approval of Invoices, Invoices without POs also called as WPR (Web Payment Request), Approvals of Invoices, Purchase Requisitions, Purchase Order and so on. Link EBP introduction: http://help.sap.com/saphelp_srm40/helpdata/en/cf/4813fac6cbba46a6d67e14abdb1480/content.ht m

Problem Description: The Standard EBP system does not contain the Workflow for handling the n-Step Dynamic
Parallel branch approval for shopping cart. Problem Explanation: The requirement is to configure the EBP system to handle Special Approvers for example Approvers for special item categories, in parallel with the standard Managerial approvals with nstep dynamic approvals in each branch. This is not possible with the Standard EBP Workflow system. This presentation provides steps to extend the standard workflow to an n-step dynamic approval workflow.

Solution:
Overview

EBP system has been provided with Business Add Inn (BADI) which can be used for
determination of the approvers of the Shopping Cart. System provides an approver table which is used to contain all the approvers for a shopping cart. This table also contains the branch of the approval process and also the level of the approver in each approval branch. This BADI has to be activated to populate the approver table. The order of the approvers and the respective branches are decided and populated in the BADI. Let us take a simple example to understand this. Suppose there is a shopping cart which requires 2 levels of managerial approvals and 2 levels of special approvals. The approver table is maintained as shown below: Branch Number 1 1 2 2 Level of approval 1 2 1 2 Approver Manager 1 Manager 2 Special approver 1 Special approver 2

The same can be pictorially shown as below:

Solution steps:

The following steps are required to configure the EBP Shopping cart approval process for
handling n-step parallel approval system. These are covered in detail in this paper.

Enabling BADI: BADI BBP_WFL_APPROV_BADI is executed when during the shopping cart approval process.

Implementing BADI: New BADI implementation is created and method is defined.

Defining the method in the implementation of the BADI: Method GET_REMAING_APPROVERS is implemented. This method is called from within the BADI.

Populate the approval table: (BBPT_WFL_APPROVAL_TABLE_BADI) The Approval table contains all the approvers of the shopping cart. It also contains the branch ID and level of each approver in respective branch. Hence this table is responsible for sequencing the approvers of the shopping cart. This is the

primary table used in approval process by the workflow system and the approver preview program of the EBP system.

Defining Workflow Steps: Workflow steps define individual activities of the workflow process. Steps include determining whether the shopping cart needs parallel approval or not, approval process which creates the dialog workitem in the approvers inbox, determining next approver and so on.

Defining Workflow Template: Using the workflow steps the template is defined. A fork is introduced to separate out the two branches of the approval.