Basics: Appropriation Request - Authorization workflow

[Former Member]

Hi!

I have a question about the authorization workflow/procedure for Appropriation Requests.

1 - I want to create an appropriation request. When I am creating it, I don't know how many people will need to authorize it, and thus do not know how many steps my authorization procedure will be composed of.

2 - Is it possible for the system to recognize or submit authorization requests to staff which has been inserted at different moments of the AR creation?

2b - Or does the system standard say that once the AR is created I cannot modify the authorizors?

3 - Is there a transaction or report which allows me to see which authorization step I am at?

Thanks again for the help!

Jessica

[Former Member]

Thanks again for the replies, let me describe my current scenario which I am trying to implement and the troubles I am having in bringing it on par with the SAP standard.

My client would like the authorization workflow to match the standard as close as possible.

Actual

1. Person A comes up with an idea he/she wants to implement.
2. This idea gets forwarded to Person B who does a pre-feasibility study on the investment.  A cost estimate is made in which a 40% margin is applied to the investment cost.
3. Depending on the economic weight of the investment, a second feasibility study is executed with margins of 20%.
4. The company has 4 authorization levels:

• under 100.000 (signatures required- sig_A)
• between 100.000 and 4.000.000 (signatures required- sig_B)
• between 4.000.000 and 15.000.000 (signature required: sig_C)
• over 15.000.000 (signature require: sig_D)

Problem

1. Person A does not know the budget size when making the request
2. Person A also does not know who to send his request to be authorized.

Solution

1. How can change this procedure to be compliant with the standard?
2. Is it possible to create a dynamic workflow standard, where at each step the next step is calculated?

E.g. Person B can decide depending on the economic size of the investment if it’s necessary to forward the request to Person C and D or only Person D, even after the Appropriation Request has already been created?

   3. After I have defined my Appropriation Request, how can I change the authorization subjects whilst the application is running?

Thanks again, your help is very appreciated!!!

[MTerence]

Hi Jessica,

I am trying to explain in my own logic, you need to discuss with other teams like ABAP / Workflow / Security team

This can be done under partner determination / custom development and workflow.

Person A will have only AR creation access

Person B will have planning and changing the AR status to pre-feasibility. He should choose couple of approvers from partner defintion procedure including the personal number.

(Check with HR team whether you can maintain any financial limit at personal number maintaining any info type). At Positions you can have, it will be easy to create a custom logic for the same.

Else

Create a custom table with the approval limit and authorization code. Create roles based on these limit and assign to person who is responsible.

Workflow can be triggered when the status of the AR is changed to pre-feasibility. This can be approved by approvers

Technical feasibilities will be there, i hope those can be overcome.

I strongly recommend with Technical / Workflow and Security team, else this will be difficult to confirm in this forum.

Regards

Terence

[Paulo_Vitoriano]

Hi Jessica,

How many people need to approve one Appropriation request?  Is it 1,2,3, and 4 different people depending on the amount, or always one person but different level of authority based on the amount?

If it is always 1 person who needs to approve, that is not an issue and it is a standard workflow.  The standard workflow does not support the situation when number of approvers is not knows at the moment of the workflow start.

Also consider that you can run with a workflow only the approval by the last person, while the rest can be run through user statuses, where different people have specific authorizations to set them.

For example APR1, APR2, APR3 and with status change documents you can always see the user names behind the changes.

There is definitely more then one system solution and several options to map your process.

Regards,

[Former Member]

Hi everyone,

Thanks for your quick replies.

Let me explain the company environment so that I can make the situation clearer. In the company anyone, even the lowest level employee can instantiate an Appropriation Request. Therefore, he/she may not know all the personel which have to authorize his AR (except the first level).

Example of authorization levels

Level 1: <$200.000 (Responsible A)
Level 2: >$200.000 <$300.000 (Responsible B)

Level 3: >$300.000 <$10.000.000 (Responsible C)

Level 4: >$10.000.000 (Responsible D)

It is possible to insert a fake person in the 4 levels of authorization (always the same) and then allow this person to modify the higher level position (e.g. Level 2 can modify the subjects for Level 3 and 4)

Level 1: Jessica Rizzo >>> at the first level Jessica Rizzo could change the name of the persona responsible for Level 2 to create a sort of dynamic workflow.

OR

Is it possible to pre-compile the list so that the AR is executed to follow the criteria used in the example??

Thanks again,

Jessica

[sammar81]

Hi Jessica,

The solution can be achieved using Partner Determination Functionality and Custom Workflow. You will need help of an ABAPer/ technical person to complete this.

For the first level of approvals can be the immediate manager of the person requesting for the Investment proposal using AR and can be choosen by him/her. thereafter based on the Scale of Investment you can define the custom workflow.

Regards

Sammar

[MTerence]

Hi Jessica,

I dont think you can perform any thing in standard, but i guess it can done with some development.

This authorization check can be performed through HR master data. We have done some thing earlier using the Positions where the person is assigned.

Positions are

Engineer

Supervisor

Superintendent

Manager

Each position will have an info type with the authorization upper and lower limit. This limit allows the person assigned to this position to approve or decline.

or

Create a custom table with different approval limit and approve level

Create a custom authorization object to check and validate the person who has the access and approve level

Both the scenarios, you need to consult with security and ABAP team for exact and possible solution.

Regards

Terence

[Paulo_Vitoriano]

Hi Jessica,

The person who creates the AR normally is the same person who can estimate the cost.  If the cost drives the number of approvers, then the correct AR type can be selected at the very beginning.

As a second option you can approach it not from the system, but from the process side.  You can identify a role of AR adimistrator who is responsible for AR master data maintenance and know (at least) a number of approvers.

Number of approvers is a key thing when AR is created.  In terms who they are exactly, that can be determined at a later stage.  You can design a process step (maybe user status) to identify all business approvers before starting the standard workflow.

The custom workflow on the other hand has no limitations, basically any approver can define who is next, but I would doubt such approach from SoD point of view.

Regards,

[MTerence]

Hi Jessica,

Your question is bit wage. Please find below are the authorization check available

To check authorization object, you can execute SU24 and enter the transaction and execute, this will give the list. You can choose which object needs to be restricted for a particular user.

On creating AR through IMA11, you can decide on system status like create / release / approve / closure, also you can define user status to restrict if you need additional levels between two levels of system status i.e., create (review) release etc.

If you define who needs what access, like Accountant / Senior Accountant / Manager Accountant etc. List of users might not be important at this stage, since if you have defined the security process, then you can simply assign the roles.

Make sure you get details about the position / job structure with your client. Through this you can split the access.

Regards

Terence

[Paulo_Vitoriano]

Hi,

1. Partner Determination Procedure is a mandatory field for the Appropriation Request Type.  Appropriation Request Type is a first mandatory selection you have to do when creating an Appropriation Request, and it cannot be changed afterwards.  On the other hand it is a Partner Determiantion Procedure that identifies the number of approvers for the standard workflow.

As an option you can always go for maximum number of approvers, but create a custom workflow logic that depends on your criteria will use only first N names from the partner determination procedure.

Regards,

[Paulo_Vitoriano]

Hi,

3. In IMA11 you can select Workflow > Workflow Overview and it will show you the list of workflows with their status for the AR as well as for the workflow In Process you can see the current step - usually the name of the user in whos Inbox it is sitting and waiting for action. Same as for Completed workflow there is a log overview with dates and times for every step.

If you do not want an individual overview for each and every AR you can create an ABAP report to read the data and present it for many ARs at once.

1. Why you would not know how many approvers are required for AR when creating it?  Can you pls give a business case?

2. You cannot change approvers after the start of a workflow, because approvers are read when workflow starts.  If approvers have to be changed after the start of workflow, then the workflow itself should recognise the AR master data change and terminate. Next you can start a new workflow with updated master data (and list of approvers).

Regards,