PR/PO Release Strategy based on a yearly budget for approvers

[former_member190990]

Hi Team,

In SAP, we can set an approval limit of say '1000' USD for a position. Every time a PR/PO is created, the system checks for this amount and decides the release flow. The system doesnt check how much amount has been approved in the past by that particular approver whose limit is '1000' USD.

But, the requirement here is that the system should check the cumulative approval amount when PR/PO is raised. For ex, 1st PR raised for 900 USD, the approver approves. The next time PR is raised, the same approver should have just a limit of 100 USD (since his total limit for that financial year is 1000 USD).

Please advice if this can be done in SAP standard.

Regards,

Akash

[JL23]

I actually think it cannot be done or better it should not be done.

The approver does in general not play any role when the strategy is determined, a strategy is determined based on facts (values and characteristics and numbers) in the PO.

The approver comes into the game when the strategy is already determined, it is the one who has the role and herewith the authority to use a release code that is needed to release a PO under a certain strategy.

In a good business you would actually have more than a single approver as you may have to consider vacation time, illness, business trips and other cases where a user is not able to approve something and this has to be done by a substitute, would this then have an effect on the budget? What if the substitute has also his own budget. How would you then calculate against which budget is checked? How is the budget at all related to a person?

[former_member275827]

Hi,

My suggestion is create the Ztable with following three Supplier Code, Cash limit, Approved Cash.

During release of the PO, write the user exit to check and update this table. If current PO value and approved cash(from table) is less than Cash limit then allow approve and update the Approved Cash in table, else throw error.

[jagdeepsingh83]

This more budget management - I think SAP have solution known as Funds management. Or You can go with custom development where you can monitor budget of department or person budget.

I can also suggest try use of WBS elements that have total value -- as you proceed with your procurement against WBS element you will left some unused funds.

if your client in PSU (Public Sector unit) you can check with finance folks about funds management or some other way around managing the budget.

Release strategy serves purpose checking the limits of value a position can approve for single procurement document (PR or PO) but not the commutative approval.

[former_member190990]

Hi Jagdeep,

Thanks for your response.

Using Funds management and WBS restricts the users to not create PO exceeding the funds. But in our case, the PO can exceed funds, if so, the approval will skip one level and go to the next level for approval. If all the position's budget is exhausted, the highest authority will always have the approval rights irrespective of the PO value.

Regards,

Akash

[former_member190990]

Hi Jurgen,

Thanks for your response.

This is actually the requirement from business that a particular position should have a budget for a financial year and it is consumed everytime he approves a PO. In case of vacation, his role will be delegated to the next level and the next level person will have to approve on behalf of him.

I have thought of creating a custom table and maintaining budget values for the approval levels. Every time a PO is approved by a person, the system would check if PO value is within the budget of the approver. If not it jumps to the next level with an intimation that the first level budget is exceeded.

Could you please let me know if this is feasible and would suffice the business requirement?

Thanks & Regards,

Akash Prekar