There is a number of people like the Executive, supervisor, manager, HOD and many more who creates the order. As we know Purchase Order (PO) is a legal document and it goes outside to the vendor, so it is very important to control the procurement process to avoid any errors or unauthorized transactions. Because if a Purchase order is processed further for goods receipt and invoice verifications then accounting entries generate.
Because accounting entries affect your balance sheets, it is very much required to control the procurement process by introducing approvals. For the same, SAP has provided a concept of release strategy.
The Release strategy workflow in S/4 HANA MM
The approval process for purchase requisitions is outlined by the release strategy, which details the release codes required for the approval of either a complete purchase requisition or a requisition item, along with the specific order in which approvals must be granted. Up to a maximum of eight release codes can be allocated to the release strategy. The determination of whether the release strategy applies to a complete purchase requisition, or a requisition item is contingent on the fulfillment of release conditions.
So, we say that “RELEASE STRATEGY is an approval process to control the procurement process in a company”.
Steps to configure Release Strategy for Purchase Order
Step 1: Define characteristics:
SPRO -> Sap IMG -> Material Management -> Purchasing -> Purchase Order -> Release Procedure For Purchase Orders -> Edit Characteristics ( CT04)
- Characteristics define the property of the object.
- For example, in the case of Purchase Order, we are using characteristics Purchase Organization, Purchase Group and Net Value etc.
- The value of the characteristics can be in character format, numeric format, alphanumeric format, or date format.
On the Characteristics, screen create a characteristic for each field for your release strategy.
In the Characteristics tab type the names for the characteristic, you can give any name. For example Characteristic: PO_DOCTYPE and click on create button.
Select the Basic data tab:
Value assignment: Select the Multiple Values option. (If the characteristic has only one value, then Select Single Values option and if it has more than one value or range of values then select the Multiple values option.
EX: For Document type
Select the Restrictions tab and select Class Type as 032 for release strategy.
Press the Save button and the Characteristic P0_DOC is saved.
This way our first characteristic PO_DOC is created, in the same way we are creating two more characteristics.
Similarly, create two other characteristics.
- P_ORG for Purchasing Organization where all the steps are the same except the Addnl. data field. Select the table name as CEKKO and field name as EKORG.
- Total_order_value for Purchase order Net value where few steps are different. Select the table name CEKKO and field GNETW for purchase order net value.
After creating Characteristics, the next step is to assign them to the classes.
The class contains a list of all the characteristics we have created. It is created under the class type 032 which is the class type for release strategy.
Step 2: Define Class
Path: SPRO-> SAP IMG-> Material Management-> Purchasing-> Purchase Order-> Release Procedure For Purchase Orders-> Edit Class (CT02)
In the step “Define Release Procedure for Purchase Orders“.
Description: Type the appropriate description of the class and status always 1 means released.
Select the Char. tab and assign the characteristics to the class.
In the Char. field type the name of the characteristics you created earlier.
- PO_DOCTYPE
- PO_ORG
- TOTAL_ORDER_VALVE
Then press the Save button.
After creating Class, it is assigned to the Release Group. The same class is assigned to all the Release Group.
Step 3: Release Group
SPRO -> Sap IMG -> Material Management -> Purchasing -> Purchase Order -> Release Procedure for Purchase Orders -> Define Release Procedure for Purchase Orders
On Change View “Release Groups: External Purchasing Document”:
Overview screens select New Entries button.
- Rel. Grp: Here type the name of the release group. It is a two-digit alphanumeric code. Here we are creating the release groups as RL.
- Class: Here type the name of the class which we have created earlier. For example, PO_CLASS1A.
Select Release Groups from the Select Activity screen.
Then click on save button.
Step 4: Release Code
Release Code is the approver of the release strategy. The person responsible for releasing the purchase order is the Release code. It is a two-digit code assigned to the respective officer. For Executive, SR.executive, Manager.
> Sap IMG -> Material Management -> Purchasing -> Purchase Order -> Release Procedure for Purchase Orders -> Define Release Procedure for Purchase Orders ->
On the Select Activity, screen choose Release Codes
On the New Entries: Overview of Added Entries screen fills the important fields.
- Grp: Here type the code of the release group you created. For example PP.
- Code: Here you can type any two-digit code for your release group AND number of levels which we need to approve the purchase order. For example A1,A2 and A3.
- Description: Here type the description of the release code.
And click on save button.
Step 5: Release Indicator
Go to SPRO -> Sap IMG -> Material Management -> Purchasing -> Purchase Order -> Release Procedure for Purchase Orders -> Define Release Procedure for Purchase Orders -> Release indicator
Release indicators tell us the status of the Purchase Order whether it is released or not. Mainly there are two types of Release Indicators: Released and Blocked and there is one more indicator: Partial Release.
Released: When all the levels are approved.
Blocked: When all the levels are not approved.
Partial Release: When Only one or two levels are approved.
Change View “Release Indicator: Purchasing Document”: Overview screen, here we are taking two release indicators.
Press the Save button.
Step 6: Configure Release Strategies
SPRO -> Sap IMG -> Material Management -> Purchasing -> Purchase Order -> Release Procedure for Purchase Orders -> Define Release Procedure for Purchase Orders ->Release Strategies
Change View “Release Strategies: External Purchasing Documents”:
Overview screen select New Entries button
Press the Continue button. After that click on the Release Statuses button.
Click Continue and then click on the Classification button to select the Classification values for the selected characteristics in release class.
Click on the Release Stimulation button to stimulate the release strategy.
Release Strategy Process Flow
Step 1 : Purchase order creation:ME21N
Below is the combination on which our release strategy will be triggered
Release strategy tab will appear at the header of the purchase order along with approvers.
Step 2: Purchase order approve: ME29N
Step 3: Purchase order approve by mass: ME28
Select the respective release code and click on executive button.
Select the respective purchase order which needs to be approve.
Read More: SAP MM Flexible Work Flow
Read More: SAP S4 HANA MM Release Strategy Flexible Workflow
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Release workflow :SAP S/4 HANA MM Release Strategy | SCM Cloudbook
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