In the world of procurement, maintaining control and ensuring proper authorization are paramount. SAP MM (Materials Management) offers robust functionality to achieve this through Purchase Order (PO) release strategies. This blog post will delve into the intricacies of these strategies, explaining how they work and how to configure them effectively.
What is a Release Strategy?
A release strategy in SAP MM is a process of approving purchasing documents (like Purchase Orders, RFQs, Scheduling Agreements, and Contracts) before they can be processed further. This ensures that purchases are authorized by the appropriate personnel based on predefined criteria. A crucial point to remember is that once a purchasing document is released, it cannot be changed. Therefore, it's vital to ensure the document is finalized before releasing it. Unreleased documents cannot proceed to subsequent steps like goods receipt or invoice verification.
Why Use Release Strategies?
Release strategies offer several key benefits:
Control: Enforces approval hierarchies based on various criteria.
Authorization: Ensures that only authorized personnel can approve purchases.
Compliance: Helps organizations adhere to internal and external regulations.
Error Reduction: Minimizes errors by requiring review before processing.
Defining a Release Strategy: A Step-by-Step Example
Let's walk through an example of creating a release strategy based on the value of the purchasing document. We'll configure a strategy where POs exceeding TRY 150.000 require manual release, while those below are automatically released.
Steps:
Define a Characteristic: This represents the criteria for the release strategy. In our case, it's the net value of the purchase document.
Assign Fields to the Characteristic: We assign the field CEKKO-GNETW (Purchase Document Value) to our characteristic. This links the characteristic to the actual value in the PO.
Define a Class: A class groups related characteristics. This is done using transaction CL02. You'll need to define a class name, type, description, status, validity period, and classification.
Assign the Characteristic to the Class: We assign our net value characteristic to a class (e.g., PO_RELEASE).
Customizing (Configuration): This is where the core setup happens.
Create Release Groups: Assign the class (PO_RELEASE in our example) to the release group.
Create Release Codes: Assign these codes to the release groups. These represent individual approvers or approval levels.
Create Release Indicators: These define the status of the document (e.g., "Blocked," "Released").
Create a Release Strategy: This ties everything together.
Assign Release Group and Release Codes to the Strategy: This defines the approval workflow.
Define Release Statuses: Specify the statuses for the strategy (e.g., "Blocked" initially, "Released" after approval).
Maintain Classification: This is where you define the value threshold. In our case, we set it to ">=150000," meaning POs equal or above TRY150000 will trigger this release strategy.
Simulate the Release Strategy: This allows you to test your configuration before going live.
We can see that our purchase order is created to a value of more than 150000 TRY. If we create a PO for less than 150000 TRY, it will be autoreleased.
These two statuses mean that our PO is in release. (It's subject to release process indicating that is should be approved before further processing can be possible). The other indicates the current status - Blocked means that it isnt released yet.
Value is 180000, which is more than 150000 TRY.
Releasing a Purchase Order (Transaction ME28)
Execute transaction ME28.
Enter the release code (mandatory) and release group (optional).
Select the appropriate scope of the list and purchasing document category ("F" for Purchase Orders).
Execute.
Select the PO to be released.
Click the "Release" button.
The PO status will change to "Released," and this will be reflected in transactions ME23N (Display PO) and ME22N (Change PO).
Cancelling a Release (Transaction ME28)
In ME28, select the "Cancel Release" checkbox.
Execute.
Select the PO.
Click the "Cancel Release" button.
Note: Cancelling a release is only possible if the release strategy allows it. This is controlled by settings at the release indicator and release strategy levels.
Comments