Funds Management - authorisation before FI Entry

[Former Member]

Hi,

my client wants to control expenses which are happening directly from FI same as in case of purchases thru MM.. In MM we raise PR & PO have implemented release strategy, here budget owner wld approve the expense that is even if budget is available he analyses the need of expenditure and approves/reject the expense as the case may be.

So they want similar kind of mapping for direct FI entries. For some expenses for which raising PR & then PO does not make sense, wld be directly handled in FI, for e.g. Project Manager taking his team for Team Lunch.. in this case he will not raise PR. Even if we ask them to do so for this kind of expenditures, it is not at all feasible to create PO for this.

Is there anything available in Funds Management to handle this. How shld I go about this??

Thanks & Regards,

Jyoti

[iklovski]

Hi,

There is no connection to FM here, as you want your postings to be revised already on FI level. You can solve it by developing a workflow for direct FI postings.

Regards,

Eli

[Former Member]

Hi Eli,

Let me again describe the situatio:-

They want that Project Managers would raise the requisition for reimbursement of expenses (team lunch) which shall be approved by Budget Owners .. Here FM Commitment Item should be Created.

And when FI entry is booked in relation to that requisition, CI should be reduced and Actual budget consumption should be reflected.

I hope I am clear about the requirement.

Thanks & Regards,

Jyoti

[iklovski]

Hi Jyoti,

Now, it's a bit more clear

Use earmarked funds for that, that's exactly their purpose.

An earmarked fund will create the commitment (and it will be created by budget manager) and the invoice will be assigned to this earmarked fund, thus reducing it and consuming the budget. Use earmarked fund of 'Reservation' type for this.

Regards,

Eli

[Former Member]

Hi Eli,

Thanks for your suggestion, but using Earmarked funds will not solve the purpose as the scenario is somewhat different, it is like Users/PM will raise the Payment Requisition and his Manager/Budget Owner will then approve it. Thereafter Accounts will make the posting with reference to that.

In case of earmarked funds, it is not a requisition, it is only blocking or creating commitment and how Budget owner would approve this. Besides this a document number gets generated, which needs to be manually linked in FI doc.. which in Practical situation may lead to errors.. as the user may choose any document number.

Could you please suggest me any other solution to this problem.

Thanks & Regards,

Jyoti Gupta

[iklovski]

Hi,

That's a standard approach used in most of the SAP projects. Earmarked funds act exactly as logstic commitments in projects where MM is not implemented or where there is a special requirement for that. Mistakes can occur of course, like in enetering an invoice, for example. It's up to the client to secure business process, where such mistakes will be rare.

As I said, you can always develop a workflow. Of course, the maintenance and the development will be somewhat expensive in terms of consultants hours.

Regards,

Eli

[Former Member]

thanks a lot for your valuable inputs