Changed dates for approved travel request and expense report does not work

[Former Member]

Hi all,

We have a scenario where employee raises a travel request which is approved by manager, then employee raises expense report which is also approved.

Now due to some circumstances employees travel is extended when he/she changes the date and submits travel request for approval the workflow does not trigger. Also, dates gets reflected in 'TRIP' transaction but not in 'PR05' it shows old dates.

System gives information message 'Travel request was saved. Changes not transferred to Travel Expenses'.

Need urgent help. This is very common scenario in our organization.

Thanks,

Ninad Sonawane.

[Former Member]

Is it std WF or a customised one?

[Former Member]

Thanks for your response.

It is a standard workflow.

The problem does not seem with workflow. In this scenario dates gets changed in transaction 'TRIP' transaction but does not affect dates in transaction code 'PR05', and also the event itself is not getting triggered.

[Former Member]

Hi Ninad,

before going into the technicalities, I would like to undestand the business logic first. How can someone think of extending the travel dates after expense report has been approved? The ideal scenario will be creating a request, getting it approved and then only travel. Once travel is done, after coming back, one should raise a request and then get it approved. How can someone extend the travel date ant this point of time? Isnt system behaving in a very correct way?

[Former Member]

Hi,

Yes. Appreciate your inputs. But, what we are discussing is an ideal scenario.

Suppose an employee has traveled on assignment for 6 month which is pre-planned, he/she has to submit expenses incurred in every or may be after couple of months, since majority of an employee can not wait for 6 months to claim their expenses, if the amount is huge that is to be claimed. so after 6 months employee would have created 1-2 expense report for that trip.

After 6 months, an employee is asked to serve 2 more months on an assignment and he/she has to amend the travel request for approval. In that case, the system does not work.

I understand, the SAP travel management is designed with situation that you have presented. and being a SAP consultant we call this as an exception.

But, this exception is very common in our organization, so I would like to understand if there is any means in config by which we can achieve this or it requires customization and upto what level.

Thanks for reply.

[Former Member]

Hi,

Yes i agree this is an exceptional scenario. The module is supposed to cater to business travels and not these 6 month long travels which are primarily deputation kind of travels.

Ayways, are you using ESS?

If you are using only R/3, then, I suggest you change the date in Expense Report first and see whether it reflects in TRIP and PR05

[Former Member]

Hi,

Please note that it's standard system that once travel request is approved and expense sheet created.. Changing in Travel request would not effect in expense sheet..(It also clearly states in error message as well) ('Travel request was saved. Changes not transferred to Travel Expenses'.)

For Example

At the time of Travel Request Dates are i.e. 01-jan-2012 to 10-jan-2012

At the time of Travel Expense Dates are i.e. 01-jan-2012 to 10-jan-2012

But what i understand user needs to change his travel request dates i.e 05-jan-2012 to i.e.15-jan-2012.. It will not effect in Travel Expense sheet dates it would remain same as 01-jan-2012 to 10-jan-2012..

Workflow for travel request shall not be trigged in this case from Trip t-code, you have set trip status Request Created and To be settled in tcode PR05 in order to approve new dates (but it will not effect in travel expense sheet.dates)

Hopes it would serve your purpose.

Regards,

Muhammad Umer