Shopping cart Item Level approval: SRM 7.0

[Former Member]

Hi Experts,

We have a requirement of line item approval for shopping cart where Two different line items of a shopping cart may need different levels of approvals or Different number of approvals.

For Example shopping cart item with Cost center may need only approval of Line Manager but another line item of same shopping cart that has Asset as account assignment would need additional approval from asset department.

After going through documentation available on community, we have defined process levels and assigned custom evaluations and expressions to it.

When the function Module ( Copy of /SAPSRM/WF_BRF_0EXP000) attached to an expression is called, the parameter IO_EVENT can only provide shopping cart header GUID and hence we are not able to mark a particular process level as true or false for an item.

I have 3 questions in this scenario:

1> Process controlled workflows allow item level approvals such that one item may need X number of approvals but another item of same shopping cart may need Y number of approvals?

2> a. Process level evaluation can happen at item level?

     b. If process level evaluation can not not happen at item level, can we make all levels applicable (always true) and

          assign those steps to a dummy user and auto approve such steps?

     c. If yes, please suggest a way to auto approve an intermediate step only for 1 of the SC items.

3> Can methods GET_AREA_TO_ITEM_MAP and GET_APPROVERS_BY_AREA_GUID help me skip a level for one of the line items.

[robin_janke · Accepted solution]

Hi,

1. Yes, keep in mind that all process levels need to be finished for the final approval of the SC.

2a. "No", it is a process level evaluation that can be done for every item (using a custom evaluation/expression) -> if one of the item satisfies the condition, the process level should be executed (items can be skipped in the processing of this process level by not assigning them to an area)

2b. Yes, but just determine if a level is applicable using (2a) and skip that level if it is not necessary. This process level will not show up then in the approval overview

2c. See (2b)

3. Yes, don't assign the item guid to an area in the GET_AREA_TO_ITEM_MAP, this will auto-approve that item.

Regards,

Robin

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Thanks Robin for Quick answer to my questions.

From what I read about GET_AREA_TO_ITEM_MAP, Correct me if my understanding is wrong.

I Need to create sub classes for /SAPSRM/CL_WF_AREA and number of subclasses should be equal to different kinds of approvals I need?

What I understand is I need to assign areas to different item based on their values (account assignment) and those area instances will be assigned agents. is that correct?

[robin_janke · Accepted solution]

Hi,

Areas are just what you want them to be, examples:

1. Cost center

2. Product category

3. User

So if you have 3 items with 2 different account assignments:

it1 - ar1 (instance of your (custom) area class)

it2 - ar1

it3 - ar2 (new instance of your (custom) area class)

Approvers are retrieved based on your area, so the area is the link between item and approvers

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Thanks a Lot Robin.

It worked.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hey Robin,

The solution we applied brings auto approval steps on approval tab of SC line item.

Is there a way those auto approval steps don't appear on screen?

[robin_janke · Accepted solution]

Hi,

in my 2a step above you can also do a process level evaluation, if there are no items that need to go through that particular process level return false for that evaluation.

In that case that process level will not show up in the approval view, however if there is just one item that needs that process level, all other items will show 'approved by system' for that level. As far as I know there is no way to not display the entry.

Regards,

Robin