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Travel Mgt - Travel Assistant functionality in ESS-MSS

Former Member
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Hello Experts,

I have requirement in Travel Management to use Travel Assistant functionality in ESS-MSS portal, so that an employee can raise travel request on behalf of an other employee.

In R/3 there is a role "SAP_FI_TV_WEB_ASSISTANT_2' which has many WDA services available. However these services are not available under ESS portal role. Can anyone please let me know are these "Travel Assistant" services delivered as standard ESS services or do I need to import the role "SAP_FI_TV_WEB_ASSISTANT_2'  into portal.

How the workflow works in this case. For e.g. Person 1's reporting manager is ABC  & Person 2's reporting officer is XYZ, then if Person 1 is creating a travel request for Person 2 then to whom the approval will go.

Regards,

Daniel

Accepted Solutions (1)

Accepted Solutions (1)

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Hi Daniel

In this case the Travel Assistant role is launched through the iview FITV_POWL_ASSISTANT (I presume you use WD ABAP and have business function FIN_TRAVEL_1 active right? Otherwise the old WD Java service used "switch personnel" for a similar functionality) but also employees are not automatically added to the assistants employees list, you either maintain it in the portal iview (My employee list > Maintain) or you can do it centrally using the FPB* transations as mentioned in KBA 1622954) and last point, the assistant needs the role in PFCG in the backend but also the specific portal roles assigned in delegated user admin e.g. ESS etc etc.

With regard to multi-level approval (is this what you wanted that Person A sends request to Person B, then it also needs to be approved by Person B's reporting officer?) if so then is not handled within the standard as there is no 2 or 3 Level approval for fitv_powl_trips.

All selected trips which are not approved and in status 'to be settled' will be shown. If approve is clicked, the trips are approved and over and no-one will see these trips again as fitv_powl_approver.

And if you want to maintain substitutes, then use fitv_powl_substitution application and this would be the only alternative I could suggest. Keep in mind also that the authorization object P_ORIGINCON is not checked in Travel Management either, though we do provide a BAdI for this purpose.  

Hope it helps

Sally

Message was edited by: Sally Redmond

Former Member
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Hi Sally,

Thanks for your reply.

Yes I am using WD Abap. After importing the R/3 roles "SAP_FI_TV_WEB_ESS_ASSISTANT_2" in portal I have managed to bring the "Travel & Expenses Assistant" tab in which I can use the functionality. But the issue is that, for the first time, pernr needs to be added from the back end through FPB_MAINTAIN_PERS_S, otherwise the "Add/Remove Employees"button are not visible in the "Travel Assistant Work Center (FITV_POWL_ASSISTANT)" so that the user can add employee. Is anything I am missing or its standard behavior.

Regarding the workflow, my query is whether the system will send the approval to the facilitator's approver or to the approver of the person for whom the travel request is raised. For e.g. If you are raising travel request on behalf of me then whether the approval workflow will trigger your manager or my manager.

Regarding substitution, is it the same functionality which is available in UWL. A screenshot of the same is attached.




Please help.

Regards,

Daniel

Former Member
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Hi Daniel,

for the issue with FPB_MAINTAIN* I have attached a KBA from SAP here: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/48245843/websmp230.sap-ag.pdf

For the "workflow" please explain more in detail which workflow pattern you are using.

Or do you using only the "manager powl approval"? This has nothing to do with usage of workflow. This is only a query which looks up trips in a certain trip status.

Best regards,

Sigi

Former Member
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Hi Sigi,

Thanks for the reply. It means for assigning employees for the first time in FITV_POWL_APPROVER or FITV_POWL_ASSISTANT we have to use tcode: FPB_MAINTAIN_PERS_S. Once at least one employee is assigned, then only the FITV_POWL_APPROVER or FITV_POWL_ASSISTANT can add employee by himself by using "add / remove employees".

Please let me know if I have understood the above functionality properly.

Regards,

Daniel

Former Member
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Hi Daniel,

yes this is the way. I don't know why this was build like this. I can only imagine because using the POWL concept in Travel. So you need to set the object "P" (=Person).

Best Regards,

Sigi

Answers (1)

Answers (1)

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Hi Daniel

You dont "have to" use the FPB* transaction  - its a way we suggest to centrally control it, in fact if you check the KBA 1622954 (point 15), I recently updated it to include the information on the dynamic selection criterias, object P is static but you can also add employees via org unit and cost center (H and S) and these are dynamic, meaning that if employees are adjusted and added, this selection is updated.

There is also the employee list maintain button in the portal iview and you can add employees this way too.

Hope it helps

Sally

Former Member
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Hi Sally,

interesting but what will see the assistant by opening the service the first time?

In my projects there are always a very big confusing by testing the service and to actively maintain these settings.

Best regards,

Sigi

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Hi Sigi

Therein lies the problem, it is quite misleading as the first time they open the maintain employee list (same if you launch it from SE80) and for a new user, it is blank and there is the expectation that there should be some names there!

(Which is why the FPB* transaction works well for a new approver/assistant as can be maintained in advance) but before you can see a trip for approval, you need to have names in the list!!!

Historically in terms of the assistant, I recall it has its roots in the change from how we used switch personnel functionality with WD Java to the POWL_ASSISTANT in WD ABAP

cheers

Sally

Former Member
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Hi Sally,

OK than my expectation stay the same. First of all run transaction that the user will see what he is expecting. A screen where hi can add travelers. (and not a screen where she/he has to find "object P" 🙂

Of course the best would be to have the traveler in a list already maintained. But this is normally not that easy because travel assistants are in most cases not maintained properly via SAP OM.

Thank you for your clarification.

@Daniel: From my perspective you need to rund FPB* transaction.

Cheers,

Sigi