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Ruthvik
Active Contributor
Dear SAP Friends,

Welcome to another interesting topic, Flexible Workflow



In this blog will see steps on how to activate Flexible workflow. at the end demo video also linked 

Just a quick overview of Flexible workflow

1.       It’s a Release strategy of PR & PO

2.       Easy to maintain & Understand no Transport Requests are required

Note:- TR will be generated when we activate Flexible workflow in IMG and remaining are non-TR based. System wise we can maintain.

3.       Only one Release strategy can be used at a time either classic or Flexible Workflow

4.       Need to Activate Flexible Workflow

5.       FWF is maintained in Fiori “Manage Workflows for Purchase Order”

FWF- Flexible Workflow

Refer SAP S/4HANA Flexible Workflow Overview and Comparison with SAP Business Workflow by alan.rickayzen

Now let's see first how to activate FWF

1.       Go to IMG → Materials Management → Purchasing → Purchase Order → Release Procedure for Purchase Orders → Activate Flexible Workflow for Purchase Orders

2.       Activate which document type you want to have FWF

-         It's based on document type for ex:- NB we can have FWF and UB we can have Classic Workflow



3.       Once done save. Transport request will be generated

4.       Now open “Manage Workflows for Purchase order” App



5.       Choose add



6.       Give Workflow name and description for understanding purpose



Even we can set timelines for PO release status



7.       Go to start conditions tab



As per business requirement, we can select the precondition to start the workflow

Only if the condition met then only created PO will be coming to workflow or else it will be released automatically



We can have more conditions as per business requirements.

8.       Go to step sequence and choose add to maintain more conditions like a responsible person, PO values etc.



9.       By default, Step type will be set to Automatic release of PO drop down and change to release of PO



10.  Go to Recipient and select Role / User as per business

-         User means we can select specific user-id

-         Role means, that role has to be assigned to responsible person user-id



Note in order to have responsible persons User ID’s and there Names to be displayed in users list means we need to create Employee and assign to Business partner refer to https://blogs.sap.com/2019/07/17/employee-as-a-business-partner-and-synchronization-with-hr-data/



Select a responsible person from the user's list



If you selected multiple users for release, we have an option like one of the recipient approval is enough or all approvals is required, we can select as per requirement

11.  Go to step condition to add conditions like Currency, PO value, Material group, Company Code etc,





If wanted we can keep or else leave blank as we already maintain precondition in the initial stage.

12.  Once done click on add

13.  And then save

14.  And then activate



Once it's activated we can’t edit only deactivate or delete



With this, we completed all the required steps

Now, let's check we maintained all correctly or not.

Will create PO



During Workflow creation we maintained 2 conditions

-         Document type = NB

-         PO Value greater than 20 USD

Both conditions our PO fulfil’s



PO created

Now if I open PO in change mode will get below information





It triggered FWF.

Now let's Approve / release PO

Open My Inbox App.

As one PO is in my bucket for approval on tile only we can see notifications ?





We have the following options

-         Approve

-         Reject

-         Show log

-         Claim (initiate process)

-         Forward

If you feel it must be approved by someone else, not by you, we can do it.



-         Suspend (Hold)



Now let’s Approve PO



It's done



If you are going on vacation like how we keep out of office mail with backup contact person ? same, we can do hear as well

In my inbox app click me area and select manage my substitutes



By selecting planned leave or unplanned leave ? Click add new substitute



By selecting from date and to date



Save

Now whatever PO is create and triggered to FWF it will go to my substitute



If you want to see all the list of POs’ that you approved so far there is an app for that as well

My Outbox





Note:- all above content doesn’t have sensitive info so don’t waste your time for reporting

If the same My Inbox App is configured in mobile means, see the beauty of SAP Fiori



Encourage Fiori and get the most advanced features of it and make life easy and smooth.

https://youtu.be/bTDxkNGUV5I

 

Please share, Like and Comment anything else you want to share or add points.

Thanks & Regards

Ruthvik Chowdary

SME – S/4 HANA Manufacturing & Procurement

SAP Ariba P2P
110 Comments
saikrishna_vallurupalli
Active Contributor
Excellent,  its really useful
venu_ch8
Active Contributor

Dear Ruthvik,

 

Excellent document ..keep it up..

Ruthvik
Active Contributor
0 Kudos
Thank you saivallurupalli ?
Ruthvik
Active Contributor
0 Kudos
Thank you venu.ch8 Please share with others as well.
Hi,

Nice document. Should  the flexible workflow be activated only for one document type?
Amit_SAP
Active Contributor
0 Kudos
Hi Ruthvik,

Explained very well.... Thank you for sharing.

Keep it up 🙂

 

Regards,

Amit
Ruthvik
Active Contributor
0 Kudos


Hello praveenplv4

Thank you, Glad, you liked. No, you can activate for all documents based on requirements and even few Flexible workflows and few Classic workflows.


Ruthvik
Active Contributor
0 Kudos

Thank you amit.sharma62for your support and liking my article please share among those who require knowledge on FWF

Nice document Ruthvik..! Thanks for sharing..
Ruthvik
Active Contributor
0 Kudos
Thank you pravin.mandgaonkar1978

Share same with others who has requirement
former_member644912
Participant
0 Kudos
Hi ruthvik.chowdary2

really nice detailed document of workflows. great effort. ?

I Have a Question can the same process followed for Finance Related Functionality as well?

Same question i have posted as well can you please guide me

https://answers.sap.com/questions/12939024/flexible-workflows-for-finance.html
Ruthvik
Active Contributor
0 Kudos
Hello Lavanya

Thank you, glad you liked my article,

I'm not expert in Finance but i will try to share information as per my knowledge

below Apps are available which i feel are related to finance

  1. Earmarked Funds: Approval

  2. Manage Workflows - For Bank Accounts

  3. Manage Workflows for General Journal Entry Verification

  4. Manage Workflows for Supplier Invoices


Thanks & Regards

Ruthvik Chowdary
former_member649869
Discoverer
Awesome bro.
Ruthvik
Active Contributor
0 Kudos
Glad you liked my article Follow me to get more
vijugnr12345
Explorer
Hi Ruthvik,

Really very good explanation of FWF.

We r lucky... Thanks for sharing ?

Waiting for more to come about sourcing and procurement with new functionality & innovation in 1909

 

 

 
Ruthvik
Active Contributor
0 Kudos
Thank you Vijay ?

Sure you will be seeing soon.
former_member644912
Participant
0 Kudos
Thank you ruthvik.chowdary2 for your help
naga_seerla
Explorer
0 Kudos

Hello Ruthvik,

Could you let me know, if this functionality is available in on-premise version (perhaps 1909) as well.

P.S: We are currently on 1610 SPS 0 and would be upgrading to 1909 in couple months.

Thanks,

Naga

Ruthvik
Active Contributor
0 Kudos
Hi naga.seerla

This functionality is available from 1809 version onwards you can get when you upgrade to 1909
Mithun_Kumar
Active Participant
0 Kudos
Hi Ruthvik,

Thanks for the informative blog. I'd like to understand more about the step conditions and how do they work. Are they different from the Pre-conditions we add on the 1st screen?
Ruthvik
Active Contributor
0 Kudos
Hi mithunkr_cbs

Thank you 🙂

Yes Preconditions are different and step condition is different

A precondition is used to initiate the workflow

Step condition is used to determine which document will get for approval process

 
Mithun_Kumar
Active Participant
0 Kudos

Thanks ruthvik.chowdary2

During a custom development and extensive debugging, I realized a major difference between how the Pre-conditions and step conditions are evaluated.

During evaluation of a step condition, the code doesn’t get the workflow’s or the workItem’s container at all. So as I was trying to check a “container variable = my condition parameter” condition, it always failed, even when the container has the correct value for that variable. Due to this my step was always 'Skipped'.

However, if the same condition is used as a pre-condition, this evaluation was successful, as the container is being read properly.

Have you noticed the same? Or am I doing something wrong here?

Ruthvik
Active Contributor
0 Kudos


mithunkr_cbs

 I am not that knowledgeable in Technical stuff I'm functional

How every Precondition is the starting step for logic if the condition is matched then only it enters into workflow 2nd condition step condition



First of all, Precondition should match then only Workflow will initiate
0 Kudos
Hi Rithvik,

 

Thank you!!!

It is excellent and very informative.

 
Hi Rithvik,

 

Thanks for sharing!

I have a question regarding information provided on the approve/reject message.. Up to 1909 version,does it exist any standard setting to provide additional information or the only way is a customisation?

 

Thanks in advance,

Francesco
Ruthvik
Active Contributor
0 Kudos
Hi Francesco,

It available from 1710 version we can Give Approve/Reject Messages no additional settings are required by default it will be coming
Ruthvik
Active Contributor
0 Kudos
Thank you very much
0 Kudos
Yes Ruthvik, I was wondering if we can add other information with standard. For example, standard price or last PO price or PO vendor
Ruthvik
Active Contributor
0 Kudos
Yes we can add selection conditions as per requirement

Please do watch https://youtu.be/-iwJw2uyOao
Suying
Explorer
0 Kudos
It's a great documentation!!!
Ruthvik
Active Contributor
0 Kudos
Thank you May Li
former_member686407
Discoverer
0 Kudos
Hello,

 

Do you know how to configure the notification that the requestor should receive when a PR/PO gets rejected?

 

I am not getting them and no idea where to configure them.

 

thank you very much
Ruthvik
Active Contributor
0 Kudos
Notification in the Sence you need to maintain action task what to do when rejected so the requestor will get notification
former_member691855
Discoverer
0 Kudos

HI Rithvik,

Thanks for the document…

These conditions are standard? Cant we add any more Pre conditions..

And Existing Configuration like Release groups, Release codes etc., are not required right?

Thanks,

Prasad

0 Kudos
Hi Ruthvik,

Nice Documentation and This helped me during my On-Prem Implementation.

 

Related to the Approval process in Fiori - Do you have idea on the below;

  1. As you know, Approve/Reject comments will be updated back in SAP GUI. What about Attachments ? Any Mechanism to bring back attachments to SAP GUI

  2. Manage Substitutes - Any Pre-requisite setup required in HCM . I tried Maintaining Leaves for the Approver in PA30 - but couldn't setup any Substitutes for the same Approver


Thanks.
amruta_k
Participant
0 Kudos
Hi Ruthvik,

Can we send emails in outlook once workflow is triggered?

Also can we provide option to approve from outlook email (like a link)?

Thanks.
100030223199
Member
0 Kudos
Hi Ruthvik,

 

Nicely explained.

 

I have one question. How will i re-trigger a purchase order. Generally my while uploading legacy PO those PO are auto approved. Now if i want to re-trigger those Purchase Order, how i gonna do that?

 

Thanks.
Ruthvik
Active Contributor
0 Kudos
Hi iamap27

We can add our own conditions as well

old Release groups, Release codes not required to configure if we go with flexible workflows
Ruthvik
Active Contributor
0 Kudos
H nikhil.jacob3

Attachments we can add-in during approving in my inbox app and the same will be shown in GUI if  DMS is installed

Manage Substitutes this option also available in my inbox only please refer above mentioned steps
Ruthvik
Active Contributor
0 Kudos
Hi amruta.k

I'm Not sure about this but with the help of UI5 Consultant we can do i guess so
Ruthvik
Active Contributor
0 Kudos


100030223199 Once PO's are uploaded from the legacy system the same status will come over, and Re-trigger is not possible as per my knowledge


avi88
Explorer
0 Kudos
Hi Ruthvik,

 

Nice blog and explained in detail.

I have a question, if I have created a custom Workflow Scenario and want to trigger it for any particular order type (Let's say 'NB'). So how can I configure this?

 

Thanks!
Ruthvik
Active Contributor
0 Kudos


avi88 Custome changes can be added with help of UI5 and Developer


0 Kudos
Hi Rutvik,

Thanks for your Answer.

You mean - if DMS is installed , we can see the attachments in ME23N?
paul1991
Explorer
How can you add your own pre-conditions in S/4HANA On Premise?
0 Kudos
Hi Ruthvik,

I am able to achieve all the steps following your document but once Standard PO is created I am getting "workflow instance not found". Can you please suggest.

Thanks!!
former_member453780
Discoverer
0 Kudos
Hi Paul, did you find a solution? I am looking for it too! Thanks Heiko
paul1991
Explorer

Hi Volkmer,

 

yes. As of 1909 OP you can implement your own preconditions using custom BaDIs BADI SWF_WORKFLOW_CONDITION_DEF and BADI SWF_WORKFLOW_CONDITION_EVAL

 

BR

Paul

0 Kudos
Hi Ruthvik,

Thank you for sharing the knowledge on the Flexible Workflow. Was wondering if you could configure the below scenario in Flexible Workflow.

Requirement:

I create a Purchase Requisition for 1000$ and it should go to Approver-1 for first-level approval and then to Approver-2 for second level approval and then be completely approved. If Approver-1 or Approver-2 rejects the PR, then it must come to me so that I can correct it, and resubmit.

 

In the Exception Handling of the Manage Workflow app, we have set ‘Restart Workflow’.

In the system now, when the Approver-2 rejects the PR, the system is sending the PR back to Approver-1!

Regards,

Yateesh
0 Kudos
Hi ,

I have maintained all these steps . I have created one Non stock PO document type for PO .

While selecting that document type in flexible workflow it is showing "Not Sent" under Status of workflow . Even in Header Flexible workflow tab is not appearing .

 

Pls suggest .
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