SAP Release Procedure for Purchase Requisitions (PR)

Rohit Sethi
India /Manufacturing / SAP

SAP Release
Procedure
for Purchase
Requisitions (PR)

Rohit Sethi
India /Manufacturing / SAP
rohit.sethi@tcs.com

SAP Release Procedure for Purchase Requisitions (PR)

SAP Release Procedure for Purchase Requisitions (PR)

Release procedures are used in SAP to replace manually-written authorization procedures by using
electronic signatures, while maintaining the dual control principle. The person responsible processes
the relevant document in the system, thereby marking it with an electronic signature that legalizes the
document. Release Procedures (approval) can be used for Purchase Requisitions (PR), Purchase
Orders (PO), Request for Quotation (RFQ), Outline Agreements and Service Entry Sheets.
Key terminology used in Release procedures is:
 Release Codes Refers to the different levels of approvals (individuals or





departments).
Release Groups - Grouping of strategies.
Release Strategy - Unique set of conditions, sequence and levels of releases.
Release Indicator / Status - The status of PR as it moves through the strategy.
Example Block (PO cannot be created yet) or Final Release (can create PO from PR)
Release Prerequisites- The order in which the individual release points (individuals
or departments) represented by the release codes may release the document.

Here is a summary of the steps to be followed to set up release strategy:

 Create Characteristics and link to communication structure (CEBAN for PR and





CEKKO for PO)

Create Class and link to characteristic
Create Release Groups and link to class.
Create Release Codes and assign to release group.
Release Indicator
Set up strategies
Strategies and Codes
Prerequisites
Status
Assign values for strategies (Classification)
Set overall / item level release indicator for doc type (PR only )

The following section describes this step-by-step approach.

Create Characteristics and Link to Communication Structure (CEBAN for PR)

The fields, which are used to determine the strategy or getting the approval, are defined here.
In this case Plant and Item value are used. All the fields in the PR cannot be used for release
strategy determination. Only the fields, which are defined in communication structure CEBAN,
can be used. For a full list of fields that can be used to determine the release strategy, see
Transaction code- SE12, Database table CEBAN.

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SAP Release Procedure for Purchase Requisitions (PR)

Figure 1: CEBAN Structure

The two fields that will be used are:
 Field CEBAN-WERKS for Plant
 Field CEBAN-GSWRT for Item Value

To determine the release strategy based on plant and item value, the Characteristic for each
field must be created through Transaction code- CT04 . Any characteristic name can be used.
However, keep something descriptive to avoid confusion.
For example, for Item Value, a characteristic called Z_GSWRT is created in the following figure:

Figure 2: Characteristic Creation

1. Click the Additional Data tab and enter the table/field that is CEBAN/GSWRT.
2. Press Enter.

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SAP Release Procedure for Purchase Requisitions (PR)

Figure 3: Characteristic Creation (Additional data)

3. Click the Basic data tab and enter currency to be used.
4. Select multiple values and intervals allowed indicator.
 The Multiple values option enables us to enter multiple values of the characteristic in

the release strategy.

 The Intervals allowed will allow us to assign a range of values, example: PR item
value can be between 0 - 1000 USD.

Figure 4: Characteristic Creation (Basic Data)

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SAP Release Procedure for Purchase Requisitions (PR)

5. Save the characteristic.

Similarly create the characteristic Z_WERKS for Plant
To create a characteristic for Plant:
1. Click the Additional Data tab to enter table or field.

Figure 5: Characteristic Creation (Basic Data)

2. Select multiple values. Selecting the Multiple Values option, assigns more than one
plant to release strategy. For example, PR for both plants abc and plant xyz can be set
as value in the release strategy.
3. Save the characteristic.

Create Class and Link to Characteristic

To create a class (to group the characteristics), any name can be used. The transaction code
is CL01- Create Class. The Class Type must be 032.
To create class and link to characteristic:
1. Click the Char tab.
2. Enter the characteristics as shown in the following figure:

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SAP Release Procedure for Purchase Requisitions (PR)

Figure 6: Class Creation

Configure Release Procedures

To configure release procedure, use the menu path IMG > Materials Management >
Purchasing > Purchase Requisition > Release Procedure > Procedure with classification >
Set up procedure with classification. The transaction code used to configure release
procedures is OMGQ).

Figure 7: Release Procedure

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SAP Release Procedure for Purchase Requisitions (PR)

Create Release Groups and Link to Class

To create release groups and link to class:
1. Create two groups AA and AB.
2. Indicate the class; for example, in our case Z_PR. If you want to release PR only at the
header level, select the check box OvRelPReq.

Figure 8: Release Groups

Create Release Codes

To create release codes, create all the release code / group combinations. This signifies from
whom all persons or departments the purchasing document should be released .

Figure 9: Release Codes

Release Indicator
To release Indicator:
1. Create different statuses (indicators) that the PR can be in throughout its processing.
Later link these using statuses. The standard SAP indicators are illustrated in the
following figure:

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SAP Release Procedure for Purchase Requisitions (PR)

Figure 10: Release Indicator

2. Create X (Block) and 2 (Released)

Figure 11: Release Indicator Details (X)

Figure 12: Release Indicator Details(2)

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SAP Release Procedure for Purchase Requisitions (PR)

3. Under the Details section, indicate which documents can be created from this PR. For
Indicator 2, one can create POs and RFQs.
4. Under the changes section, specify how much change in the value is permissible and
whether you have to redetermine the strategy for every change.
5. With Field Selection, define which fields can be changed. This is the same indicator that is
used with document type configuration to make some fields read -only, mandatory or hidden.

Release Strategies - Strategy and Codes

To set up release strategies:
1. Define the following three release strategies:
Group AA / Strategy S1 -- Code L1
Group AA / Strategy S2 -- Code L1 & L2
Group AB / Strategy S2 -- Code L1 & L2

Figure 13: Release Strategy

The settings for AB / S2 are as follows:

Figure 14: Release Codes

10

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SAP Release Procedure for Purchase Requisitions (PR)

Release Prerequisites
For every strategy, you need to define the release prerequisites. This indicates the hierarchy
in which the release codes can release the PR; that is, if one code needs to release before the
other. In this case, level 2 (L2) can release only if level 1 (L1) is released.

Figure 15: Release Prerequisite

Release Status
This is done for every strategy. The screen is dependant on what groups were linked to the
strategy and prerequisites that were set up. In this example:
 if nobody releases it, PR is in blocked status.
 if L1 release the PR, the PR is still blocked.
 if both L1 and L2 release the PR, the PR can be converted to RFQ or PO.

Figure 16: Release Status

Values for Strategies (Classification)

The values linked to strategies are master data (not configuration) and can be set in two
places. It can be done within the configuration itself, by clicking the classification button

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SAP Release Procedure for Purchase Requisitions (PR)

Figure 17: Classification

Or, directly through Transaction code- CL24N

Figure 18: Classification (CL24N)

Both approaches can be used successfully. The advantage of CL24N is that all the
strategies can be viewed easily.
Since for the item value characteristic, the multiple values option is selected, enter multiple
values in USD, RS, EURO and so on.

Set Overall / Item For Doc Type (PR only)

For Purchase Requisitions, there is an option to release either at the item level or document
level. For PO / RFQ contracts, one can only release on header. After creating the groups, we
check the indicators to release it only at the header level.

12

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SAP Release Procedure for Purchase Requisitions (PR)

Figure 19: Release group

On the document, type configuration for PR by using the SPRO- Materials Management >
Purchasing > PR > Define document types menu path.

Figure 20: PR Document type

Create a Purchase Requisition. If the Purchase Requisition satisfies the values of the
characteristics, it will be subjected to release strategy.

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