The workflow for a requisition approval is displayed in the picture below.
Depending on the setting of project default ZR_ADV_APP and the status of the selected requisition, the button is labeled as Approve or Release. The Approve button is only enabled if the login user has the ER APPROVAL privilege assigned. The Release button is only enabled if the login user has the RTP FOR LOGIN DP or the RTP FOR LOGIN AND QUERYABLE DP privilege assigned. With the RTP FOR LOGIN DP granted, you can release requisitions that were created in the discipline you are logged in. With the RTP FOR LOGIN AND QUERYABLE DP granted, you can further release requisitions assigned to any of the queryable disciplines.
If ZR_ADV_APP is set to Y, advanced approval is activated. To release a requisition to procurement (MSCM), three steps are needed:
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Select the RfA (Ready for Approval) check box and save. The Approve button is enabled.
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Click the Approve button to approve the requisition. The label of the button changes to Release.
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Click the Release button to release the requisition to procurement.
If ZR_ADV_APP is set to N, the button is labeled with Release. When you click the Release button, the requisition will be approved and released to procurement in one step, without the need to select the RfA check box before. This means the approval of the requisition cannot be taken back because the requisition is already been released to procurement. Another log file is written, called 'RTP_' + 'sequence' + '.log'.
The ZR_ADV_APP project default is ignored for a requisition that is a candidate for a balance requisition, meaning it was created by an MTO job whose MTO type is assigned to a Balance MTO type. In this case, the button is always labeled with Approve.
You can only approve a requisition if:
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the RfA check box is selected, when ZR_ADV_APP is set to Y,
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the requisition is not yet approved,
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the user has the ER APPROVAL privilege assigned, and
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the user is logged in with the discipline of the requisition.
You can only release a requisition if:
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the requisition has been approved, when ZR_ADV_APP is set to Y,
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the requisition is not yet released to procurement,
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the user has the RTP FOR LOGIN DP or the RTP FOR LOGIN AND QUERYABLE DP privilege assigned,
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the user is logged in with the discipline of the requisition in case only RTP FOR LOGIN DP is granted.
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the requisition is not assigned to a balance requisition,
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the requisition was created by an MTO job that is not assigned to a balance MTO job.
To check whether any line items can be found on a requisition for which the Force RTP check box should be set, you can use the CIPs m_pck_req_custom.check_force_rtp and …set_force_rtp.
In the standard version delivered with the software, these CIPs work as follows:
If the requisition to be approved has line items without changes in quantity in comparison to the previous supplement or with zero quantities in case of the first supplement but with changes in attached attributes, documents or VDRs, you will be informed about this fact if you have missed to set the Force RTP indicator for the relevant line items. You can opt to let the system automatically set this check box for the affected line items, or to ignore this warning and continue the approval, or to abort the approval process.
Line items without quantity changes cannot be placed on any agreement if the Force RTP check box is not selected.
It is up to you to implement any meaningful code for the CIP function check_force_rtp and the procedure set_force_rtp. Depending on the return value of the function, a corresponding alert is shown or not.
When approving a purchase requisition with supplement 0 (zero) and this requisition has not been linked to an inquiry requisition, a corresponding warning appears allowing you to abort the approval procedure and create this link. But you can also approve the requisition without this link.
Before a requisition is actually approved (and released), the procedure behind this button checks if
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the weight unit is filled on all line items,
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the quantity unit for the released quantity is set on all line items,
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the ident is filled on all line items,
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the delivery designation is set on all line items,
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the ROS date is set for all line items that are to be released to procurement (this check is only done for purchase requisitions),
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the Proc Seq (order sequence for procurement) field is set on all line items, in case the project default ZR_PROCSEQ is set to Y,
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the account code can be generated by calling the CIP procedure std_job_id(r_id) from the m_pck_req_custom package.
After all checks have been performed successfully, the Approved by and Approved Date values are set to the username and the current date.
If you have set the project default ZP_MS_TRCK to Y and thus activated automatic milestone tracking, and further defined a corresponding milestone label on P.10.63 Milestone Label Derivs (master table = M_REQS, master table date column = APPROVED_DATE) the actual dates for the milestone planning items will be set (if existing).
To reverse an approval, you must delete the value in the Approved Date field. This is only possible as long as the requisition has not been released to procurement.
Click the Release button to release the requisition to procurement (MSCM). This means in detail:
In the case of requisitions for purchase (Purchase indicator selected), the release context for requisition line items will be taken into account. This means if the release context has been set to 'Shortage Quantities', only line items with a positive increased quantity and with selected Allow RTP check box or selected Force RTP check box will be released to procurement. If the release context is set to 'Surplus Quantities', only line items with negative increased quantity and with selected Allow RTP check box or selected Force RTP check box will be released to procurement. If you have selected 'New Line Items' as release context, all line items that cannot be found on a previous requisition supplement will be released, as long as the increased quantity is positive, and the Allow RTP check box or the Force RTP check box is selected. In all cases, a new requisition supplement will be created automatically. It will contain all line items of the current supplement, with the increased quantity set to 0 (zero) for all line items that have been released by this step. This provides you with the ability to change the release context and then to release, for example, all lines with shortage quantities if you have now released the lines with surplus quantities. Moreover, the increased quantity of all line items that are not released to procurement is set to 0 on the current supplement.
Only when selecting release context 'All Quantities' or 'Changed Quantities', all line items will be released provided that either the Allow RTP or the Force RTP check box has been set. A new requisition supplement will not be created.
For inquiry-only requisitions (Purchase indicator is not checked), the release context is not relevant; it will not be considered. All line items with these characteristics will be released: (1) the increased quantity is not 0 (zero) and the Allow RTP check box is selected or (2) the Force RTP check box is selected.
With the release to procurement of the requisition:
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the CIP m_pck_req_custom.insert_m_reqs(r_id) fills customer specific tables for procurement with the requisition data,
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the current date is stored in the Rel to Proc (release to procurement) field
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the requisition status is set to the status defined as the production status for the discipline of the requisition,
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in case of a requisition supplement greater than 0 (zero), the buyer assigned to the previous supplement will be taken over to the current requisition.