Release (Approval) Procedure in SAP MM

Use

You use this component if you wish to set up approval procedures for purchase requisitions or other purchasing documents. Under such a procedure, if a purchase requisition or external purchasing document fulfills certain conditions (e.g. the total order value exceeds $10,000), it has to be approved (by the cost center manager, for instance) before it can be processed further. This process of approving (clearing, or giving the "green light" to) a proposed item of expenditure is replicated in the SAP System by the "release procedure".

It is sensible to define separate release procedures for different groups of materials for which different departments are responsible, and to define separate procedures for investment goods and consumption goods.

Features

Each person involved in the release procedure effects release (signifies approval) via a release transaction, using his or her release code. Once effected, a release can also be cancelled with the same code (that is to say, the original status is reinstated).
If linkage to SAP Business Workflow has been defined for a release code, rejection is also possible (only for requisitions however).

Which Documents Can be Released (Approved)?

Release procedures can be defined for the following documents:

* Purchase requisition

* The external purchasing documents purchase order (PO), contract, scheduling agreement, request for quotation (RFQ), and service entry sheet

Release Procedure for Purchase Requisitions

Two different procedures are available for requisitions:

* With classification

With this procedure, requisitions can be released both at item level (i.e. item-by-item) and in total. The latter approach is also termed "overall release".

* Without classification

With this procedure, requisitions can only be released at item level.

The two procedures are mutually exclusive (that is to say, you must decide in favor of one of them only - you cannot use both).

Release Procedure for External Purchasing Documents

External purchasing documents (i.e. purchasing documents other than requisitions) are released at header level. Item-by-item release is not possible. These documents can only be released using the release procedure with classification.