SAP Knowledge Base Article - Public

1748523 - Purchase Order Approval Task Is Unassigned

Symptom

You define the Approval Process with Work Distribution Rule as Approval by Reporting Line Unit Manager and Order a new Purchase Order. System fails to find the Approver for the approval task of the Purchase order.

Environment

SAP Business ByDesign

Reproducing the Issue

  1. Go to the Application and User Management Work Center.
  2. Navigate to the Approval Processes View.
  3. Select the active Purchase Order Approval Process.
  4. Check the Work Distribution: Approval by Reporting Line Unit Manager maintained for the purchase order approval process.
  5. Go to the Purchase Requests and Orders Work Center.
  6. Select New Purchase Order.
  7. Fill in all the mandatory details.
  8. Select Order button.

Cause

System fails to find an approver to a Purchase order due to any of the Below mentioned cases:

Case 1: Employee is not assigned to a Reporting Line Unit: The creator of the purchase order is not assigned to any org unit.

Case 2: Reporting Line Unit to which the employee is assigned does not have a manager.

Case 3: The Manage My Area Work center is not assigned to Reporting Line Unit Manager or does not have the proper authorization to approve the PO.

Resolution

Follow the below steps to get the approval task assigned with an approver:

Case 1: The purchase order is created by a service agent who is not assigned to any org unit. Follow the below steps to hire a service agent:

  1. Go to the Personnel Administration Work Center.
  2. Select the Regular Tasks View.
  3. Under the Hiring section, select the Hire Service Agent as Employee link.
  4. Select the value help of the Service Agent field, where the service agent is missing.

Case 2: Assign manager to the Reporting Line Unit to which the employee is assigned.

Case 3: Assign the Manage My Area Work center to Reporting Line Unit Manager.

Keywords

Purchase Order, Approval Process, Task, Approver, Reporting Line Unit Manager , KBA , AP-POP-PO , Purchase Order , How To

Product

SAP Business ByDesign all versions