SAP Knowledge Base Article - Public

3213917 - Alternative Approver for Supplier invoice does not Receive Approval Tasks

Symptom

Approval task is not visible for alternative approver of supplier invoice.

Environment

SAP Business ByDesign

Reproducing the Issue

  1. Create, for example, a Supplier Invoice.
  2. Submit for approval.
  3. Log on as the alternative user.
  4. Go to Managing My Area work center.
  5. Go to Approvals view.

The task regarding the created supplier invoice is not here.

Also the alternative user was correctly maintained:

  1. Go to Application and User Management work center.
  2. Go to Employee Work Distribution view.
  3. Select 'Alternative Approver for Supplier Invoices'.
  4. Click in Edit button.

You can see that the rules apply for the Supplier Invoice created.

Cause

The Approval Process is configured directly to 'Direct Approvers'. For this configuration, the Employee Responsible in the approval process is the one that will receive the approval tasks. You can check it by following the steps below:

First, analyze who is the person responsible for the approval task:

  1. Go to Application and User Management work center.
  2. Go to Business Task Management view.
  3. Search for the approval task.
  4. See who is the Person Responsible.

Second, check which is the user maintained in the approval process:

  1. Go to Application and User Management work center.
  2. Go to Approval Processes view.
  3. Select the approval process regarding Supplier Invoices.
  4. Click in View button.

You can see that the information is shown as below:

  • Work Distribution: Direct Approvers
  • Employee Responsible: (The same user that is in the approval task)

Resolution

If you need that the approval tasks are sent to the alternative user, you should update the approval process. Please change the Work Distribution from 'Direct Approvers' to 'Supplier Invoice Approver'.

Also: remember that if it is maintained the multi-step approvals functionality, the alternative approver won't receive the tasks, as explained in KBA: 1788952 - Alternative Approver for Purchase Orders does not Receive Approval Tasks.

See Also

Keywords

Alternative Approver, Approval Process, Task, Business Task Management, Supplier Invoice , KBA , AP-SIP , Supplier Invoice Processing , How To

Product

SAP Business ByDesign all versions