3279932 - Unexpected / Skipped Approver in Purchase Order Approval Process

You notice that a Purchase Order Approval Task is sent to unexpected Approver which is not following the Approval Process.

Or

An Approval step is skipped even when the condition satisfied.

SAP Business ByDesign

1. Go to the Purchase Requests and Orders work center.
2. Go to the Purchase Orders view.
3. Create a Purchase Order ABC.
4. Navigate to the Approvals tab, there you will notice that the step 1 Approver is X, step 2 Approver is Y.
5. Submit the Purchase Order for Approval.
6. Approver X approves the Purchase Order and the order status is updated to Sent. Step 2 Approval is skipped.

Navigate back to the Purchase Order ABC, to the Approval tab, there you will notice that only step 1 of the Approval Process is showing, step 2 has disappeared.

There can be multiple causes of this behavior, one of which is outlined below.

In Application and User Management work center, in Approval Processes view, in the Purchase Order Approval Process you have scoped Skip Reapproval for step 2.

Meanwhile, in Application and User Management work center, in Substitutions view, Approver Y is substituted by Approver X, with a validity of Active.

Hence when the system is checking the necessity of step 2 in the Approval Process, it notices that the actual Approver should be Y's substitute X, who already approved the Purchase Order in earlier steps. As Skip Reapproval is in scope, the system skips step 2 and triggers the next step Approval (if there are any) or directly sends the order to the supplier (if no follow up approval steps are required).

This is the expected system behaviour.

If you want to stop the system behaving in this way, you can either descope Skip Reapproval from the Approval Process, or deactivate the Substitution for the users according to your business case.

Wrong Approver, skipped step, substitution, Purchase Order, Approval Process. , KBA , SRD-SRM-PRO , Purchase Requests and Orders , How To