Symptom
- After implementing a payment approval workflow that involves multiple steps of approval, the 'Reject' option is unavailable for the second approver in the "Approve Bank Payments" app once a payment batch reaches them.
- 2nd Level Approval is not able to Reject one individual Payment. The option of “Set Reject” is grey out.
- 2nd Approval is not able to Reject one Payment, can only “Return” the Complete Batch.
Environment
SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition
Cause
It is the standard behavior that the 'Reject' button is not available for the second step and higher-level approvers.
Reason for that decision is, that all the approvers should approve the same and complete object (in that case Payment Batch). If e.g. 2nd approver will remove 1 payment, it means, that the 1st approver was approving different payments then the finally approved Payment Batch.
Resolution
When a payment document reaches the second approver, the only options available are to 'Approve' or 'Return' to the first approver.
If modifications are needed, the payment batch should be returned to the first approver. The first approver can then modify the payment batch and pass it again for next approval, or reject the payment batch.
For example the possible approach is:
1st Approver Approves Batch 100 (with Payments X, Y, Z)
2nd Approver wants to remove some of payments, he/she will return Batch 100 to the first approver with comment, "please remove payments X and Y".
1st Approver has the Batch 100 back in his/her workflow with comment, to remove payments X and Y, 1st Approver will remove payments X and Y and sends Batch 100 for next approver with just payment Z
2nd Approver Finally approves Batch 100 with payment Z
Keywords
Payment Approval, Second Approver, Reject, Approve, Return, Payment Batch, Business Communication Management, Approve Bank Payments, Set Reject, grey, out, 2nd, 3rd, 4th step of payment approval, return, batch, 1st, approver , KBA , FIN-FSCM-BNK-2CL , Direct Bank Communication (Public Cloud) , FI-FIO-AP-2CL , Fiori UI for Accounts Payable (Public Cloud) , Problem