SAP Knowledge Base Article - Public

3807007 - Approval Request Not Created Due to Run All Steps Configuration

Symptom

An expected approval step is not executed during a multi-step approval process.

  • The approval status is set to NOT_APPLICABLE.
  • No approval request is created.
  • No approval notification is sent to the expected approver.
  • The approval conditions for a later step appear to be satisfied, but the step is never reached.

Environment

  • SAP Sales Cloud and SAP Service Cloud Version 2

Reproducing the Issue

  1. Configure a multi-step approval process containing multiple approval steps with different conditions.
  2. Disable the Run All Steps option.
  3. Ensure that the business object satisfies the conditions of a later approval step but does not meet the conditions of an earlier step.
  4. Trigger the approval process.

Result

  • The approval process ends with the status NOT_APPLICABLE.
  • Subsequent approval steps are not evaluated.

Expected Result

  • The approval process evaluates all relevant approval steps and executes the step whose conditions are satisfied.

Cause

The Run All Steps setting controls how approval steps are evaluated within a multi-step approval process.

When Run All Steps is enabled:

  • All approval steps are evaluated independently.
  • Steps whose conditions are met are executed.
  • Steps whose conditions are not met are marked NOT_APPLICABLE and skipped.
  • The process continues through all configured steps.

When Run All Steps is disabled:

  • Approval steps are evaluated sequentially.
  • If a step's conditions are not satisfied, the approval process stops immediately.
  • Remaining steps are not evaluated.
  • The approval process is completed with the status NOT_APPLICABLE.

As a result, a later approval step may never be reached even if its conditions would otherwise be satisfied.

Resolution

Option 1 – Enable Run All Steps

If all approval steps should be evaluated independently:

  1. Open the approval process configuration.
  2. Enable Run All Steps.
  3. Save and activate the configuration.
  4. Retest the approval scenario.

This allows the system to evaluate all configured approval steps and execute only those whose conditions are met.

Option 2 – Review Approval Logic

If Run All Steps must remain disabled:

  1. Review the sequence of approval steps.
  2. Verify that step conditions are designed to support sequential evaluation.
  3. Ensure that earlier steps do not unintentionally prevent later steps from being evaluated.
  4. Review any condition ranges and dependencies to avoid gaps in the approval flow.

Additional Information

  • Approval notifications are generated only for approval steps that are actually executed.
  • A status of NOT_APPLICABLE indicates that the approval process did not proceed beyond the stopping point defined by the approval logic.
  • This behavior is consistent with the standard design of the approval framework.

See Also

Keywords

SAP Sales Cloud Version 2, SAP Service Cloud Version 2, approval process, approval step, Run All Steps, NOT_APPLICABLE, approval request not created, approval notification not sent, multi-step approval, approval conditions, approval workflow.
, KBA , CEC-CRM-APR , Approvals for SAP Sales/Service Cloud , How To

Product

SAP Sales Cloud and SAP Service Cloud Version 2 all versions