Customization Tools:

Approval Processes
SAP Business One
Version 10.0

PUBLIC
Objectives

Objective:
 Describe the business process flow when an
approval process is used
 Set up an approval process in SAP Business One
 Explain the status of a document during an approval
process and how updates to documents pending
approval are managed
 Discuss the special requirements for writing a query
for an approval procedure

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Business Scenario

 In order to control costs, the company now requires all internal purchases
and expenses over a certain limit to be approved by a manager before they
can be processed.
 Solution: Define an approval procedure. If the value of the document
exceeds the limit, the approval procedure will automatically block the
document until it is approved or changed.

Purchase Goods Outgoing

A\P Invoice Payment
Order Receipt PO

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Basic Approval Workflow
Originator

Yes
Approval
needed? raft
D
Approval Process
No
Add
d t
Ad men No
ocu Approved?
D
Access and
Yes Modify Draft

Yes
New
Approval
Approval
needed?
Process
No
v ed
o
pr ent d t
[Approved] p
d A cum Ad men
d
A Do ocu
D
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Setting Up an Approval Process

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Activation

General Settings
 Approval process functionality is enabled in the General Settings
 Once enabled, you cannot disable the functionality if there are active approval templates
 Checkbox to enable approval process for DI API
 Additional checkboxes permit updating generated documents and/or documents still awaiting approval
 A user defined as an originator, cannot disable approval procedure process

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Approval Templates and Stages
Approval Stages Approval Template
To set up an approval process you define approval
stages and approval templates:

 Approval stage is a list of named authorizers who

can approve a document at the same level First level
approvers Originators
 Approval template combines the originators, the
documents, the criteria for approval, and one or
more approval stages Documents
Approval
 The stages are separate from the approval Stages
template and you can reuse approval stages in Second
other templates
level Criteria
approvers (Terms)
 You can define multiple approval templates for
different sets of users and/or documents, and with
different criteria.

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Approval Process Authorizations

Permission to define approval

process stages and templates is
set by General Authorizations

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Setup – Approval Stages
Administration > System Initialization >Approval Process >
Approval Stages

 All approvers must first be defined as users in SAP Business One

 Include more than one user in a stage to allow for staff absences.
Specify a minimum number of approvals for the stage
 Stages can be combined in any order to create a multi-stage
approval procedure. When you combine stages, make sure the
same user is not in multiple stages

If you define more than one approver

for a stage, you can set the minimum
number of required approvals or
required rejections before the approval
process moves to the next stage

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Setup - Approval Templates
Administration > System Initialization >Approval Process > Approval Templates

Originators tab
 Specify the users who are subject to
approval when they create certain
documents

 Only users specified here are subject to

approval process

 User cannot modify approval template if

selected as an originator in the template

 The approval process also applies to an

originator who runs the Document
Generation Wizard

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Setup - Approval Templates

Documents tab
 Select the documents that require approval
(when created by the originators)

 The approval will apply to every instance of

the document if it meets the approval terms:
 Sales and purchasing document types
can be selected in one template;
however you will need to create separate
approval templates if the terms or
approvers are different
 Cannot combine marketing documents
with inventory, payment, internal
requisition, blanket agreement or
inventory counting transaction document
types in same template

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Setup - Approval Templates

Stages tab

 Include the predefined approval stages

 The sequence of the stages in the template

is the order for a multi-level approval
process

 You can rearrange the sequence by clicking

the row and using the arrows

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Approval Templates – Terms Tab

Approval criteria:

 Always (no terms)

 Predefined terms (vary according to selected

document types)

 User queries

Note: Predefined terms operate only on the header

level of a document, not on the row level. For
example: discount and total appear on each row as
well as on the document header, but the approval
template only considers the header fields

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 Using Predefined Terms

 Select an operator (greater than, less than, equal, etc.) and enter value
 Select range (In range, Not in range) and enter range from low to high, separate by hyphen

Predefined Ratio Value

Term
 Multiple predefined terms
Total 500
Greater than evaluated using “or” logic
Less than
Quantity Equal 5-200  Approval process will
Doesthan
Greater not equal
apply if just one of the
LessInthan
range
Not in range
Equal predefined terms is met.
Does. . not
. equal
In range
Not in range
...

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Activating an Approval Template

 The Active checkbox is set by default:

- Deselect if you want to set up the template
now and activate later
- You can also deselect to deactivate an
existing approval process (make sure all
documents are approved)

 The Active when Updating Documents Not

Generated by Approval Process checkbox is also set
by default:
- It covers the condition whereby an originator
updates a document that did not originally go
through an approval process
- If the checkbox is selected, a new draft is
created, and an approval process will be
triggered if the update causes the document to
now meet approval criteria

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Managing the Approval Process

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Document Status During Approval Process

Request for
Status[Draft Pending] Approving Document
Generation

Status [Draft Approved]

Status [Approved]
Originator adds Document
draft document to Generation
system Approved
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Monitoring an Approval Process
Originator view

Approver view

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Canceling an Approval Process

An approval process can be

cancelled using the Approval
Status Report.

If needed, it can be restored using

the right click option, or via the
Data menu
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Summary of Document Statuses
Document Status Comment
Draft [Pending]  Document is in approval process

Draft [Approved]  Document was approved but has not yet been saved by
originator
Draft [Rejected]  Document was rejected by approvers. It can be updated
by the originator. If it still meets approval criteria another
approval process will be launched.
Draft [Canceled]  Document in approval process was canceled by originator
or approver. The draft cannot be added or updated.
[Approved]  Document was approved and saved by originator. It
cannot be updated by originator unless checkbox set in
General Settings
Draft for Document Update [Pending]  Originator updates a document that was not previously
approved, and now meets criteria for an approval process
Draft for Document Update [Approved]  Draft for Document Update was approved and can be
added.
Draft for Document Update [Cancelled] • Draft for Document Update was cancelled
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Document Numbering and Draft Keys

 A draft document number

is assigned to a document
when it is saved as a draft, Draft number 727
pending approval
 Since the originator can
continue to work on other
documents, the actual
document number can
change when the
document is finally added
to the system after
approval

Actual number 728

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 Document Updates During Approval Process

A document in the approval process can be accessed from the Document Drafts Report
 Safeguards are in place to prevent an originator/ authorizer from updating a document with [Draft Pending],
[Draft Approved] or [Approved] status
 Checkboxes in the General Settings control updates to documents with these statuses:
 Updating an approved document is only possible if the checkbox Enable Updating the Document Generated/Updated
by Approval Process checkbox is set
 Updating a [Draft Pending] or [Draft Approved] document by the originator is only possible if the checkbox Enable
Originator to Update the Document Draft in Pending/Approved Status checkbox is set
 Updating a [Draft Pending] document by the authorizer is only possible if the check box Enable Authorizer to Update
Document Draft in Pending Status

General Settings

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Multiple Approvers in a Stage

Time
Example: minimum number of approvers
is 1
Jane Approve 
John Reject 

Result: Since only one approval is required for the

stage, the rejection is ignored and the document is
approved and can be added to the system

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Multiple Approvers in a Stage (Cont.)

Example: minimum number of approvers Time

is 1
Jane Reject 
John Approve 

Result: document held pending until another

approver responds

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Print Preferences

 Print preferences can be set on a per document basis for a document that is in the approval process
 Can prevent document being exported, printed or faxed

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Using Queries in Approval Processes

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Using Queries as Terms

Terms Tab:
 Saved user queries can be added to approval
templates
 Queries can be used instead of, or together
with predefined terms
 Allows you to develop customized approval
scenarios

Example:
We want an approval process for item type purchase
orders over 500 AND service type purchase orders over
250.

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Combining Predefined Terms and Queries

Terms Tab
 When predefined terms are combined with a
query, the approval process will start if just
one of the conditions is met – evaluated using
OR logic

In the example, an approval process will start if

 Document puts budget over 500
Or
 If document meets the conditions of the query

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Query Syntax for Approval Procedures

A query used in an approval process has special requirements: Active Window

 It references the current document in active window
 To refer to a field in the active window, you must include a $ sign
in front of the field with square brackets
 Query must use SELECT DISTINCT ‘True’
 Query cannot reference row level fields

SELECT distinct 'true' from OPOR T0 where

Example: Approval for purchase ($[OPOR."DocType"] = 'S' and CAST($[OPOR."DocTotal"] as
orders with: DECIMAL) > 250)
 Service type AND total > 250 OR OR
 Item type AND total > 500
($[OPOR."DocType"] = 'I' and CAST($[OPOR."DocTotal"] as
DECIMAL) > 500)

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Queries for Multiple Document Types

If multiple document types are selected in the

approval template, the query must be able to
work with the multiple similar document types

Use the item number and column syntax

instead of the table and field name syntax:

$[$Item.Column.0]
$[$Item.Column.Number]
$[$Item.Column.Currency]
$[$Item.Column.Date]

In this syntax a second $ sign is added before

the item number. The column number is
always 0 since the query can only reference
header fields

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Active Window Query Examples

View > System information

Item and Table and
Column Field Name Ctrl +Shift+I
Number

[... Item= ## Column= ## …. Table Name, Field Name] Row=1 Status

StatusBar
Bar

Table and field syntax Item number and column syntax

$[Table Name. Field Name] $[$ Item Number. Column Number.0]

.Number]
SELECT distinct ‘true’ FROM OPOR T0 SELECT distinct ‘true’ FROM DUMMY .Currency]
WHERE WHERE .Date]
$[OPOR."DocType"] = ‘S’ and $[$3.0.0] = ‘S’ and
CAST($[OPOR."DocTotal"] as DECIMAL) > $[$29.0.number] > 250
250

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Testing a Query for Approval Procedures
Active window
Tools > Queries > User Queries > Category Name >
Query

To test query, keep document

in the active window and run
the query from the Tools menu

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Key Points

Key points from this topic:

 Approval processes can be established for sales, purchasing, inventory and payment documents.
 To set up an approval process, enable the functionality, then define approval stages and approval
templates. All originators and approvers must be SAP Business One users.
 To create a multi-level approval procedure, combine multiple predefined stages in the approval
template.
 In the approval template, you can select one or more predefined conditions, and/or select a saved user
query.
 Safeguards are in place to prevent documents from being updated after approval or while pending
approval. Checkboxes are available to permit these actions. You can also trigger approval processing
when an originator updates a document that was previously added without need for approval.
 An approval process can be cancelled by the originator or approver.
 Queries used in approval procedures reference the current document in the active window and must
select a true response. To use the same query with multiple document types of the same structure, use
the index and column syntax.

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