Configuring and Using Approvals in SAP Business One

When a manager requires an employee to obtain approval before proceeding with a task, it is a safeguard to ensure that appropriate oversight is applied to business-critical situations. For example, a finance manager may require that a purchasing employee obtain approval on any purchase order exceeding $5000. Or a sales manager may require that a sales employee obtain approval on any sales quote with a discount that exceeds 10%. In SAP Business One, there is an automated method to define and apply approvals against specific documents.

Steps in an Approval Process in SAP Business One

• Approvals are set up to control business activity
• When a document is created that requires approval, a draft of that document is saved
• SAP Business One sends a message about the approval to the person who can grant the approval
• If the approval is granted, the draft document is posted, creating a new document
• If the approval is denied, a new document is not created, and the draft still exists
• In either case, a message is sent to the person who created the document, notifying him or her about the outcome

SAP Business One Approval Procedure Set Up

Approval procedures can be defined by system administrators and are set up in SAP Business One through the Approval Template screens and tabs. The Active checkbox must be checked for the approval template to be enforced.

1. From the Originator tab, you specify the users to whom the approval procedure is applied.
2. On the Documents tab, you indicate which document needs approval. You can choose sales and purchasing documents, inventory documents, or outgoing payment.
3. On the Stages tab, approval Stage Setup defines the stage name, description, number of approvals/rejections required, and where administrators define the authorizer and department.
4. On the Terms tab you set thresholds that trigger an approval.

Two reports in SAP Business One are key to the day-to-day use of approvals. The approval status report shows originators the status of their requests for approvals. The approvals decision report shows authorizers all documents that are pending approval. Both reports are options under Administration > Approval Procedures.

How Users Manage Approvals

When approvals are properly set up, there is a built-in process in SAP Business One. Upon a user creating a document that needs approval, SAP Business One sends a message to the authorizer who is required to approve the document. The authorizer can approve or deny the document using the Messages/Alert Overview window, which also contains a link to the document.

Authorizers can also add remarks to explain their decision. As soon as the authorizer acts on the document, SAP Business One sends a message to the originator, so they can move forward or revise their document. SEIDOR customers going through a new implementation of SAP Business One may ask that approvals be set up during implementation.