Release Strategy in SAP MM – Procedure for Purchase Order

What is Release Strategy in SAP MM?

Releasing a purchasing document means approving it. An MM consultant defines release procedures that decide who must approve which documents before they can move further in the procure-to-pay chain. A vast number of options are available to control that release.

Important to know: a purchasing document cannot be changed after it has been released, so only the final version should ever be released. Unreleased documents — RFQ (request for quotation), PO (purchase order), scheduling agreement, and contract — cannot be processed further, meaning an RFQ cannot become a quotation, a PO cannot become a goods receipt, and no invoice verification is possible against it. Process flow:

Release Strategy Approaches

Many different strategies can be defined for different situations. A release strategy can depend on the document type, the purchasing organisation, the purchasing group, or on any other information carried by the purchasing document.

In most cases the most common release strategy is based on the net value of the purchase document. Companies typically stack more approvers on higher spend and let low-value purchases flow through automatically.

SAP MM supports two flavours of release procedure:

• Release procedure without classification — used only for purchase requisitions. Release codes are assigned on the item level based on the field values on the PR.
• Release procedure with classification — used for all external purchasing documents (PO, RFQ, contract, scheduling agreement) and optionally for purchase requisitions. This flavour uses a characteristic (CT04) and a class (CL02) to evaluate any field on the CEKKO communication structure, such as total value, plant, purchasing organisation, or vendor.

Key Components of a Release Strategy

Every release procedure with classification is assembled from six building blocks:

• Characteristic — created in transaction CT04. Points at the CEKKO field to evaluate, for example CEKKO-GNETW for total net value.
• Class — created in CL02 with class type 032 for purchase orders (CEKKO) or 033 for purchase requisitions (CEBAN). The characteristic is assigned to the class.
• Release group — groups strategies that share the same class. Multiple release groups can coexist for different document types or business areas.
• Release code — a two-character key that stands for a specific approver role (buyer, department head, purchasing manager). Authorisation object M_EINK_FRG restricts who can execute each code.
• Release indicator — controls what the document may do next: blocked, released, released with output, or changeable after release. Also decides whether cancellation is allowed.
• Release strategy — the master record that ties one release group, an ordered list of release codes, and one indicator per status together. Classification values on the strategy decide when the strategy applies.

Defining a Release Strategy

Step 1) Define a release strategy that requires manual release for purchasing documents above 100 EUR. For example, a PO worth 50 EUR is autoreleased (no release required for downstream processing), while a PO worth more than 100 EUR needs a release.

To make this work, a characteristic must be specified in the background.

1. Create the characteristic in CT04. Here the NETVALUE characteristic is defined.
2. Set its value to be greater than 100 EUR.

Step 2) Assign the field to the characteristic on the Additional data tab. Field CEKKO-GNETW is assigned to NETVALUE because that field carries the purchase document value.

Step 3) Specify the class that will hold the characteristic. The transaction to do that is CL02. For this class the following must be set:

1. Class name and class type (use 032 for PO, 033 for PR).
2. Description and status.
3. Validity period.
4. Same classification.

Step 4) Assign the characteristic to the class. Here NETVALUE is assigned to a class called REL_PUR.

Step 5) The following steps happen in customising (SPRO → MM → Purchasing → Purchase Order → Release Procedure for Purchase Orders):

• Create release groups (assign them a class — in this case REL_PUR).
• Create release codes (assign them release groups).
• Create release indicators (for example 1-Blocked, 2-Released).
• Create the release strategy itself.
• Assign a release group and release code to a release strategy.
• Define release statuses for the strategy (blocked and released).
• Maintain classification — set the NETVALUE value the strategy will apply to. Setting >100 means every purchasing document with a value bigger than 100 EUR is subject to this release strategy.
• Optionally perform a release strategy simulation to see if it works correctly.

After that, the strategy is set and ready for a live system tryout.

Step 6) The purchase order below is created with a value of more than 100 EUR. If a PO for less than 100 EUR were created, it would be autoreleased.

1. Two statuses show that the PO is in release — it is subject to the release process and must be approved before further processing. The other status indicates the current state: Blocked, meaning it has not been released yet.
2. The value is 24,000 EUR, more than 100 EUR.

Now there is a purchase order that needs to be released (approved) before it is valid for further processing.

Releasing a Purchase Order via ME28

For the actual release of the purchasing document, use transaction ME28.

Step 1)

1. Execute the transaction code ME28.
2. Enter the release code (mandatory) and the release group (optional).
3. Options — keep the defaults as on the screen below.
4. Choose the appropriate scope of the list and purchasing document category. To see only purchase orders available for release choose “F”.
5. Execute.

Step 2) On the next screen the purchase orders selected by the criteria appear.

1. Choose the purchase order to release by clicking on it.
2. Click the Release button.

The status of the purchase order changes to released.

Step 3) In ME23N or ME22N the purchase order shows updated statuses. “Release completed” and “Released” now appear in the PO header data.

Process flow is the same for all purchase documents (RFQ, PR, quotation, etc.).

Cancelling a Release

Step 1) A purchasing document release has to be reversed before an already released document can be changed.

• Use the same transaction ME28.
• Tick the Cancel release checkbox and execute the transaction.

Step 2) A list of purchase documents available for release cancellation appears.

1. Choose the appropriate document.
2. Click the Cancel release button.
3. Save.

Cancelling a release is not possible if the release strategy does not allow the release to be reversed. This is a setting maintained on the release indicator and release strategy level.

A release strategy in use can be inspected by clicking the “Release Strategy” button on the screen above. Output of a strategy can also be previewed with the Simulate release button.

Release Strategy Tables in SAP MM

Release strategy customising is stored in a small set of tables. Knowing them helps with debugging why a document is picked (or not picked) by a strategy:

• T16FC — release codes and their assignment to release groups.
• T16FG — release groups (with the class and class type they point at).
• T16FK — release strategies (header level).
• T16FS — release status sequence per release strategy (which code releases which status).
• T16FT — release strategy descriptions.
• T16FV — assignment of release codes to workflow prerequisite.
• EKKO / EBAN — purchase order header and purchase requisition item tables. Fields FRGKE, FRGZU, FRGGR, and FRGSX carry the current release indicator, release status, release group, and strategy on the document.

Report ME2N filtered by release indicator, or ME29N for individual PO release, are the common day-to-day monitors.

Common Release Strategy Errors and Fixes

Release strategies fail silently more often than they should. The common issues and how to fix them:

• No release strategy found — class or characteristic values do not match the document. Rerun classification with F1 on the strategy field in ME22N, then compare CEKKO values against the strategy’s classification.
• Release code missing authorisation — user is missing authorisation object M_EINK_FRG for the release code and group. Ask Basis to add the correct role.
• Cannot cancel release — the release indicator forbids reversal. Change the indicator setting in customising or wait until the buyer creates a new PO.
• Strategy applied to the wrong document — the class type is 032 (PO) when 033 (PR) was intended, or vice-versa. Move the strategy to the correct class type.
• Changes reset the release — certain field changes (net value crossing a threshold, vendor change) automatically reset an already released document. Configure “Changeability” on the release indicator to control this.
• Workflow does not trigger — standard workflow WS20000075 for POs (or WS20000077 for PRs) is not activated. Activate the event linkage in SWETYPV and the standard task in PFTC.

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