Purchase Requisition (PR) is an internal purchasing document in SAP R/3.

It is u sed to give notification to responsible department (purchasing/procurement) of r equirements of materials and/or external services and keep track of such require ments. PR must contain information about quantity of a material or a service and the required date. It can be created directly (manually, through ME51N T-code) by a person or indir ectly by another SAP component (such as material requirement planning/MRP, maint enance order of Plan Maintenance/PM module, production order of Production Plann ing/PP module). PR then can be processed to be an external purchasing document (such as Purchase Order/PO) or internal purchasing document (such as Stock Transport Order/STO). In SAP R/3, PR can be processed directly to be PO/STO or must be approved/releas ed before it can be processed to be PO/STO. If we want that PR must be approved/released before it can be processed to be PO /STO, we must set up a release procedure for that PR.

The first thing to do in setting up a release procedure for a PR is to decide wh ether we will approve/release that PR for: u2022Overall PR

If we release a PR, all items in that PR will be released and then can be proces sed to be PO/STO. If we donu2019t release it, none of its item will be released nor can be processed to be PO/STO. Or,

u2022Item-wise

We must release item per item of a PR in order to make them ready to be processe d to be PO/STO. If we donu2019t release some of PR items, the other items can be released and processed to be PO/STO.

In an SAP R/3 client, all PRs with a particular PR Document Type can use just on e of the above options. If we have more than one PR Document Type, we can set so me of them use u201COverall PRu201D release procedure and others use u201CItem-w iseu201D release procedure, depends on our business process needs. We can set the option in the process u201CDefine Document Typeu201D of Purchase Requisition that can be accessed by u201COMEBu201D T-code (only in SAP 4.6.C ver sion or older) or through menu paths of u201CSPROu201D T-code: Materials Managem ent u2013 Purchasing u2013 Purchase Requisition u2013 Define Document Type, as p er below image:

The above image is SAP AG 2010. All rights reserved If we want that a PR Document Type use u201COverall PRu201D release procedure, w e must tick the u201COverall release of purchase requisitions (OverReqRel)u201D indicator. If we donu2019t tick that indicator, it means that PR Document Type w ill be released with u201CItem-wiseu201D procedure. The next thing to do is determining the criteria/parameters of PR that must be a pproved/released by specific person. For example: PR of raw material that has value less than USD 50,000.00 can be released by ope rational manager. PR of that item that has value USD 50,000 or more must be appr oved by operational manager and operational director. PR for production equipmen t must be approved by Asset Manager and operational director, whatever its cost. In SAP R/3 there are two release procedures that we can choose: 1.Release Procedure without classification

This procedure can only be used for u201Citem-wiseu201D. It canu2019t be used fo r u201COverall PRu201D. The criteria that can be used with this procedure to dis tinct the PR approval processes are limited to: PR item value, material group, a ccount assignment, and plant. We canu2019t use this procedure if we want to dist inct the PR approval process by other criteria such as Purchasing group, documen t type, storage location, or something else. The only reason we should use this procedure is its simplicity. But if we want m ore flexibility in determining the PR release procedure we should use the other option. In this article we wonu2019t explain the u201CRelease Procedure without classificationu201D in detail. We will explain the other option (Release Procedu re with classification) in detail.

2.Release Procedure with classification

With this procedure, we can choose whether we want to release the PR for u201COv erall PRu201D or u201Citem-wiseu201D. And the main reason why we should use this procedure is because we can choose more criteria to distinct the PR approval pr ocess. The criteria are not limited to PR item value, material group, account as signment, and plant only. SAP R/3 has provided a communication structure u201CCEBANu201D that we can use t o make criteria/parameters to determine the PR approval process. Each field in u 201CCEBANu201D can be used as parameters. These parameters must be defined in SA P R/3 as a u201CCharacteristicu201D. Some u201Ccharacteristicsu201D that are use d as parameters to determine a release condition for a release strategy can be g roup as u201CClassificationu201D. The fields of u201CCEBANu201D communication structure are: BSART: Purchase requisition document type

BSAKZ: Control indicator for purchasing document type ESTKZ: Creation indicator (purchase requisition/schedule lines) EKGRP: Purchasing group ERNAM: Name of Person who Created the Object ERDAT: Date on which the record was created AFNAM: Name of requisitioner/requester TXZ01: Short text MATNR: Material number EMATN: Material number WERKS: Plant LGORT: Storage location BEDNR: Requirement tracking number MATKL: Material group RESWK: Supplying (issuing) plant in case of stock transport order MEINS: Purchase requisition unit of measure BADAT: Requisition (request) date LPEIN: Category of delivery date LFDAT: Item delivery date FRGDT: Purchase requisition release date PSTYP: Item category in purchasing document KNTTP: Account assignment category LIFNR: Desired vendor FLIEF: Fixed vendor EKORG: Purchasing organization VRTYP: Purchasing document category KONNR: Number of principal purchase agreement KTPNR: Item number of principal purchase agreement INFNR: Number of purchasing info record DISPO: MRP controller BWTAR: Valuation type BMEIN: Order unit KANBA: Kanban indicator BPUEB: Adopt requisition price in purchase order USRC1: User field format character for release strategy USRC2: User field format character for release strategy USRN1: User field numeric for release strategy USRN2: User field numeric for release strategy GSWRT: Total value of item .INCLUDE: Communication Structure: Requisition Release for User Exit PDUMMY: Dummy function in length 1 .INCLUDE: Release Strategy: Account Assignment Fields SAKTO: G/L account number GSBER: Business Area KOSTL: Cost Center VBELN: Sales and distribution document number VBELP: Sales document item VETEN: Schedule line ANLN1: Main asset number ANLN2: Asset sub-number AUFNR: Order Number WEMPF: Goods recipient ABLAD: Unloading point KOKRS: Controlling Area KSTRG: Cost Object PAOBJNR: Profitability segment number (CO-PA) PRCTR: Profit center PS_PSP_PNR: Work breakdown structure element (WBS element) NPLNR: Network Number for Account Assignment AUFPL: Routing number for operations in the order IMKEY: Internal key for Real Estate object

APLZL: Internal counter VPTNR: Partner account number FIPOS: Commitment Item FISTL: Funds Center GEBER: Fund DABRZ: Reference date for settlement PSP_PNR: Work breakdown structure element (WBS element) GSFRG: Overall release of purchase requisitions GFWRT: Total value of requisition for overall release procedure WAERS: Currency Key Every time a user create a PR, SAP R/3 will pass the PR data (value of PRu2019s fields) to the corresponding fields of u201CCEBANu201D communication structure. Then, based on the value in each field that we use as characteristics, SAP R/3 w ill determine which PR release strategy will be assigned to the PR. For previous example: if we choose PR item value and material group as character istics, and the PR item value field (GSWRT) that was entered by user is USD 55,0 00, and the material group is u201Craw materialu201D then this PR must be approv ed by operational manager and operational director.