Offline Approval

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Created on June 16, 2014
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Table of content
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Table of content
1 Offline Approval
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1 Offline Approval

Approvers of shopping carts can process work items without logging on to the SAP Supplier Relationship Management (SAP SRM) system. The system can
send work items by e-mail so that users can process them in their Microsoft Outlook mail client.
Note
The work items that are selected for offline approval remain in the approver's Universal Worklist (UWL) until the reply e-mails containing the decisions are
received and processed by the SAP SRM system. If the work items have since been processed online, the system ignores the reply e-mails.
Prerequisites
In the Customizing activity Change Organizational Plan (transaction PPOMA_BBP), you have set the attribute FORWARD_WI to 'X' for all users that are to
use the offline approval function.
Alternatively, users can set the attribute by maintaining their user settings in the SAP SRM application under Personalize SRM User Settings . In
the Personal Data area, on the Position tab page, select Flag: Forward Work Item from the Attributes dropdown box. Select the Yes radio button for
Forward Work Item .
Using the User Maintenance transaction (SU01), you have entered the following:
The e-mail address of the system user WF-BATCH
The e-mail addresses of all users that are to use the offline approval function
Features
E-Mail Settings
You can use report /SAPSRM/OFFLINEAPPROVALSEND to define settings for the e-mails that the system sends for offline approval. These settings can be
specified for certain tasks, business objects, or work items. You can, for example, set the message frequency to be one e-mail per work item.
Note
To ensure that the e-mails are generated with the correct hyperlink, follow the instructions described in SAP note 1502282.
You can also do the following:
Define whether e-mails are sent in HTML or plain text
Choose whether approval pushbuttons should be displayed in the e-mail
Note
If you choose Not Available in the report, the recipient cannot approve or reject the document offline but must use a link to log on to the SAP SRM
system to process the work item there.
Choose whether the e-mails contain a short text (work item text) or a full text (task description of the workflow task)
Choose the e-mail language
Select whether a print version of the document and other document attachments is to be attached to the e-mail
Define a standard notification text
Define that only work items created after a certain time or created by a certain user are to be considered
Note
This function is only available if you start the report manually. If a periodic run has taken place before you start the report manually, it is possible that e-
mails are sent again that had already been sent during the periodic run.
Enter the return address of the e-mails. The return address must be identical to the recipient address in SAPconnect.
Choose whether you want to encrypt and/or digitally sign e-mails when you send them. For more information, see SAP note 149926. In the method
APPEND_TO_SUBJECT of Business Add-In Connect External Security Proxies to SAPconnect (SX_SECURE_EMAIL), you can specify the information that
the mail system needs for encryption and digital signatures.
Outbound Processing
You use the Business Add-In (BAdI) Customer Enhancement of Offline Approval (BBP_OFFLINE_APP_BADI) for outbound processing. For more information,
see the BAdI documentation in Customizing for SAP SRM under SRM Server Business Add-Ins Business Workflow Process-Controlled Workflow
Customer Enhancement of Offline Approval .
Offline Approval by the Recipient
The approver can use a link to log on to the system directly and process the work item online. Depending on the settings made in report
/SAPSRM/OFFLINEAPPROVALSEND, the e-mail can also contain two pushbuttons used to approve or reject offline. The decision then applies to the entire
decision set, that is, the approver cannot decide individually for each item. When the approver chooses one of the pushbuttons, the system sends a reply e-mail.
Note
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If the approver wants to add an approval note, he or she must do so before choosing the Approve or Reject pushbutton.
Caution
It is possible to forward the e-mail to third parties. However, we do not recommend doing so. Provided that they have valid system logon data, other recipients
can also use the link contained in the e-mail to log on to the SAP SRM system. For security reasons, the SAP SRM system only accepts reply e-mails from
the e-mail address of the original recipient.
Inbound Processing
You use SAPconnect for inbound processing. For more information on SAPconnect, see SAP Help Portal at http://help.sap.com SAP NetWeaver Library
SAP NetWeaver by Key Capabilities Application Platform by Key Capabilities Platform-Wide Services Connectivity Communication Interfaces for Mail
and Telephony SAPconnect (BC-SRV-COM) .
To activate inbound processing, go to transaction SO50 and create an entry with the following data:
Communication Type : Internet Mail
Recipient Address : valid e-mail address to which reply e-mails from approvers are to be delivered
Exit Name : /SAPSRM/CL_OFFLINEAPP_INBOUND
Note
The following roles must be given to the SAPconnect user for offline approval:
/SAPSRM/EMPLOYEE
/SAPSRM/OP_PURCHASER
When the system receives a reply e-mail from an approver, the specified class ( Exit Name entered in transaction SO50) is used for processing. The work item
ID, status, and the decision of the approver are evaluated. The system only processes reply e-mails from a sender that is identical to the recipient of the
corresponding notification e-mail. If the document is locked when the e-mail is received, or if immediate processing fails for any other reason, the reply e-mail is
forwarded to the SAP Business Workplace inbox of the user who is assigned to the specified address.
Note
The processing parameters in inbound processing can be overridden using the BAdI Customer Enhancement of Offline Approval
(BBP_OFFLINE_APP_BADI), method RECIPIENTS_GET CHK_SENDER_IND_SET.
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