Lesson 1 of 5
Workflow concepts
8 min
Most business documents in SAP S/4HANA can be saved by one person and used immediately. Some cannot. A purchase order above a spending limit, a manual journal entry to a sensitive account or a supplier invoice that does not match its order should be seen by a second person first. A workflow is the mechanism that routes such a document to the right people, waits for their decision and then lets the process continue or sends it back.
SAP S/4HANA has two generations of workflow. The classic SAP Business Workflow has existed since the R/3 days: developers model workflow definitions in the Workflow Builder, and purchasing has its own classification-based release strategies. The newer flexible workflow, introduced with SAP S/4HANA 1709 for purchasing documents and since extended to many other areas, lets a business process expert define approval rules in a Fiori app without programming. This course is mostly about flexible workflow, because that is where SAP is investing and where key users can change the rules themselves.
The building blocks: learn them once, read every scenario
| Term | What it means | Contoso example |
|---|---|---|
| Scenario | The SAP-delivered template for one document type, such as purchase order approval. It defines which conditions and recipients are possible. | The purchase order approval scenario |
| Workflow | A set of rules a key user creates inside a scenario in a Manage Workflows app. A scenario can hold several workflows. | "POs for plant 1710 above $25,000" |
| Start condition | When this workflow applies to a document. | Company code 1710 and total net amount greater than 25,000 USD |
| Step | One approval (or other task) in the workflow. Steps run one after another. | Step 1: purchasing manager. Step 2: plant controller |
| Step condition | An extra condition that decides whether a step runs at all. | Step 2 only if the amount is greater than 100,000 USD |
| Recipient | Who gets the task: a named user, a role, or a team found through responsibility rules. | The purchasing manager for purchasing group 001 |
| Exception handling | What happens when an approver rejects or the step cannot complete. | Reject ends the workflow and the PO stays unreleased |
| Deadline | An optional time limit after which the step is flagged as overdue. | Two working days |
- Document savedA buyer saves PO 4500002210 for 600 rotors CMC-RTR-200 at $48,000
- Workflow selectedThe system checks each active workflow's start conditions in order and picks the first match
- Step 1 runsA task appears in the purchasing manager's My Inbox
- DecisionApprove moves to the next step; reject ends the workflow and the document stays blocked
- ReleasedAfter the last approval the document is released and can be output to the supplier
Order matters
Inside a scenario, workflows are listed in a sequence, and the system uses the first workflow whose start conditions the document meets. Put the most specific rules at the top and the general ones below. If a key user adds a hypothetical general workflow, "all POs above $10,000" (not Contoso's policy), and lists it above "POs for plant 1710 above $25,000", the second workflow will never run, because every document that meets it also meets the first. In the purchasing scenarios, a document that matches no workflow at all is generally released automatically, so a missing or mis-ordered rule does not cause an error message. It quietly removes the control. Check the scenario documentation for your release before relying on this behavior.
Who maintains what
The work is split between IT and the business. IT activates the scenario, completes the technical workflow setup and, for purchasing, switches flexible workflow on per document type in Customizing. After that, a key user or business process expert with the right business role maintains the workflows themselves in the Fiori apps: Manage Workflows for Purchase Orders, Manage Workflows for Purchase Requisitions, and similar apps in other areas. Recipients defined as teams are maintained in Manage Teams and Responsibilities. A rule change made in an app is still a change to a control, so it needs the same review and testing as any configuration change.
What would you do?
Contoso's process owner Dan asks why a $40,000 purchase order for plant 1710 was released without any approval, although a workflow for "plant 1710 above $25,000" exists and is active. What do you check first?
- Flexible workflow lets key users define approval rules in Manage Workflows apps without programming.
- A workflow has start conditions, one or more steps, step conditions, recipients, exception handling and optional deadlines.
- The first workflow whose start conditions match is used, so order the list from specific to general.
- A missing or mis-ordered rule usually fails silently by releasing the document.
- IT activates scenarios; key users maintain the rules, and every rule change needs review and testing like any other configuration change.
Check your understanding · not graded
Lesson check
1. What decides which flexible workflow applies to a purchase order when several are active?
2. What is a step condition?
3. In which app does a key user maintain approval rules for purchase orders?
4. Why is a mis-ordered workflow list risky?