Output Management in Purchase Orders: Your Ultimat...

SivaKumarSeelam · ‎2024 May 30

Welcome to our comprehensive guide on Purchase Order Output Management, where we will give you a detailed insight of the vital processes, navigate through the configurations involved, seamless implementation, and day to day usage. Whether you are a business user who is using the Output management feature for streamlining your output operations or a business expert user setting up the system up the output feature as part of your business process, this blog is your go-to resource for tackling every aspect of Purchase Order Output management. Come along as we explore the ins and outs, address issues, and equip you with the know-how to streamline your Purchase Order Output processes from beginning to end.

There are three different channels for output that is supported – Print, Email and EDI. In this blog we will delve into specifics of Print and Email channel to provide you with a clear understanding of their functionalities while also providing an overview of EDI along with troubleshooting tips.

Details on Output Parameter Determination Configuration

To set-up configure few things in the app Output Parameter Determination. This configuration can be done by following the blog How to configure output parameters for purchase orders

Once the output parameter determination configuration is done, it is possible to send purchase order output to the supplier. At times, it is possible to update the purchase order data and this update has to be sent to configured business partner with a new purchase order output on top of what was sent in the past.

Output Generation in Changed Purchase Order

To send the updated purchase order output, a change output can be sent by following the blog How to generate purchase order output on change of a purchase order?

Enabling Texts to be Displayed in Output

It is also possible to configure texts to be displayed on the purchase order output (say, what data has changed in Purchase Order, what texts to be visible etc.,) by following the corresponding configuration step mentioned in the blog How to enable texts to be displayed on the purchase order outputs?

Form Templates and Email Templates in Output

SAP delivered standard output form templates can be found in Form Templates available for Purchase Order Outputs. Besides, custom form templates and email templates can be designed as per the requirement and use to send purchase order output. This can be achieved by following the blog Configuring Custom Form and Email Templates for Purchase Order Output

Attachments in Output

Purchase Order output management supports sending attachments in output. To send attachments in purchase order output, follow the post How to send attachments in purchase order outputs?

Extensibility in Output

The custom logic's (BAdI's) available for purchase order outputs to implement based on the requirements, are explained in the blog Custom Logic(BAdIs)/Extensibility in Purchase Order Output Management

Preview in Output

Output preview or print preview for purchase order output is explained in blog Output Preview in Purchase Orders with New Output Management Framework

Frequently Asked Questions

Q1. Why are the Outputs not generated?

Ans: There are several reasons for output not creating. Few are mentioned below:

Output is generated only after approval, if flexible workflow is enabled. Please check Approval Status of the workflow from the General Details section in the Purchase Order.
If Purchase Order status is ‘Released/Approved’ or ‘Active’, please check the Output Parameter Determination configuration (OPD). For more details on OPD check here.
If GTS (Global Trade Services) is configured, check if it is blocked.

GTS block is dependent on document type. Below is the one way to path to the configuration to check:

Application Area: Finance
Sub Application Area: Integration with SAP Global Trade Services
General Settings for Integration to SAP Global Trade Services -> Configure Control Settings for Document Transfer

Q. Why are the Outputs in status ‘In Preparation’?

Ans: Output items will be in ‘In Preparation’ if there is any missing configuration. Check the output logs for the specific output to find more about the missing configuration and correct it for the future outputs. Already generated outputs will have to be manually corrected and sent.

Q. Why are the EMAIL outputs not sent?

Ans: Check if the domain is configured for all the recipientandsender email address. Please find more information on email settings in1LQ setup guide. Even after configuring as described in 1LQ setup, if email output is still not received, please verify the recipient email address in the generated output item.

Q. How many output lines will be generated?

Ans: Itdepends on the OPD configuration mainly on unique combination ofreceiver and channel determination steps.  For more details refer Output Parameter Determination and How to configure output parameters for purchase orders.

Q. How many output lines will be generated, if multiple forms are maintained?

Ans: If there are multiple forms maintained in OPD, only the first valid form template per Receiver_Role column in the Form Template determination step in OPD is considered for output.

Q. Why is the Output ended in Error? Why is the PDF not loading and throws error message?

Ans: Check the logs by clicking show message logs button to know if there is any issue with Adobe rendering. If there are no logs found, please check for the invalid characters in any of the text fields in purchase order say, header text, item text etc.

Q. Why are the custom form templates and email templates created are not available to configure in OPD?

Ans: Custom form templates or email templates created should be configured in the SSCUI -102313 (Assign Form Templates) and 101945(Assign Email Templates) respectively to be available for configuring in OPD. For more details on SSCUI check Configuring Custom Form and Email Templates for Purchase Order Output

Q. What are the different expressions available in PO Output and what data is filled for those expressions?

Ans: Below are the two expressions available for email recipients.

Default Email Address – This is used to fill the email recipient in OPD. This value is by default supplier EMAIL ID.
Add email recipients from custom logic- using this expression, Email recipients can be filled based on business logic. When this expression is configured, BAdi “BAdI for Adding Email Recipients” needs to be implemented (with business logic) and fill the email recipients.

Q. Why is the Output not generated for STO Type UD?

Ans: Assign a supplying plant for the supplier in the Supplier master data as shown below.

So, Output will be generated and sent for the supplier. If you don’t want to send it to supplier, please maintain the Dispatch time as Scheduled in OPD configuration.

Q. Which is the default sender email address?

Ans: Default sender email address is fetched from purchasing group. However, OPD will override this.

Custom fields can be created by following the blog how to create custom fields

Q. What are the supported business partners in Purchase Order Output?

Ans: Purchase Order Output can be sent to Supplier(LF), Ordering Address(BA) and Invoicing Party(RS) based on the configuration in Output Parameter Determination.