Contract Term Approval Flow on Publishing

[justinlalonde]

Hello,

I'm trying to determine if for a item level no release contract term (re: contract based invoice) there is a way to build an approval flow that is only triggered when there is a change in the maximum limit of the contract term.

Thanks in advance

[melissametropol]

Hello Justin,

You will need to create an approval rule on the active requisition approval process that calls additional users as approvers specific to contract limits. Additional approvers cannot be applied to the contract request approval flow; rather, they are only added to the approval flow of requisitions that use funds from the contract. So this doesn't apply directly to no-release order contracts.

Specifying the additional approvers on a release-order contract is not enough to link them to a release requisition's approval flow. An approval node, such as the following, must be added to the active requisition approval process.



The approval rule must be defined with the action template Add Approvers If Requisition LineItems Breach Contract Limit, which states that the additional approvers outlined on the contract should be added in cases where a contract limit is breached. Set the field path to the contract as LineItems.MasterAgreement for the parameter configuration for this rule.

Limits for release-order contracts are enforced during the ordering process. Depending on the type of limit, purchasing users who either select a catalog item associated with a contract or who directly create a release order against the contract will experience the following:

• Users receive a warning message but are not prevented from ordering the item(s). In Ariba Buying or Ariba Buying and Invoicing, additional approval nodes are added to the requisition.
• Users receive an error message and are prevented from adding their item to the order or shopping cart.
• Ariba Buying and Ariba Buying and Invoicing: Users do not receive an error or warning message, but additional approval nodes are added to the requisition.

Depending on whether the contract limit is a minimum/maximum, soft/hard limit, the additional approvers may be added as watchers rather than active approvers.

Cause

Some commonmisconceptions related to the additional approvers functionality include the following:

• Users specified within this section are added as approvers on the contract request when the document is submitted.
• Users specified within this section are added as approvers on every release requisition created against the contract.
• Users specified within this section are added as approvers automatically to release offending release requisitions, without needing to create an additional approval rule within the active requisition approval process.

Additional Information

Please refer to the Ariba^? Procurement and Invoicing Solutions Managing Contract Compliance guide for more information on how the limits configuration determines the behavior that end-users experience when breaching contract limits on a requisition.