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ranjithabalaram
Product and Topic Expert
Product and Topic Expert
1,900
Are you looking to configure automatic posting and recounting of physical inventory documents using Intelligent Situation Automation in SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP)? In this post, I’ll run you through a sequence of five steps that’ll help you set up the situation automation configuration for Physical Inventory Monitoring in your SAP S/4HANA system and SAP Business Technology system.

Refer to this blog post if you’re new to Situation Handling in SAP S/4HANA.

If you are new to Intelligent Situation Automation in SAP Business Technology Platform, refer to this blog post to learn about its features and refer to this blog post to onboard to the service.

Intelligent Situation Automation is now available to try free of charge on SAP BTP free tier.

Once you’ve successfully onboarded to the Intelligent Situation Automation service in SAP Business Technology Platform according to the onboarding guide, follow the steps below to configure automatic posting and recounting of physical inventory documents. Situations can be resolved automatically either by using standard actions delivered by SAP or custom actions. To enable standard actions delivered by SAP, refer to link.

Step 1: Create a Physical Inventory Document in SAP S/4HANA


Log in to your SAP S/4HANA or SAP S/4HANA Cloud system as an inventory manager and open the Create Physical Inventory Documents app under Physical Inventory Management. Choose a material. Choose Create Physical Inventory Documents. Note down the number of the physical inventory document you just created.


Create a Physical Inventory Document



Step 2: Create a Situation Type Based on the Template MAN_PHYSICAL_INVENTORY_MONITOR in SAP S/4HANA


Log in to your SAP S/4HANA or SAP S/4HANA Cloud system as a business process configuration expert and open the Manage Situation Types app under Situation Handling. Search for the situation template MAN_PHYSICAL_INVENTORY_MONITOR, copy the template, and create a new situation type of your own.


Create a Situation Type


Go to the Conditions section and add the filters as shown in the image below. Enter the number of the physical inventory document you created in the Physical Inventory Document filter field.


Maintain Conditions


Also, select all the checkboxes in the Situation Monitoring tab as shown in the picture below.


Maintain Situation Monitoring options



Step 3: Define Situation Automation Configuration for the Situation Type in SAP BTP


Log in to the Intelligent Situation Automation launchpad as a key user. Open the Manage Situation Automation app. You can either copy a configuration delivered by SAP (the Source column displays SAP) and change the rules and conditions or create configuration. Refer to the image of the sample rule below. Refer to this  for creating an automation configuration.


Define Situation Automation Configuration


Define the destination for Post Inventory Difference and Recount Physical Inventory actions as shown in the image below. Refer to link for configuring destinations in SAP BTP.


Define destinations



Step 3: Enter the Inventory Count in SAP S/4HANA


Log in to your SAP S/4HANA or SAP S/4HANA Cloud system as a warehouse clerk and open the Enter Inventory Count app under Physical Inventory Processing. Enter the number of the physical inventory document you created. The fiscal year defaults is the current year. Choose Enter to maintain the quantity of the items in the Physical Inventory Document. Choose Post.


Enter the Inventory Count



Step 4: Trigger a Situation in SAP S/4HANA


Log in to your SAP S/4HANA or SAP S/4HANA Cloud system as a business process configuration expert and open the Manage Situation Types app under Situation Handling. Since the situation template MAN_PHYSICAL_INVENTORY_MONITOR is batch-based, regular jobs will run to detect counted physical inventory documents. For testing purposes, you can trigger the batch job right away. Open the situation type you created and choose Trigger Now. The background process for creating situation instances is triggered.


Trigger a Situation



Step 5: Check the Automation Status in SAP S/4HANA and SAP BTP


Log in to your SAP S/4HANA or SAP S/4HANA Cloud system as a business process configuration expert and open the Monitor Situations app under Situation Handling. Filter for the situation type you created and choose Go. In the Instance Details section, expand the created situation type to see the sequence of activities that are performed (refer to the image below).


Check Automation Status in SAP S/4HANA


Log in to the Intelligent Situation Automation launchpad as a key user. Open the Analyze Situations app. Filter for the situation type you created and choose Go.


Check Automation Status in SAP BTP


Select a situation instance and go to the Situation Instance Details page and check further details, such as automation resolution flow and situation data context.


Check Automation Resolution flow in SAP BTP


Check out the configuration steps video below.


Interested in automating other situation templates?


Check out the link to find the list of supported use cases for Situation Automation.

Where can you find more information?


Exchange knowledge: SAP Community | Blogs

Explore: SAP Product Page | Product Demo | User Guide | Administration Guide

Try Intelligent Situation Automation For Free: Get Started