Info-Record-Based Price Approval
Approve the price once on the info record — drop the per-order approval burden.
What problem does it solve?
Material prices are approved separately on every purchase order, creating a needless, repetitive load on approvers and slowing the process down. There's no single control point for price approval.
How does the solution work?
Conforcus's price approval solution moves price approval to the purchasing info record level. Once a price is approved, orders using it proceed without re-approval, significantly reducing the approval burden.
What changes in practice?
The approval workflow starts with a price change on the purchasing info record. When a buyer enters a new price for a supplier and material on the info record, the change goes to the relevant approver, who assesses the price change and approves or rejects it; a rejected change returns to procurement. Once the price is approved, purchase orders that use it are not sent for separate approval on account of price. Price control thus stops being a step repeated on every order and is carried out once, at the point where the price is set.
The approvers' workload changes: instead of a series of order approvals for the same material at the same price, only prices that have changed come to them. A buyer raising an order at the approved price does not wait for price approval, and starts any price update on the info record. With fewer approval bottlenecks, the procurement cycle also moves faster. For finance and category management, who approved a price and when can be followed at a single control point, in the approval record tied to the info record.
Benefits
- Repetitive per-order price approval burden eliminated
- Price approved once by the right person — control becomes clear
- Fewer approval bottlenecks, faster procurement cycle
Where it sits in SAP
Integrated with the MM purchasing info record and approval processes; uses an approval workflow on price changes and reduction of per-order approval load.
Who it is for: Procurement Director, Finance, Category & Sourcing Management
Frequently asked questions
What happens if the price on the order differs from the approved info record price?
The rule is tied to the approved price: orders that use the price approved on the info record proceed without going through price approval again. If the price on the order departs from the approved price, the order falls outside that scope. Which approval such an order is subject to is defined during implementation according to the company's approval rules.
Who initiates a price change, and how is the approver determined?
The price change is made on the purchasing info record, and that change starts the approval workflow. The approver is determined by rules defined during implementation, which can rest on criteria such as amount and organizational structure. The aim is for the price to be approved once, by the right person.
Does control weaken when orders no longer go back for price approval?
What is removed is the re-approval of the same price on every order, not price control itself. Control moves to the info record level and applies again whenever the price changes. With a single control point for price approval, it becomes clearer on whose approval a given price is valid.