Pre-Movement Reservation Approval
Approve reservations before stock moves — stop unauthorized issues at the source.
What problem does it solve?
In standard SAP, reservations can proceed without approval; checking after the stock movement is already too late, and unauthorized issues slip through unnoticed. There is no control point in the process.
How does the solution work?
Conforcus's reservation approval solution introduces an approval step — absent in standard SAP — before the goods movement. A reservation cannot become a stock movement until it clears the defined approver.
What changes in practice?
The approval step is built on the reservation document. When a reservation is created, the approval workflow starts and the document goes to the defined approver, who approves or rejects it based on the material, quantity and requirement details on the reservation. A rejected reservation returns to the requester. When a warehouse user tries to post a goods movement with reference to the reservation, the system checks the approval status and blocks the posting if approval is not complete. Control thus moves from a review carried out after the movement to an approval point before it.
For the warehouse team the rule is simple: stock is issued against an approved reservation and not otherwise. An unauthorized issue stops being a problem noticed after the fact, because the movement cannot be posted in the first place. Requesters follow on the document whether their reservation is still waiting for approval or has been approved. For internal audit, who requested the stock and who approved it, and when, is on record behind every stock issue, and a retrospective review can trace from the movement back to the reservation and from the reservation to its approval.
Benefits
- Unauthorized stock issues prevented before the movement happens
- Reservations can't proceed without clearing a defined approver
- A clear control point and traceability over stock movements
Where it sits in SAP
Integrated with MM reservation and goods movement processes; uses a custom approval workflow on the reservation and blocks movements that aren't approved.
Who it is for: Logistics & Warehouse Manager, Operations Lead, Internal Audit
Frequently asked questions
Does waiting for approval hold things up when material is needed urgently?
The rule is the same in urgent cases: a reservation cannot become a stock movement until it clears the defined approver. For that reason, who the approvers are and which reservation goes to whom are decided during implementation with the pace of operations in mind. Since it is clear who is holding a reservation that awaits approval, following up an urgent request is also easier.
Do the standard reservation and goods movement processes change?
The reservation and goods movement processes remain in use; the solution adds an approval step, absent in standard SAP, that works together with them. A custom approval workflow runs on the reservation, and the approval status is checked when the goods movement is posted. A movement attempted against an unapproved reservation is blocked.
How is the approver determined, and can we see afterwards who approved what?
Approvers are defined during implementation, and the workflow routes the reservation to the relevant approver by rules based on the company's organizational structure. Each approval is recorded with who gave it and when. This creates a clear control point over stock movements, and in a retrospective review the approval behind a movement can be shown.