2978270 - Cannot Close/Cancel/Update an Approved Document - Copy To is Grayed Out / Not Available

Symptom

When you try to either Close or Cancel or Update a document, one of the following errors is retrieved:

• Cannot close documents awaiting approval  [Message 3622-8]
• Cannot cancel documents awaiting approval  [Message 3622-7]
• Cannot update documents awaiting approval

Also, the Copy To button option is grayed out or not available.

On the document header it reads Document Update [Approved].

Reproducing the issue

Prerequisites:

1. An approval procedure is set up for User X, for instance Sales Orders.
2. The checkbox Enable Updating the Document Generated/Updated by Approval Process is selected in Administration → System Initialization → General settings → BP tab → Approval Process section.

Scenario:

1. User X creates a sales order with an item with Unit Priceof 100, as a consequence the approval process is triggered.

At this stage, the document is saved with the status: Sales Order - Draft [Pending].

2. The Authorizerapproves the document.

At this stage, the status of the document is changed to: Sales Order - Draft [Approved].

3. User X logs in to the database and adds the approved draft. The final document as created, the status of the document is Sales Order - [Approved].

The document is updatable, the Copy To button is active and the sales order can be copied to target document:

[img] [/img]

4. User X now changes the Unit Pricefrom 100 to 90. As a consequence, a new approval process is triggered.

At this stage, the status of the original sales order is changed to: Sales Order - Document Update [Pending]. The document is not updatable, also the Copy To button is grayed out. It is correct as it is "locked" by the new approval process.

At the same time, there is a new draft created that is waiting for the approval. It is visible from the Approval Status Report:

- Sales Order no.:5 was added, its Status is Generated

- A new draft exists for this document, it is visible in the Document Draft No. column. The Status is of this new draft is Sales Order - Draft for Document Update [Pending].

[img] [/img]

5. The Authorizerapproves the new draft document.

At this stage, the status of the original sales order is changed to: Sales Order - Document Update [Approved].

Note that the Unit Price is still showing the old value 100 and the Copy To button is still grayed out.

It is because the change was approved but not yet executed on the original sales order. To apply the change, go to the next step.

[img] [/img]

6. To apply the approved change on the original sales order and "unlock" the document, User X needs to go back to the approved draft.

Note that draft's Status is changed from Sales Order - Draft for Document Update [Pending] to Sales Order - Draft for Document Update [Approved] and the Unit Price is 90 on the document.

User X clicks on the Update button. The approved change is now applied on the original sales order.

[img] [/img]

7. As the change was applied on the original sales order, its status is changed to Sales Order - [Approved], the Unit Priceis updated to 90 and the document can be copied to the target document:

[img] [/img]

Cause

Functionality description

Solution

To find the documents in this scenario, please do the following:

1. Run the Approval Status Reportfrom Administration → Approval Processes → Approval Status Report for Approveddocuments only. You should see an entry with Document No.: number of your document, and this row has also an entry in the Document Draft No. column.
2. Click the orange arrow of the Document Draft No.The system opens a document with the status Sales Order - Draft for Document Update [Approved].
3. Click Update. The approved change is applied on the original sales order and you are able to process the document.

Additional Information:

In step 5 of the above scenario, if the change is not approved but rejected, the sales order will be changed to Sales Order - Document Update [Rejected].

In this case, the original sales order will be "locked" by this rejected draft. To "unlock" the document, please refer to the Solution part of the SAP Note 2385219, Not Approved (Rejected) section.