Managing Delivery Approval

Introduction

In some countries, approval must be received from a governmental agency before any transportation can start. In M3 BE, deliveries can be activated for an approval process wherein, the delivery note cannot be printed before the 'Approved' feedback is received from the authorities and registered in M3 BE. The delivery note is an essential transport document that gives information about goods to be shipped.

Data required for the approval and the feedback from the government are maintained in 'Delivery Approval. Open' (MWS418) and 'Delivery approval log. Open' (MWS419).

Related options and API transactions support the approval process.

Limitations

Approval activation 1 and 2 are only compatible with closing point 2 and auto level 3.

See Basic Settings for Dispatch Policy.

Dispatch policy

The dispatch policy in program 'Dispatch Policy. Open' (MWS010) is set using parameter 'Delivery Approval Activation' (GVPR). The field indicates if approval is necessary for the delivery. If activated, the delivery note will not be printable before approval has been received.

Alternatives:

  • 0 = Not used
  • 1= Mandatory approval - digital only
  • 2 = Mandatory approval, digital or manual

Alternative 0 means that no approval is necessary.

Alternative 1 means that digital approval from a legal government portal should be received. This alternative is suitable for a BOD-integrated solution where the process of the approval would be managed by integrations using API transactions.

Alternative 2 means that approval from a legal government portal must be received before the delivery note can be printed. The approval can be received digitally or be performed manually.

On the delivery head in 'Delivery. Open Toolbox' (MWS410), the parameter as specified above is retrieved. A delivery approval status (GVST) is also maintained to keep track of the progress of the approval. The different statuses are:

  • 00 - Not used
  • 10 - Active, not performed
  • 20 - Active, request pending
  • 30 - Rejected
  • 80 - Manually approved
  • 90 - Approved

The delivery approval activation setup, together with the delivery approval status, determines if the delivery note can be printed.

The data required by the government agency is maintained in (MWS418).

  1. From the delivery, use related option 77 to start (MWS418). You can also start (MWS418) directly.
  2. In (MWS418), create a record for the delivery where necessary data can be saved (driver, vehicle, and identification numbers provided by the legal authorities).

The logs for possible errors, incorrect formats, missing information, and integration issues are maintained in (MWS419). By using sequences, it is possible to create multiple logs on the same date and time. The logs include information describing, for example, the reason why an approval has been rejected.

Related options

In (MWS418) a set of related options are available to manage the approval progress.

  • Option 11 calls (MWS419) where error logs can be recorded.
  • Option 12-'Request approval' can be used when all necessary information has been gathered, and the delivery is ready for departure. Requests can only be performed when the delivery progress status (PGRS) is 50 as it should be performed as late as possible in the dispatch flow. The approval status will be raised to 20. That can trigger the emission of a shipment delivery BOD that can be routed to an external application responsible for communicating with the local agency.
    Note: Progress status 50 is a prerequisite for triggering a BOD integration.
  • Option 13: Reset approval. The approval status will be set back to 10.
  • Option 14: Reject approval (only valid for alternative 2). The approval status will be set to 30.
  • Option 15: Manual approval (only valid for alternative 2). The approval status will be raised to 90.

A set of API transactions are available for integration to other applications. These are:

  • MWS418MI Approve. The approval status will be raised to 80.
  • MWS418MI Reject. The approval status will be set to 30.
  • MWS418MI ManualApprove. The approval status will be raised to 90.
  • MWS418MI BODMIDelLines to retrieve sales amount for a customer order delivery line in transaction currency and local currency.

Approval

When a delivery is activated for approval, printing the delivery note is allowed only when the delivery approval status is 80 or 90.