Hard Stop audit rule for duplicate expense type entries

[praveenrajkr]

We have an expense type called Internet Charges, which can only be claimed once per calendar month. We would like to implement a hard‑stop audit rule that prevents users from submitting this expense type more than once whether as separate line items or within itemizations.

Is it possible to enforce this using an audit rule? Would the Duplicate Transaction Variance feature help achieve this?

[KevinD]

@praveenrajkr Here is a rule I created in a training site. I used Training Books as the expense type, but you would just swap that out for Internet Charges. You would also need to add conditions to account for the entry being an itemization. Are you pretty familiar with writing audit rules?

[praveenrajkr]

Thank you, Kevin. This approach works when the expense type appears across multiple reports; however, it may not function correctly when the same expense type occurs within a single report.

[KevinD]

@praveenrajkr I just did a test and you are close in your statement, but it is the opposite. My rule looks at expenses on the same report and flags them. I'm trying to test out a rule that will look across expense reports, but not having any luck at the moment.

[Meena_K]

Hi @praveenrajkr, 

I agree with @KevinD last response regarding applying a hard stop for multiple expenses on the same report and flags them. However, when the expense type appears on different reports, the behavior is different. Once the first report containing the Internet Charges expense type is submitted, the system will hard stop the user when they attempt to save a second report that also includes the Internet Charges expense type.

Kindly test and let us know if it solves the issue.

Thanks,

Meena

[PoojaKumatkar]

Hi @praveenrajkr ,

Based on the information below, I believe Duplicate Transaction Variance would meet your requirement. The solution suggested by @KevinD  is also valid; however, if you feel it may not work as expected, you can consider the following alternative.

Duplicate Transaction Variance | SAP Help Portal

If this answers your query, then please mark solution as accepted.

[praveenrajkr]

Thank you, Kevin, Meena, and Pooja, for the suggestions. Our requirement is to prevent users from submitting an internet charge more than once for the same month. Kevin’s solution works as expected when there is already a submitted expense for that month, as it prevents a second submission. However, it does not work when the same expense type is entered on two different entries or line items within the same report.

To address this scenario, I tried using the duplicate transaction variance. While it does detect the duplicate, the system appears to retain the hard stop in memory or cache and does not allow the user to proceed even after the entry has been corrected and re-saved. The only workaround that currently works is to completely delete the line item and recreate it.