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Source Line: SAP AG.

FIGURE 5-13 Display Roles screen in SAP

Managing authorized usage can be one of the most complex tasks in an ERP system.
The joke in the world of authorizations is “If you’re doing your job, we’re not doing ours.”
It may be a challenge to provide users with the proper authorizations in a timely manner,
but most companies take the position that it is better to err on the side of caution, by
taking a little longer to grant the right level of authorization, than to give users too much
authority quickly.

Tolerance Groups
As another way to make sure employees do not exceed their authority in financial
transactions, companies using an ERP system can set limits on the size of transaction an
employee can process. In the SAP ERP system, this is done using tolerance groups. As you
learned in Chapter 2, tolerance groups are preset limits that define transaction limits.
Tolerance groups are used to set limits on the dollar value for a single item in a document
as well as on the total value of the document. Just as importantly, they are used to set a
limit on payment differences. For instance, suppose a customer has been invoiced for
$1,005 but accidentally sends in a check for $1,000 to pay the invoice. The cost of

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