The procurement process in SAP needs to be controlled by introducing authorizations at important stages. This is taken care by the release strategy, which has different codes for assigned users. For example, if the value of a PO is more than a certain pre-defined limit, then it has to be approved by the SCM manager with a certain release code. Every company will have different approval mechanisms and the release strategy can be defined by the users.

Release groups are a set of release codes that are used for authorizing a purchasing document or approving a release strategy. Release code is a 2-character ID that allows a person to approve or clear a PR or a PO and they are controlled by a step-by-step authorization system. For example, Code 10 is assigned to the person who creates the PO, Code 20 is the release code assigned to the Purchase manager for approval. Subsequently, the Department Head will use Code 30 to approve the release strategy, followed by the Operations Director, who will use Code 40 for final approval.