Fixing IDocs Not Being Automatically Processed in SAP S/4HANA

What used to involve running a TCODE to automate inbound IDOC processing has gotten a little more involved in S/4HANA 1610. I’ll go through the steps to get this working for you.

The Issue

During an S/4HANA implementation when working on the EDI integration I got to the step where inbound IDOCs were getting stuck in the dreaded yellow status 64. Usually this is fixed with T-Code OYEB, to activate event linkage for inbound IDocs:

Only this time, when I brought in new IDocs into the system, they were STILL stuck in the undesired yellow status 64.

SEARCHING FOR A SOLUTION

After seeing the following error message in SWU3, the transaction for Automatic Workflow Customizing:

I was able to track down the issue in an SAP Note:
2568271 - Change of workflow system user and workflow system jobs with S/4 Hana OnPremise 1709

The key points are:
• Workflow system user is now SAP_WFRT (previously it was WF-BATCH)
• Workflow system job names start with SAP_WORKFLOW*
• Workflow system jobs are now scheduled automatically by 'Technical Job Repository' (T-Code: SJOBREPO)

RESOLUTION

We created the user SAP_WFRT and ensured it had the correct roles and authorizations assigned for the inbound business processes we needed to execute via EDI and IDocs. This then allowed me to run the Automatic Workflow Customizing functionality (T-Code: SWU3).

With these changes made, the IDocs started flowing green again, and we were able to setup and configure SAP Workflow to help the business in the management of IDoc errors.

This issue impacts those that are involved with:
a) New installation S/4HANA
b) Upgrading from an older SAP release to S/4HANA OnPremise 1709 or higher

Hopefully this is something that SAP permanently fixes in a future S/4HANA release.