Hi there,
and Hi Susan :-)
the PFAC has problems, when BOR instances are involved (and it can't work with OO instances at all): The container isn't somewhat made persistent and so the instance isn't effectivly transported into the rule and behaves different from the processing, when it was called by the SAP Workflow Runtime.
What I usually do is, to provide a separate input container element for the rule, where the object key can be given with a plain character field. If that's filled, the rule-FM uses swc_create_object to instantiate it.
When I look back at my findings there, it's no wonder that the PFAC can't work with an untyped BOR instance, when it already has problems with the typed one.
Apparently that /OPT/-Rule could be badly designed, when it uses untyped instances.
However, in your case, SD, I'd suggest to go for a quick'n'dirty report, that creates the rule container and executes the rule with an instance. You could then use the instance key as one of the report's parameter.
There's also a function module to execute rules, when you had the rule-ID, but here I'd suggest that you directly call the rule's underlying Function Module.
Best wishes
Florin