Successfactors BIZx module is a complete HCM solution in the cloud, but one thing was lacking in Successfactors universe was in house Payroll.
Since SAP HCM has one of the best payroll solutions in terms of functionality (supporting more than 60+ country versions), robustness and stability, It was imperative that Successfactors reused the SAP Payroll ie integrate with SAP HCM system to make itself complete HCM solution in the cloud, instead of developing it from the scratch which would have taken years.
Hence Employee Central Payroll was born. First of all, Employee Central is what is PA/OM or Core HR we would call in SAP HCM world along with ESS, MSS and HR self services. Hence if customers moves to Employee Central (EC), we call this full cloud and EC becomes system of record.
This distinction is important to make at the outset so we can differentiate the roles of the two disparate HCM solutions. This implies no actual hiring, firing or master data changes are done directly in ERP HCM system once it integrates with EC (this is recommended), although if you do direct changes in ERP HCM system it would be overwritten by replication once EC data flows into the system through BOOMI
Below architecture diagram shows EC integrating with SAP HCM system, Now then there is also a nuance between EC Payroll and On Premise Payroll.
Lets clarify this before we explain the architecture.
EC Payroll is a system given by SAP to Core Cloud customers (for example) who never had HCM footprint to run the Payroll, But large customers who already had ECC (HCM) footprint and wants to leverage their ECC (possibly for other modules), integrate their HCM On Premise with EC by taking advantage of the Cloud innovations.
Below are salient differences, although not exhaustive
| EC Payroll | EC On Premise Payroll |
|---|---|
| Hosted By SAP | Customer own ERP HCM system and hosted internally or by third party |
| To run Payroll and other tax activities* (can change in future to include more functionality) | Typical HCM solution and used for other HCM sctivities, No restrictions as per license |
Support Package upgrade done by SAP Payroll Operations matching the SFSF release (refer the Service Catalog for responsibilities Employee Central Payroll – SAP Help Portal Page ) | Customer Basis Team is responsible |
| Latest Support Package | Customer defines the Support Package Strategy |
| No OS(operating system) Level Access | OS level access |
SAP ERP on premise payroll prerequisites:
- Refer section 2, 3 and 4 in Employee central EC ERP Hand book for ERP System set up. - Install SAP add-on's on SAP ERP system and install HR related and Non HR related SAP Notes in SAP ERP.
- SAP ERP Central component 6.0 and SAP BASIS 700 SP 18 and higher version are required.(Changes with functionality needed due to mashup screens and Payroll Control Center)
- Enable OData communication in Employee central.
- Customer IT needs to open up the HTTPs Endpoint via 443 port to make sure that SAP ERP web services are accessible from BOOMI middleware (data Integration) and EC (payslip mashup)
- SAP ERP 6.0 EHP6 system is required to use Pay slip UI and must be replicated from EC to ERP using the add-on PA_SE_IN.
- Payroll Control Center is available in EHP7 or as an add on to EHP6.
Now coming to the below diagram, an robust and stable integration engine is needed to send Payroll relevant data to EC Payroll system or On Premise system henceforth we can call this ERP HCM system, for this BOOMI(by Dell) and now HCI (HANA Cloud Integration) are being provided which what we call replicates the master data etc to HCM system using Iflows. EC and HCM are both SAP solutions now which makes it easier to be integrated seamlessly
Iflows are standard delivered Integration content by SAP to integrate EC with ERP HCM system, Currently for full Cloud scenario, We have below standard iflows delivered to cover different scenarios for ERP HCM integration, there are other iflows also, for third party integration
ie
Employee Central Integration – SAP Help Portal Page
Replicating Employee Master Data from Employee Central to SAP ERP
Organizational assignments replication plus generic replication of organizational objects (including custom objects)
Replicating Absence Data from Employee Central to SAP ERP
**We have also seen customers developing their own iflows too to meet their custom requirement.
BOOMI Uses Compound Employee API for querying the changes in an elapsed time period and OData API for alert framework(confirmation message back from ERP HCM to EC) i.e. to update the Data replication monitor in EC to inform if the data was successfully updated in the infotypes for the employee or not. Below diagram will make it clear.
As you see there is a scheduled replication process, Schedule of this process is configurable i.e. for example say every 5 to 10 minutes which means any changes (masterdata, Organisation data or time data) done in EC in last and every 5 minutes would be picked by this BOOMI process and sent to ERP HCM system using webservice etc which is done in SOAMANAGER configuration as mentioned in the EC Payroll Implementation guidebook Employee Central Payroll – SAP Help Portal Page . Data is sent as shown in above diagram.
Schedule Replication for regular execution
Create an own Environment in the Boomi Atom Management.
Assign your Atom to the Environment
Deploy your process to the Environment
Schedule the Job Execution for the deployed process
Also, We have encountered lot of customer queries on Payroll Lock and Correction, Let me explain this :
- If payroll is locked in SAP for payroll process, how does the interface handle that?
If the payroll is locked for a payroll area, the replication of those employees will fail. Those failed employees are shown in the replication monitor in EC as failed employees. If necessary, those employees can be forced to be replicated also in the lock period via manual triggering of replication out of the error monitor (corrections can be triggered for those employees also during payroll lock period). After releasing the payroll area again you can select all other employees in the payroll error monitor to trigger missing updates. Advantage: In EC changes to employees are not locked during payroll processing.
Payroll Correction Phase also, employees will not be updated and hence needs to be manually re-triggered via Data replication Monitor or a rule can be written in EC to automate these employees similar to locked Payroll area which is delivered as standard.
For Troubleshooting, using Data replication monitor in EC and SLG1/SRTUTIL in ERP HCM system.Once replication hits the ERP HCM system, it creates a log in transaction SLG1 that describes the processing messages and will give any master data issues if it failed
Also, If there is no SLG1 log or SRTUTIL log, probably the error is from BOOMI side or Compound Employee API side and then BOOMI Process logs or the API Audit log in EC can be checked for troubleshooting
Transaction SLG1 can be used for further issue tracking (Object PAOC_SF_PA and Subobject EE for master data replication as an example):
Another point to explain is webdynpro screens in EC for some country specific scenarios which can be activated, Payslip is a webdynpo application reused here. UI Mash up is a portlet available in EC. Data from backend system is made available through the UI for display and edit. Mashup Screens doesnt use BOOMI as it directly updates the infotypes.
There are further many points to explain,i did try to condense lot of information here which are enquired on regular basis by many customers. In next blog, I would cover more topics in detail for OM and Time data, I would highly recommend to refer the guides for further reading.
We delivered Max Attention services to maximise the potential of your Employee Central Payroll Implementation at many large customers. Please contact us if you need further information on how you can leverage these services for the smooth and successful implementation.
Interested to hear how SAP MaxAttention can help Successfactors implementation in your company? We're happy to help! Email us at sapinnovationzone_coena@sap.com
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