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Author's profile photo Imran Sajid

SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central Payroll: 1H 2020

I hope you and your loved ones are staying healthy during this difficult time. SAPPHIRE 2020 was  scheduled for a few weeks from today and I will certainly miss meeting and talking to the lovely people of this ecosystem, but I know health and well-being is of the utmost importance. For information on SAP’s response to COVID-19 please read this blog. For our Payroll customers I would highly recommend reading and following our blog for SAP Payroll & SuccessFactors Employee Central Payroll Localizations: COVID-19 Legal Changes monitoring.

If you are interested in learning more about the Core HR Suite for this release see my blog: SAP SuccessFactors Core HR: 1H/2020 Innovation

Many of us are fortunate enough to have our day jobs during this trying time and people must continue to get paid accurately and in a timely manner as businesses continue to run so here are highlights for our first half 2020 release in Payroll.

Suite Integration

The first area of focus is around Suite Integration. While not the flashiest topic, it is an important one we continue to invest in to make the lives of customers easier and strive to be better. All of the functionality in this section is directly from customer feedback.

No-Show

This “No-Show” functionality was delivered in Q4/2019 for SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central (See this terrific blog with explanation) to make it easier to mark employee’s who do not show up to work accordingly and not have any active days in the HR system. When this was requested prior to COVID-19, the intention was based on our customers feedback due to “Ghosting” or when employees accept job offers and then never show up. Given the pandemic, this functionality may be more applicable when someone accepts an offer and is unable to show up.

With this release we extended this to SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central Payroll for better collaboration between HR and Payroll without any manual work. For employers where it was common for people to not show up to work they might run into problems if it was not caught and corrected which potentially results in the no-show accidentally being paid. Now, when HR uses the “Report No-Show” button from the People Profile this will automatically make it so the employee gets marked as Inactive in Payroll and will not be paid.


Figure 1: SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central No-Show

For more information on this feature see the following SAP Help Page.

Employee Central Time: Planned Working Time

This request is one we heard loud and clear from customers and one we have been working on over the last year that we are happy to deliver.

This functionality provides the ability to send planned & temporary working time from SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central Time to Substitutions in SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central Payroll. The ability to leverage substitutions makes it so customers no longer have to maintain and create specific work schedules in Payroll while still being able to provide planned working times to the payroll calculation driver for necessary calculations and logic that require it. For some customers this will significantly reduce their configuration effort while improving their data accuracy by lowering risk of inaccurate time data.

Figure 2: SAP SuccessFactors Planned Working Time

For more information on this feature see the following SAP Help Page

Enhanced Payroll Information Page

A small request from multiple customers who said it would help make their day to day lives easier  was to give them the ability to mark payroll specific data as mandatory and for the system to automatically show if this data has not been entered. This will visually allow them to instantly know if an employee is missing necessary payroll data without having to click into the data.


Figure 3: Payroll Information Page

For more information on this feature see the following SAP Help Page

*Update – Added 05/14/2020*

My colleague Cornelia Storr wrote a great blog about our update to the Improved Payroll Information page in the People Profile that I would highly recommend for additional details

https://blogs.sap.com/2020/05/11/employee-central-payroll-improvement-for-the-payroll-information-page/

Payroll Control Center: Improved Configuration

One area that is very important for us here at SAP SuccessFactors is our Payroll Control Center which is relevant for on premise, cloud, and hybrid customers. Anyone that follows me in this space knows this is an area that I have created a lot of content for and am passionate about it. I have created and recorded many enablement videos to educate people on capabilities. I have written multiple books for further education.

I have written many blogs/articles over the years as well. I created the HRH65 course that teaches how to implement which is available on learning hub and can be consumed in self-paced learning. I have implemented it myself firsthand many times and seen the tremendous value customers can achieve. This is an area we continue to invest heavily in and have a lot of exciting functionality to come and want as many of our customers using as possible.

Over the past few years we made specific improvements such as including our pre-delivered content within our HR Support Packs rather than requiring a separate  add on applied to the system. We made updates to alerts where solution links and more could be defined within configuration of our IMG.

This is a topic I recently had a spirited conversation with Jarret Pazahanick and Steve Bogner on, and ultimately an area we continue to strive for improvement to make it easier for all. With this release we are releasing centralized workbench/dashboard for PCC configuration for processes (Pre-Payroll, Production Payroll, Post-Payroll) and alerts. We made a conscience effort in the workbench to use native language rather than technical speak. For example. rather than a label saying like run-time class we would instead have it as rule logic.

With that background, lets take a look at some specifics.

Centralized Configuration Dashboard

When creating PCC processes the information is now available in a singular workbench (PYC_CONFIG_WORKBENCH) which will make it easier to configure. Previously, this consisted of multiple activities in the IMG and going to different places and having to put together the relationships. The user can now define the step template, step specifics, define auto start/confirm, specify amount of employees for parallel execution, & define variants all within the “Steps” tab with additional tabs for other PCC process specifics.


Figure 4: PCC Process Configuration

When defining and creating new PCC alerts the user can define the specifics from the dashboard. After selecting “Validation Rule” the system will show all the existing alerts. When the user clicks one or creates a new one they will have all the details centralized. This includes things such as

  • Basic Information for the Alert (Name, Description)
  • Parameters (Wage Types, Amounts, & More)
  • Alert Details shown when it is triggered (Audit Summary, Master Data Details, Payroll Amount Compare, Wage Type Report)
  • Solutions prompted including the ability to define the link (PA30, EC Portlet, ABAP WDA)


Figure 5: PCC Alert Configuration

Alert Dependencies

We have had the ability to “filter” alerts, however the feedback we received is that this was not straightforward and needed to be improved. With this release we have added the ability to create alert dependencies. An example would be if we had two alerts:

  1. Gross Pay Over $
  2. Pay Variance over %

There would be cases where someone gets a large bonus that would trigger both alerts. This would artificially inflate the total alerts since the same data caused both to be triggered. Now, we can put a dependency in place so if one exists, the other will not be triggered. Ultimately this will give a more accurate reflection to the end user and reduce effort.


Figure 6: PCC Alert Dependency

We continue to look at enhancements to make this easier going forward including additional enhancements planned for the H2/2020 release which I look forward to writing further about and I am always open to hearing from the ecosystem.

For more information on this feature see the following SAP Help Page

Where can I find more Information?

Here are additional resources for those interested in learning more about SAP Payroll solutions

Thank you for taking the time to read and I hope you and your loved ones remain safe.

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      30 Comments
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      Author's profile photo Malyadri Garimella Jwala
      Malyadri Garimella Jwala

      Thanks for the update always

      Author's profile photo Imran Sajid
      Imran Sajid
      Blog Post Author

      Your welcome Malyadri Garimella Jwala. Appreciate the comment sir.

      Author's profile photo Sankarsan Dey
      Sankarsan Dey

      Thanks @ Imran Sajid ..given us the details inside ..Do you have planned SP details on this by which SAP and SF will be delivered?

      Author's profile photo Imran Sajid
      Imran Sajid
      Blog Post Author

      Your welcome Sankarsan Dey! These changes are delivered in HR Support Pack 80. I have updated the blog to reflect this in the "Where Can I find more" information section"

      Author's profile photo Sankarsan Dey
      Sankarsan Dey

      Thanks Imran.

      Author's profile photo baladeba behera
      baladeba behera

      Thanks for Sharing Sajid.

      Author's profile photo Imran Sajid
      Imran Sajid
      Blog Post Author

      Your welcome baladeba behera. Thanks for the comment

      Author's profile photo Heaven Gong
      Heaven Gong

      Thanks for sharing~

      Author's profile photo Imran Sajid
      Imran Sajid
      Blog Post Author

      Your welcome Heaven Gong! Have a great one

      Author's profile photo Lalit Singh
      Lalit Singh

      Quite detailed and nicely written. Thanks for sharing.

      New enhances are quite exciting and make processes more streamlined.

      also, thanks for putting all information and link at one place.

      Author's profile photo Imran Sajid
      Imran Sajid
      Blog Post Author

      Very much appreciate the kind words Lalit Singh! We are glad that you like the new updates and appreciate the feedback! Looking forward to a lot more innovation coming in the next release!

      Author's profile photo Niihaan Raajput
      Niihaan Raajput

      Very helpful and informative, and thanks for always sharing the info Imran!

      Author's profile photo Imran Sajid
      Imran Sajid
      Blog Post Author

      Thank you Niihaan Raajput! You are very welcome and I am glad you found it helpful.

      Author's profile photo Abdelfattah JARRAR OULIDI
      Abdelfattah JARRAR OULIDI

      I appreciate this

      Author's profile photo Imran Sajid
      Imran Sajid
      Blog Post Author

      Thanks for the comment Abdelfattah JARRAR OULIDI. I am glad you liked the blog

      Author's profile photo Roland Christen
      Roland Christen

      Many thanks Imran for the great article. As I am used to from you, an excellent, informative and easy to read article.

      Especially the changes in the configuration will surely make (implementation) life much easier. It's just a pity that the changes will not be available until mid-May 2020. Can't wait 😉

      Author's profile photo Imran Sajid
      Imran Sajid
      Blog Post Author

      Thanks for the comment and kind words Roland Christen! I agree there is some good good stuff that can simplify customers lives and improve configuration as well as end user processes! Thanks again for your comment!

      Author's profile photo Kenneth Moore
      Kenneth Moore

      Imran, all great improvements!

      I would like to see a step to process Time Evaluation in the PCC.  Our process is to always run Time Evaluation prior to payroll.  Currently, this step is done outside of PCC.

      Thanks,

      Kenneth

      Author's profile photo Imran Sajid
      Imran Sajid
      Blog Post Author

      Thanks for the comment Kenneth Moore! Thanks for the feedback which I will take and make part of our internal discussion.

      Author's profile photo Imran Sajid
      Imran Sajid
      Blog Post Author

      Hi All,

      I got a question on another forum that I thought would be worth sharing here and is relevant for existing PCC customers.

      Question: "For the new PCC configuration dashboard is there an impact for existing customers who are already using PCC"

      Answer: This new dasjboard does not change the existing configuration as the underlying config tables are the same. It provides a new centralized view that makes it easier to configure going forward and can be used. The only change will be the additional alert dependency functionality outlined in the blog.

      Regards,

      Imran

      Author's profile photo Nathan Sinnathurai
      Nathan Sinnathurai

      Hi Imran,

      Thanks for the great blog, was a nice read.

      Does this mean that customers wlll need to ugrade their HRSPs to Level 80 - is there no way to use the newly introduces functionalities in this release otherwise? i.e. by implementing the note on an individual basis.

       

      Author's profile photo Imran Sajid
      Imran Sajid
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Nathan,

      For these items highlighted. this functionality it is a significant amount of development that was too much for an individual or few notes. It will require HRSP 80.

      Regards,

      Imran

      Author's profile photo Nathan Sinnathurai
      Nathan Sinnathurai

      Thanks Imran,

      Its good to know so, when doing an impact analysis with the customer – we should advise that these new releases are only available if we apply SPs.

      Will we be able to take a look at and test any changes in preview instance once the required HRSP has been applied?

      I have requested an SP upgrade for version 608 in from SAP – and they have advised they can only go up to 79. Is HRSP80 in a planned state for release – if so when is it?

      Thank you,

      Nathan

      Author's profile photo Imran Sajid
      Imran Sajid
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Nathan,

      Yes you will be able to configure and test these changes in HRSP 80. This was just released today so you should be able to follow up and have it applied to the system now.

      Here is the link to the schedule --> https://support.sap.com/en/release-upgrade-maintenance/maintenance-information/schedules-for-maintenance-deliveries/hrsp-schedule-EHP8.html

      Regards,

      Imran

      Author's profile photo BALASUBRAMANIAN AP
      BALASUBRAMANIAN AP

      Good and informative blog...

      Author's profile photo Imran Sajid
      Imran Sajid
      Blog Post Author

      Thank you very much sir

      Author's profile photo Sadasiva Vallambhotla
      Sadasiva Vallambhotla

      Hi Imran,

      Thanks for the detailed blog. It is really nice and helpful. I have a quick question about PCC - Is it mandatory to connect VPN to use PCC functionality from Employee Central? Appreciate your feedback on this.

      Regards,

      Siva

       

      Author's profile photo Imran Sajid
      Imran Sajid
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Siva,

      No VPN is required to use PCC from within Employee Central. Just need to get the configuration setup and assign the roles.

      Regards,

      Imran

      Author's profile photo Sadasiva Vallambhotla
      Sadasiva Vallambhotla

      Hi Imran,

      Thank you for the response. We have been using PCC from Employee Central by connecting VPN successfully  but however when we disconnect VPN, we are getting 404 error message on the screen (xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.com’s server IP address could not be found). Kindly check and suggest. Thank you.

       

      Regards,

      Siva

      Author's profile photo Imran Sajid
      Imran Sajid
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Siva,

      Hmm I am not sure what this may be. Is this with an on-premise payroll system behind a firewall or something? If that is the case then it may have a different behavior than what happens in our data center (ECP) which is accessible from the internet. You may need to find out if your payroll system is accessible at all without a VPN based upon your settings.

      Regards,

      Imran