Hi Everyone! Hope you and your loved ones are staying safe and had a good summer. It is already October which means it is time for the 2nd Half SAP SuccessFactors 2020 release! I would recommend checking out our “What’s New Viewer” to take a look at the full release notes and get into all of the details for everything we are delivering!
In terms of release management and roadmap in case you missed it, check out all of the terrific content available on-demand from SuccessConnect. This includes deep dive roadmap presentations. For information on how to access those from within SuccessConnect, see this post from my colleague Chloe Nguyen on the SuccessFactors Community. For Payroll you can watch my presentation with the latest updates and upcoming innovations! We are excited about our Payroll roadmap.
In the area of Managing and Paying People (I was the Track lead) we have 5 roadmap presentations that are all available on demand.
The updates in H2/2020 will be available in Support Pack 86. You can visit our Support Pack Release Schedule for more information.
Now let’s take a look at the H2/2020 release for Payroll!
Starting with one of my favorite topics! Within our Payroll Control Center we have a handful of updates which I am happy to share and before you ask, yes these are also available for SAP ERP HCM Payroll customers!
The first item is one that comes directly from customer feedback based upon how they audit payroll and the information they would like to be able to see it. This is one we had a long conversation with a customer in a handful of workshops around our Audit Trail. Once we analyzed and vetted this we found this was a desired request for many customers. This update makes it extremely easy to see the Key Performance Indicator (KPI) for past periods to clearly see the historical values. Users are also able to group, sort, and filter the analytics history as well as download it into excel (For the record this is always asked for, but I am not in favor of downloading data to excel!)
For more information see this topic in the What’s New Viewer.
A request we have heard is that while a large majority of Payroll alerts are employee specific, this is not always the case. Prior to this update the column header for alerts was fixed to be employee, however some organizations want to look at different types of data such as payroll area, cost center, financial posting information etc. so we are providing flexibility. This is applicable for the different Applications that have this header: My Alerts, My Processes, & My Teams.
For more information see this topic in the What’s New Viewer.
A very important step in Payroll is taking the results and sending it to Finance in the form of posting documents. With this release we are providing the ability to run a posting simulation with test payroll results that can be used with PCC pre-payroll monitoring. This will allow end users to find issues that may be going on with posting to FI earlier in the process and make it so there will be no surprises on the day you are running Payroll. This will help Payroll administrators have more lead time to clear up issues such as closed cost centers, posting amounts not balancing, and more. Many times, these types of issues are signs of a larger problem (Ex: Missing configuration for a new wage type) and the earlier you can catch it and fix it the better.
For more information see this topic in the What’s New Viewer
In my H1/2020 Release Highlights blog for Employee Central Payroll I wrote about our new Centralized Configuration Dashboard that was designed to make the PCC easier to implement by pulling most aspects of the configuration into one central place. With this release we have enhanced the configuration of payroll alert solutions to be more dynamic and easier to setup by allowing parameters within a solution to be configured with flexible values.
To be clear on what I am referring to, when you have a payroll alert you always define a “Solution” which tells the end user how to resolve that alert. To use my previous example, if you have an alert for a payroll control record in an incorrect status then the solution is to go to PA03 and fix it. Another example for an Employee Central Payroll customer who has a large pay variation then the solution may be to go to the employees People Profile within Employee Central and fix it. For an on-premise customer the solution may be to go into an ABAP WebDynpro application or PA30 WebGUI for someones Basic Pay record (IT8) to resolve it. Different alerts and different customers have different solutions and in some cases one alert might have more than one solution as shown below.
With this additional flexibility you can configure one solution parameter for a PA30 WebGUI and then use the new functionality to route different alerts to different infotypes (IT8/IT14/IT15) thus reducing the work across alerts.
For more information see this topic in the What’s New Viewer
We also have additional information in SAP Note 2967089 - Payroll Control Center - Introduce Parameters in Solution of Validation Rule
With this release we have various enhancements around our Pay Statement including a better user experience, and a real-time integration.
In the H1/2020 release we released an update for our direct Pay Statement that made it so the list of different Payroll runs shown in the Pay Statements would be displayed in real-time using an API. Previously, this required taking payroll results and loading them into Employee Central.
With the H2/2020 release we have further enhanced this functionality to now also display key figures for Gross and Payout (Net) amounts which is also read in real-time using an API.
For more information see this topic in the What’s New Viewer
Previously, the list of payments shown would not have the key figure as shown in this screenshot.
In case you had not heard, we have been working on a new user experience for the SuccessFactors Home Page for both desktop and mobile. Here is a blog with some details from one of my colleagues Dharmin Thakkar. As part of the new home page, the most accessed applications show up for the user in order to provide an easy personalized experience and so far we have gotten terrific feedback. If you are someone who likes to view your pay statement each period then you will see that application front and center when you log into SuccessFactors. Here are screenshots for Mobile and Desktop to show what this looks like.
For More information see this section on our Implementation Guide
One feature requested by customers is that they would like to be able to directly link employees to their pay statement in external places such as a corporate portal. With this release you can now do this using “/sf/latestpayperiod”
For more information see this topic in the What’s New Viewer
In my H1/2020 Release Highlights blog for Employee Central Payroll I wrote about our enhanced integration with EC Time around Planned Working Time that simplified the configuration and reduces implementation efforts. With this release we have made additional enhancements including:
For more information on the functionality see the topic in the What’s New Viewer.
With this H2/2020 release we are now enabling the use of SAP Cloud Identity Services, Identity Authentication for Employee Central Payroll.
If you are not familiar with SAP Identity Authentication System (IAS) I won’t hold it against you, but a great place to learn more is this recent Podcast from Steve Bogner, Chris Paine, Brandon Toombs, and Mark Ingram.
For more information on the functionality see the topic in the What’s New Viewer.
For more information on implementing see this section on our Implementation Guide
With this release we have made it so organizations can now send additional payments (Infotype 15) for the United States including start and end date fields. This allows standard compliance of non discretionary spot bonus earning period to enable automatic FLSA employee overtime adjustment calculation in the United States
For more information see this topic in the What’s New Viewer
We have made enhancements in EC Benefits for US customers around Health Savings Plans, Flexible Savings Accounts, Limited Flexible Spending Account, and Dependent Care Reimbursement around employee deductions, employer contribution, and employee limits.
For more information see this topic in the What’s New Viewer.
One area we are working to improve is simplifying the configuration of various objects between EC and ECP. The first step of this journey involves simplifying the creation of Employee Central locations and Personnel Area/Subareas in Employee Central Payroll. Our intent is to build this out even further in future releases.
For more information see this topic in the What’s New Viewer.
Here are additional resources for those interested in learning more about SAP Payroll solutions
Thank you for taking the time to read and leave your comments below!
In terms of release management and roadmap in case you missed it, check out all of the terrific content available on-demand from SuccessConnect. This includes deep dive roadmap presentations. For information on how to access those from within SuccessConnect, see this post from my colleague Chloe Nguyen on the SuccessFactors Community. For Payroll you can watch my presentation with the latest updates and upcoming innovations! We are excited about our Payroll roadmap.
In the area of Managing and Paying People (I was the Track lead) we have 5 roadmap presentations that are all available on demand.
- Employee Central & Employee Central Service Center
- Employee Central Time Management
- Employee Central Payroll
- Employee Central Benefits
- Visa & Permits Management
The updates in H2/2020 will be available in Support Pack 86. You can visit our Support Pack Release Schedule for more information.
Now let’s take a look at the H2/2020 release for Payroll!
Payroll Control Center
Starting with one of my favorite topics! Within our Payroll Control Center we have a handful of updates which I am happy to share and before you ask, yes these are also available for SAP ERP HCM Payroll customers!
Audit Trail Analytics
The first item is one that comes directly from customer feedback based upon how they audit payroll and the information they would like to be able to see it. This is one we had a long conversation with a customer in a handful of workshops around our Audit Trail. Once we analyzed and vetted this we found this was a desired request for many customers. This update makes it extremely easy to see the Key Performance Indicator (KPI) for past periods to clearly see the historical values. Users are also able to group, sort, and filter the analytics history as well as download it into excel (For the record this is always asked for, but I am not in favor of downloading data to excel!)
For more information see this topic in the What’s New Viewer.
New Capabilities for Non-Employee Alerts
A request we have heard is that while a large majority of Payroll alerts are employee specific, this is not always the case. Prior to this update the column header for alerts was fixed to be employee, however some organizations want to look at different types of data such as payroll area, cost center, financial posting information etc. so we are providing flexibility. This is applicable for the different Applications that have this header: My Alerts, My Processes, & My Teams.
For more information see this topic in the What’s New Viewer.
Posting Simulation with Test Results
A very important step in Payroll is taking the results and sending it to Finance in the form of posting documents. With this release we are providing the ability to run a posting simulation with test payroll results that can be used with PCC pre-payroll monitoring. This will allow end users to find issues that may be going on with posting to FI earlier in the process and make it so there will be no surprises on the day you are running Payroll. This will help Payroll administrators have more lead time to clear up issues such as closed cost centers, posting amounts not balancing, and more. Many times, these types of issues are signs of a larger problem (Ex: Missing configuration for a new wage type) and the earlier you can catch it and fix it the better.
For more information see this topic in the What’s New Viewer
Enhanced Configuration of Solution Assignment
In my H1/2020 Release Highlights blog for Employee Central Payroll I wrote about our new Centralized Configuration Dashboard that was designed to make the PCC easier to implement by pulling most aspects of the configuration into one central place. With this release we have enhanced the configuration of payroll alert solutions to be more dynamic and easier to setup by allowing parameters within a solution to be configured with flexible values.
To be clear on what I am referring to, when you have a payroll alert you always define a “Solution” which tells the end user how to resolve that alert. To use my previous example, if you have an alert for a payroll control record in an incorrect status then the solution is to go to PA03 and fix it. Another example for an Employee Central Payroll customer who has a large pay variation then the solution may be to go to the employees People Profile within Employee Central and fix it. For an on-premise customer the solution may be to go into an ABAP WebDynpro application or PA30 WebGUI for someones Basic Pay record (IT8) to resolve it. Different alerts and different customers have different solutions and in some cases one alert might have more than one solution as shown below.
With this additional flexibility you can configure one solution parameter for a PA30 WebGUI and then use the new functionality to route different alerts to different infotypes (IT8/IT14/IT15) thus reducing the work across alerts.
For more information see this topic in the What’s New Viewer
We also have additional information in SAP Note 2967089 - Payroll Control Center - Introduce Parameters in Solution of Validation Rule
Pay Statement Updates
With this release we have various enhancements around our Pay Statement including a better user experience, and a real-time integration.
Pay Statement (Direct) with Key Values
In the H1/2020 release we released an update for our direct Pay Statement that made it so the list of different Payroll runs shown in the Pay Statements would be displayed in real-time using an API. Previously, this required taking payroll results and loading them into Employee Central.
With the H2/2020 release we have further enhanced this functionality to now also display key figures for Gross and Payout (Net) amounts which is also read in real-time using an API.
For more information see this topic in the What’s New Viewer
Previously, the list of payments shown would not have the key figure as shown in this screenshot.
Pay Statement for New Home Page (Opt-In)
In case you had not heard, we have been working on a new user experience for the SuccessFactors Home Page for both desktop and mobile. Here is a blog with some details from one of my colleagues Dharmin Thakkar. As part of the new home page, the most accessed applications show up for the user in order to provide an easy personalized experience and so far we have gotten terrific feedback. If you are someone who likes to view your pay statement each period then you will see that application front and center when you log into SuccessFactors. Here are screenshots for Mobile and Desktop to show what this looks like.
For More information see this section on our Implementation Guide
Pay Statement Deep Link
One feature requested by customers is that they would like to be able to directly link employees to their pay statement in external places such as a corporate portal. With this release you can now do this using “/sf/latestpayperiod”
For more information see this topic in the What’s New Viewer
Employee Central Time Management
In my H1/2020 Release Highlights blog for Employee Central Payroll I wrote about our enhanced integration with EC Time around Planned Working Time that simplified the configuration and reduces implementation efforts. With this release we have made additional enhancements including:
- Sending Planned Working Time for Casual Workers in Employee Central to Work Schedule (IT7) in Employee Central Payroll
- We are now including the ability to send zero working hours which was previously a limitation
- Simplification of dummy work schedules to Substitutions in Employee Central Payroll
For more information on the functionality see the topic in the What’s New Viewer.
SAP Identity and Authentication Enablement
With this H2/2020 release we are now enabling the use of SAP Cloud Identity Services, Identity Authentication for Employee Central Payroll.
If you are not familiar with SAP Identity Authentication System (IAS) I won’t hold it against you, but a great place to learn more is this recent Podcast from Steve Bogner, Chris Paine, Brandon Toombs, and Mark Ingram.
For more information on the functionality see the topic in the What’s New Viewer.
For more information on implementing see this section on our Implementation Guide
Additional Payments Update for US
With this release we have made it so organizations can now send additional payments (Infotype 15) for the United States including start and end date fields. This allows standard compliance of non discretionary spot bonus earning period to enable automatic FLSA employee overtime adjustment calculation in the United States
For more information see this topic in the What’s New Viewer
Employee Central Benefits
We have made enhancements in EC Benefits for US customers around Health Savings Plans, Flexible Savings Accounts, Limited Flexible Spending Account, and Dependent Care Reimbursement around employee deductions, employer contribution, and employee limits.
For more information see this topic in the What’s New Viewer.
Cross System Configuration Sync
One area we are working to improve is simplifying the configuration of various objects between EC and ECP. The first step of this journey involves simplifying the creation of Employee Central locations and Personnel Area/Subareas in Employee Central Payroll. Our intent is to build this out even further in future releases.
For more information see this topic in the What’s New Viewer.
Where can I find more Information?
- For information on release highlights across the SuccessFactors suite, see this great blog from my colleague Janne Wise.
- For the full list of deliverables for H2 have a look at our “What’s New Viewer”
- You can find helpful material on how to implement our latest functionality in the implementation guide on the SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central Payroll Help page.
- For the H2 Release Steve Bogner and the Insight CP group also created a Podcast episode for "What's New in 2H2020 SuccessFactors"
Here are additional resources for those interested in learning more about SAP Payroll solutions
- SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central Payroll Main Website
- SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central Payroll SAP Help (Requires ID)
- SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central Payroll H1/2020 Release Highlights
- SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central Payroll Q4 2018 Release Highlights
- SAP Note 2550639 – Payroll Control Center – Working with Teams
- Employee Central Payroll 101
- SAP Payroll Deployment Options
- Payroll Control Center – A Fresh and Modern Approach of A Fully Automated End-To-End Payroll Process
- Payroll Control Center – One-Click Monitoring Walkthrough
- Payroll Control Center – Three-Click Production Payroll Walkthrough
- SAP/SuccessFactors Payroll Control Center Event Listener Functionality
- SAP SuccessFactors Payroll Integration & Off Cycle Payroll Demo
- An Introduction to SAP Payroll Processing, Control Center Add-On
- Employee Central Payroll – A Process Introduction
- Fiori Integration & Enablement with the Payroll Control Center
- SAP Help Library Payroll Control Center
- The Payroll Control Center for SAP ERP HCM and SAP SuccessFactors
- Employee Central Payroll – What is the Payroll Unified Configuration?
- Employee Central Payroll – New Payroll End-to-End Hire
- SAP Best Practices for SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central Payroll for United States– Content Overvi...
- What’s new with SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central Payroll for United States rapid-deployment solut...
Thank you for taking the time to read and leave your comments below!
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