Hi Everyone,
Hope you are all staying safe and healthy
This blog post is about the new 1H 2021 SuccessFactors feature- Cross entity data update based on business rules.
There could be various business scenarios where, we might want to update the target field value based on the value of source field. For obvious reasons, we all expect this change to happen automatically when the source field is changed.
This is possible from long time in SuccessFactors with the concept of data propagation where, we write a business rule and assign it in the entity to update the values suitably.
However, previously it was not possible to update the target field, when the source and target fields are placed in different entities, such as one field in Job Information and other at Job Relationship or one field in Compensation entity and other in Job Information.
SuccessFactors, with this 1H 2021 release has given us all a sweet surprise by enabling the communication between different standard entities. That is, we can now update a target field based on the source field change even when the fields are from different standard entities listed below:
Let us now quickly jump into the configuration part
Navigate: Admin Centre - >Configure Business Rule
Select the rule scenario as “Cross Entity Rule”
Business Scenario: Here we will consider one business scenario as an example where, based on the Location of the employee, I might want to change the Location Manager (matrixManager) of that user in Job Relationship section.
Once the rule is ready, we now need to assign this in the jobInfo HRIS element.
Navigate to the employee profile and select the Job Information portlet and Insert a new record.
Update the Location (as configured in the rule) and save the entry.
This Location value change, as per the requirement would have eventually updated the Location manager of the employee in the Job Relationship Portlet.
So, this way, the change that we made in one entity (Job Information) has automatically updated the values in another entity (Job Relationships)
Please note that for few entities we may have to initiate the action from “Change Job and Compensation Information page in MSS” and not from Job Information section.
For other entities we can directly insert the record in Job Information section.
It is also necessary that we use “SET” command, instead of Create Command, in the business rule, whenever we have Job or Compensation as Target entity.
So it is advisable that we refer the below tables (Table 1,Table 2 and Table 3) from SAP to understand the various types of commands and its behavior with entities to make sure that our cross entity rule work.
Cross Entity Rules with Create expression:
Source: https://help.sap.com/
Cross Entity Rules with SET Expression
Source: https://help.sap.com/
Rules Using the Delete Expression
Few other business scenarios where the cross entity rules might be helpful are listed below:
I hope this blog post would have helped you to understand the application of this simple, yet powerful Cross-Entity Rules feature. Hopefully, SAP brings in more updates on this feature that enable us to perform multiple dynamic changes automatically.
The cross entity does not support custom MDF objects . That is, we cannot establish a connection between the custom objects or between a standard and custom object based on this cross entity rules (As of 1H 2021)
We cannot configure more than 5 cross entity rules for an HRIS element.
When the base entity is an entity that has no event reason field, the event reason must be set by the cross-entity rule that creates the Job Information or Compensation Information record. Otherwise the event reason won't be set by the system, which results in an error.
https://help.sap.com/
https://launchpad.support.sap.com/
Hope you are all staying safe and healthy
This blog post is about the new 1H 2021 SuccessFactors feature- Cross entity data update based on business rules.
There could be various business scenarios where, we might want to update the target field value based on the value of source field. For obvious reasons, we all expect this change to happen automatically when the source field is changed.
This is possible from long time in SuccessFactors with the concept of data propagation where, we write a business rule and assign it in the entity to update the values suitably.
However, previously it was not possible to update the target field, when the source and target fields are placed in different entities, such as one field in Job Information and other at Job Relationship or one field in Compensation entity and other in Job Information.
SuccessFactors, with this 1H 2021 release has given us all a sweet surprise by enabling the communication between different standard entities. That is, we can now update a target field based on the source field change even when the fields are from different standard entities listed below:
- Job Information
- Job Relationship Information
- Compensation Information
- Recurring Pay Component
- Non-Recurring Pay Component
- Employment Information
Let us now quickly jump into the configuration part
Pre-requisites:
- Manage Business configuration permissions
- Permission to create/edit business rules (Configure Business rule)
- HR permissions-To Change Job, Compensation and other standard HRIS entities in Employee profiles
Configuration:
1.Creating Business rule
Navigate: Admin Centre - >Configure Business Rule
Select the rule scenario as “Cross Entity Rule”
Cross Entity Rule Scenario
Business Scenario: Here we will consider one business scenario as an example where, based on the Location of the employee, I might want to change the Location Manager (matrixManager) of that user in Job Relationship section.
Cross Entity Rule
2. Assigning Business Rule in Manage Business configuration
Once the rule is ready, we now need to assign this in the jobInfo HRIS element.
- Navigate to Admin Centre -> Manage Business Configuration
- Select jobInfo element and scroll down to the Rule section
- Select the based object as “Job Information Model” (as configured in the rule) and event type as “onSave” and select the rule created in the previous step and save. (Note: OnChange event type is also supported for this HRIS entity pairs)
Rule Assignment
Testing:
Navigate to the employee profile and select the Job Information portlet and Insert a new record.
Update the Location (as configured in the rule) and save the entry.
Job Info Change
This Location value change, as per the requirement would have eventually updated the Location manager of the employee in the Job Relationship Portlet.
Job Relationship Change Effect
So, this way, the change that we made in one entity (Job Information) has automatically updated the values in another entity (Job Relationships)
Please note that for few entities we may have to initiate the action from “Change Job and Compensation Information page in MSS” and not from Job Information section.
Change Job and Comp Info-MSS
For other entities we can directly insert the record in Job Information section.
Job Info Action
It is also necessary that we use “SET” command, instead of Create Command, in the business rule, whenever we have Job or Compensation as Target entity.
So it is advisable that we refer the below tables (Table 1,Table 2 and Table 3) from SAP to understand the various types of commands and its behavior with entities to make sure that our cross entity rule work.
Cross Entity Rules with Create expression:
Table 1
Source: https://help.sap.com/
Cross Entity Rules with SET Expression
Table 2
Source: https://help.sap.com/
Rules Using the Delete Expression
Table 3
Few other business scenarios where the cross entity rules might be helpful are listed below:
- Changes to Job Information (for example, pay scale level, FTE) that then change (create, update, delete) Recurring Pay Components.
- Another business scenario where you might want to add a Housing Allowance as non-recurring pay component to the user based on his/her location. The moment their Location is changed in the Job information, the Housing allowance.
- Changes to Compensation Information (custom field with annual salary) to update amounts in a Recurring Pay Component.
I hope this blog post would have helped you to understand the application of this simple, yet powerful Cross-Entity Rules feature. Hopefully, SAP brings in more updates on this feature that enable us to perform multiple dynamic changes automatically.
Limitations:
The cross entity does not support custom MDF objects . That is, we cannot establish a connection between the custom objects or between a standard and custom object based on this cross entity rules (As of 1H 2021)
We cannot configure more than 5 cross entity rules for an HRIS element.
When the base entity is an entity that has no event reason field, the event reason must be set by the cross-entity rule that creates the Job Information or Compensation Information record. Otherwise the event reason won't be set by the system, which results in an error.
References:
https://help.sap.com/
https://launchpad.support.sap.com/
- SAP Managed Tags:
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