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Articles Tagged ‘Payroll’
Benefits of SME’s implementing SAP HCM
Tuesday, September 7th, 2010
“Employees are our most valuable asset” is a common phrase used by companies both large and small, but what are companies in the SME space really doing about it? SME’s may question the value of implementing HCM when looking to include it in their SAP implementation due to lower employee count and fewer locations. Why spend the additional dollars needed to implement an HCM module?
There are several benefits to justify the implementation cost of implementing SAP HCM. The primary benefit of any HCM system is the positive effect it has on employees by eliminating redundant work, automating manual processes and providing employees better access to information. From a management viewpoint, it allows you to manage each employee in a more comprehensive and efficient manner.
Outside of increased employee satisfaction, there are substantial financial and technical benefits of rolling out HCM with your SAP implementation. From a financial standpoint, SAP HCM benefits your organization by allowing you to manage all of your HR processes with a single system which can reduce costs associated with licensing, labor, third party software fees and support fees. Technically, the benefits include easy integration, one entry point, data accuracy and an integrated portal, not to mention constant developments and enhancements by the world’s number one ERP system.
The SME market continues to be the fastest growing segment in software sales across the board. When you implement SAP HCM you are receiving a complete package of the technology and knowledge that SAP has been gathering from some of the best run businesses in the world. By implementing SAP HCM, you can truly show your employees that they are your company’s most valuable asset.
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Careers at Symphony Consulting
Tuesday, August 31st, 2010
Symphony Management Consulting is a leading provider of SAP Human Capital Management consulting services. We are a rapidly growing company and need motivated, enthusiastic people to join our team from Project Managers to Consultants. Symphony offers 100% paid benefits for the employee. We also offer competitive salary and bonus packages for our team.
Public Sector Consultants – This individual will be responsible for blueprint through go-live. We are seeking consultants in various modules from PA through Payroll. Over 5 years experience in SAP HCM is required along with a minimum of 3 full public sector implementations. These individuals, in addition to skills in PA, OM, BN, Time or Payroll, MUST have experience with concurrent employment.
Private Sector Consultants – This individual will be responsible for blueprint through go-live. We are seeking consultants in various modules from PA to Payroll. Over 5 years experience in SAP HCM is required along with a minimum 3 full implementations.
Technical consultants – Symphony has a number of Workflow, ABAP, Securities positions specific to HCM. We are seeking consultants who have 5 or more years experience and a minimum 3 full implementations.
To submit your resume for consideration, please e-mail careers@symphony-consulting.com or click Submit Application below. Be sure to specify which position you are interested in.
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Symphony Webinar: Tips and Tricks for Year-end Payroll: How to Be Proactive, Not Reactive
Thursday, August 26th, 2010
Join us for this free webinar and find out how to prepare for year-end payroll
Date: Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Time: 2:00PM – 3:00 PM EDT
Common year-end payroll mistakes can quickly multiply your headaches during an already busy time. To ensure a smooth year-end transition, this webinar will guide you through the steps to preparing for year-end payroll. Let Symphony – the SAP HCM experts – teach you key strategies to put into action to streamline the year-end payroll process and prepare for the upcoming year. Kathy Morris, a Senior Consultant at Symphony Management Consulting and former SAP “Year-end Tax Angel” will discuss best practices for year-end payroll and provide tips on:
· How to get your system ready and perform configuration updates
· Ways to approach YE processing to ensure success
· What tools are available to assist with YE closing
· How to create an annual project plan and check list
Space is limited.
Reserve your Webinar seat now at: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/784467408
Posted in SAP HCM News | No Comments »
Integration within the HCM Module
Thursday, August 26th, 2010
Question
How is integration in personnel management a critical function?
Answer
Integration within the HCM module (i.e. Personnel Administration to Organizational Management, Personnel Administration to Time, Time to Payroll) and within the SAP system (i.e. HCM to Finance, Payroll to Cost Accounting) is one of the key benefits of implementing SAP within an organization. It provides for a single point of data entry into one module/sub-module which can be utilized in another module/sub-module. For example, employee master data entered into the personnel administration sub-module of HCM can be used by other modules (i.e. Finance, EH&S, Project Systems) without having to rekey the data, thereby saving time, reducing keying errors and ensuring data consistency.
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The Power of Benchmarking
Monday, August 23rd, 2010
Benchmarking is the continuous process of comparing and measuring an organization’s business processes against those of business leaders anywhere in the world. We all know that identifying and implementing best practices will generate business excellence. We also know that benchmarking is no magic cure - but when executed properly, it promotes continuous improvement.
For HR people, this translates into the following:
- Standardizing and automating transaction processing to reduce the cost of delivering basic HR services
- Using freed-up resources to support an integrated talent-management process
- Integrating HR and relevant non-HR systems to eliminate information barriers and reduce time to market
- Providing every manager access to decision-support tools and people information
- Delivering relevant business metrics to front-line managers, linking people processes to operational performance
- Benchmarking HR’s performance against industry metrics and best practices
For those of you who have not heard of it, there is a dedicated ASUG/SAP benchmarking and best practices program providing an excellent forum for SAP customers to track trends, share best practices, and measure value based upon key performance drivers. To date, more than 200 companies have participated in the study, including more than 30 participants from the high-tech industry, with revenues of between less than $1 billion to more than $10 billion. The study covers the full scope of HR business process, segmented in sub-processes such as recruiting and staffing, learning and development, and payroll administration.
For more information about the program, visit www.asug.com/benchmarking or contact benchmarking@asug.com. Please also visit: https://www.benchmarking.sap.com/files/surveyExamples/HCM_Sample_Report.pdf.
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Basic ALE connection when using separate instances for FI/HCM
Monday, June 28th, 2010
Have you ever arrived at a project and been given the news that HCM will be implemented as a standalone system? The FI team is long gone, the HCM team is there and the client wants to use their own IT team to perform Basis and ABAP work. This is not unusual nor is it a problem, until something needs to be done that did not happen when other SAP modules were implemented. One of those common instances is when FI/CO and HCM will not be in the same system. When the decision has been made to have your FI/CO and HCM components in separate systems you may not have instant access to an experienced IT member that knows how to help an inexperienced IT team make this work. These basic steps on how to set up an ALE connection between FI/CO and HCM modules will help you work with the IT team to accomplish your objective. Some common transfers of information examples from HCM to FI/CO are data for General Ledger Postings, Travel & Expense, and 3rd Party Remittance.
Step 1: Create users for ALE transfer in both the receiving and sending client/systems.
· Create users giving them the same user name and authorizations. This will allow logon through the remote connection and perform the IDOC transfers.
Step 2: Create logical systems in both the receiving and sending systems.
a. Log on to Sending client and go to transaction “SALE”
b. Expand both the Sending and Receiving systems
c. Expand logical systems and click on Define Logical System
d. Click on New Entries and use a naming convention identified by your IT/Basis group. Example - “system name + CLNT + client number. Save and “go back” (sending = HCMCLNT105/ receiving = FICCLNT800)
e. Save and go back. Now click on Assign client 105 to logical system HCMCLNT105
f. Now log onto receiving system and repeat a-c
g. Save and go back. Now click on Assign client 800 to logical system FICCLNT800
Step 3: Create the RFCs
a. In your sending client go to transaction code SM59 and expand the R/3 connections
b. Enter RFC name as HCMCLNT105 (use the same name as the logical name created in step 1 so that the ports are automatically created)
c. Enter Connection Type as “3” and Language as “EN”
d. Give the logon details for client 800 (it is best to create a new user with proper authorizations for this ALE data transfer).
e. Click on Remote long on button to test the RFC
f. Now go to the receiving client and repeat a-e and give logon credentials to client 105
Step 4: Create customer distribution Model.
· This is usually created in the sending system and then is distributed to the other system. The actual creation of the model requests that you mention a technical name for the model (this needs to be a unique identifier in the systems landscape), a sender system, a receiver system, and message types to exchange between those systems.
a. In the sending client go to transaction code BD64 and client on Change and Create model view button
b. Enter the short text and technical name as ZHCM_FIC
c. Select the model and click on Add Message Type button
d. Give the sender as HCMCLNT105 and receiver as FICCLNT800
e. Give Message type as required. Example- “HRMD_A” for HR Module. This is usually the message types given by SAP are available for a particular module, see using transaction code WE81, if not create a message type first (See step 7).
f. Select the above model view and click on Environment >Generate Partner Profiles
g. Select Transfer IDOC Immediately and Trigger Immediately radio buttons
h. Click on Execute. You should get a list in green which means it executed successfully.
i. Now back on the main screen you should select the model view
j. Click Edit> Model view> Distribute
k. Click on Continue. You should get a list saying model view is distributed successfully.
Step 5: Checking the Port
a. In the sending client go to transaction code WE21
b. Expand the transactional RFC
c. Find the port from the list which is created using BD64 for FICCLNT800 (the receiving system) RFC destination
Step 6: Checking the Partner Profiles
a. In the sending client go to transaction code WE20
b. Expand Partner Type LS
c. Select the partner profile FICCLNT800
d. Double click on the Message Type. Example- In HR Module, HRMD_A in Outbound parameters
e. Check Receiver Port is assigned correctly
f. Check the Basic type as your Basic IDOC object.
g. In the sending system, select the option to transfer IDOCs Immediately
h. By default in the receiving system IDOCs are bunched together and received.
Step 7: Creating the message type
a. Message type defines the meaning of data. It is just a logical entity that gets connected to the IDOC type, in transaction WE82, or gets connected to the distribution model, in transaction code BD64. If necessary create a new message type.
b. In the sending client go to transaction code WE81
c. Click on Change > Continue
d. Select the New Entries button
e. Give message type in customer namespace “Z” and description
f. Save and go back
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Advanced Vacation Payout
Friday, June 4th, 2010
Question
Our Company is three weeks from go-live SAP HCM. We have a union rule that requires us to pay union members in advance for vacation. Many of them take five weeks all at once. We have a weekly payroll. It appears that the way to do this in SAP is to process each vacation request manually through each of the next 5 payrolls (for each employee requesting vacation). This is a huge pain for our payroll department in our legacy environment, and soon to be in SAP. Do you have any suggestions?
Answer
Step 1 - In Time Management, enter the Vacation hours for the five weeks, then run Time Evaluation for the five weeks.
Step 2 - In Payroll, there is an Off-cycle/On-Demand Payroll run option, where it can be run for the next five pay periods for the employee, so their taxes, etc. , will be calculated and taken correctly. (On the actual production payroll for the next 5 pay periods, Payroll will know and exclude the employee from the Regular Production run).
An enhancement that may be explored post go-live would involve a custom solution utilizing a combination of forms, workflow, and custom programming to automate the entry part of the process. The Time Evaluation and Off-cycle steps will already be a part of your new SAP Payroll procedure and not require any further adjustments.
Either way, we recommend you move forward with go-live and only consider a custom solution after go-live and stabilization. Waiting until after you are stabilized will allow you to have a better understanding of your new system and help you to be better prepared when you begin to make adjustments or expand your HCM solution.
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We had a great time at HR2010!! Thanks everyone
Thursday, April 15th, 2010
The HCM2010 show was another great success for Symphony Management Consulting. This year we saw more attendees and vendors than we have in recent years, surely a good sign that organizations are looking at implementations, enhancement projects and new technologies to improve the processes and efficiencies of their HR systems. This conference is an exceptional venue to educate yourself through the seminar series, see demo’s of the newest enhancements and meet the experts that provide the solutions for your next project.
As in years past, Symphony continues its commitment of educating attendees on a wide variety of HCM topics. The Symphony team leverages our knowledge and experience to deliver information on 7 Tips and Tricks for OM, Leverage Dynamic Actions to streamline HR Data, Best Practices for achieving a higher ROI in SAP HCM, and Proven techniques to properly configure and optimize HCM.
Throughout the show our booth was visited by attendees that sat in our presentations and the common theme of those conversations were “it was a great presentation, thank you for sharing that information for us.” “The presenter was very helpful and was able to answer a lot of our questions.” Comments like these are reminder of why we invest so much into this show and the value it provides. Symphony is committed to helping people better understand and prepare for the work ahead of them.
Due to the success and popularity of the presentations, Symphony will be launching a monthly online HCM workshop where we hit on key topics that will educate, share tips and tricks and answer questions. Look for more information on this shortly.
We’d like to hear from you on what you want to learn about or more information about. We will then incorporate these things into our agendas to give you more of what you need.
Thank you to everyone who stopped by and helped us make this another successful HR2010.
Visit http://www.symphony-consulting.com/saphr2010 or http://www.sapinsiderhr2010.com to learn more about the event.
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Can we transfer an Employee from one Payroll area to another without losing history?
Thursday, April 15th, 2010
Question
Is there a way to transfer an employee from one payroll area to another and assigning the employee with new payroll id ensuring all the history from previous payroll id is copied over as well?
Answer
In SAP, moving an employee from one payroll area to another is quite easy. Simply run a personnel action to move them to the other payroll area. This action is usually associated with some type of change to the employee’s corporate structure such as hourly to salary. These actions are most likely already configured in your system (i.e. organizational re-assignment action). The employee’s personnel number will not change when changing payroll areas – just their payroll area code. All previous payroll history will be available for that employee.
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Why HCM for your Organization
Tuesday, August 25th, 2009
This session will provide an overview of SAP HCM and the reasons an organization may want to implement the functionality. This session will also outline the integration between HCM, implementation plans, accelerators available within standard SAP and considerations of what to implement first, second and third. We will delve into the various HCM sub-modules and how to attack a particular area as it relates to business processes, common issues and corporate objectives. The overview will go through high-level each of the individual HCM Modules and the functionality offered by SAP for an organization. The audience will understand the functionality and how to further evaluate if and when they would like to implement SAP HCM.
To read the white paper, click here: http://symphony-consulting.com/whitepapers.php
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