Searching for Answers to Questions

Every few days I look at our web site's statistics to get an idea of what is going on. It's always interesting to see the search phrases that people use to find our site. Often there are people looking to answer some questions about SAP HR features or functionality. Hopefully they are finding some answers, but just in case, I'll see if I can answer some of the more direct ones here in this blog post:

What tables are needed to process SAP Payroll?

Generally, the ones that start with the letters 'T' and 'PA'.

Why should I implement SAP Organization Management?

Because it drives workflow, structural authorizations, and cost assignment, and it is the basis for knowing how your company is structured for HR purposes. Can you get by without it? Yes, and that is like buying a car without air-conditioning: it works, but it's not going to be very comfortable.

How do I setup process models in SAP?

You could read the notes in the implementation guide (IMG) or go to SAP training. One of my presentations at SAP HR 2010 went into some detail on doing this, too. In general, I have not found very good, specific and comprehensive free information on the web for configuring various SAP HR functions. There is some good information out there – and you pay for it by subscribing to the HR Expert Newsletter or attending the SAPInsider conferences. Good technical information on SAP HR typically isn't free.

What are the benefits of implementing SAP Payroll?

The primary benefit is that employees get paid. There are all kinds of other benefits – some would say, liabilities – of using SAP Payroll. You can make payroll work well in SAP (which is my preference) or by outsourcing it; the real business impact is in how well you design and execute the business processes of paying employees.

What causes duplicates in SAP Adhoc reports?

Most likely you've included data from several infotypes that have overlapping effective dates.

Can we skip HR Support Packages?

Technically, yes. Practically – no way! I know it takes work to apply, test, and migrate them to production. I know that they often break things or make things work different than they did before. I know the year-end HR support packages come at a bad time of year – close to year-end and right in the middle of open enrollment. I know that if you have SAP HR/Payroll in multiple countries that you have multiple rounds of HR support package applications. There are all kinds of reasons not to like HR support packages, and there are two good reasons to apply them that trump all the difficulties: they provide regulatory compliance updates, and the longer you go without applying them the tougher it will be to catch up when you have to. And sooner or later, you will have to apply them.