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Step by step guide to run Payroll Year Ebd
Citation preview
Steps to a Successful
Payroll Year-End
Functional White Paper
Table of Contents Introduction 2
The Right Team 3
Best Approach 4
Change Management 4
Project Plan 5
SAP Service Marketplace 6
Summary 6
For More Information 7
HR Focal Point, LLC
Authored by: Kim Moats
September 11, 2013
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Steps to a Successful Payroll Year-End
Functional White Paper
Introduction
Have you ever seen someone try to drive a nail using something other than a hammer?
Picture this...first comes out the shoe heel, then a book, then possibly a rock or wrench or
whatever is closest to his/her hand at that particular moment.
Now, think about the results that occur when you use the wrong or an ineffective tool, as
opposed to a hammer? Well, sometimes you are fortunate enough to get the nail positioned
just as you would like; however, more often, there is a degree of variance that makes the
outcome less than satisfying. We have all had degrees of success with some of the items
listed above, but when we want the job done right, we invariably choose to use the right tool,
the one that will produce the best and most consistent outcomes. We choose the hammer
because of the tremendous and reliable results it produces.
That's where HR Focal Point comes in as we have the ‘tools’ to help you ensure a successful
Year-End. In this article, HR Focal Point will equip your toolbox with all the right tools: from
choosing the Right Team, to the Best Approach to take, to Planning and Change
Management and finally Monitoring SAP Service Marketplace for the latest and greatest
updates.
When it is time to nail down your Year-End Support needs, contact us…we will ensure that
you hit the nail on the head!
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The Right Team
As Year-End approaches, it is important to have the right team in place to ensure a smooth
and successful Year-End. Your line up should include individuals from the following teams:
BASIS, IT, the Business and Consultants.
BASIS - The “behind the scenes team” needed for applying the right changes
at the right time. Your basis team will not only be responsible for applying and
moving all SAP® changes to/through the SAP system/landscape, but will also
be involved in all of the BSI updates. BSI will have various updates to be
applied called TUBs or Tax Update Bulletins.
IT - The “take charge team” needed for creating, updating and reviewing
changes that may be needed in the system. The size of your IT team may vary
depending upon the approach you take.
Business - The “front lines team” needed for extensive testing to ensure that
the business and legal requirements are being met. Users from both HR and
Payroll need to be a part of this team to be successful. If Open Enrollment
should occur around the year end time period, then you will want to include
users from Benefits as well.
Consultants - The “go to team” needed to make sure you have the support you
need when you need it. Your consultant team can be designed to fit your
specific needs. Whether you need a consultant team to guide you through the
entire process or just help with roadblocks along the way, they are the ‘go to’
team as they will know what SAP configuration changes need to be made,
when the changes should occur, along with all required testing to ensure
accuracy.
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Best Approach
It is important to have a well thought out SAP Support Plan going into year end. One of the
most important plan aspects to consider is the approach you will take to get the changes
and updates into the system. SAP provides fixes for system bugs and/or updates via OSS
notes (SAP Notes). These notes can be applied individually or in different types of groupings,
which are described below.
HR Support Packs (HRSPs)
The first level of grouping is known as a Support Pack. SAP groups the SAPNet (formerly
OSS) notes together and releases them in a bundle called an HR Support Pack
(HRSP). Each note has a place in the note itself that indicates to which support pack it is
associated. HRSPs can include notes that affect Personnel Administration, Benefits,
Time Management, Payroll, or any other HR related area. HRSPs not only include
corrections for these areas but they also include important legal change updates such as
those needed for Year-End.
HRSPs are efficient, high-quality updates enabling you to keep your system in sync with
the latest legal requirements and corrections.
Support Stack
The second level of grouping is known as a Support Stack. A Support Stack is a collection
of SAP Support Packs that allows you to update all software components at one time.
SAP found that a number of companies were applying multiple support packs (HR, FI,
etc) at similar times to address multiple functional areas that they had in their system.
To simplify the update process, SAP developed the stack concept. The Support Stack
allows these companies to streamline the effort by combining multiple packs and
allowing them to apply them to the system via one stack.
Keep in mind, if you go with this approach you will need to involve users from each
functional area being touched by the Support Stack. The overall effort is greater in terms
of numbers of users involved, however, if all other functional areas are ready for the
updates then this is a non-issue.
Base Level HRSP and Country Legal Changes (CLCs)
Now no matter what approach you decide to take there will be some minimum level
requirements in addition to the annual legal requirements. These requirements will be
shown on the SAP Service Marketplace website in the Year End area. Keep in mind, the
more behind (in support pack versions) the system becomes, the more updates that will
need to be applied, which means more changes that will affect areas of functionality that
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you are using. The result of this could mean that elaborate testing over a lengthy period
of time will be necessary to guarantee that the changes applied will not negatively affect
those areas of the system and also to ensure that the business requirements and/or
processes will still perform as expected.
One solution to keep in mind is to apply the Base Level HRSPs and then any Country
Legal Changes (CLCs) required for the country versions on your system. CLC Packages
include country-specific legal changes and are offered in addition to HRSPs. They enable
customers to decide when to implement legal changes for their country versions, and
thereby reduce test efforts and risks significantly.
Summary
It is very important to note, when updating with either approach, how many updates you
will be applying and what changes will be affecting the system within those updates. A
thorough review of all the changes being applied should be completed before making
any decisions. This will greatly impact the timeline and the amount of testing you need to
include in your Year-End Plan.
Change Management
Once you figure out the approach you are going to take it is a good idea to have a
mechanism (tool) in place to track these updates and changes. Even though SAP will provide
many of the updates, sometimes configuration changes or additional updates are needed
after applying said SAP updates. We recommend keeping track of all the SAP notes and any
transports. Some key things that you will want to make sure you are tracking are: 1) when
the note, support pack, or stack will be released, 2) when SAP notes are moved to QAS and
PRD and 3) when transports you’ve created are moved to QAS and PRD. This timeline gives
you a quick status view for each system.
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Project Plan
Team assembled? Check. Approach chosen? Check. Change Management tool in place?
Check. Now, the next important step is to establish a Project Plan, which spells out all of the
Year-End tasks along with who is responsible for each task. Having a project plan in place to
guide you through the who, what, where and when will help to minimize year end headaches.
Key Items
In your plan, you will want to make sure you have a place for TUBS, SAP updates,
Configuration, Testing, and Payroll schedule. The first group of steps in the plan, based
on the release dates, will be to decide when you will apply the desired SAP and BSI
updates to the system. Configuration items will follow, then testing. The testing piece will
depend partly on the number of updates you are applying, along with how many of the
notes are affecting other areas of your system that you will want to regression test.
Furthermore, during the testing timeline, you will want to have a place for running all of
the Year-End forms required along with any adjustments scenarios that may be
necessary. The Payroll Schedule is an important element to have available as it shows
when the final payroll of the year will be run. Knowing this you will be able to plan when
adjustments should be entered and plan on which adjustments you will be utilizing.
Responsibilities
It is important to include an ‘Assignee’ field in the plan. Some teams may decide to take
this one step further and have two fields that represent the responsible party:
‘Responsible Group’ and ‘Assignee’. In this way, you know which Group (BASIS, IT,
Business or Consultant) is responsible and then within that group, you define the
individual resource responsible for that particular task. Doing this will ensure proper
progress reporting and will streamline communications.
Timeline
It is essential to look at your projected Year-End goal in order to verify what you plan to
accomplish. Only then can you truly know how early in the prior year you must begin your
Year-End project in order to complete all of the tasks on time. As stated earlier, the
amount of time required to review SAP notes will be largely dependent on the number of
support packs or stacks to be applied, so it is important to take this into consideration
when developing your timeline. Along with that, it is imperative to incorporate enough
time to not only test the new changes for the tax year, but also test any changes that
affected your existing functionality to ensure all processes function as they did prior to
applying the support packs/stacks and/or configuration.
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SAP Service Marketplace
The SAP Service Marketplace is a key resource that you should reference continuously
throughout the Year-End project. It contains all of the latest news and updates relating to
Year-End and is updated weekly (sometimes daily). Every year, typically in September or
early October, SAP sets up a Year-End section under the Country Information > Named
Country > HCM (Human Capital Management) area that is just Year-End news and
developments. Around this time, SAP also releases a customer letter to kick off Year-End.
The customer letter will include important information on any new legal
requirements/functionality and also the delivery schedule. Once the Year-End session starts,
it is highly recommended that you check the SAP Service Marketplace site on a regular basis
to guarantee that you are aware of any updates or changes as soon as they become
available.
Summary
To summarize, the best way to ensure a successful Year-End is to; secure the Right Team,
come up with the Best Approach for your company, produce a Change Management tool,
develop a Project Plan and continually monitor the SAP Service Marketplace. Having all of
these items in place will ensure smooth sailing for you and your team.
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For More Information
About HR Focal Point:
HR Focal Point is an innovative SAP consulting and services organization that specializes in
assisting clients in the implementation and support of the entire suite of SAP ERP Human
Capital Management software and applications. The depth of knowledge and industry
experience of our Platinum Level Experts allows our team to efficiently and effectively
assess, propose and implement solutions that directly contribute to our clients’ ability to
achieve their goals.
When Time, Accuracy and Quality Support are essential, HR Focal Point's precision
approach to SAP ERP HCM solutions is the clear choice.
We offer what you need, when you need it, for as long as you need it.
We are the SAP ERP HCM team that will allow you to achieve your goals on time, on
point and on budget, thus maximizing your ROI.
If you would like to learn more about HR Focal Point or need help ensuring a successful
Year-End please visit us at www.hrfocalpoint.com.
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© Copyright 2013 HR Focal Point LLC. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. No
warranties apply. HRFP is not liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein.
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