The area most often overlooked when training people on
SAP Payroll is the basic, fundamental meaning and usage of payroll
schemas, rules, wagetypes and their associated processes.
We will try to correct that. First, we will present an
overview of the basic parts of the payroll process, then in subsequent
articles we�ll go into more detail on each one. Not every possibility
will be covered that would be a multi-volume hard-back series of books,
not an easily read web-based article. But we will cover the basics in a
way that gives you a good understanding of SAP schemas and rules from
there you can use that knowledge base
to learn as much as you want about the rest of this
subject.
SCHEMAS AND FUNCTIONS
In SAP Payroll, functions provide the high-level logic
for payroll calculations. Functions perform general processing such as
calculating payroll taxes on a given set of wages, reading wagetypes
from specific infotypes, calculating benefits premiums, and storing the
results of the payroll calculation. There are dozens of functions in SAP
payroll, some are country-specific and others are not. Each function is
defined and documented via transaction PE04; you can also view the
function documentation via transaction PDSY in releases 4.5 and greater,
or with report RPDSYS00 in earlier versions.
In SAP HR terms, a payroll function is not the same as
an ABAP function. A payroll function does consist of ABAP code, but it
is not executed in the same way an ABAP function would be. Payroll
functions are executed within a schema by the payroll driver program .
A schema is just a collection of functions executed in
a specific order � each one passing its results on to the next. Schemas
are always created and edited via transaction PE01, but are actually
stored as a collection of rows in tables T52C0 (SAP standard schemas)
and T52C1 (customer-created schemas and modified SAP-standard schemas).
The payroll driver reads the lines in T52C0/T52C1 and executes the
functions one by one.
So how do we make the leap from a payroll function
stored in a table to the execution of ABAP code to get the work done? In
transaction PE04 you can see the ABAP code associated with every
function. The function name in the schema correlates to an ABAP form –
for example payroll function WPBP maps to the ABAP form fuwpbp; function
USTAX maps to form fuustax. So when the payroll driver is executing the
schema, it takes the function name from the current row in schema, puts
on the beginning of the name, and then does a perform statement on it.
It�s a very simple and elegant design.
WAGETYPES
In a broad sense, a wagetype simply holds a piece of
data – a rate, number, and/or amount. But more specifically, a
wagetype has dozens of attributes that control how it is manipulated and
processed. In the end though, it ends up as an object in the payroll
results databasethat stores a rate, number, and/or amount.
The most typical use of a wagetype is to store the
amounts of earnings, deductions and taxes in an employee’s paycheck. A
person’s base pay is stored in a wagetype, the amount of their United
Way deduction is stored in a wagetype, and their taxable wages & taxes
are stored in wagetypes. Wagetypes, as the primary data element for
employee paychecks, are also mapped to FI/CO accounts to record the
debits and credits resulting from the paycheck and reported on the W-2 and other tax forms.
Wagetypes can also be used to store statistical data –
such as the number of hours worked in a pay period, the average weekly
wages for the past six months, or the amount of wages eligible for a
profit sharing calculation. Wagetype attributes are stored in several
tables, but the central table is T512W. Much more time will be spent on
various aspects of T512W.
There are three categories of wagetypes – model,
technical, and user. Model wagetypes are delivered by SAP for customers
to use as guidelines for creating their own wagetypes. They always start
with a letter and SAP may add, delete or update them in system upgrades
or HRSP’s. Technical wagetypes always start with the ‘/’ symbol,
and are delivered by SAP. They are intended for very specific standard
processing in payroll, and while you can modify them, SAP may also
update them during upgrades or HRSP’s. So if you ever (I mean EVER)
change a technical wagetype, check it after each upgrade or HRSP to make
sure it still has the attributes you want. And never delete a technical
wagetype. User wagetypes always start with a number – and these are
wagetypes that SAP does not change during upgrades & HRSP’s. OK, SAP
rarely changes them in upgrades and HRSP’s. User wagetypes are for all
the company-specific payroll payments and deductions.
RULES AND OPERATIONS
A long-time client of ours once created a screen-saver
message that stated a Payroll Rules. Those of us who were experienced
SAP Payroll analysts or consultants immediately saw the double meaning,
and corny humor, in that message. Rules contain the most basic logic
used in SAP Payroll. Where a schema is a collection of functions, a rule
is a collection of operations. An operation is a very basic piece of
logic that is used, mostly, to manipulate wagetypes. For example,
operation MULTI multiplies the number and rate fields of a wagetype to
determine the amount to pay an employee. Operation OUTWP retrieves
specific data about an employee so that another operation can make a
decision on how to process it.>
Operations can also be viewed in transactions PE04 and
PDSY, and are edited with transaction PE02. Where a function ABAP
equivalent form starts with a function, an operation. ABAP form starts
with operation. For example, operation MULTI would have an ABAP . Rules,
like schemas, are stored in a table a rules are stored in T52C5.
The more senior SAP consultants who have been working
with computer systems for many years often find similarities between
payroll rules and programming mainframe computers in Assembly language.
While there is nothing fancy about operations, when used correctly
together they can be very powerful.
Hopefully we have presented a good but brief overview
that makes sense. In our next SAP Payroll Technical Basics article we
will get into more detail on the common functions used in SAP payroll
schema.
