Introduction To SAP HR Basics concepts

Basics concepts of HR

HR - Personnel Administration (PA)

PA involves administrating employee data, commonly referred to Master Data.
Master Data contains all employee data used in HR processing. Master Data includes Personal (Eg. address), Organizational (Position description), Benefits (Insurance, Pension), Time & Payroll. More on Master Data...
Master Data is stored in Infotypes. Infotypes are tables (for user Data entry screen) that contain logically related employee data. Data can be stored for specific periods, which includes current and historical. More on Infotypes..
Components of PA:

Recruitment
Organizational Structure
Compensation Management
Personnel Development

Company Structures in HR:

Enterprise Structure - Assigning employee to a geographical location (eg. San Francisco).
Personnel Structure - is used for functional grouping of employees (eg. salaried, hourly).

Components of PA:

Personnel Area: represents a division of a company code into subunits. It is an organizational entity representing an area within an organization defined by specific aspects of personnel administration, time management and payroll. Personnel areas are subdivided into personnel subareas. Personnel area is specific to HR and is a four character alpanumeric identification. Eg. Personnel area 1000 is for employees in Texas, 2000 is for Louisiana.
Personnel Subarea: is a further subdivision of Personnel area. It may represent geographical locations. Functions include:
     1. Set groupings for Time Management, so that work schedules, substitution and    absence and leave types can be setup for individual personnel subareas.
     2. Generate default pay scale type and area for an employee's basic pay.
    3. Define public holiday calendar.
Employee Groups: divides or groups employees into various categories. Eg. Active employees, Retired employees, Contractors. Employee groups are used to generate default values for payroll accounting area and basic pay.
Employee Subgroups: are further differentiated within the employee group. Eg. Salaried employees, Hourly employees, Unionized employees, Executives. The employee subgroup grouping for the payroll rule allows you to define different payroll procedures for different employee subgroups. For eg. you can specify whether an employee's pay should be determined on hourly or monthly basis. The employee subgroup grouping for the work schedule defines the validity of work schedule, and the attendance or absence quota type determines the validity of time quotas.

Infotypes

Definition

Infotypes are units of information in the Human Resource Management System.

Use

Recording employee data for administrative, time recording, and payroll purposes is of primary importance for master data administration in HR. In the SAP System, the information units used to enter master data are called infotypes.

Infotypes are used to group related data fields together. They provide information with a structure, facilitate data entry, and enable you to store data for specific periods.

Structure

Infotypes are characterized by the following:

Infotype Structure
Data Entry
Time-Dependent Storage of Infotype Data

Time Constraints

Time constraints guarantee that exactly the data the system needs to be able to correctly process the employee data, handle personnel administration processes and run payroll for an employee is available in the system. Time constraints keep you from storing mutually incompatible data and prevent gaps from occurring in the data history.

Use

You use time constraints to define the following:

Whether an infotype record must exist for an employee in the system

Whether further records of the same infotypes may exist

Whether these records can overlap in the validity period.

For certain infotypes, you can also assign different time constraints in relation to the infotype’s subtype.

When you enter infotypes, the system automatically checks if your input satisfies the time constraints’ conditions, and reacts by automatically delimiting data records or issuing error messages.

Structure

Time Constraint 1

For the entire time that the employee works at the enterprise, exactly one valid infotype record must exist. The validity periods of the individual records must not overlap. When you create a new record, the system automatically uses the start date of the new record as the delimitation date of the old record. Gaps are only allowed between the employee’s entry date and the start date of the first record.

Time constraint 1 must be used for all of the infotypes containing information that must be available at all times. This is particularly true of personal and organizational assignment data.

An Organizational Assignment infotype record (0001) must exist for all active or inactive employees in the SAP System. The system needs the data stored in this infotype for all business processes.

In addition, this data must be unique, in other words, the system must know precisely to which organizational units the employee belongs. That’s why only one record may exist at the same time.

Time Constraint 2

No more than one valid record can exist at any one time. Records with constraint 2 must not overlap. Their existence is not obligatory. When you create a new record, the system delimits the previous record, if one exists. If the system delimits a record because of time constraint 2, it issues an appropriate message.

Time Constraint 3

Any number of valid records can exist at any one time. The individual records do not conflict with each other.

In the Powers of Attorney infotype (0030), you can store different powers of attorney. That’s why any number of records for this infotype can exist at the same time. Since not every employee in your company has powers of attorney, a record for this infotype does not have to exist in the system.

Time Constraint A

Infotypes with time constraint A must have no more than one record. The system automatically assigns the record a validity period from January 01, 1800 through December 31, 9999. This validity period cannot be subdivided.

Infotype records with time constraint A cannot be deleted.

Time Constraint B

Infotypes with time constraint B must have no more than one record. The system automatically assigns the record a validity period from January 01, 1800 through December 31, 9999. This validity period cannot be subdivided.

Infotype records with time constraint B can be deleted.

Time Constraint T

Infotype records with time constraint T depend on the subtype.

For the Addresses infotype (0030), you can assign a different time constraint for each subtype. In this way, you can make sure that a main address always exists for the employee and you can also enter temporary residences, if necessary.

Time Constraint Z

The infotypes you use for entering working and absence time have a special time constraint behavior. For more information, see Time Constraints in Time Management.

Naming conventions for Infotypes

• 0000 to 0999 – HR Master data / Applicant data
• 1000 to 1999 – Organizational Management
• 2000 to 2999 – Time data
• 4000 to 4999 – Applicant data
• 9000 to 9999 – Customer defined

Each infotype nnnn requires at least two structures and one table:
• Structure PSnnnn
Structure PSnnnn contains all of the infotype data fields.

• Structure Pnnnn
Structure Pnnnn contains infotype key fields and all of the data fields from structure PSnnnn .

• Transparent table PAnnnn and/or transparent table PBnnnn, Transparent table PAnnnn is required if you want to use an infotype within Personnel Administration.
If you want to use an infotype within Recruitment, transparent table PBnnnn is required.

In accordance with the distribution of infotype name ranges, objects
P9nnn , PS9nnn , PA9nnn and PB9nnn are assigned to the
customer name range.

Structures Included in Transparent table PAnnnn

PAKEY-----Contains all the key fields of the infotype. ( PERNR, SUBTY, OBJPS, SPRPS, BEGDA ..............................................................................................ENDDA, SEQNR)

PSHD1------Contains Administrative fields of the infotype ( AEDTM, UNAME, HISTO, ITXEX, REFEX, .............................................................................................ORDFEX, ......)

PSnnnn-------Contains the infotype specific fields for a particular infotype.

Each Personnel administration infotype contains a include CI_Pnnnn in the data structure PSnnnn. Customer specific fields can be added to this include as infotype enhancements. In the standard SAP system this include is by default empty.

The following tables must be maintained for each infotype:

T582A----- Basic infotype characteristics (database tables, single screen, list screen, time constraint, dialog
module, and so on)
T582S------ Infotype short texts
T777A -----Technical Characteristics of Infotype (database table, dialog module, and so on)
T77ID------- Name of data field structure (PSnnnn)