Steps to a Successful Payroll Year-End

Functional White Paper

Table of Contents
Introduction The Right Team Best Approach Change Management Project Plan SAP Service Marketplace Summary For More Information 2 3 4 4 5 6 6 7

HR Focal Point, LLC Authored by: Kim Moats September 11, 2013

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.
Steps to a Successful Payroll Year-End | HR Focal Point, LLC

When it is time to nail down your Year-End Support needs, contact uswe will ensure that you hit the nail on the head!

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 s upport 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.

Steps to a Successful Payroll Year-End | HR Focal Point, LLC

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.

Steps to a Successful Payroll Year-End | HR Focal Point, LLC

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

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 youve created are moved to QAS and PRD. This timeline gives you a quick status view for each system.

Steps to a Successful Payroll Year-End | HR Focal Point, LLC

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.

Steps to a Successful Payroll Year-End | HR Focal Point, LLC

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.

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.

Steps to a Successful Payroll Year-End | HR Focal Point, LLC

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.

Steps to a Successful Payroll Year-End | HR Focal Point, LLC

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.