SAP HR PY – Payroll
HR Payroll is very specific depending on the country. General configuration rules should be used in all country implementation,
but each is very individual when it is about details. All this is because different labour laws and social security demands.
Due to that it is almost impossible to find cross-country payroll consultants, who are experts in SAP HR Payroll of more than
one country.
On our webportal we would like to collect as much payroll information as possible. We are only working on Polish Payroll implementations,
so can put here information regarding international and Polish specific configuration. We would be very grateful if you could share with us
and other users of this portal the useful knowledge regarding other countries SAP HR PY implementations.
Please send to our mailbox whatever you think could be useful.
Quick internal links:
Payroll area and control record | Retroactive accounting limit date | Payroll stages
RPCALCX0 - Payroll program (driver) | Payroll transactions
Payroll tables | Payroll reports/programs
HR Payroll is very specific depending on the country. General configuration rules should be used in all country implementation,
but each is very individual when it is about details. All this is because different labour laws and social security demands.
Due to that it is almost impossible to find cross-country payroll consultants, who are experts in SAP HR Payroll of more than
one country.
On our webportal we would like to collect as much payroll information as possible. We are only working on Polish Payroll implementations,
so can put here information regarding international and Polish specific configuration. We would be very grateful if you could share with us
and other users of this portal the useful knowledge regarding other countries SAP HR PY implementations.
Please send to our mailbox whatever you think could be useful.
SAP HR Payroll
Payroll seen from SAP HR side. Payroll is used to calculate remuneration for work performed by individual employees.
All elements of an employee’s periodic remuneration which are entered by the relevant department are used as basics for
payroll program
to perform gross-to-net calculation (including calculating benefits, taxes, amounts for social security and other types of statutory and voluntary deductions):
wage types stored in infotypes:
Basic Pay (IT0008), Recurring Payments/Deductions (IT0014), Additional Payments (IT0015), Additional Off-Cycle Payments (IT0267), other payroll related (country and client specific) infotypes,
time wage types (bonuses for overtimes, night shifts, etc).
Payroll program produces: payroll results (entered in payroll specific tables), remuneration statements and bank transfers. Also posts payroll results to Accounting.
IT0003 - Payroll Status infotype
This infotype is created automatically (by the system in the background) during hiring action and is automatically maintained for each payroll period. This means that a user does not have to or rarely needs to maintain IT0003, but, what is important,
user need to have authorization for IT0003 set to be able to run payroll.
IT0003 fields description:
- Earliest personal retroactive accounting date – if you want to set a retroactive accounting limit for an employee that is different from the date set in the control record of employee’s payroll area, you specify the date here (for more info see Payroll are and Control Record paragraph below)
- Run payroll up to – date to which payroll is run for an employee, used e.g. if the employee leaves the company but need to be still paid. The date must lie in an interval in which the employee is not actively employeed.
- Do not account after - date after which payroll will no longer be performed for an employee. The subsequent day must lie in a non-active period
- Personnel number locked – flag filed, you can lock employee for payroll, this means the personnel number will not be selected for payroll
- Accounted to - end date of the last completed payroll period
- Earliest MD Change - if you change payroll related master data, the start date of validity of those master data is set here. This date is deleted after each completed payroll run.
- Payroll Correction – flag field, payroll program set this flag personnel number has been rejected during payroll run. If payroll run is subsequently completed successfully, the indicator is removed.
It is possible to change particular fields in the Payroll Status infotype manually, rest is set by payroll program.
Retroactive accounting
If you change HR master data in a period for which the payroll has already been run, the payroll must be run once again for this period using the current values, so the results will be updated based on new source data. This action is known as retroactive accounting.
If you do any changes in an infotype that is relevant to retroactive accounting, the Earliest MD Change field in the Payroll Status infotype (IT0003)
is set to the start date of the changed infotype, this way retroactive accounting is automatically triggered up to this retroactive accounting date when the next payroll run is performer. For example, after a salary change in Basic Pay infotype (IT0008).
Payroll area and control record
Payroll areas are used in SAP HR to group together employees for whom payroll is run at the same time, and also to set the dates for the
payroll period. Employees from different employee subgroups can belong to the same payroll area.
Personnel Management -> Personnel Administration -> Organizational Data -> Create Payroll Area
Payroll area is set for each employee in Organizational Assignment infotype (IT0001). You can use feature ABKRS to set default value based on
enterprise and personnel structure.
PE03 transaction or SPRO path:
Personnel Management -> Personnel Administration -> Organizational Data -> Check Default Payroll Area
For every payroll area must be created Control Record, which controls the individual stages of payroll. It locks master data and time data so no changes can be made during the payroll process. Control record sets current payroll period and defines the earliest possible retroactive accounting date for each payroll area.
Payroll period determines the period for which a payroll is run. The length of payroll periods can differ, for example, it can be a month, a week, or fourteen days.
REMEMBER: The payroll period which is set in control record must be 1 period before the period in which you want to go live with your
SAP HR Payroll.
The lock of master data is valid for past and present payroll data. Changes that affect future payroll runs are still possible.
To maintain control record use transaction PA03 or SPRO path:
Personnel Management -> Personnel Administration -> Organizational Data -> Create Control Record .
Retroactive accounting limit date
Earliest possible date for change of payroll related master data could be set in various places. Payroll program need to have concrete retroactive accounting limit date. It determines the exact date until which master data and time data can be changed in the payroll past based on the following values:
- in payroll area (date specified in appropriate control record): Earliest possible retroactive accounting period
- employee (Payroll Status infotype IT0003): Earliest personal retroactive accounting date
- Employee hiring date
The later date is used as a limit. The absolute limit day for retroactive accounting for an employee is the his/her hire date.
