The end of another year is quickly approaching and it is time to think about winding up the year’s activities.  If you are in HR, this part of the year is also time to think about year-end systems updates and support packs.   This month’s BLOG is timely for both On-Premise and Cloud hosted clients and is extra important for anyone in the SAP On-Premise/EC Payroll space, but has some impact into EC as well.

The mandatory sync HR Support Package that all companies should be going to for year-end was released the week of November 10th. For EC Payroll systems it is SP 73. The follow-up SP74 is releasing this week (Dec 5^th) and will include the new W-4 as well as other tax update changes for the end of 2019 and prepare your system for 2020.

Are you an EC Payroll customer and don’t know what level you are on? If your EC has been configured correctly you can search for “Payroll System Information” and it should direct you to a grid with the Support Pack levels and more information in stop-light fashion (red/green/yellow).

For adjusting EC Role Based Permissions to allow your HR Admins to check the SP information follow the path below:

• In EC connected to EC Payroll:  (proper role-based permissions required- Admin Center->Manage Permission Roles->Payroll Permissions->Payroll System Information Dashboard) 
  • This user in EC should be able to verify their ECP systems packages from EC on the “Payroll System Information” page

For EC Payroll systems:

You must submit a ticket requesting SAP to import the HRSP into your Development system, test the updates, and then follow up tickets for TEST/PROD. The template to request the HRSP’s to be imported can be retrieved here.   Also included is the note number for other request templates for supporting ECP systems.

• 2836065 – Mandatory HRSP upgrade for Employee Central Payroll systems
  • Employee Central Payroll customers who have not upgraded the HRSPs in over a year may be in non-compliance!
• 2538854 – Employee Central Payroll – Issue and Service request templates for SAP Cloud Operations
• 2647434 – HRSP Information of HR Renewal 2.0 / ECC 6.0 EhP8 for HCM

For On-Premise customers:

• You will need to follow the schedule in the below link for your specific version and start a similar process with your in-house Basis/Support teams to update HRSPs to the November 2019 release date for Year End activities.
• HRSP Schedule link:
  • https://support.sap.com/en/release-upgrade-maintenance/maintenance-information/schedules-for-maintenance-deliveries/hrsp.html

Follow-up activities may include SAP Note implementations regarding Tax Reporter or specific PU19 year-end changes. If (and when) SAP releases more updates to the W-4 and Tax Reporter preparations for 2020 these may come in December 2019 and January 2020. Specific changes may be implementable through SNOTEs and not full HRSPs requiring your busy HR team to get tied up into more testing at the end of the year.

• 2844033 – Keeping your Payroll System Up to Date2844033 – Keeping your Payroll System Up to Date

Tax Reporter 2019 starter notes:

• 2817168 – U.S. Tax Reporter Year End 2019 Announcement
• 2656756 – 2019 W-4 Changes

W4 Specific Updates:

• Update in November 04, 2019
  • The following SAP notes were released with changes related to masterdata for W-4 2020: 2845128, 2850174.
• Update in November 11, 2019
  • The following SAP note was released with changes related to ESS ABAP Webdynpros for W-4 2020: 2845529

Specific issues with year-end calculations, W-4s, and general payroll/benefits/taxes may come out of your testing in the following months well into 2020. These can be researched in the SAP Support Portal if you suspect a defect/bug.

EhP8/EC Payroll schedule:

If you have any questions or need any help navigating SAP Support in year-end (or for any other reason) please reach out to us at Aspire HR or call us at (214)880-0099.