SAP HRSP Updates for UK End of Year

You've carefully maintained your Master Data and successfully processed your Payroll through the last nine months or so. Now you are very much aware that the Year is coming to an End, that SAP will soon be releasing the Year End HRSP Updates to prepare you for the e-filing that is to come.

If the Year End HRSP's offer a daunting prospect, you've come to the right place. Below we have outlined a number of useful tips, links and suggestions to help guide you through this important period.

Timings

The timings for the OSS Notes release can be viewed via the SAP HR Support Packs Schedule. If you've never seen this before, it shows clearly, by SAP version, the notes to be released, the country relevance and also the specific notes which are Year End relevant.

The schedule is divided into sections with the most recent SAP release version at the top:

SAP_HR EnhP6.04 (EA-HR EnhP 605)
SAP_HR EnhP6.04 (EA-HR EnhP 604)
SAP_HR ECC 6.0 (EA-HR EnhP 603)
SAP_HR ECC 6.0 (EA-HR EnhP 602)
SAP_HR ECC 6.0 (EA-HR ECC 6.0)
SAP_HR ECC 5.0 (EA-HR ECC 5.0)
4.70 Ext 2.00
4.70 Ext 1.10
4.70 Core
4.6C

This schedule also provides a useful reference for seeing how up to date your system is. By comparing the Pack number in your system to that in the schedule which was the latest released for your version, you can see how close your system is to the latest versions and corrections.

The main UK Year End legal changes for Year End are normally released by SAP around January each year, with additions and small corrections released thereafter.

For 2012 to 2013, the UK Year End legal changes for each version are to be included in the following pack levels:

Check your current Patch level and compare it to the above. We would recommend that you are as close to this as possible to reduce the amount of changes required during Year End.

Tips

Allow Time:
Monitor the SAP HR Support Pack schedule and have the Year End patches installed into your system as soon after they are released as possible (the date shown as the Final availability). This will ensure the maximum amount of time available for installation, error checking and testing. The further away your system is from the current Support Pack level, the more time you will need. A typical installation of just Year End support packs, can take around a month to complete these stages.

Maintain Control:
HRSP updates should ideally be installed into the development system first. Basic unit testing should then be completed before they are moved to the UAT environment (depending on your system architecture). Unit testing in the Development client should include analysis o0f the SPAU and SPAM queues. Any notifications in these areas must be cleared with the appropriate department to ensure that valuable customisation of SAP standard functionality is not overwritten and lost. This initial stage should also be used to make sure that any prerequisite notes have already been installed, or whether there are any additional changes which must be made manually -this should be clearly indicated on any relevant notes.

Involve Everyone:
Ensure that key representatives of all relevant departments are informed from the outset. It is essential that everyone who is likely to be affected by the changes is aware as early as possible that they may be needed for input, testing and sign off during the Year End Updates process.

Test Thoroughly:
Arguably the most important part of the HRSP Upgrade process. Proper planning and thorough testing are essential to ensuring a smooth upgrade. Spend time going through each individual note included in the Year End Support Pack. There will be one note which lists them all, as an example, last year's can be downloaded on the right. Each note will identify what is being changed, whether it is Statutory Payment rates, or NI limits for example. From this, test cases should be identified which will cover scenarios that may be affected, as well as those which should not (negative impact testing).

Parallel payroll runs (if appropriate to your SAP installation, are the best way to quickly and easily identify any changes in the system caused by the Year End HRSP upgrade. This can be processed in one of two main ways. Either clone some test data back from your production system to your test system, and run payroll in the test system before and after the changes are applied to the test system. Or, alternatively, if you have the space, create two copied of your production system. one of which has the changes applied and the other which does not. Running the same tests in these two systems can then occur in parallel at the same time without the need to download and compare data. The results can easily be compared between the two systems. It is important when making these copies, that the PRD system is copied to the first test client, and then the second test client is copied from the first test client since changes may have occurred in the production client since it was copied.

Get Help: Make sure you know who you can go to in the event that the upgrade throws up questions you cannot answer. SDS have been involved a many Year End upgrades and have significant experience in resolving issues that come up during this process. To make creating test cases easier, you can download our free HR and Payroll testing script to build on for your own project. Or talk to us about or in-house developed Test Tool which sits in your SAP system and allows you to very easily create projects and test cases that compare results within or across clients. These test cases can then be used repeatedly.

In addition, if you have any questions about the changes implemented by the HMRC, you should refer to their website for information and contact details.