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com

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March 2009
Slogan Here Volume #1/Issue #1

Identify Locked
Personnel Numbers
before Executing
Contents
Payroll Runs Using Variants for
Simplifying Data

O
ne problem that payroll managers or administrators repeatedly 5 Input - A Guide for
face (every month or so) while running payroll is the result of SAP HR Users and
users who have locked the master data of employees. If a user has Consultants
locked any number of employees’ master data through maintenance trans-
actions, the payroll driver generates an error and the payroll cannot be exe- Quickly Access
cuted. This error is then followed by the frustrated payroll administrator Complex IMG Paths
9
placing phone calls or sending emails to those users involved, saying, via Direct
“Please unlock the personnel number _____ that you have locked, so that Transaction Codes
the payroll can be executed.” Time Evaluation
To identify those personnel numbers that have been locked by users, 13
Made Easy
SAP provides the standard program HFIUCPL0. A number of powerful
Employee Quick
options are available in the program, giving the payroll administrator total
19 Search Shortcut
control over the master data of their employees. This report program
Strings
lets you:
1) view a list of locked personnel numbers, along with the name of Recording Changes
the user who has locked them, Made in Personnel
23
2) send the user(s) an email requesting the release (unlock) of the Development
given employees, Infotypes
3) forcefully delete the sessions of the users responsible for the locking. Dynamic Actions -
The report program may be executed via standard transaction 27 Valuable Tips and
PC00_M44_UCPL. Tricks
Alternately, it can be executed via transactions SE38 or SA38 or from
a custom-defined Z transaction. Report program HFIUCPL0 can either
be executed online or scheduled in the background. The latter is particu-
larly useful for companies whose payrolls are set to run at a specific
(planned or set) date and time of each period. Program HFIUCPL0 may
then be scheduled to run before the payroll, and emails may be generated
to notify users that they must unlock any employee records that they have
blocked.
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The selection screen of the program is shown
in figure 1.
You may restrict the program’s selection by
entering suitable values for the fields provided,
such as personnel number, personnel area,
subarea, etc.
Figure 1: Selection screen
of program HFIUCPL0
Let us have a look in detail at these three options available in the
report program.
1
You may simply display a list of all employ-
ees (personnel numbers) that are locked.
The report also displays the employee num-
ber, the user name, and the various user details as
shown in figure 2.
2
You may also send an SAP office mail to
the users who have locked the personnel
numbers. In this case, an express message
is sent to the user who has locked the employee(s)
in question, stating that an email has arrived in
2 All Rights Reserved
Indentify Locked Personnel Numbers before Executing Payroll Runs
The program has three powerful options that
can be chosen by selecting the three radio-button
options shown under Additional Selection in
figure 1.
In figure 2, the personnel number 50995 has
been locked by the user STUDENT102.
Figure 2: Output of
Program HFIUCPL0
showing personnel
number and user details
their SAP inbox as shown in figure 3.
The email may be viewed in the SBWP transac-
tion, or the user may go there directly by choos-
ing the Inbox button from the express pop-up
shown in figure 3. The text of the email is shown
in figure 4.
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Figure 3: SAP office

express message

Figure 4: Email text

informing user to unlock
the personnel number(s)

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www.SAPHRUnleashed.com
3
You may also forcefully kill (delete)
the user sessions that have locked any
personnel numbers. Choosing the Delete
Locking Users’ Sessions kills the session of
each user involved in the locking. The session
ending function using this option is similar to
that of transaction SM04. The user running the
program must have the required authorization in
order to use this session-killing option.
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4 All Rights Reserved
Indentify Locked Personnel Numbers before Executing Payroll Runs
Note: In order to end the sessions of the
locking users, the required authorization must
be provided to the role of the user running
the program.
If no personnel numbers are locked by any
users, the program simply generates the message
“All personnel numbers are unlocked,” as
shown in figure 5.
Figure 5: Message showing
no employees are locked
March 2009/Volume #1/Issue #1
 www.SAPHRUnleashed.com

Using Variants for Simplifying

Data Input - A Guide for SAP
HR Users and Consultants
S
AP reports may contain a number of input Note: You may define variants for both standard
fields. This may be confusing for users. All SAP reports and customer-defined reports.
fields may not be required for all users at all
times. One way of avoiding the display of unnec- Accessing the Already-existing
essary fields is via the usage of variants. Variants’ Variants
In order to access the various variants of a pro-
basic function is to specify input default values
gram, click the icon from the toolbar of the pro-
for fields, but they may also be used to hide
gram selection screen. The screen appears as
unnecessary report screen fields.
shown in figure 1.
Most people are unaware of the numerous ways
You may either enter the variant or the user
a screen field may be modified by using variants.
who created it last, or change the variant in order
In this article, I will show the various options that
to narrow down your selection. Clicking the
are applicable for fields used in variant creations.
Execute icon will display a list of the variants
I will also discuss the steps required in creating
applicable to the program as shown in figure 2.
variants for a given report program
Selecting a particular variant populates the
The advantages of variant creation are as follows:
fields with the relevant values defined in the vari-
• They simplify the input screen as unnec-
ant. Moreover, the system also hides fields that
essary fields may be hidden.
are set as visible and makes fields mandatory that
• Variants make the user’s life easier and
are defined as such within the variant definition.
work faster. They relieve the user from
You may then use the Execute button in order
remembering the default values that are
to run the program according to the selection
to be entered in the various screen fields.
field values defined in the variant.
This avoids remembering and retyping of
values that are to be entered.
• You may also make fields read-only as
well as mandatory, depending on the
requirements.

Figure 1: Finding a Variant

March 2009/Volume #1/Issue #1 All Rights Reserved 5

www.SAPHRUnleashed.com Using Variants for Simplifying Data Input - A Guide for SAP HR Users and Consultants

Figure 2: Variant List

Defining a Variant for a the Save icon. Alternately, you may also choose
the keyboard shortcut CTRL - S. This leads you
Report Program
to the variant attributes screen as shown in
In this section, we will look at the steps
figure 3.
required in creating a variant for a given report

3
program. Let us take a closer look.

1
Setting the Attributes of the Variant and
Entering the Relevant Data in the
the Screen Fields: This is the most
Desired Fields of the Report: The first
important of the all the steps required in
step in defining variants involves running
creating the variant. In this step, we specify the
the report program either via the transaction
name and description of the variant, as well as
SE38 or via the report transaction, and then
specifying which of the screen fields are to be
entering (default) values in the various fields
hidden, set as compulsory, or made read-only.
of the program selection screen. These default
On the screen shown in figure 3, there are var-
values are to be stored in the variant and made
ious attributes of the variant as well as the indi-
available to the user when the relevant variant
vidual fields contained in the table structure
is imported.
below. First, you need to enter a suitable name

2
Defining the Variant: Once the field
values have been entered in the relevant
fields on the report selection screen, press
and description of the variant in the fields provid-
ed. You then need to set (if required) the follow-
ing indicators pertinent to the variant:

Figure 3: Variant Attributes

Screen

6 All Rights Reserved March 2009/Volume #1/Issue #1

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www.SAPHRUnleashed.com Using Variants for Simplifying Data Input - A Guide for SAP HR Users and Consultants
Only for Background Processing: If this
checkbox is not selected, the corresponding vari-
ant may be used both in foreground and the back-
ground mode. If the indicator is checked, the
variant may only be executed in the background
mode. In case you have a variant that is scheduled
to be run in background, this indicator must be
set. This will prevent users from changing the
variant by mistake in the foreground mode.
Protect Variant: As the name indicates, this
checkbox is used for protecting (preventing
changes in) the variant by other users. If this
checkbox is set, the variant may only be changed
by the user who has created the variant. If the
particular user has left the company, the variant
may be accessed or changed with the help of the
security team members.
Only Display in Catalog: If this indicator is
checked, the corresponding variant will not
appear in the list of variants shown in figure 2.
In case you want to access or change this par-
ticular variant, the procedure is somewhat diffi-
cult. The variant may be accessed by choosing the
Variants option in SE38 for the given program
and then accessing the total variants list via the
4
Variant g Catalog menu path.
Apart from the variant-specific attributes, a
number of checkboxes are available for each field
that resides on the selection screen of the pro-
gram in question. For each field, the following
indicators (check boxes) are provided:
Protect Field. Checking the Protect field
indicator locks (protects) the relevant field for
any entries by the user. In short, the default value
assigned to the field may not be changed and
is shown in grey color. For example, figure 4
Figure 4: Protecting the Form
Name from being Changed
8 All Rights Reserved
shows the Form name field in grey (protected)
using this indicator.
Hide Field. As the name indicates, this indica-
tor is used for hiding a field from the selection
screen. This is a useful function and may be used
for making unnecessary fields invisible from
the user.
Required Field. If you like a field to be
mandatory, the required field must be checked.
The respective field(s) then becomes mandatory.
The user has to definitely enter a value in the
field that is mandatory in order to execute
the program.
Save Field Without Values. Checking this
indicator will not affect the contents of the rele-
vant field when a particular variant is imported.
Rather, the field value already entered is not
replaced with a blank space or with any other
value from the imported variant.
For example, if we set this checkbox for a field
named FORM, and the field has the value XF01
when the relevant variant is imported, the same
value will remain in the field after the import is
performed.
Saving the Variant: Finally when you have
made the necessary settings according to
your requirement, you must save the vari-
ant using the Save button or the keyboard short-
cut CTRL – S. This takes you back to the pro-
gram selection screen.
The variant will be created and added to the list
applicable to the program in question. You may
execute the program afterwards using the proce-
dure defined in the previous section.
March 2009/Volume #1/Issue #1

Quickly Access Complex
IMG Paths via Direct
Transaction Codes
T
he IMG is a complex place and contains a
plethora of nodes representing configura-
tion activities for all modules. Searching
through the IMG for a particular activity node
may be a time-consuming and laborious activity.
Fortunately, SAP provides you a way to directly
access the activity node. This access is via direct
1
transaction codes specific to each activity. In this
article, I will discuss the procedure for finding out
these direct transaction codes.
Note: You may enter the transaction codes in
your Favorites of the SAP menu for quick access.
The activity information is stored as entries in
table CUS_IMGACH. In the database, each
activity (and text) is denoted by a key such as
OHIX0626. To each key record in the table, there
March 2009/Volume #1/Issue #1 All Rights Reserved
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is an assigned transaction code that allows direct
access to the activity. Within the table, the activi-
ty key and the transaction code are stored in fields
ACTIVITY and TCODE, respectively.
The steps required in finding the direct transac-
tion code are shown below:
In the first step, you switch on the
Additional information setting in order to
view the key pertaining to the IMG activity
in question. This may be done via the menu path
Additional Information g Display Key g
IMG Activity as shown in figure 1.
Switching on the additional data displays the
technical name (key) of the IMG activity as
shown in figure 2.
For example, the key for IMG activity Infotype
Menu shown in figure 2 is OHIX0626. \
Figure 1:
Menu path
for
Displaying
IMG
Activity Key
9
www.SAPHRUnleashed.com Quickly Access Complex IMG Paths via Direct Transaction Codes

Figure 2:
Technical Name
Shown in Front
of Activity Text

2
Once you have the technical name, you may
then get the corresponding value of the
direct transaction code from the table
CUS_IMGACH. Use keyboard short cut CTRL +
Y to copy the name of the activity key. Then use the
transaction SE16 or SE16N to find the TCODE
value for the given value of ACTIVITY.
For example, the row corresponding to
ACTIVITY OHIX0626 is shown in figure 3.

Figure 3: Table Row Corresponding to

Activity CUS_IMGACH

10 All Rights Reserved March 2009/Volume #1/Issue #1

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www.SAPHRUnleashed.com Quickly Access Complex IMG Paths via Direct Transaction Codes

The required transaction code is stored in the

TCODE field (in our example, the value is
S_AHR_61011206).
The transaction code S_AHR_61011206 is the
direct transaction code used for accessing the
Infotype Menu activity node. Running this trans-
action directly will skip the initial IMG screens
and take you directly to the list of (sub)activities
pertaining to the Infotype menu node as shown
in figure 4.

Figure 4:
Activities
Pertaining to
Infotype Menu
Node

12 All Rights Reserved March 2009/Volume #1/Issue #1


Time Evaluation Made Easy
A
n important and complicated part of the
SAP HR module is its Time Evaluation
component. In a company, there may be
employees working on monthly salary. Such
employees may be eligible for a fixed monthly
salary and the actual times worked on each day (or
breaks within working hours) may not be impor-
tant for salary calculation.
On the other hand, a company may have
employees working on a daily or hourly rate. In
such cases, the Time In and Time Out of employ-
ees may be recorded, and the breaks during work-
ing hours may also be monitored. In addition, the
extra time worked each day or within a period
must also be determined. For example, if employ-
ees are entitled to work 10 hours a day, when they
work more than 10 hours they must be paid over-
time. Time Evaluation is useful in the latter
scenario. It provides automated calculation and
evaluation of time data. For situations where time
2
data is important, there may be three different
scenarios involved.
In this article, three different scenarios within
Time Management will be examined.
The Three Scenarios Within Time
Management
Let us look at the various scenarios within Time
Management. These are discussed below:
1
Without Time Evaluation (and Without
Time Recording): Before diving into the
details of Time Evaluation, let us see how
life is without Time Evaluation. This is the sim-
plest case. In this case, no time recording system
is involved and no Time Evaluation program is
executed.
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The absences or attendance of employees are
entered in the infotypes 2001 and 2002 respec-
tively. In case any additional payment (overtime)
is to be paid to the employees, the respective
amount must be computed manually and entered
in the 2010 (Remuneration) infotype, or 0015
(Additional Payments) infotype under a suitable
wage type.
The payroll is then executed, taking the over-
time amount into account. The payroll schema
will manage all payments including the overtime
amount.
Note: In the No Time Evaluation scenario,
no automated computations are involved for
overtime. In the case where overtime is to be
paid, manual calculations must be done by
users. No Time Evaluation program or time
schemas or rules are used. The payroll schema
(and rules) may be customized in order to meet
requirements.
With Time Evaluation Along With
Time Recording: Let us now discuss
another scenario. You may have employee
Time Evaluation along with Time recording. In
this case, the Time In and Time Out of employ-
ees is recorded daily in a time recording system.
This time data is then sent to the SAP system for
evaluation. The actual clock times worked are
stored in the infotype 2011 (Time Events).
The Time Evaluation program is then executed
using a suitable time schema. The schema com-
pares the actual working times of the employees
within a given period of the planned working
time. In this scenario, the breaks between working
times are also taken into account.
13
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The time data is evaluated and the evaluation
results, including additional hours worked by
employees (such as overtime), are stored in the
time clusters. During the Time Evaluation run,
the system generates time wage types for addi-
tional payments (overtime).
After the Time Evaluation program, the Payroll
program is run. The time results stored in clusters
may then be gathered by the Payroll program for
processing employee payments.
This scenario requires customizing of the time
schema and rules, as well as certain configurations
in the IMG.
3
Using Time Evaluation Without Time
Recording: This scenario is midway
between the first two options. In this case,
the Time In and Time Out are not recorded.
Rather, the emphasis is on the hours worked by
an employee.
14 All Rights Reserved
Time Evaluation Made Easy
This is suitable for calculations where actual
time (time in and out) is not important for pay-
ment calculations. In this scenario, the data are
entered (in number of hours) in the infotype
2002 (Attendance). The Time Evaluation pro-
gram is then run using the time schema based on
the standard SAP schema TM04.
Apart from customizing the schema, some con-
figuration entries must be made in order to eval-
uate the time data. The evaluation program calcu-
lates the overtime and other results and stores
them in the time clusters. The payroll is then exe-
cuted .The time results stored in clusters may
then be gathered by the payroll program for pro-
cessing employee payments.
The behavior of the Time Evaluation program,
the schema used for the time data processing, as
well as the underlying configuration required, dif-
fer from the previous scenario.
March 2009/Volume #1/Issue #1
Time Evaluation Made Easy
Note: Similar to Payroll, Time Evaluation has
schemas which contain rules and operation
pertaining to time calculations. For the Time
Evaluation With Clock Times scenario, SAP pro-
vides the schema TM00. TM04 is the schema
for the Time Evaluation Without Clock Times
scenario.
Note: The time cluster acts as an interface
between the Time Evaluation and the Payroll
program. The Payroll reads the time cluster
results in order to process payments.
Important Terms in
Time Evaluation
Now let us discuss some of the important
terms related to Time Evaluation.
Personnel Subarea Groupings
As with work schedules and other configura-
tion in the Time Management module, Time
Evaluation also allows you to define groupings
based on personnel subarea. This lets you specify
how the time data of employees that lie within a
certain subarea are to be evaluated.
Time Types and Processing Types
i) Time Types
Time types are defined as the basic units used
for denoting time durations (time spans).
However, the most important function of types
is to store the cumulate time balances computed
during the Time Evaluation program run. Within
the definition of a Time type in the IMG, you
may specify whether the balances are cumulate on
a daily or monthly basis.
Code Description
0010 Attendance (generated or accessed from time events infotypes 2011)
0020 Absences (infotype 2001)
0030 Attendance Hours (stored in infotype 2002)
0040 Overtime Hours
0050 Total Hours Worked
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Note: Prior to defining Time types, you need
to define appropriate personnel subarea
groupings.
Suppose the employees of a particular person-
nel subarea grouping have a planned working
time of 10 hours a day. However, they work for
11 hours each day of a particular month.
A Time type called Compensation Time may
be defined to store the total difference of addi-
tional hours worked by the employees within the
given month.
A few examples of Time types are shown in
Figure 1.
The standard system contains commonly used
Time types. Time types used may differ according
to the type of scenario involved (with clock times
or without clock times). The Time types’ calcula-
tions are specified by the rules contained within
the Time Evaluation schema. In case the standard
Time types are not sufficient, you may create your
own Time types.
Note: New Time types must only be created
when the standard Time types are not enough
to fulfill your requirements.
The maintenance screen of a Time type called
Absence 0020 is shown in Figure 2.
Figure 1:
Some
Time Type
Codes and
Meanings
All Rights Reserved 15
www.SAPHRUnleashed.com Time Evaluation Made Easy

Figure 2:
Time type
0020

There are two important indicators on this Note: The Processing types are used to create
screen, namely Save as Day Balance and groups of attendance or absence types that are
Cumulate as Period Balance. The indicators to be processed similarly. This assignment or
linkage is made in the IMG configuration
are assigned value 1, meaning that the Time type
is used both in the day balance as well as period Figure 3 shows some standard Processing types
balance. that are available
ii) Processing types
Along with Time types, Processing types are You may also define your own Processing types.
also important. The Processing type is an indica-
tor that is assigned to an absence code or atten-
dance code, in order to denote how the code is to
be interpreted and handled. The attendance and
absence codes that fall in the same category are
grouped together (via processing types) and the Processing
Meaning
balances computed from them are posted to the Type
Figure 3:
same Time type. Some P Attendance
Standard
Processing
Types A Absence

I Illness

M Over Time

16 All Rights Reserved March 2009/Volume #1/Issue #1

Time Evaluation Made Easy www.SAPHRUnleashed.com

Time Evaluation Program

(RPTIME00)
This program is the main program of Time
Evaluation. It may also be accessed via the trans-
action PT60. The screen of the program is shown
in Figure 4.
One of the important input fields of this pro-
gram is the Time evaluation schema (specifying
the relevant schema to be used). The schema con-
tains rules that define the various steps (and cal-
culations) that are to be performed within the
Time Evaluation run.
The Time program processes the recorded
times, and creates time balances. The absence or
attendances that are found having similar pro-
cessing types are cumulated in the same Time
types. The program then generates the Wage
types based on the Processing type and Time
type. The generated Wage types are then used for
computing the gross salary of employees in
Payroll.

Figure 4:
Main
Screen of
Program
RPTIME00

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Employee Quick Search

Shortcut Strings

R
emembering individual employees’ person-
nel numbers may be difficult for SAP users.
This may become even more challenging
when a new SAP implementation is carried out,
and the SAP system assigns fresh numbers to
employee records when data from the previous
system are loaded. When maintaining employee
data using transactions PA30 and PA20, the usual
means that users employ for searching for
employees’ numbers is via the Search help.
Most functional consultants and users are not
aware that an even faster method for accessing
employee numbers exists. This is via the usage of
Employee Shortcut Code Strings. This method
simplifies the Search help procedure and provides
quick access to the desired numbers. In this
article, I will discuss how to write the syntax and
semantics of these shortcut strings. Since the
Shortcut method is an enhancement of Search
help, I will also discuss basic Search help method.
Basic Search Help Method
Before diving into the details of the Shortcut
codes, let me discuss the Search help functionali-
ty. While processing an employee’s data via trans-
action PA30 or PA20, users employ the F4 help
(Search help) provided on the personnel number
field. This will open the dialog box comprising of
a number of Search helps. If you want to select
all employees whose last name is Admon and
first name begins with S, you will select the Last
name –First name Search help tab and enter val-
ues as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1:
Searching
Employees
With Last
Name “Admon”
and First Name
Starting With
“S”

The system will then list the value(s) found.

March 2009/Volume #1/Issue #1 All Rights Reserved 19

www.SAPHRUnleashed.com
Clicking a particular row will populate the per-
sonnel number field (on transaction PA30 or
PA20) with the relevant employee number.
This is the basic Search help method. One dis-
advantage to this method is that you have to nav-
igate through the Search help dialog box, select
the relevant Search help of your choice, and enter
values in the appropriate fields before reaching
the list of employee values. In next section, we
will discuss the Shortcut code method based on
Search helps.
Employee Shortcut Code Strings
SAP provides a quick way of getting to the
employee (number) using Shortcut code strings.
These provide direct access to a desired set of
employee records by simply entering the string in
the personnel number field contained in the main
screen of transaction PA30 or PA20. For exam-
ple, in order to search for all employees whose
first name is Sarah, the necessary code to be
entered in the personnel number field is shown in
Figure 3.
Figure 3:
Searching
for All
Employees
Having the
First Name
“Sarah”
20 All Rights Reserved
Employee Quick Search Shortcut Strings
Figure 2:
Entry
Found
Displayed
The =n represents the code for accessing Last
name – first name Search help (this code will
vary according to the Search help to be used).
Each dot (.) represents the fields provided on the
relevant Search help (in this case, last name and
first name sequentially). The value that is to be
passed for the field is written after the correspon-
ding field period (dot). You may simply use a
period without a value or blank space if no value
is to be passed for a given field. In =n..Sarah, the
first period followed by no value means that we
do not impose a selection restriction based on the
last name.
Keep in mind the following:
• In case we need to search for the employ-
ee number having the first name Sarah
and last name Admon, we will enter the
shortcut code =n.Admon.Sarah.
• The =n.Admon. or =n.Admon.. have
the same effect, i.e, the program reads all
employees having last name Admon. In
case the latter fields are not being used in
the selection, their corresponding periods
may be omitted.
• Within Search helps, we use an asterisk (*)
to select all text beginning with a certain
pattern. The * is not used in Shortcut
codes. For example, corresponding to the
search shown in Figure 1, we will pass
=n.Admon.S as the string in order to
search for all employees having last name
Admon and first name beginning with S.
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Employee Quick Search Shortcut Strinigs www.SAPHRUnleashed.com

Entering the code string in the field and press-

ing Enter will display a list of values pertaining to
your selection criteria, as shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4:
Selection
Criteria
Values

In case there is only one personnel number

matching the specified criteria, the relevant num-
ber is directly populated in the personnel number
field without any list dialog displayed (such as
shown in Figure 2).
For the sake of illustration, I have used the last
name and first name Search help. However, you
may use the shortcut technique for other Search
helps as well. The various codes and format of
shortcut strings and some other examples of usage
are illustrated in Figure 5.

March 2009/Volume #1/Issue #1 All Rights Reserved 21

www.SAPHRUnleashed.com Employee Quick Search Shortcut Strings

Figure 5: Search Helps, Their Relevant Codes and Example Shortcut Strings

Search Help Syntax for Shortcut String Usage Example

=k.(Personnel Area).(Personnel
To get all employees from Cost Center
Subarea).(Employee
123456, enter =k…….123456. The seven
Organizational Group).(Employee
dots indicate empty values supplied for the
Assignment Subgroup).(Payroll Area).(Company
six fields before the Cost center, whereas the
Code).(Cost Center).(Organization
seventh dot indicates the cost center value
Unit)
Name =n.(Last Name).(First Name) Discussed in this article
Applicant =r.(Applicant Number).(Personnel =r.1234 must be entered to get the
Number) Personnel Number of employee whose
relevant Applicant Number is 1234
User ID =u.(Communication The relevant subtype of infotype 105 must
Type).(ID/Number) be passed against the communication type,
along with the relevant ID. For searching the
personnel number of user ID JAMES, the
shortcut string =u.0001.JAMES must be
entered. (the subtype 0001 represents User
Name in infotype 105)

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22 All Rights Reserved March 2009/Volume #1/Issue #1


Recording Changes Made in
Personnel Development
Infotypes
L
ike Personnel Administration, the changes
made in the Personnel Development (PD)
infotypes must also be logged. You may
record which fields were changed, the dates on
which they were changed as well as the user who
made the changes. This facility was introduced by
SAP in Release 4.7. Changes made in infotypes
1000, 1001 and 1002 could be monitored at first,
but this facility was later provided for other info-
types as well.
Most users and functional consultants are
unaware of this functionality. In this article we
will discuss various entries for switching on the
tracking of changes made in Personnel
Development data, and how the entries are
displayed.
By default, the Changes tracking functionality is
switched off for all infotypes. You need to switch
it on for infotype and subtypes of choice. This
is done by making entries in table
T77CDOC_CUST. Once these changes are
made and recorded, they may be viewed using a
standard SAP report RHCDOC_DISPLAY. The
changes made to PD infotypes are recorded as
Change documents in tables CDHDR and
CDPOS. The object name class involved is
HR_ITnnnn, where nnnn is the infotype number
(for example, HR_IT1001 for infotype 1001)
Note: You may use the steps mentioned in
order to track changes made in OM as well as
Training and Event Management data.
March 2009/Volume #1/Issue #1
www.SAPHRUnleashed.com
Entries for Switching On
Tracking of Changes
In order to switch on the tracking of changes
made in Personnel Development data, you need
to create some customizing entries in the stan-
dard SAP table T77CDOC_CUST. One of the
IMG paths for accessing the maintenance screen
of table T77CDOC_CUST is Personnel
Management g Personnel Development g
Basic Settings g Activate Change
Documents.
Transaction SM31 may also be used by entering
the table name in the field provided and clicking
on the Maintain button.
Selecting either of the two options will take you
to the maintenance screen of table
T77CDOC_CUST. Click the New Entries
button.
The various fields (and the values to be entered)
on the table T77CDOC_CUST are discussed
below:
Plan Version. The value 01 for the plan ver-
sion denotes the active version. Other than 01
version, the change log may not be required. This
is normally ste as 01 (since only change log for
version 01 may be required).
Object type. As the name indicates, the field
Object type denotes the objects whose changes
are to be logged. The relevant code (comprising
of one or two characters) representing the object
type must be entered in the field (for example, O
for Organizational Object, S for Position and
likewise). If an asterisk (*) is entered in the object
type field, the infotype change log will be updat-
ed for changes made in all objects of that info-
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www.SAPHRUnleashed.com
type. For example, if you want to monitor
changes made to all objects for infotype 1000,
you will enter ‘*’ in the field Object type.
Infotype. In this column, the four digit number
denoting the infotype to be monitored is speci-
fied. For example, 1000 must be entered to spec-
ify Basic Definitions infotype, whereas 1001 is
entered for Relationships infotypes, and so on.
Subtype. In case you want the Change log to
be filled only when a particular subtype record of
an infotype is changed, you must specify the rele-
vant subtype number in this field. For example, if
you want to limit the generation of Change doc-
uments for the infotype 1001 only to subtype
A012, the entry will look like the one shown in
Figure 1.
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24 All Rights Reserved
Recording Changes Made in Personnel Development Infotypes
The Subtype field must be filled with an aster-
isk (*) for Infotypes to which subtypes are not
applicable. Infotype 1000 is a typical example.
Active checkbox – The Active checkbox is
meant for switching the Infotype tracking on or
off. The entry does not have to be deleted in
order to deactivate Infotype monitoring; the
Active indicator is simply switched off.
Tip: The Active check box turns Infotype
Change logging on and off, which makes it
simple to deactivate an entry in table
T77CDOC_CUST (without deleting it).
After creating the appropriate entries on the
maintenance screen of table T77CDOC_CUST,
save your entries.
Figure 1.
Change
Documents
March 2009/Volume #1/Issue #1
Recording Changes Made in Personnel Development Infotypes
Viewing the Change Log
Now you have made all the necessary configu-
ration settings related to the tracking of changes
made to PD data. The system will automatically
create the log for changes that are done. The pro-
gram RHCDOC_DISPLAY may be used to dis-
play the changes that have been made to PD data.
The selection screen of the program is shown in
Figure 2.
Since the selection screen lets you restrict the
displayed data in a number of ways, it is a good
idea to become familiar with its input fields. Let
us take a closer look:
• In the upper part, you will find the Object
Section. This lets you restrict your selec-
March 2009/Volume #1/Issue #1
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tion based on the Object type and Object
ID. Enter suitable values in the Plan ver-
sion, Object type and ID fields. (The ID
field may also be left blank).
• Then, you must enter infotype-specific
data within the Infotype block. The val-
ues entered here dynamically change the
input fields of this block. A typical exam-
ple of this is when the number of a lan-
guage-dependent infotype (such as 1000)
is inputted in the Infotype field. In this
case, a language key field is added on the
screen. The language (such as EN for
English, and DE for German) may then
be specified in this field.
Figure 2:
Screen of Program
RHCDOC_DISPLAY
All Rights Reserved 25
www.SAPHRUnleashed.com
Note: If Relationships infotype (1001) is speci-
fied in the infotype field in the Infotype block,
two additional fields (Object type and Object ID
of related object) appear. In these fields, you
may enter the related object’s type and/or ID.
The output of the program will be comprised of
the modifications made in Infotype 1001
records having relationship with the specified
object type and ID.
• The Change Data block is used to spec-
ify the change document selection based
on the ID of the user who modified the
infotype data, as well as the date and time
on which the change was made. The cur-
rent date is entered as the default for the
start and end date fields (but these may be
changed according to your requirements).
• At the end is the Output area. In this sec-
tion, you specify the format in which the
data are to be displayed. There are two
ways to do this, namely Technical View
and Summarized View. If the Technical
View is chosen, the data are displayed in
technical form, i.e., the change docu-
ments stored in the database. On the
other hand, the Summarized View will
display a single (summarized) document
for multiple documents stored for a par-
ticular set of data.
The Display Field Contents indica-
tor (within the Output block) lets you
specify the level of detail to be displayed.
If the indicator is selected, a detailed
report showing every infotype field that
has been modified (along with Old and
Figure 4: Output When “Display Field Contents”
Indicator is On
26 All Rights Reserved
Recording Changes Made in Personnel Development Infotypes
New Values) is displayed. When the
Display Field Contents checkbox is not
on, a single line is shown in the Output
for each change that is made
The Output of the report RHCDOC_DIS-
PLAY is shown in Figure 3.
At the beginning is the Object type (OT) col-
umn. The relevant icon indicating the Object
type is displayed in it. (In our example, organiza-
tional unit ). The second column is the Object
ID, the eight-digit number identification number
assigned by the system when the user creates
objects via transactions such as PPOME, PP01.
After that, the name of the changed object and
relevant infotype are displayed, followed by the
start and end dates of the modified record. The
Name column tells the name of the user who has
modified the infotype record in question. The
date and time of the change are denoted by the
Date and Time columns, respectively
The illustration in Figure 4 is pertinent to the
case when the Display Field Contents indicator
was checked on the main program screen. That is
why the label, the older value as well as the new
value (of each changed field) are displayed.
Note: SAP does not provide any transaction
for executing the PD audit program
RHCDOC_DISPLAY. The program may be
executed directly via transaction SE38 or SA38.
However, many organizations may not allow
access to SA38 or SE38. The program may be
provided to users through a custom-defined
transaction code (Z transaction or Y transaction).
Figure 3: Output of Program RHCDOC_DISPLAY
March 2009/Volume #1/Issue #1
 www.SAPHRUnleashed.com

Dynamic Actions -
Valuable Tips and Tricks

D
ynamic Actions are statements executed Here are some useful tips for writing effective
automatically by the R/3 system during dynamic actions:
the maintenance mode of infotypes. You

1
may write your own dynamic actions (stored in
table T588Z) in order to trigger activities auto-
matically linked to infotype maintenance.
There are times when dynamic actions fail to
achieve their purpose. I have heard people saying
that “Our actions are not getting triggered.” One
reason for this is that SAP does not provide any
syntax checking mechanism for guaranteeing the
accuracy of dynamic actions, and the consultant
actions are syntactically incorrect. Since there are
no syntax checkers associated within the dynamic
action editor, it makes it necessary for you to
You should not use blank spaces within the
variable function part component of your
actions. This may cause your dynamic
actions to fail. For example, the following is not
correct:
P RP50M-FIELD1 < RP50M-FIELD2
The correct form is:
P RP50M-FIELD1<RP50M-FIELD2
(without any blank spaces in between)

2
write syntactically and semantically accurate
actions.
In this article we will cover some important tips
and tricks related to dynamic actions that will
allow you to write correct actions and avoid mis-
takes commonly made by consultants. I have
assumed that the reader is familiar with the basics
of dynamic actions. If you need an explanation of
the basics of dynamic actions, send an email to
editor@saphrunleashed.com.
The correct use of brackets as well as
commas should be made. A common error
that consultants commit is the incorrect
usage of commas and brackets while writing
constant values and field names within P, I and W
statements
In figure 1, I have compiled an easy guide
for helping you to write error-free P, I and W
statements.

Can quotation marks be used Brackets allowed while

Statement
while specifying constants? specifying field names?

P Allowed Not Allowed

Figure 1:

I Not Allowed Allowed

W Allowed Not Allowed

March 2009/Volume #1/Issue #1 All Rights Reserved 27

www.SAPHRUnleashed.com
I INS,’9001’,,,(P0001-BEGDA),(P0001-ENDDA)
P (RP50M-FIELD)<(RP50M-FIELD2)
The correct forms are shown below:
I INS,9001,,,(P0001-BEGDA),(P0001-ENDDA)
P RP50M-FIELD<RP50M-FIELD2
3
Apart from syntax errors, semantic errors
must also be avoided. These are logical mis-
takes that will cause the dynamic action to
fail. This is typically true for OR and AND state-
ments.
Let me first clarify what OR statements and
AND statement mean within the variable part of
dynamic actions
• OR. When a number of P statements are
connected via OR, the statement follow-
ing the P statements is executed if any
one of the conditions specified by the P
statement is true.
• AND statement. On the other hand, the
statement followed by P statements
linked via AND will be executed only if
all the P statement conditions hold true.
In plausibility checks (P statements) use the
addition /X at the end of the variable function
part that you want to connect via OR condition.
In case no /X is specified, the statement is con-
sidered as an AND condition. You may use the
OR and AND together in order to create condi-
tions for representing your company’s scenario.
For clarification, let us look at a few examples:
P PSAVE-STAT2=’2’
P T001P-MOLGA=’01’
I …..
W ….
The above statements mean that the system
checks the value of the country grouping and an
employee’s employment status. The I and W
statement are executed if T001P-MOLGA equals
01 and PSAVE-STAT2 is 2.
28 All Rights Reserved
Dynamic Actions - Valuable Tips and Tricks
Let us consider another example. Suppose to
the previous condition you want to add RP50M-
FIELD1. Say you want to trigger the action of
the country grouping MOLGA, 01 or (OR) the
value of RP50M-FIELD1 is equal to 02, and
(AND) the value of PSAVE-STAT2 is equal to 2.
The statements are as follows:
P T001P-MOLGA=’01’/X
P RP50M-FIELD1=’02’/X
P PSAVE-STAT2=’2’
I …..
W ….
The I statement is executed if (T001P-
MOLGA equals 01 or RP50M-FIELD1 equals
02) and PSAVE-STAT2 is equal to 2.
Many consultants generally forget to include
/X from P statements that are to be connected
with OR condition. If they do, the required pur-
pose will not be served. For example, consider
the statements below:
P PSAVE-STAT2=’02’/X
P T001P-MOLGA=’01’
I …………….
In the above case, the second P statement does
not end with /X, so the OR condition is not met
and the AND condition is implied. The I state-
ment is executed when T001P-MOLGA equals
01 and PSAVE-STAT2 is equal to 01.
4
Another example of a common error done
by consultants is omitting the required
(mandatory) field values while writing W
and I statements. This is especially a problem
when the dynamic action has to be run in back-
ground mode. The necessary screen does not pop
up and the necessary action does not take place.
Two examples are:
• The Subtypes values for subtypes are not
provided in case of infotypes that have a
mandatory subtype field.
• In the case of W statements , one or more
mandatory fields have not be specified,
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Dynamic Actions - Valuable Tips and Tricks www.SAPHRUnleashed.com

5
Another common syntax error is the incor-
rect placement of commas within the I
statements. In case of I statements, you
have to be careful about the placement and
sequence of commas. The correct format of an I
statement is:
(Operation) , ( Infotype number) , ( Subtype),
( Object ID), ( Start Date) ,( End date)
The above sequence should be strictly followed.
In case a given field value is not provided, a
comma should always be included. Here are a few
examples of valid statements for I statements
I INS,9001,,,(P0001-BEGDA),(P0001-ENDDA)

I COP,0014,,,(P0000-BEGDA),(P0000-ENDDA)

I INS,9002,0012,,,

March 2009/Volume #1/Issue #1 All Rights Reserved 29