Welcome to the SAP Payroll Insights newsletter by Insight Consulting Partners! This newsletter is focused on SAP and Employee Central (EC) Payroll features, news, tips & tricks and general industry information.
Notes and Updates from SAP
Let's take a look at the US first. Everyone needs to get ready for a BSI upgrade - to version 11 - this year. The main note is 2760305, so be sure to read it and get prepared. The current BSI version 10 will be decommissioned 11 January 2021. Now, do you want to upgrade your BSI module in December 2020? No, probably no... you have a few other things going on at that time (year-end!). Do you want to upgrade it in October/November 2020? That might make sense because you can bundle the regression testing with your HR Support Pack testing (of course you regression test support packs!). Do you want to implement it before then? Maybe it makes sense for your particular circumstance. The message here though is to start planning and scheduling resources for this.
One piece of tax functionality that lagged the new W-4 changes is the IRS Lock-In Letter (IT 0161). See SAP note 2880846 for more info on the latest changes for that. ADP also has a good brief on lock-in letters and the new W-4.
Also lagging a bit, if you are using BSI TaxProfile Factory - a few fields were not getting transferred in the interface from BSI. Note 2891332 has the solution for that. And note 2881474 has instructions on how the new W-4 fields are worked into the pay statement if you use the old PE51 functionality. I've used the SmartForms functionality the past 10+ years for pay statements, and I don't see that SAP has delivered those new fields in the SAP_DEFAULT MetaNet, but it's not too difficult to add them manually. Still, should be standard functionality there too.
First quarter Tax Reporter changes are released via note 2895399, and there's an important note for NY Q4 SUI reporting to apply via note 2867538 if you report for NY (reporting Federal SUI wages instead of NY).
What about Canada? There are a lot of notes for ROE corrections - check out 2800653, 2803105, 2883316 and 2727702.
Let's go to Brazil (please!) - and read about changes to Social Security (INSS) in note 2878329. And of course, there are always several notes per month about eSocial that need to be applied.
For the rest of the world - did you know that Wagetype Reporter doesn't always filter the results based on the selection screen? Neither did I. It appears that if there is a mid-period split in the payroll, and you are entering cost center, position, work contract, org unit or job code on the selection screen then it won't work properly. Note 2892422 fixes that. Whoever found that bug deserves the medal for 'Best at Paying Attention to Details.'
It appears that when you change IT 0009 Bank Details for an employee, it's checking their Tax Company even if they are not a US employee. Note 2899536 fixes that. But.... why would we want to check an employee's Tax Company when their banking information changes?
If you are on EC Payroll check out note 2679852 for details on replicating custom MDF objects.
Around the Web
Our friends at Raven Intel have a great article on 6 Reasons Your Enterprise Software Project is Late. It is definitely worth the time to read even if you don't have an active project right now, because sooner or later you will. I'm always perplexed by this though - we've known these six things (and others) for years now. Decades. And yet, projects still suffer from them. That's an article I'd like to see - Why Do We Repeat Past Project Mistakes?
In case you haven't heard, SAP extended the maintenance timeframes for ECC and S/4HANA. Basically, up to 2027 for ECC and 2040 for S/4HANA. This is good news, as I blogged earlier. This gives a lot of customers more time to make the transition to new solutions at a time that is good for them. Don't waste the time though - keep looking at the new platforms and evaluating how you can benefit from them.
There's a new payroll technology being promoted heavily by all sorts of firms - it goes by different names: Flexible Payroll, Continuous Payroll and so on. Essentially, it gives employees access to their wages before payday. It's a payroll advance/loan, automated through your HR and Payroll systems and delivered via a slick app. I'm not a fan, but if you feel there is benefit for your company then go for it. And also be aware that not all US states are on-board with the concept - the American Payroll Association has an article on proposed legislation in New Jersey that impacts this process; other states have expressed similar concerns. Make sure your legal team is integrated into your review of these services.
Quote of the Moment
"Never get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life." -- Dollie Parton
Have a great day!
Steve Bogner
Managing Partner, Insight Consulting Partners
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