One of the topics I have written about and presented on through the years is how to correctly clear claims in SAP US Payroll (much of it would apply to claims in any country payroll). Long, long ago SAP issued their documentation on the process, and after being urged by clients and other consultants I wrote my two-part article on it for HR Expert Online (part 1, part 2). I think my approach back then in 2005 was pretty good, clear, and as simple as claims could get. But you know, every good consultant should always be looking for a better way - and so I have an improvement - a simplification, even - on that claims clearing process.
SAP's original document advised the creation of special wagetypes for clearing claims - model wagetype MRPx for example, where 'x' is the tax classification of the wages you are clearing. That means setting up what could be a lot of new wagetypes for clearing, repayment and periodic repayment. Then users have to figure out which components of the claim are with each tax classification (which there is no standard report for), select the right wagetypes and then create the right infotype transactions for processing the clearing and repayment. I no longer create or use any of those special wagetypes - instead, I use the original wagetypes that led to the claim in the first place.
So instead of using wagetype MRP1 to clear the wages for tax class 1, I use whatever original wagetypes were overpaid to create the claim. That means I might have to make the salary, hourly, overtime and related wagetypes available on IT 0267 and 0221 - but that works fine. For periodic repayment, you can put a negative salary wagetype on IT 0014. In addition to not having all those extra wagetypes around, it's easier for users to map wagetypes from the claims report RPCLMSU0 to the actual data entry to be done. The posting to FI is more accurate too, since I'm using each of the original wagetypes the correct GL accounts will get charged when the claim is processed.
Now there might be a special wagetype or two that needs to be created for some special processing, but 99% of all the wagetypes can be the original ones involved in the claim. It works fine, really! Give it a try. Don't you want to make claims processing simpler?
And yes, I do know about SAP's new overpayments functionality, and no, I do not use it. But that's a whole different blog to write.