The third SAP® SuccessFactors® release of 2019 went into preview on August 9. We have already provided an overview of highlights for Employee Central Time and Attendance in the update. Now we are going to take some time to examine more detailed information on updates in SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central Payroll, Localization, Benefits, and Time Management.
More Q3 Analysis: SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central Core HR | SAP SuccessFactors Recruiting | SAP SuccessFactors Mobile Apps |SAP SuccessFactors Performance and Goals | SAP SuccessFactors Compensation and Variable Pay
The preview release allows customers the chance to test out new features before they officially go live in the system on the production date. Each preview of SAP SuccessFactors quarterly updates comes about one month before the production, which is September 6 for this quarter.
Let’s look at the major enhancements for Q3 2019 in SAP SuccessFactors Payroll, Localization, Benefits, and Time Management.
Employee Central Payroll
New country versions for Belgium and Indonesia: Customers will now be able to run Employee Central Payroll in Belgium and Indonesia with localized versions that include replication of all Employee Central fields required for each country’s specific payroll requirements.
How to turn it on: Admin Center Opt-In.
Replication of GOSI Fields for Saudi Arabia: New global fields will now be available for GOSI (General organization of social insurance) in Saudi Arabia. This means payroll relevant data can be directly mastered in Employee Central and replicated to Employee Central Payroll.
How to turn it on: Admin Center Opt-In.
Time Object Replication: Trigger Data Replication Proxy Creation Job for specific users: Previously, when creating Data Replication Proxies at a later date, you needed to update time objects or trigger proxy creation for all time objects corresponding to the specified configuration. Now, you can trigger data replication proxies for specific users.
How to turn it on: Admin Center Opt-In.
Employee Central Localization and Document Generation
North Macedonia Enhancements: This is a new baseline country version for North Macedonia to maintain country-specific employee data.
How to turn it on: Admin Center Opt-In.
Address Validation: Provides a validation of an employee’s address against legal databases, done through internal SAP Cloud Platform based service provider SAP Data Quality Management, microservices for location data.
This helps meet the requirement in several countries that companies store addresses of employees and their dependents accurately. The first country in scope is Netherlands.
How to turn it on: Admin Center Opt-In.
Employee Central Benefits
Enhancement on Eligibility Rule Evaluation: Benefit eligibility rules will now be evaluated as of the enrollment effective from date, which can be either in the past or in the future. This means if an employee requesting to enroll on Jan. 30 for an effective date of Jan. 20, all eligibility rules attached to the benefit will be evaluated as of the effective date of Jan. 20.
How to turn it on: Admin Center Opt-In
User may browse to claims history: Users can now access all previously processed claims via employee self-service. This was previously available in V12 but not PP3. This is useful for reimbursement programs that span multiple years, as users can now view previous years in a flat list.
How to turn it on: This is a universal update.
Opt out and re-enroll in an auto-enrolled benefit and opt out effective from date may be editable or read only: Previously, an employee could opt out of a benefit in which they previously had manually enrolled. They could re-enroll into the same benefit as per their eligibility. With this enhancement, an employee can opt out of an auto-enrolled benefit and reenroll into the same as per their eligibility and as per the enrollment schedule. In addition there is a new configuration field available where the Admin can decide whether during the opt-out employee’s action the effective date appears editable or read-only, so that employees can set the effective date in the past or in the future other than the enrollment date.
How to turn it on: Admin Center Opt-In.
Employee Central Time Management
Mandatory Push to New Time Off UI in Fiori: It will now be mandatory to use the new Fiori UI for time off. You can no longer opt out of it. This may require change management activities for your users.
How to turn it on: This is a universal update.
Permission setting for Recurring Absence Feature: With this new feature, you can enable recurring absences for certain groups of employees, or disable it for all employees.
How to turn it on: Admin Center Opt-In.
Next Generation Admin Alerts: This is a new central admin alerts page that can be used to monitor alerts and immediately take action. Previously this had to be done employee by employee from the Time Administrator Workbench.
How to turn it on: Admin Center Opt-In.
More to Come in 2019
This is the third of four releases in 2019. Follow Rizing HCM on LinkedIn for more analysis of the Q3 update, as well as future updates. Be sure to check out the quarterly release schedule, and head to the SAP SuccessFactors Community page for webcasts on Q3 enhancements.