Explaining Employee Replication

Objective

After completing this lesson, you will be able to explain the Cost Object Replication process and best practices via SAP ICS

Employee Replication Basics

Employee Replication is the process of automatically creating and maintaining user profiles in Concur Expense, based on employee profile information in SAP. The process is meant to replace manual maintenance, the Excel-based import, and the flat file (305 record) import. It is not recommended, and in most cases not supported, to use a combination of Employee Replication and any other employee update method, as mixing methods can cause the user profiles to get out of sync with SAP data, making it more difficult to manage profiles.

Limitations

While Employee Replication is a great tool for customers to efficiently move their employee data from SAP to SAP Concur, there are some significant limitations customers must be aware of before proceeding.

Supplemental Data is Not Supported: This is a significant limitation for many customers. Employee Replication uses the Get User API available in SAP Concur. That API only imports basic employee data and does not include supplemental data such as approval limits and credit card assignments.
No SAP S/4HANA Cloud Support: Only SAP ERP, SAP S/4HANA, and SAP Business ByDesign are supported. Customers using SAP S/4HANA Cloud cannot use Employee Replication.
No Travel Support: If the customer is implementing Concur Travel, they will need the 350 record import, which is not supported by SAP ICS.
No Initial Passwords: Employee Replication cannot set a default password. Users created using this process will need to use the Forgot Password option their first time logging in to set their password.

API Documentation

Employee Replication uses the User API provided by SAP Concur to create user profiles. The Get User Response Schema table lists the fields available for Employee Replication. Learn more at the SAP Concur Development Center

Note

Due to the possible need to reconfigure a customer's site and the limitations shown above (lack of supplemental data in particular), many customers choose not to implement Employee Replication.

It is always the customer's responsibility to make sure their employee data is correct and up to date.

Recommended SAP Concur Configuration

One of the biggest strengths of Concur Expense is the flexibility it offers in its configuration options. That being said, our implementation team recommends following some standards when working with a new customer. Following these standards helps speed up the implementation process and makes it easier to support customers going forward.

These standards should be followed even if the customer is not using SAP ICS at the time of implementation. This is to make the process of activating SAP ICS as easy as possible if the customer changes their mind.

With this understanding of employee replication, we will move on to our configuration recommendations. For Employee Replication, the configuration focuses on two areas: Forms and Fields and Group Configurations.

Forms and Fields Configuration

For Employee Replication to function properly, certain configurations in Forms and Fields must be followed. Here is a brief look at those requirements.

The configuration of the Global Group and its associated Employee Form.

The Default Employee Information form must not be renamed and should be assigned to the Global Group. All required Org Unit and Custom fields must be added to this form.

If multiple employee forms are necessary, the global form must include all required fields. Partners can then use the global employee form as a template for creating specific employee forms.

Next, there are some important data items on the Employee Form you need to think about, as well as some required fields.

The configuration requirements are as follows:

Employee ID

During the configuration of Employee Replication, customers must decide which SAP data element will become the Employee ID in SAP Concur. They have three options to choose from:

Central Person ID: Every employee will exist once in the SAP Concur system with the Central Person ID as the Employee ID.
Person ID: Every employee will exist once in the SAP Concur system with the Person ID as the Employee ID. To use this option, the customer must first activate the External Person ID feature in their SAP site.
Personnel Number: Every employee can exist multiple times in the SAP Concur system. For each personnel number in the SAP system, a new SAP Concur user is created. In this case, there might be issues with different e-mail addresses, different login IDs, and so on.

Login ID

The Login ID will automatically be set to the employee's e-mail address. Other data elements can be used upon customer request.

Vendor ID Field

The Vendor ID field is used for financial posting and is therefore required for Employee Replication. The standard of using Custom 17 to capture the Vendor ID should be followed for new customers. This field must be a part of the Default Employee Information form.

Cash Advance Account Code

For customers that wish to use cash advances, the Cash Advance Account Code field must be on the Default Employee Information form.

If all users will use a single Cash Advance Account Code, a default value can be provided when configuring Employee Replication.

Org Unit and Custom Fields

All required Org Unit and Custom fields must be added to the form.

Note

It is not mandatory to upload the Vendor ID into SAP Concur. Uploading the Vendor ID is the preferred option, but there is also the option to implement a BADI modification to complete the Vendor ID during Financial Posting.

Alternatively, a customer could maintain the Personnel number in Custom 17-Vendor ID in SAP Concur and select the corresponding option in the Financial posting ICS wizard. When SAP has the configured link between Personnel number and Vendor ID, then the vendor ID is derived during posting.

Group Configurations

The standard practice for creating Groups is the same whether or not Employee Replication is being used: create groups by country, and usually one group per country. When populating the Employee Groups list, use the standard two-character country abbreviation for each group.

If you think you need to organize your groups by something other than country or need more than one group per country, contact your SAP Concur representative to discuss alternatives.

Let's Summarize What You've Learned

Employee Replication automates user profile creation in SAP Concur using SAP employee data, replacing manual imports.
Key limitations include no supplemental data, no SAP S/4HANA Cloud support, and no travel data integration.
Proper configuration of forms, fields, and groups is essential for successful Employee Replication implementation.
Customers are responsible for keeping employee data accurate and up to date in SAP Concur.

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