Identifying the Foundations of Time Management

Objective

After completing this lesson, you will be able to Identify time management concepts.

Time Management Foundations

Time Management provides you with a flexible means of setting up, recording, and evaluating working times. You can manage time accounts (for example, leave, flextime, and so on) manually or automatically. You can enter time manually by using time recording systems or Employee Self-Service (ESS).

Information about the work performed by employees and their availability to work is an essential element of a Human Resource Management System. Information about working times is transferred to Payroll to calculate employees’ gross pay. This time data is also transferred to other application areas, such as Controlling and Logistics, and is an important factor in enterprise-wise decision making.

Working times can be allocated as activities in Controlling, and the resultant costs can be assigned to the appropriate source. Time Management information is used within Logistics to determine employee availability for capacity planning purposes. Based on Time Management information, work requirements for the company as a whole can be determined and employee shifts can be scheduled. Time tickets can be generated automatically from plant data collection (PDC) postings.

Components for Time Management

You can customize the functions available in Time Management according to the requirements of your company.

Examples of the functions included in Time Management are as follows:

Administration of leave and illness times
Personnel capacity planning
Valuation of attendance and absence times using time accounts
Determination of overtime and bonus wage types
Processing of incentive wages, such as piecework

Time Management includes the following components:

Cross-Application Time Sheet

CATS allows you to enter your actual time, for example, your attendances, absences, and employee remuneration information.
CATS data can be transferred to Controlling, Human Resources, and Logistics for further processing.

Incentive Wages

Incentive Wages are used for performance-related compensation. You can set up different wage types based on time, premiums, or piecework.
Incentive Wages can be implemented for individuals or groups.
The Incentive Wages component reads employee data from the Logistics system, prepares the data according to the type of payment, and transfers the data to Payroll.

Shift Planning

Shift Planning allows you to assign shift times, locations, type of personnel, and the number of employees required to optimize staff assignments.

Time Data Recording and Administration

Time Data Recording and Administration enables you to maintain working hours for employees.

Time Evaluation

Time Evaluation gathers planned working times and overtime, manages time accounts (such as flextime balances, overtime, and productive hours), updates time quotas, and checks working time provisions. Time evaluation prepares the time data which is valuated in Payroll.
Time Evaluation creates time wage types that are evaluated in Payroll.

Time Data Recording and Administration

The central element in Time Management is an employee’s work schedule. This includes the planned specifications, including breaks, according to which employees are to work. Depending on the type of Time Management in your company, you record either deviations from the employee work schedules or only the actual times that employees work.

There are various options for recording working times. You can enter time data manually online, use time recording systems, or use Employee Self-Service applications. Time data is processed in the same way, regardless of which recording method is used.

Time Management supports centralized data entry by administrators and decentralized time entry by employees in individual departments (such as a supervisor in the production area).

Information about different payments can also be entered along with time data. Working times can be allocated as activities in Controlling, and the costs resulting from working times can be assigned to the appropriate source.

Purpose of Time Recording

Time data such as changes in planned specifications, attendances (for example, time worked, business trips, or additional training), and absences (leave, illness, and so on) is recorded for employees.

You can use this time data for the following purposes:

To determine the applicable overtime bonuses for overtime worked. For example, you want to compensate work on Sundays at a different rate to that used for normal workdays.
To maintain time accounts. For example, instead of remunerating overtime, you may want to have it accrued in a time account. When the employee takes time off (absence), this amount is deducted from the time recorded in the time account.
To compile statistics. For example, you can evaluate overtime levels or illness-related absences in individual departments.
To enter specifications for different payment or account assignment information along with time data. Certain time data, for example, attendances, absences, and employee remuneration information, can also be recorded for internal allocation purposes. This data is then evaluated in Payroll and Controlling.

Time Recording Methods

You can use one of the following methods to record employee time data in the SAP system:

Record only deviations from the work schedule:: In this method, only time data that represents an exception to the employee’s work schedule is recorded. You can record employee data (such as illness), schedule and record substitutions, and enter an employee’s standard annual leave. This method is referred to as negative time management.
Record actual time:: In this method, you record all actual times, such as actual working time and absences. This method is referred to as positive time management.

Time Evaluation

Employees’ time data is valuated in Time Evaluation. Time evaluation calculates planned working times and overtime, creates wage types, updates time quotas, and checks working time provisions. The time wage types that are created during time evaluation are valuated in Payroll.

Time evaluation is carried out by the Time Evaluation driver RPTIME00. The steps to be carried out by RPTIME00 are specified in a personnel calculation schema. The standard system contains several personnel calculation schemas that cover various requirements and strategies for evaluating data.

The following list provides examples of processes that involve schemas:

Time Management that records all actual working times of employees in addition to deviations to the work schedule
Time Management that only records the deviations to the work schedule
The processing of time data for which only the work duration, not the start and end times, is recorded

The processing rules for time evaluation can be modified to meet your business requirements.

Time Management Infotypes

In Time Management, certain master data infotype records must be available for each employee. Time Management data is stored in the same master data records that are used in other Human Resource areas such as Payroll and Personnel Administration.

The following infotypes are required for the integration of Time Management master data records:

Organizational Assignment(0001):: This infotype is used to store the details of the assignments of the employee, such as personnel area, personnel subarea, and the employee group and subgroup to which an employee belongs.
Personal Data(0002):: This infotype is used to manage the personal data of an employee.
Planned Working Time (0007):: The appropriate Time Management status must be stored in this infotype. This infotype determines whether and how employee time data is to be processed in Time Evaluation or Payroll.
Time Recording Information(0050):: This infotype is used only if Time Evaluation is used. It can contain interface data for the subsystem and additional employee information for time evaluation.
Absence Quotas(2006):: This infotype is used to manage leave.

Note

The Payroll Status infotype (0003), which the system usually creates automatically when an employee is hired, determines the start date for the next Time Evaluation run.

Time Management Integration with SAP Components

Time Management is directly and indirectly linked with various components, both within Human Resources and in other applications.

Examples of Time Management integration are as follows:

Working times entered in the Cross-Application Time Sheet are transferred as attendances to Time Management and as confirmations to Logistics. Attendances are transferred to Time Evaluation for further processing. Time balances and time types are formed, which are then transferred to Payroll. Finally, the results are transferred to Payroll. The Payroll results are transferred to Financial Accounting. In Financial Accounting, the master cost center of the employees is debited according to the information from the confirmation.
Employee attendances and absences serve as information about employees’ availability for capacity planning in Logistics.
Working times recorded in time-recording systems are transferred as personnel time events to Time Management and are processed in Time Evaluation. The wage types that are generated are made available to Payroll.

Next lesson