SAP Learning Journey

Creating a Document Distribution

Objectives
After completing this lesson, you will be able to:

After completing this lesson, you will be able to:

  • Create a document that communicates a compensation plan to payees
  • Create a document distribution with a workflow

Compensation Plan Documents

The Document Distribution tool allows an administrator to create and distribute documents to payees using a basic workflow. You can create two types of documents to distribute:

  • Plan documents are dynamic documents that can be distributed to each individual payee to communicate details of their individualized plan. To create a Plan document, set the form type to Plan. This will allow them to pull plan data into the document to make the document creation process easier, faster, and more accurate.
  • Other documents allow you to distribute static documents, such as employee manuals or non-disclosure agreements, to your payees for acceptance. Usually these documents are distributed as PDF files. To create a static document, set the form type to Other. This prompts the user to attach a PDF or other static file. Use this option to send static documents such as Non-Disclosure Agreements.

Document Distribution has three sections:

  • Documents
  • Distributions
  • Distributions Tracking

To create a document distribution:

  • Create the document
  • Create the distribution and workflow settings
  • Distribute the document
  • Track the distribution

Creating a Plan Document

When creating a document using the Plan form type, the Document workspace works much like a text editor.

  • Use the toolbar to customize the form, insert a logo, and change the formatting.
  • Once you select a compensation plan, it populates compensation elements that are used within that plan. The administrator can then insert those values into the document.

To Create a Plan Document:

  1. From the Manage Plans tile, select Plan Communicator – Documents.
  2. Click the Create icon on the Toolbar.
  3. When prompted for the effective dates, enter the start and end period for the fiscal year. Unlike the other objects we have created, the end date for plan documents is required.
  4. Enter a name for the plan document; for example: 2022 Sales Rep Plan Document.
  5. Leave the Form Type as Plan.
  6. Select the Business Unit.
  7. Under the Document Content section, click the dropdown menu to select the compensation plan.

    Once you select a plan, each compensation element will be populated with the number of objects in the plan. In the image below, for example, the plan contains one Fixed Value and one Variable. 

  8. Now it’s time to build the format of the document. Using a combination of text and placeholders, create a document that contains the information you wish to distribute to each payee. 
    • To add a placeholder, click the type of object in the left pane, then select the hyperlink with the name of the object. 
    • To add placeholders for organization data, use the Data Fields link.
    • A rich text editor above the text area allows you to add formatting such as bullets, bolding, and hyperlinks.
    • Images such as a company logo can be uploaded.
    • See the image above for an example of a document that contains both text and placeholders.
  9. Click Create to save the document.

To create a document that distributes a static document:

  1. Click the Create icon on the Toolbar.
  2. Enter the start and end period for the fiscal year. 
  3. Enter a name for the document; for example: 2022 Employee Non-Disclosure Agreement.
  4. Change the form type to Other.
  5. Select the business unit.
  6. Under Document Content, select Choose File.
  7. Navigate to the location of the static file and select Open.
  8. Click Create to save the document.

Creating a Distribution

Now that you have created one or more documents, you can set up a Distribution. A distribution is used to package multiple documents and configure the workflow before distributing them to your payees. You can add up to five documents to a distribution.

The workflow feature in Plan Communicator is designed to allow business users to easily configure a process in which a set of documents is approved and distributed to each payee for acceptance before a plan is put into effect each fiscal year.

The Distributions workspace can be found under Manage Plans – Plan Communicator – Distributions.

To create a distribution:

  1. Select Plan Communicator → Distributions.
  2. Click the Create icon
  3. Enter the effective start and end date. As with the plan document, both the start and end date are required.
  4. Enter a name and an optional description.
  5. In the Documents section, enter the first few letters of the document name, or alternatively, enter * to display the list of documents. Select the document and click Add.
  6. Repeat this step to add up to five documents.
  7. Now it’s time to configure the workflow. 
    • Indicate whether the payee is required to accept the plan document.
    • Select the number of days the payee has to accept the plan document.
    • Indicate whether the plan should be accepted on behalf of the payee after a certain number of days past the due date.
    • Optionally, configure an approval process for the plan document. If the plan must be approved:
      • Indicate whether an approver is required to accept the plan document before it is sent to the payee.
      • If an approver is required, select the number of days to approve.
      • Indicate whether the document is auto-approved after the selected number of days has passed.
      • Select the number of levels of approval. For example, you can require that the plan is first approved by the sales director, then by the sales manager.
    • Indicate whether weekends and holidays should be included in the number of days required to accept or approve the plan document.
    • Set the number of days after which a reminder is sent to the payee.
  8. Click Save.

Generating and Distributing the Plan Documents

Now that the distribution has been configured, you can generate and distribute the plan document to your payees.

Generating the document creates a draft of the plan document for each individual payee. This can be run separately or together with the actual distribution. This then sends the document to payees.

To generate and distribute plan documents:

  1. Open the Distributions workspace
  2. Select, but don’t open, the distribution document
  3. In the For Position section, select the positions to distribute to. Choices are:
    • All positions on plans
    • Selected title
    • Selected position
  4. Select Generate & Distribute.

Tracking the Distribution

Once the distribution is complete, administrators can view the status in the Distributions Tracking workspace. This list can be filtered by distribution, status, position, or participant.

Exercise: Create and Distribute a Plan Document

In this exercise, you will create a plan document and distribute it to one of our payees, Amy Whitton. To see what the experience will be like for Amy, you’ll start by designating yourself as a proxy for her.

Steps

  1. Designate yourself as a proxy for Amy Whitton.

    1. From the Applications menu, return to the Sales Performance Home.

    2. Note : you may need to log back in.

    3. Click User Administration.

    4. Add Amy Whitton as an Internal User.

      • Expand the Users menu on the left navigator.
      • Click the Add Internal User icon.
      • Click Find .
      • In the First name, type Amy and click Search.
      • Click the link for PA-1121.
      • Click Add.
      • Under the Users menu, select the link for Amy Whitton .
      • Scroll down to Proxies and click Add.

      Enter you User ID in the Proxy User field and click Save.

      Note

      Your User ID is your email address. If you don’t remember your User ID, use the Find button to search by your first or last name.

  2. Create a Plan Document.

    1. Return to Commissions using the application picker in the upper right.

    2. Create the Plan Document.

      • Click Plan Communicator - Documents in the Manage Plans tile.
      • Click Create New Document .
      • Set the Effective Dates from January 2022 through December 2022.
      • Type "2022 Sales Rep Compensation" in the Name field.
      • Select Plan in the Form Type drop down.
      • Select BikeInMotion in the Business Unit field.
      • Select the Plan in the Select Plan drop down (Choose 2022 Sales Representative Plan).
      • In the text box on the right side, enter the following text:

        Welcome to your 2022 Compensation Plan!

        Your quarterly quota is:
      • Place the cursor on the next line in the text box and use the following steps to add the fixed value that contains the quarterly quota:
        • In the Document Content section, click Fixed Value.
        • Click the link with the fixed value FV_Quarterly_Sales_Quota:quarter to add the fixed value as a placeholder.
      • Optionally, add other fields from the plan details.
      • Click Save.

  3. To preview the document for Amy Whitton:

    1. Click the Preview link in the upper right.

    2. Select the link for SR-EMEA1.

    3. To return to the document editor, click Go to edit view.

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