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Varun_Agarwal
Advisor
Advisor
Hello SAP S/4HANA Cloud Community,

Introduction:

I work on the LO-MD-BP component for SAP S/4HANA Cloud and I wanted to share some information with our community around creation/updation & deletion of Employee Master Data in SAP S/4HANA Cloud.

Creation of Employee Master Data

The synchronization from Employees to Business Partners is designed as a required step in S/4HANA systems. In order for the synchronization to work, and to subsequently generate the mentioned Business Partner (BUP003/BBP005/BBP010 roles) it would be required to have at least a "mini master" for the employees data, represented by a small subset of infotypes (0,1,2,3,6,7,9,17,32,105,315) stored in HCM module.

In S/4HANA Cloud, only the employee mini-master is stored. This mini-master can be loaded in the system by different ways:

  • From standard replication of employees from SuccessFactors Employee Central.
    For further information about this integration, please refer to JB1 Scope Item documentation. Also refer to 1FD Scope Item. Common issues are described here: 2882329 - Common issues during the SF -> S/4HC replication

  • Uploading the employee mini-master through Import Employee fiori app (refer to App ID F2323 in Fiori Library), adapting provided CSV template files.
    For more information refer to app documentation and FAQ KBA 2555311.

  • Making use of available Public API.
    For more information of public features supported and restrictions you can refer to this documentation. Also you can refer to S/4HANA Cloud APIs documentation here. The FAQ can be found here: 2905918 - FAQ: Replicate Basic Master Data for Workforce from External HR Systems.


Note: only for S/4HANA Cloud Marketing Edition the fiori app Maintain Employees (App ID F2288 in Fiori library) is also available. This application directly generates the Business Partner in BUP003 role with no connection to HCM module. This app cannot be used in S/4HANA Cloud Enterprise Edition or Professional Services Edition where instead the Import Employee fiori app or the replication of employee data from Success Factors Employee Central can be used.

Modification of Employee Master Data

In order to maintain the integrity of the data, it is not possible to edit the Business Partners with role employee from the Business Partner Apps.

For any changes to the Employee Master Data, it should be done from the source of the employee data i.e. one of the 3 methods chosen mentioned above.

As an exception, it is possible to create the bank data for BP with role Employee in the Maintain Business Partner App. The Business Partner needs to be opened in this App in the "Business Partner (Gen.)" role, then under the Payment Transactions tab you can add the bank data, including the reference field. It is also possible to update the employee address via the Maintain Business Partner app.

The Bank details can only be modified/deleted if they are created via BP Apps. If you want to delete Bank record created from HR Source, you can make use of App Delete Bank and Address details - Employee - Business Partner.

Note: The validity dates cannot be modified. To edit them, please use the Public API Replicate Basic Master Data for Workforce from External HR Systems to determine the ValidityPeriod in the WorkAgreementPaymentInformation.


Deletion of Employee Master Data

First of all, please ensure you review the instructions for archiving employee data which can be found in the section "Data Archiving in Human Resources" from S/4HANA Cloud guide in: https://help.sap.com/viewer/0bebd08dffca45afa67b1f751199afd0/latest/en-US/b27cab8a5ad34b4c8e1bdfc55b...

Later, depending on what needs to be removed, there could be two different scenarios:

  1. Only one PERNR deletion is required AND the employee has other work assignments which should remain valid (other PERNRs), for example in different company codes, etc.

    Only in this case, it would not be necessary to block the business partner and just performing a simple PERNR deletion process following the steps mentioned in the S/4HANA Documentation section "Archiving Employee Data". Afterwards, the other PERNRs existing and the BP will remain unchanged and still valid.
    If once the deletion is triggered, you are getting an error and the PERNR is not deleted please review the authorizations for the roles, as explained below in the additional considerations section.

  2. All the PERNR existing for an employee (whether there is one or several) need to be deleted.

    In this case, the destruction of one or more Personnel numbers of the employee needs to be executed AFTER the corresponding Business Partner has been archived.
    Please refer to documentation listed at the beginning of Resolution section.

    In production environments also, the employee has to be terminated before deletion can take place.
    After the Business Partner was blocked and the PERNR(s) got removed, if the user needs to be deleted or blocked, please proceed with "Maintain Business User" app.


To summarize, If the employee is not terminated, and the BP is not blocked, then the deletion of the PERNR is not allowed.

 

The correct step by step procedure is:

1. Terminate the employee.

2. Block/Archive the BP via app Block Master Data – Business Partner. (Refer to SAP KBA 2742388 - S4HC: How to delete Business Partner, Customer or Supplier Master Data in S/4HANA Cloud)
3. Request the deletion of the PERNR via app Destruction of Personnel Number - After Business Partner Archiving App.

4. Perform the deletion of the PERNR via app Destruction of Personnel Number - After Business Partner Archiving App.

For more information refer to SAP KBA 2702011 - Deleting Employee & Contingent Worker data in S/4HANA Cloud.


Note: When an employee is terminated in SAP Success Factors (SFSF) Employee Central (EC), after the employee master data replication, you are not able to view the employee fact sheet in SAP S/4HANA Cloud (S/4HANA Cloud).

The Supplier information of the Employee is still visible in the Manage Business Partner Master Data app and the Manage Supplier Master Data app.


The expected behavior when terminating an employee in SFSF EC and replicating this to S/4HANA Cloud is:

  1. The employee record in S/4HANA Cloud has end date at date when it gets inactive in SFSF EC;

  2. The Employee Fact Sheet will not show it anymore once present date is > inactive date, but the employee record will remain in database;

  3. After employee termination, via replication, Business Partner BUP003 (Employee) Role validity is adjusted to be the same as the employee termination date;

  4. All the other roles like Supplier are unaffected and we do not change the validity of those. For example, the supplier role of the Employee is not delimited on termination of the corresponding employee.


The life cycle of the Supplier is different compared to the Employee, and this data might be needed after the employee is terminated (pending payments, etc.).
Take into account that supplier information cannot be displayed in the Employee Fact Sheet. Instead customers can check the Business Partner Master data app or Supplier app to see the details.

Also, In S/4 Hana Cloud systems, an employee is terminated but the user associated to this employee is still valid. This behavior can happen, for example, when a terminated employee is replicated from SuccessFactors. You do not want it to happen as it could cause security risks.

If you need to change this behavior, there are several options available to limit the user validity and change the date of field "Valid to":

  • Setting the lock-indicator for the user via Fiori App "Maintain Business User".

  • Deleting the user in Fiori App "Maintain Business Users".

  • Changing the validity of the user manually.

  • Remove all roles from the user via SAP IAG.

  • Changing the value of this field via integration scenario SAP_COM_0093 from an external corporate IDP.


 

Choosing one of the above options will allow you to change the user validity so the user will not longer be active.


Other Information

In S/4HANA Cloud systems, you may need to trigger manually Employee-BP synchronization. It might be necessary to do it due:

  • Data inconsistency between the employee and the Business Partner.

  • Previous synchronization failed.

  • Scheduled synchronizations are not enough.

  • The replication from SF was successful but the changes are not present in the system.


In S/4 HANA system, the Employee-BP synchronization is usually run every hour.

However, if you need to trigger an additional synchronization, you can follow these steps:

  1. Open the app "Trigger Data Synchronization - Employee – Business Partner".

  2. The following message will be displayed:

    Trigger Business partner synchronization

    Business partner synchronization is scheduled for the employees who are not synchronized correctly to Business Partner.
    Check the logs in application Monitor Data Synchronization.



  3. The above message indicates the synchronization has been triggered again.

  4. You can check the result and logs of this synchronization by accessing the app "Monitor Data Synchronization" (Employee-Business Partner).


NOTE: Using the above method triggers the synchronization only for employees whose previous synchronization has failed. For new employees who have not had a synchronization yet, it is necessary to wait until the next scheduled synchronization.
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