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SAP HR Ad-Hoc Query
One of the key requirements of a Human
resources management system is the ability to
facilitate decision-making use of the
information in the system. The reporting
functionality within SAP HR is one of
the main reasons why clients have chosen SAP
rather than another HRIS - one of our
former research articles takes a closer look at
the
different reporting tools available
and how to make most use of them.
Reporting can become very challenging
when the differing needs of many
decision-makers - human resources,
payroll and benefits professionals, line managers,
and executives - must be met. SAP HR
has responded to this challenge and offers a
variety of access methods designed for
the needs of different users. This article focuses
on the functionality of
Ad-
hoc Query, a tool that still isn’t
used by all companies who
have SAP HR.
Some of these organizations are still unfamiliar
with the full potential of Ad
Hoc query
and are afraid to use it. This article has a
closer look at how easy it is to use
ad
hoc query and how this simple but powerful tool
can make your reporting so much
more
efficient and less time consuming.
AD HOC QUERY AS AN IDEAL TOOL FOR
DIFFERENT TYPES OF USERS
The advantage of Ad Hoc Query is that
it enables occasional system users or people
with little experience to define their
own reports according to their personal
requirements in an easy and quick
fashion. It is an ideal query tool for anyone who
needs to obtain human resource
information when and as needed.
An overview of different types of
available HR information (for example Personal
data,
Addresses, Basic pay,
Organizational assignment etc.) is displayed in a
list, which
includes all the infotypes
and the relevant fields, users need to pull the
information from.
This list is obtained
by creating a functional area. Users simply select
the information they
want by marking
checkboxes in the list. Report results can then be
formatted to users'
needs and
preferences; for example the presentation style or
the sequence of columns
in the report
can be changed. Users can create and then format
the output of the
desired report all in
one screen and save the query to run it whenever
needed.
HR
Professionals
The Human resources,
payroll, and benefits departments need to run a
great array of
reports
–
SAP provides reporting
tools supporting both regulatory reporting via a
series of
standard reports as well as
query options that support customized reports and
strategic
analysis tools. While the
legally required reports are included as a
standard part of the
SAP HR system and
have some degree of selection options (usually
organizational
assignment selection
options), these reports cannot be altered by the
user to suit his or
her specific
requirements
–
they might
not include all the data users need to obtain,
might not have the option to be
downloaded to an Excel spreadsheet or might not
have the right format. This is where Ad
Hoc Query is so significant. HR Ad Hoc Query
enables users to create company-
specific reports that respond to their ever-
changing
needs for information about
employees and the organization. The user simply
selects
the fields he needs to report
on from a check-box screen. This report creation
process
requires minimal training and
allows users to perform detailed analysis of human
resources, payroll, and benefits
information to support the needs of their
organization.
Integration with
Microsoft Word and Excel allows users to format
and modify the output
to suit their
needs or to save their reports in HTML format in
order to e-mail them to other
users.
Occasional Users
Even individuals such as Managers
outside the HR/Payroll/Benefits departments who
have no previous experience with SAP HR
can use Ad Hoc Query to define the reports
they need. It is critical for these
managers to be able to report on information about
their staff. It happens all too often
that they need a specific report and have to ask
HR
to produce the right data
–
this is both frustrating
for the Line Manager having to wait
and
for HR who might have other critical deadlines.
Ad-hoc reporting, which provides
occasional users with easy access to
the right information for their specific
decision-making needs is an ideal
solution. And since users can run and create their
own reports, it frees both HR and the
User considerable amounts of time.
Line managers are able to access
information about their specific organizations
when
they need it, in the formats that
they require and can easily access data in the SAP
HR
system, as well as information from
other business applications, to obtain the
company-wide information they need for
analysis and planning.
ACCESS
As will all other SAP applications,
flexible security and access authorization can
ensure
that access to information is
restricted to defined areas for each user. HR
reports almost
always contain
confidential data and special attention needs to
be brought to setting
up proper
activity groups. Whereas regular HR users will use
the Ad hoc screen within
the HR module
to create and run their reports, Line Managers
–
rather than using the HR
module should be using Manager’s
desktop
which provides access to the
same
standard and ad hoc reporting
capabilities as described above but also include
cross-application functions such as
workflow tasks or CO reports, the display of
Intranet
and Internet pages etc...
AD HOC QUERY IN
PRACTICE
Prerequisite Activities
Before users can create and run their
own reports, an administrator must create a
functional area and a user group. These
are created using the ABAP query component
and necessary to set up the appropriate
working environment for end users. The R/3
System contains hundreds of thousands
fields in logical databases and tables and a
logical database is simply a special
ABAP program that combines the contents of
specific database tables. For example
the logical database “PNP” contains all tables
related to HR Master data.
Since a user cannot be presented with
thousands of fields to choose from
–
even from
one
particular logical database, to create a report,
functional areas are created.
When
creating a functional area, first a logical
database is selected, such as PNP which
contains all the relevant tables for a
particular module or sub-module. When selecting
PNP which is relevant to HR master
data, the administrator needs to pick which
infotypes should be included in that
particular functional area from the total number
of
infotypes attached to the logical
database. A functional area determines which
fields
of a logical database can be
evaluated in queries.
A
functional area also allows defining auxiliary
fields. In many cases, the information
that a logical database supplies is
insufficient. For this reason long texts are
normally
stored in tables that are not
part of the logical database. These long texts
are, however,
useful when evaluating
queries, for example when you want to display the
full text of an
advertisement (within
recruitment) rather than just its number. Both
additional tables
and additional fields
can be added to a functional area. Any table can
be added as
additional tables, provided
they are defined in the ABAP Dictionary and when
adding a
field, the ABAP code must be
specified and the field assigned to a functional
group.
By creating
functional areas and assigning them to user
groups, the system
administrator
determines the range of reports the end-users can
access.
Four essential
questions have to be answered before creating a
functional area in order
to determine
the reporting requirements:
1) Which logical database
do we need data from? PNP
–
HR Master and time
data, PCH
–
Personnel Development, PAP
–
Applicant Master data or
other?
Choose Database PNP
if you want to create a functional area covering
only Human Resources master data and/or
time management data.
Choose PCH if you want to create a
functional area covering only Human
Resources Planning data.
Choose Database PCH, (since
this database can refer to Database PNP) if
you want to create a functional area
covering Human Resources master
data
and following an organizational structure from
Human Resources
Planning.
2) Which infotypes do we need to
include in the functional area?
PNP includes infotypes
0000 to 0999 and 2000 to 2999,
PCH includes infotypes 1000
to 1999 and
PAP
includes infotypes 4000
–
4005 (as well as some PA infotypes)
3) Is there any information we need
that is not available in the logical database? If
so, where is this information? This
step might involve having to create additional
fields
–
(e.g. to
display the long text of the ethnic origin instead
of the code only).
4) What should the report
selection criteria be? For example, employee
subgroup,
job, personnel subarea etc.
Once these questions have
been answered, the administrator can create the
functional area using transaction SQ02.
Step 1: In the field
Functional area, specify any name and choose
Create. First,
you enter a description
of the functional area. Since the end-user sees
this
name when creating a query, it
should easily identify the functional area.
Step 2: You can also enter
an authorization group at this point
–
which is not to
be confused with user groups.
Authorization groups can be assigned for any
reports and determine a user’s right to
execute a program whereas user
groups
help you to control access and change
authorizations for queries.
Step 3: Next specify the
logical database,