By Venkat

What are the Characteristics of a wage type?
The wage type characteristics describe entering of wage types and not how they behave in Payroll Wage Type Characteristics. 
A wage type is identified by the following characteristics:
Characteristics that control the entry of the wage type on-line, for example.
- Can data be entered on-line for an infotype, personnel area, or employee subgroup? 
- Is a wage type regarded as a payment or a deduction? 
- Direct or indirect valuation? 
- Can the amount be overwritten on-line when an indirect valuation is performed? 
- Rounding?
Characteristics that determine how the wage type will be processed during the payroll run or the evaluation of the payroll results.
- Processing Class 
- Evaluation Class 
- Cumulation wage type, in which the wage type should be included 
- Basis for calculating average value, in which the wage type should be included 
- Valuation basis, in which the wage type should be included

What is the advantage of a schema?
The Payroll Schema contains calculation rules to be executed by the payroll driver during payroll. 
SAP has developed country specific schemas which are based on SCHEMA X000 with country Specific reports. The first character in the name refers to the country indicator (example U000-In case of US Payroll)
Schemas are created and edited by T/code PE01 but actually stores as a collection of rows and Tables T52C0 (SAP Standard schema) and T521C(Customer created schema) and modified SAP Standard schemas
 
The Payroll driver reads the lines in T52C0 / T52C1 and executes the function one by one.

The System performs the following steps :
- Processes the Basic Data and Time Data
- Queries Off Cycle Payroll runs
- Reads payroll account of the last period accounted
- Process the Time data and calculates the individual gross value
- Performs the factoring
- Calculates the Net remuneration
- Performs the Bank Transfer

What is the use of structural authorizations?
Within Organizational Management, employee data is represented by the object type P. It is therefore possible to link the authorization check for emloyee data to the "structural authorization check" for Organizational Management.
To use this functionality, the connection between Personnel Administration and Organizational Management must be activated for authorization purposes. This is controlled by the settings in the authorization main switch Structural authorization check. This is processed using the transaction HR:Authorization main switch (OOAC).
As of this release, the Recruitment component is interfaced to the structural authorization check.
The interface between the structural authorization check and Recruitment enables you to treat employees and applicants similarly in terms of authorization checks. You set up the structural authorization check in the same way as you do in Personnel Administration. You set up the structural authorization check in customizing for Recruitment via the following steps:

Maintain structural profile 
Assign Structural authorizations

What are the activities needs to be completed before transferring the applicant?
Data to  Personnel administration
Step 1 :  Create a personnel officer or as per your requirement
Step 2 :  Do the basic settings : create number ranges- NUMAP
Step 3 : Choose Number range : feature NUMAP
Step 4 : Work force requirements and Assignments - / Create Position –P013 ( T/ code PB40)
             Click on Vacancy and create 
             Create Recruitment instrument
Step 5 :  Advertising (T/code PBAW)
Step 6 : Initial Data Entry ( T/code PB10)
Step 7 : Applicant Actions
Step 8 : Applicant activity – ( T/Code PB60)
            Completed activities and Planned activities
           ( All activities performed in T/code PB40 IS Planned action. This is the last step of 
             Hiring process. Then all the details needs to be entered & data should be transferred.
Step 9 : Transfer Applicant Data  ( T/Code PBA7 – Execute &  PBA8 – Complete activity)
            (Direct Data Transfer (Enter the applicant number) & Execute)

Now all the data should be transferred to PA30 ( HR Master Data) / Personnel Admininstration.

Define personnel Area & Personnel Sub area.
Personnel Area :  Personnel Area is the Sub division of Company Code and can represent a functional or geographical Location. These plays a vital role in time and Payroll configuration.  The Personnel area is Unique within the client and can be assigned to only one company code.
Personnel area is represented by a four digit alphanumeric identifiers.
It (Personnel Area) allows you to generate default values for data entry. Example: for Payroll accounting area.
It is a Selection criterion for reporting
It constitutes a unit in authorization checks.

Personnel Sub Area
The Personnel Sub Areas (PSA) represents a further subdivision of the personnel area. The Principal Organization aspects of human resources are controlled at this level. Namely the pay scale and wage type structures and the planning of work schedules. The PSA is assigned a four-character alphanumeric identifier.

The main organizational functions of PSAs:
- To specify Country grouping, Master data entry, setting up and Processing of wage types and pay scale groups in payroll period on the country grouping. The grouping must be unique within the company code.
- To set groupings for TIME Management so that work schedules, substitution, absence and leave types / quotas can be set up for individual  PSAs.
- To generate a default pay scale type and area for an employee’s basic pay.
- To define Public Holiday Calendar
- To define sub area specific wage types for each PSAs

Give some examples for Employee subgroup.
- Hourly Wage Earners
- Monthly Wage Earner 
- Pay Scale Employees
- Non Pay Scale Employees 

What is retroactive accounting?
Retroactive accounting is done when you want to run the payroll for the period which is already Run. It means that suppose you have run the payroll August, September, October now due to some reason you are again running the payroll from September in the month of November.
(Example: Company Management wants to give salary hike from the month of September).  In this case, The Master data and Time Data changes for the Payroll period exited is called Retroactive Accounting.

Retroactive Accounting is used to carry forward your old month balance amount to the current Payroll run, if the user made any changes to the master data of the employee. 

When you perform a Off-cycle payroll?
As an addition to regular payroll which carries out payroll at fixed intervals, this function (Off Cycle) enables you to carry out specific Off-Cycle payroll activities for individual employees On any Day.
You can Perform Off-Cycle Payroll Activities in the following instances:
- You can make a bonus payment to an employee for a special occasion.
- If an employee is to leave the company and is to receive payments for these period immediately ( Example employee resigns in the middle of month).
- You can carryout immediate off-cycle payroll run if for example employee Master data changes.
 
How to transfer employee salary from HR to FI?
For Posting Payroll results to Accounting in IMG you have to do the following activities:
- Create Symbolic Accounts
- Define Posting Characteristics of Wage Type (Assign WT to Symbolic Account)
- Go to Payroll USA (India/Intl)- posting to FA- Activities in the A/c system-Account assignment-
   Assign balance sheet a/c and assign expense A/c. 
--- Go to Easy Access – HR-PY USA(Intl)-subsequent activities-per payroll period-evaluation-
     Posting to accounting - Execute Posting run

Pre requisite for posting is enterthe posting information in master data and run payroll. After 
Doing that perform the following process:
- Create a Document.
- Release Document  ( It asks do you want to release for -  Say Post Immediately.

Define processing class, evaluation class & Cumulation classes.
Processing Class
Processing Classes determines how wage types are processed during the payroll run. Sap has given 1-89 as standard processing classes and you can create custom specific processing classes as per your requirement
Example:
In the standard system, processing class 15 determines how a wage type is valuated in      accordance with the principle of averages.
The standard system permits the following specifications for processing class 15:
Specification 1: Formula frame for averages over the last 3 months 
Specification 2: Formula frame for averages over the last 12 months

Evaluation Class
Wage type characteristic that controls processing when evaluating and displaying the payroll results.

An evaluation class has different specifications.
Example:
- Specification 00: no printing on the form 
- Specification 01: prints personal payments/deductions 
- Specification 02: prints wage types included in the total gross amount 
- Specification 03: prints wage types derived from time-based payments and included in the total gross amount.

Evaluation Class 01: Assignment of Wage Types to Symbolic Accounts

Example:
- Specification 20: Direct Labor Cost 
- Specification 26: Recalculation Difference 
- Specification 27: Over Payment
- Specification 30: Salaries
Cumulation classes

Wage Type should be added or cumulated to the respective Wage Type when processing payroll.

How you calculate the overtime?
You can specify the type of overtime compensation for the following infotypes:
Human Resources
Attendances infotype (2002) for recorded attendance times 
Attendance Quotas infotype (2007) for permitted overtime 
Payroll
Overtime infotype (2005) for recorded overtime 
EE Remuneration Info (2010) for recording employee bonuses 
In this way, you can control whether an employee's overtime is to be remunerated, or compensated with free time.
The overtime compensation type is handled differently in payroll:
1. Prior evaluation in time evaluation:
The type of overtime compensation for recorded attendance time, recorded overtime and approved overtime can be entered in the Attendances (2002), Overtime (2005) and Attendance Quotas infotypes (2007) respectively. You can use compensation types to determine whether an employee is remunerated and/or granted time off for workingovertime.
There are various methods of processing the overtime compensation type in payroll.
2. Time Evaluation:
Personnel calculation rule (PCR) TC40
The main criterion for overtime compensation in time evaluation is the wage type. If the wage type according to processing class 17 indicates that the overtime should be compensated using the compensation type defined here, this specification is used when overtime records are processed in accounting.
3. Payroll: with day processing of time data (schema TC00):
Sample processing personnel calculation type TC00.
The overtime compensation type is generally evaluated in payroll.
4. Payroll without time management (EE Remuneration Info infotype).
Customer-specific enhancement to personnel calculation rule X930

SAP Reference Books:
SAP Human Resource Certification, Interview Questions and Configuration Reference Books

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