sap financials travel management
Post on 18-Oct-2014
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DESCRIPTION
This Document relates SAP Financials Travel Management End to End Integrated Application component that looks after the entire life cycle of business travel for your organization, integrated with SAP Financials and Human Resources.TRANSCRIPT
SAP FINANCIALS Travel Management
SAP BUSINESS SUITE VERSION ERP6 EHP5 AND 6
Travel Management
Travel management (FI-TV) is a end-to-end integrated application component that looks after the entire life cycle of
business travel for your organization, integrated with SAP Financials and Human Resources it provides the following
Process online travel booking
Implement effective travel policies across corporate
Use an international travel solution, including taxation and fiscal compliance
Travel management can process pre-trip approval, online booking, expenses reporting and data warehousing, with
process optimization it can help a business reduce indirect travel costs as well as lower travel agency transaction fees.
Travel management from one place can help with the initial request through planning and online booking, to the
submission and settlement of travel expenses. The application can be synchronized with the booking information of the
leading reservation systems, you can easily enforce your travel policy, optimize purchasing agreements or rates,
evaluate travel expenses and perform cost planning and forecasting, the application can use multiple languages and has
pre-defined country support to meet any legal requirements.
You can access the Travel Manager or Travel Expenses wizards via the transaction codes below
Transaction Code Screenshot
Travel Manager
TRIP
Travel Expense Manager
PR05
Process Flow
The process flow covers the requesting and planning of a trip, accounting the travel expenses and taxation (payroll
accounting), posting of the travel expenses (FI accounting) and clearing (controlling or Funds management) according
to the allocation-by-cause principle, there are 11 steps
1. The person submits a travel request (TR) to his/her manager, the TR will contain destination, dates, purpose of
the trip, the transportation, any accommodations, travel advance and the estimate for the entire trip
2. The manage will either approve or reject it (alterations can then be made)
3. The TR is then requested and approved, the traveler can then make use of several payment options, including
cash payment, check, bank transfer for payment of the travel advance amount, the paid amounts are forwarded
for posting to financial accounting.
4. Once the TR has been approved the traveler determines the available travel services such as flight, hotel, train,
etc, and books them using the SAP system, the reservation is made in an external reservation system that is
connected to the SAP system.
5. When the traveler has recorded the travel plan (TP) the booking code (PNR) is entered in the processing queue
of the travel agency, the agency confirms the details and makes any changes necessary which are sent back to the
SAP system
6. The TP is also transferred to the appropriate manager for approval, once approved the tickets are then sent to the
traveler
7. Once the trip has been completed the traveler completes the travel expense report, with any supporting
information, receipts, the company will then perform some checks to make sure that is meets company travel
regulations
8. The report is then sent to an appropriate manage for approval, once approved it can be settled
9. The system determines the travel expense result which may include the amount for reimbursement for the trip,
the system prepares the travel expense results to suit the method of payment chosen by the traveler and makes it
available to the corresponding components (FI, CO, Payroll, etc)
10. The traveler is now paid back any reimbursements through payroll via check, bank transfer
11. The traveler receives a travel expense statement with all the relevant trip details together with the accounting
information
Configuration
You have multiple choices to setup the travel management into HR and accounting (AC)
Travel management HR and AC in one system
The travel management and accounting system can each have a different release status and you can connect to the existing accounting system, you do not need to distribute travel expenses results to payroll accounting but you do need to replicate CO receivers with the travel management system to provide correct input help for CO receivers. To create person related vendors automatically you need to replicate the HR master data in the accounting system via ALE (Application Link Enabling), as this is posted asynchronously you need to validate the posting run before it is sent to accounting.
Travel management and HR in one system separated from AC
The travel management and payroll system can each have a different release status, you can validate the CO receivers locally and you do not need to distribute to the CO receivers, however you need to replicate the travel expense results for payroll accounting via ALE. You can synchronously post travel expense results to accounting, again to create person-related vendors automatically you need to replicate the HR master data in the accounting system via ALE. You need to import both the AC and HR support package into the travel management and/or accounting system.
Travel management and AC in one system separated from HR
This option has the maximum flexibility because payroll, travel management and accounting are in three different systems, they can all have release statuses as well. You can also connect to the existing non-SAP accounting and HR systems, the HR data has to be replicated in travel management system via ALE, you also need to undertake a remote validation of CO receivers, this setup will call for an asynchronous posting of travel expense results to accounting via ALE, you will need to validate the posting run before it is sent to accounting.
before you chose one of the methods above you need to review your company's own travel work flow and trip-check
rules for processing and approving business trips, what other systems you will use, etc. You also need to decide what
processing areas you need to use travel requests or travel planning with travel expenses or just travel expenses alone,
you can even use the travel management independently from the rest of the SAP application environment as ALE can
provide you with any links to earlier releases.
Number Ranges
All trips are assigned a unique number either externally or internally (we have covered number ranges in multiple
sections), we will use the IMG,
I have created the following personnel areas
Once the personnel areas have been created we can create the number ranges using transaction code PR10,
Travel Request
The travel request is a unit of information that is submitted by a traveler and then approved by a manager, you use it to
book a trip or for requesting advanced travel payments, from the managers view it contains all the travel information
(trip date and time, destination, reason, estimated cost, advanced amount required, etc) that is required to approve the
trip. Already configured in the systems are travel service relating to flights, car rental and train, you can add additional
travel services such as ferry, shuttle, etc. You can use the IMG
In the below screenshot you can see the other travel services that I have configured
grouping ID - for sales office determination that will allow you to assign different users and employees to
different sales offices for booking travel services
code: other service - a category for the travel service
PNR - use if you want to integrate this travel service with a PNR of the reservation system, you need to
implement the BAdI FITP_TRAVEL_PLANNING
field control - select whatever you need and the requirement level
Next we define the travel medium and estimated costs to be approved; we will use the IMG,
In the configuration screen you can see the list of travel services, by double-clicking on a service you can see the details
of that service
to be approved - you will see the travel request (in the Web DynPro ABAP user interface) showing the
particular travel medium (rental car, hotel, etc) under means of transportation or types of accommodations as an
indicator that the user can set
enter estimated costs - this is similar to the above
type - type has two category accommodation or transportation
category - further categories the type
sorting - the travel medium at the appropriate position in the means of transportation or accommodation to be
approved in the travel request, for example if you enter 1 for the medium hotel, then the hotel will be displayed
at the top of the to-be approved list that is displayed in the Web Dynpro ABAP user interface.
Travel Planning
Travel planning can help with reducing costs since it can be integrated into an external reservation system, users will be
able to view price information, availability, etc. You will need to sign up to this service to a company that can supply a
reservation system, for example Amadeus, SABRE, BIBE, HRS, Galileo, etc.
We start by define the reservation service providers using the IMG,
When you sign up to a reservation system you need to obtain the GDS codes and map them to the SAP codes, you can
then synchronize the two systems and even compare the travel preferences of SAP and GDS
Next we need to maintain the identifiers for the sales office, using the IMG,
Next we setup the ticketing and booking for each of the sales office
The next few configuration can all be accessed via the IMG in the below paths
Then we setup the parameters to access the external reservation system, you have to setup a RFC connection (use
transaction code SM59) and then link the RFC to the sales office, use the IMG to access this configuration
You can then define the groupings for accessing external travel reservation system then maintain the categories for
each grouping keys that you have defined, again use the IMG,
Now that we have configured the technical parameters you can configure the geographical situation which can be an
IATA (International Air Transport Association) location for maintaining the company-specific trip rules, the SAP
system comes with some delivered, use the IMG
You can maintain additional information relating to travel service providers (flights, hotels, car rentals), you can
maintain specific exceptions from determining the cabin class (for example) for each of the airline carriers for specific
routes, you can use the IMG,
You can setup rates and discount that you have agreed with the service provider, these rates and discount will then be
apply during reservation and queries, you first define contracts (that can be used in the global reservation system during
best-price flight query) for company specific flights, you can also configure the airline programs (frequent flier miles or
rewards) for corporate customers, this can also be applied to hotels and car rental., we can use the transaction
code S_AHR_61000623, when the usage is mandatory is selected the system searches in the entry transactions of
travel planning for flights with the negotiated rate as per the below, in order to arrive at the airfare, the system will
always use this rate even if there are cheaper rates.
Next we can define the discounts using transaction code S_AHR_61000645, most of below is self explaining
disc type - it is possible to have a discount amount and a percentage as well
apply discount during price determination - if selected the discount is applied during the reservation process
otherwise the system will calculate the discount for all reservations but the discount will be applied during year-
end settlement between your company and the service provider
Next we will look at the trip rules and profiles, I will list all the paths from the IMG below, you can then create a trip
rule as per on the right hand screenshot
Then we can define the evaluation criteria for the query result, the rule below is for all flights between the US and
Japan using the Japan Airlines Intl service, you can also define low-cost airlines for specific routes, etc
Now we define the class using transaction code S_AHR_61000601,
Next we specify the class rules using transaction code S_AHR_61006688, the class rules with the trips will be used in
the profile later
The travel policy defines a number of specifications for the traveler, it brings together the trip rules and the class rules,
first we need to setup the activity types, which determine who is going to pay for the trip your company or you can bill
to another company, we will use transaction code S_AHR_61000689 to setup the activity type
We next need to setup the priorities using transaction code S_AHR_61000654,
Now we can define the travel profile which will bring together the category, trip rules, the class rules and priority using
transaction code S_AHR_61000691,
Then we use transaction code S_AHR_61006705, on the initial screen make sure you select the travel profile, you are
then taken to the change/view screen
To add to the profile use the new entries button and you can add any number of combinations
Once you have defined the profile it time to assign employees using transaction code S_AHR_61000669, the TRVCP
for travel planning is in a tree-like structure for assigning the individual employees to the travel profiles
Process control parameters enable you to customize the system settings for dialog and planning control, as well as
payments methods and payment method groups, they also maintain the travel agency's processing statuses. First we
will define the groupings for the travel planning control using transaction code S_AHR_61000728,
Next we define the groups from the payment methods using the IMG,
Next we assign the payment methods to the payment groups using transaction code S_AHR_61006706, you can pay by
personal credit card, company credit card, cash or invoice (external companies).
Travel Expenses
Travel expenses enable you to settle all the travel related costs of a traveler, you can have two models centralized or
decentralized in your company, this helps in checking, processing (receipts) and other documents centrally, you can use
country-specific travel expense functionality as SAP provides you with the statutory trip regulations and per diem
limits stored in specific versions to meet the requirements of various countries. We now to to configure several settings
we start with the master data using transaction code S_AHR_61009946, on the initial screen you can copy/restore,
delete of define the trip provision variant, this helps to classify the trip provisions based on country-specific accounting
methods, for example 81 - US accounting (M&IE) is used for accounting meals and incidental expenses while 10 - US
accounting (docs) is used in receipt accounting or area of validity (such as the public sector), basically the variant
contains the rules for determine taxes regarding expenses
SAP already has a number of variants configured, if you don't have them configured then copy them from client (000)
Then you assign this variant to your organizational areas using the IMG, notice that GB has 08 and USA has 10 which
was what we saw above
The global settings which are defined for each of the trip provision variants contain country grouping of SAP payroll
applicable for the wage types
Trip currency ( 1- company code currency, 2 - Official currency as specified by public authorities or 3 - specified
country)
Settlement currency for trips in foreign currency ( 1 - trip currency, 2 - reimbursement of foreign currency
receipts in trip currency but all other advances or receipts settled in trip currency, 3 - trip or hard currency)
Type of input tax, exchange rate type (M - translation at the average rate, is the default option)
Unit for distance
You can use transaction code S_AHR_61009923,
You can also maintain valid entry values for the control parameters for trip costs accounting (vehicle types, vehicle
classes, statutory meals, accommodation reimbursement groups, employee groupings for travel expense types, and
travel management) which can be stored for each employee within his/her master data in Infotype travel privileges, you
can also define the control parameters for travel privileges 9trip areas, statutory trip types, service provider). Every
travel receipt in the system will be stored with the valid expense type (representing expenses towards meals, telephone
charges, mobile call charges, magazines, taxi fare, etc), you will need to define the required expense type per trip
provision variant that you will be using, you can use transaction code S_AHR_61009843,
Next we define the maximum rates and default values for expense types for individual receipts for all the required trip
provision variants we can use transaction code S_AHR_61010087, from the initial screen you can see all the
configured options, use the new entries button to create a new configuration
You can also define if you want to allow simultaneous accounting of individual receipts and per diem (daily allowance)
or flat rates for the expense category like meals, accommodation, travel costs, etc, we can use transaction
code S_AHR_61010078,
Next we can configure the reimbursement amounts for travel costs, accommodation, meals, etc besides configuring the
per diem deductions, we start with defining the miles/km's cumulation (per trip, yearly cumulation with the period as
specified by the employee, etc) which determines when you need to reimburse a employee for the amount he/her has
traveled using there own transportation, this can also be a flat rate across all vehicle types and classes, we can use
transaction code S_AHR_61010022,
Next we define the flat rates for traveling costs using transaction code S_AHR_61009998, you can see that an number
of of flat rates have been configured, on the right hand screenshot you can see a flat rate for cars up to 1000 cc capacity
The vehicle classes and reimbursement groups can be seen below
Next we will define and assign the required wage types for each of the expense types, the wage type is a payroll term
that is made up of characteristics that are dependent on the tasks carried out by that wage type, these characteristics will
determine how to process the wage type, we will use transaction code S_AHR_61006702, SAP comes with many wage
types already configured, the first wage type contains the total receipt amount in a receipt, if you split the meal receipt
amount into taxable and non-table portion, then the first wage type will denote the tax-free portion and the second wage
type will denote the taxable component, you can have only the first wage type.
You can assign wage types to travel expense types for per diems/flat rates using transaction code S_AHR_61006692,
this screen describes the wage type a bit better you can see the tax free and the taxable more clearly
To transfer the result from travel expense to FI, you need to maintain the connection between wage types and the G/L
accounts in FI through symbolic accounts, you then assign the symbolic account to the G/L account, this help in that
you don't need to change the wage type-symbolic account assignments when changing the G/L account, we start by
using transaction code S_AHR_61006691,
wage type - the wage type which we discussed earlier
symb.Expense account - an identifier for the symbolic expense account, the first position means will be a + or -
which represent if it is a debit (+) or a credit (-) entry is to be made in the G/L account, the second and third
positions denote the name of the symbolic account assigned to the wage type
w/o CO Recevr - Indicator for accounts that are not cost elements in Controlling
sym.acct.offset.entry - Symbolic account for offsetting entry for expense account posting, If you have not
specified an explicit symbolic account, the symbolic account RR is used.
2nd sym.acct.offset.entry - used if credit data needs to be transferred to FI
Next we convert the symbolic account to the expense account so you need to assign the symbolic accounts to the
expense G/L in the logical system for FI to post the trip costs, you also need to define how an employee account will be
determined as customer or vendor accounts, we start by using transactionPRT3, select HRT on the initial screen,
The left hand screenshot details the trip costs postings and expense accounts, the right hand screenshot determines
whether the employee is a vendor or a customer, in this case it is as a vendor, here we maintain a search entry *KP in
the account field for general modification 1RR, for customer search maintain that entry as *DD.
You also need to maintain the number ranges posting runs (transaction code PR12 - left hand screenshot) and trip
transfer documents (transaction code PR11 - right hand screenshot ) to transfer the travel expenses results to FI.
Employee Self-Service (ESS)
The EES (Employee Self Service) is a package that allows employees themselves creating, changing or display their
own data using the enterprise portal, you will enable access to employee personal data, compensation related
information, working time including applying and tracking leave, travel planning and reimbursement of expenses, etc. I
will only be giving you a high level introduction on ESS and will leave you to SAP's document on how to setup ESS. If
setup ESS you need to perform the following
download and install the business package for ESS from SAP
You then need to create the ESS users and provide them with the necessary authorizations to access ESS, create
and assign ESS roles to the employee who will be using ESS
Connect the ESS homepage to the individual business area like working time, compensation and personal data
Make technical settings including transporting entries in client 000 that will all be handled by the basis team
Integrate of Travel Planning and Expenses
Once integrated you will be able to transfer the date (trip specific date, cost distribution, receipts, etc) from travel plan
(for a trip) to the travel expense report that will help in generating the required expense receipts, we will using
the IMG,
Now we can activate integration using transaction S_AHR_61000660,
Integration into Payroll
You can transfer travel accounting results into payroll accounting, when both travel management and payroll
accounting are on separate systems (connected via ALE) or in the same logical system again we using the IMG,
You will also need to use transaction code PE01, to enable the transfer you need to include the schema UREI in the
payroll accounting logical system in the country-specific accounting schema U000( for US accounting), GREI in the
payroll accounting logical system in the country-specific accounting schema G000 (for UK), etc.
Reports
As with components of FI there are a number of reports that can be used, I have listed the most common ones used in
the table below,
Report Description Transaction Code
Business volume with car rental companies S_AHR_61016286
Business volume with hotel chains, hierarchical S_AHR_61016283
Cost assignment for trip S_AHR_61016404
determination of employees with exceeded trip days S_AHR_61016411
General trip data/totals/receipts/cost assignment S_AHR_61016405
General trip data/trip totals S_AHR_61016401
Hierarchical overview of flights by airline S_AHR_61016279
Overview of flights by airline S_AHR_61016280
Overview of planned trips S_AHR_61016288
Ticket information for flights S_AHR_61016282
Travel expense reporting by period S_AHR_61016408
Trip receipts S_AHR_61016402
Trip receipts with general trip data S_AHR_61016403
Who is where? search for trip destination S_AHR_61016406
All the reports can be accessed via the SAP menu as per the below screenshot