In a fast-paced business environment, it is important for HR employees, especially those in charge of wage type configuration, to take time to evaluate their capacity to face unexpected events caused by configuration changes. One such unwanted change can occur when you apply Human Resources Support Packages (HR SPs). R/3 can accidentally overwrite table T512W entries.

Table T512W is a configuration element of your SAP Payroll system that determines how R/3 should process each specific wage type. This is the central table of the R/3 Payroll system and has the most influence on payroll calculations. Each environment has it own table T512W. You can minimize disruptions that can paralyze your payroll system by backing up table T512W.

Two standard SAP R/3 programs can help you to restore the configurations set in table T512W if entries are overwritten inadvertently. RPU12W0S backs up the entire configuration contained in table T512W and RPU12W0C restores all or specific configuration elements from table T512W at the time your backup version was saved.

I recommend that you run the program RPU12W0S before implementing HR SPs to safeguard the system’s technical wage type information. Technical wage types are necessary for processing the iteration of required user wages types, and modifying their configuration affects your payroll results. If you run RPU12W0S before applying HR SPs, then you will always have a copy of your table T512W reflecting current wage type values that you could integrate into your recovery plan if disaster strikes.

Once you have your SAP system up and running by repairing the server and restoring the backup from your main backup system, you can restore a specific version of your T512W table via program RPU12W0C. SAP R/3 only allows you to restore a backup of your T512W table that is as recent or older than your main backup.

RPU12W0C gives you the capacity to restore only selected table entries from your table T512W. By limiting the configuration elements, it is easier to evaluate your partial restoration’s impact on your SAP system because you know what configuration values to overwrite in table T512W and how certain configuration elements affect payroll system calculations.

Back Up Your Files with RPU12W0S

To execute program RPU12W0S, use transaction SE38 or have someone from your technical team assign this program to a customized transaction code. Most people will not need to create a transaction code associated with that program, considering that backup should be managed by a limited number of users. The only situation in which you might want to associate a transaction with this program would be either for security purposes or because you want to create a specific menu for your human resources technical team.

Execute RPU12W0S through transaction code SE38 to access the Save/Delete Backup Version of Table T512W screen (Figure 1). You have two choices in this screen: Save Version or Delete Version. Enter the backup version number of table T512W in this screen if you have previously created one, or the new version number you want to create, which is limited to three digits.

Figure 1

RPU12W0S initial screen

Once you have executed the program RPU12W0S, the program generates entries in two tables, T599U and T512B. You receive a message regarding the number of entries that were processed during the backup process (Figure 2). R/3 keeps a copy of table T512W’s version number in table T599U. R/3 prevents you from overwriting previous backup versions, so you must first delete the previous version using program RPU12W0S to replace a backup version of table T512W. Depending on your version naming convention, your company might want to associate your latest backup version to the last HR SP applied to make it easier for you to track.

Figure 2

RPU12W0S resulting screen showing number of entries processed during backup

Table T599U contains only version values, which identify specific backup versions. The version is defined by a value between numbers 001 to 999. This table acts as an index to identify the versions used. The system generates the entry VERT512Wxxx, where xxx equals the value entered into the Version number field. The configuration elements, which are assigned values for each wage type’s table T512W table entry, are not stored in this table.

Table T512B contains all configuration elements contained in T512W at the time you execute RPU12W0S. R/3 generates an entry for each wage type and relates it to the version by using the VERSKEY field. You find an entry that looks like 00xxx, where xxx equals the value entered, in the version field of table T512B. In addition, R/3 adds the value B, which identifies the entries as backup values, into the Application field.

Another practical use of program RPU12W0S is to keep a backup copy of table T512W in your sandbox environment. This backup resides locally on your system. It’s a good idea to keep a backup copy of your table T512W for each of your SAP environments. This way, you can restore your backup to a copy representing your environment at the time you executed program RPU12W0S, even after configuration testing. Although you should save the table in all environments, you should be more selective about restoring the table in certain environments such as production.

Your SAP HR team members (such as configurators and technical and functional SAP specialists) may test different configuration scenarios and apply multiple changes in table T512W to fix a complex issue. After communicating with other employees to verify the impact on others’ work, they decide which version of table T512W to restore based on its configuration at the time program RPU12W0S was executed. For instance, restoring an earlier version of table T512W replicates the environment before a server outage, which might help them figure out what caused the server outage.

Each company should use these two programs based on their business practices. For example, many companies with international divisions would probably want to use the Generic Key field. The Generic Key field is located on the RPU12W0S main screen. This field is free form text, so you can type any text values. This field gives you the ability to enter a more descriptive value to identify your backup version. Some multi- country payroll environments might want to back up wage types for only some countries but not others. This field gives you the ability to extend the identification of the backup version with RPU12W0S to reflect the countries selected.

Restore Previously Saved Data with RPU12W0C

The restore program, RPU12W0C, offers flexibility that most main backup programs do not. This program gives you the ability to restore selected wage type configuration from your table T512W done previously with RPU12W0S. RPU12W0C’s main screen allows you to specify selection criteria that determine which configuration values from table T512W will be restored.

This program’s ability to do a partial restore allows you to control what values you replace. This is important because your T512W values modify how your system processes your payroll calculations, so you want to ensure that the table contains accurate values. If you do not limit the configuration elements restored by using the selection criteria, you will overwrite the configuration of all wage types with the values at the time the backup was taken. Overwriting all wage types could trigger unwanted changes.

You may access RPU12W0C like RPU12W0S, by having someone from your technical team assign this program to a customized transaction code or via transaction SE38. I recommend that you limit the access to these two transactions through standard SAP R/3 security functionalities and grant access to a limited number of users into your production environment (e.g., identified technical HR employees who can identify the impact of all configuration changes). The consequence of restoring the contents of table T512W by using program RPU12W0C could be a disaster in a production environment. It could overwrite required configuration that would prevent your SAP R/3 system to properly calculate your payroll.

Transaction SE38 brings you to the initial screen (Figure 3). This program allows you to reverse global or local changes. You might want to limit your backup restore to specified wage types or configuration elements contained in table T512W. There are many reasons to limit the restore: Often, a company wants to restore only a specific configuration from the previous backup to satisfy its business requirements, such as including a wage type in pension or vacation calculations. This way the payroll system behaves as expected because the wage type configuration in table T512W is aligned with other business requirements.

Figure 3

Program RPU12W0C allows you to reverse global or local changes

The ability of RPU12W0C to partially restore the T512W table is also handy when you have business requirements that require modification to a technical wage type. The technical wage types are “owned” by SAP and used for payroll calculation process. When you apply your next HR SPs, the new changes could overwrite some changes applied to technical wage types by your SAP HR technical team. If you were to re-apply your last backup, you would overwrite critical changes from SAP. However, if you run RPU12W0C and select the entries you want to restore, then you restore only selected values from your previous version of table T512W.

The first choice in this program allows you to limit the scope of your data restore to certain elements:

• Specific wage types
  
  
• Specific country or countries
  
  
• Specific date delimitation

In addition, you can limit the scope of the data restoration to specific configuration elements:

• Processing classes
  
  
• Cumulations
  
  
• Evaluation classes
  
  
• Valuation bases
  
  
• Average bases

Program RPU12W0C conforms to SAP R/3 standards, which means you can display a log after the program’s execution. This gives you the ability to review the restored data. Note the setting at the bottom of the screen for Execute Database Update. You must check this box and enter your SAP user name in the password field if you want the tables to be updated. Otherwise, SAP R/3 executes the program in testing without overwriting the existing values. If you execute RPU12W0C in test mode, it allows you to see all modified entries before proceeding to changes.

R/3 does not update any value if the backup version you try to restore is the same as the current configuration. If no changes are made in table T512W, a log is still generated that confirms that no changes have been applied. When entries are modified, the resulting log shows all the entries that have been affected (Figure 4). The resulting log displays all the differences before and after the data restoration.

Figure 4

RPU12W0C log of all affected entries

Stephane Routhier

Stephane is contributing to EPI-USE America market development and acting as a Solution Architect in the North American HCM Practice focused on the selection, planning, design, and delivery of HR solutions across multiple industries. He has more than 20 years of SAP application experience and knowledge of enterprise HCM and payroll processes, trends, issues, and organization design. He acts as an SAP Expert in the payroll area. He has been involved with large full-scale SAP ERP HCM and Payroll implementations using the breadth and depth of SAP modules. Stephane has contributed to the HCM community as a speaker and writer.

 

You may contact the author at stephane.routhier@epiuse.ca.

If you have comments about this article or publication, or would like to submit an article idea, please contact the editor.