ADVERTORIAL
Keep ahead of the curve: ensure your SAP payroll system is always fit for purpose
Val Metcalfe, head of payroll, Sodexo UKI and UKISUG Payroll SIG chair
A s a payroll professional, you know how important it is to make sure you’re up-to-date with the latest legislation. The same applies to your payroll software. Whether it’s apprenticeship levy or Scottish income tax, you have to make sure the right information is shared with your payroll system to make sure everyone is paid in a timely manner. Here at the UK and Ireland SAP user group (UKISUG), we bring together SAP users, SAP themselves and third party vendors to collaborate as one SAP community. Our UK Payroll Special Interest Group (SIG) is one of the best supported and most well attended of all of the UKISUG SIGs. The high level of interest probably reflects both the degree of complexity in processing payrolls, and the high rate of system modifications that are required, typically, to ensure compliance with constantly changing legal and statutory requirements. Given this scenario regular, on-going communication between SAP and users is particularly important and this is the prime function of the payroll SIG. SIG meetings are the focal point of the group and are normally held three or four times per year. Attendees are a mixture of payroll practitioners and application IT consultants, with attendance often exceeding eighty individuals. Significantly, SAP payroll product team members also attend the meetings. Key agenda items include: ● Development updates from SAP – This covers information about solution design, implications, implementation timescales, and version applicability. Often, the group are requested to comment
on design option preferences. For larger projects, members may be requested to volunteer as pilot companies and, as such, become involved in pre-release testing. ● Development requests – Member companies have the option to raise development requests to change SAP functionality. Requests supported by the group are considered more favourably by SAP compared with those made by individual companies. During the meetings, new requests and progress towards the completion of existing requests are shared with the group. ...communication between SAP and users is particularly important and this is the prime function of the payroll SIG ● Open forum – The group has evolved into a very useful forum where members can share ideas and solutions, as well as supporting each other with general queries about the use and configuration of SAP Payroll. ● Presentations – Other specialist topic presentations from SAP or other partners are included on an ad hoc basis. The User Group offers a corporate annual membership, under which an organisation may have unlimited users, who can all benefit from what UKISUG has
to offer.
We have three focussed events in the SAP payroll calendar for you to take advantage of: ● 29th June – Payroll SIG ● 4th October – Payroll SIG ● 27th and 28th November – Payroll Stream at Connect 2017 For those of you who also work with Irish payroll we have a dedicated SIG for that who meet on: ● 15th June ● 25th October ❑ Meet Val Val Metcalfe, head of payroll at Sodexo UK & Ireland Ltd, is the chairperson for the payroll SIG. Val has over seventeen years of experience using SAP, with three SAP payroll implementations and has been managing complex payrolls for thirty years, specialising in sports, leisure and travel, energy and resources, prisons, hospitals, schools, universities and military bases. She has been the SAP user group SIG chair for two years and believes that the collaboration and networking opportunities the SIG provides are invaluable to Sodexo in being able to keep up to date with legislation and system changes. Are you interested in finding out more? Then contact Robyn Brentley, our corporate account manager who will be more than happy to discuss membership, the payroll SIG and anything else that may take your fancy. You can reach her at support@ sapusers.org or call on +44(0)1642 309930.
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| Professional in Payroll, Pensions and Reward | April 2017 | Issue 29
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