Introduction to the Cross-Application Time Sheet

The Cross Application Time Sheet (CATS) is a cross application tool used for recording working time and tasks of individual employees. It enables you to control all business processes concerning an employee’s tasks, like paying the employees, monitoring the progress of the project and creating invoices. It helps employees record their own data. Time Sheet layout can be formatted to suit the needs of an employee. Along with recording data, it is also used to transfer the data to the target components for processing.

Note:

The various target components are:

Controlling (CO); which includes internal activity allocation and statistical key figures.

Human Resources (HR); which includes attendances, absences and employee remuneration information.

External Services (MM-SRV); which includes entry of services performed for external services.

Plant Maintenance (PM), Customer service (CS) and Project system (PS); which includes confirmation for orders or networks.

The time sheet comprises a wide range of user interfaces like CATS Classic, CATS Regular, CATS Notebook, CATS for Service Providers, CATS Instant, and CATS Phone. It can hence be used in different sectors.

The prerequisites for using CATS are HR Mini Master, data entry profile for recording employee time, and authorization for executing CATS.

The four basic processes in CATS are time data entry, release, approval and transfer of data to Target components.

These four steps can be carried out individually or you can skip some of them.

A time sheet is used to record data that are relevant to several SAP System components. It can be used to record data conforming to a Project System network, or enter time data for HR Time Management.

The time sheet can be used to carry out confirmations for networks. A network is an instruction for carrying out tasks within a project in a particular way and in a defined time. It is used as a basis for planning, analyzing, describing, controlling and monitoring deadlines, cost and resources.

A network contains activities linked to workplaces. These activities contain working hours planned for the corresponding task. Activity types are assigned to activities within the network. The workplaces are assigned to cost centers and to an organizational unit. The activity types are planned within cost centers.

After the work is done, the real working hours are confirmed with the network. If this is performed via CATS, the time data are transferred as a confirmation to the network.

You can transfer data to each target component separately. This allows you to set different transfer intervals for different components.

Time sheet data can be transferred to Plant Maintenance and Customer Service for confirmations. The data are transferred using the data transfer report, which generates confirmation documents in the target components. While generating confirmations, the system also triggers an activity allocation in Controlling.

An order contains activities linked to workplaces. These activities contain planned working hours for the corresponding task. Activity types are assigned to activities within the order. The workplaces are assigned to cost centers and to an organizational unit. The activity types are planned within cost centers.

After the work is done, the real working hours are confirmed with the order. If this is performed via CATS, the time data are transferred as confirmation to the order.

In the time sheet, you can enter activity types for internal activity allocation in controlling and statistical key figures. The hours are valuated using activity types. The sender cost center is credited and the receiver cost center is debited.

The time sheet can also be used to carry out internal activity allocation to a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) element.

Cross Application Time Sheet is used to transfer data to the service entry sheet in Materials Management. A purchase requisition is used to draw up a purchase order. Data for each item in a purchase order is recorded using a Service Number. The data are transferred from the time sheet to Materials Management for service entry.

Time sheet data can be transferred to Human Resources as attendances, absences or employee remuneration information wagetypes. Attendances, for example, can contain working hours. These working hours can further be processed by time evaluation or payroll. Working hours can have an effect on pay, for example, in case of overtime. The data are transferred using a data transfer report. Once data records due for transfer to HR have been approved, they can be transferred automatically without your having to start the transfer report manually.

Config of the Data entry profile

You must have a data entry profile to enter time data in CATS. The data entry profile can be defined as required. This profile affects data entry, the layout of the data entry screen and the target components.

Customizing the data entry profile and field selection are the two steps required for making the settings for the time recording process and the data entry screen in the data entry profile.

CATS can be used to enter data either for one employee or for several employees at the same time. The CATS data entry process consists of four steps, out of which some steps can be skipped, if required. Workflow is used for the approval process.

The four steps for CATS data entry are:

Enter time data Release time data Approve or reject time data Transfer the data directly to Time Management in HR

The layout of the screen and the data entry is controlled by Data Entry Profile. While customizing the data entry profile, you can specify:

the required steps in the CATS process; period type, entry in hours or clock times; whether the weekdays or calendars are displayed; whether the daily hours from the employee’s work schedule are displayed;

and whether the logistics are to be used for worklist.

Time settings determine the period for which the time data are recorded.

The options available are the following:

Period type, which defines whether the data are recorded on a daily, weekly or monthly basis.

Periods, which specify the number of periods that need to be displayed at the same time for data entry.

First day of week defines the start of the week. Key date relative, which determines the key date relative to the current

date that gets entered in the system automatically. Lower/Upper limit relative, which defines how far backward or forward the

user can scroll when changing the data entry period in the time sheet.

If payroll is implemented, there are various data entry scenarios available for cost accounting.

As show in the slide, default values for the Cross Application Time Sheet can be set.

The Worklist consists of employee-specific and object-related information. A worklist appears in a separate section when calling the time entry. It can include information from logistics such as pool of confirmations or hours planned on activities in a network belonging to a specific workplace. The information in the worklist can be copied into the entry section and can also be overwritten, if needed.

Worklist can be included in the profile.

A customer-specific worklist can be created using an SAP enhancement CATS0001.

You can see the options in the profile settings for system reactions in case of general collisions or collisions with HR data. The ‘standard reaction’ is usually an error message.

SAP Business Workflow is a tool that enables fully automated electronic processing of activities such as approval process, automatic determination of recipient, and task identification.

You can use two levels of field selections, Modifiable and Influencing, to define the target components to which time sheet data are transferred.

Fields can be selected for different screen groups such as settings, worklist and data entry section.

For each section you can define fields as input, requested, display or highlighted.

The slide shows the characteristics of the field selection. After the data entry profile is created, fields can be selected as required.

If the field is defined as modifiable, the selection is valid for the entire client and for all the profiles.

In the field is defined as Influencing, it is necessary to specify which data entry profile the field selection is valid for.

Working with the Cross-Application Time Sheet

The processing of the time sheet data depends on the steps performed and the settings in the data entry profile. The status keys for the entries are shown in the slide.

You can enter time data in the time sheet as a single entry for one employee or as data entry for several personnel numbers using the person list.

You can enter time data for several personnel numbers based on the profile. You can use the Settings function to select a person according to different criteria. The system displays the personnel number based on the settings function.

While setting up the data entry profile, one of the selection options, Time administrator, Organizational unit, Cost Center, or Selection report, is selected.

The Release Step makes the time data available for approval. When releasing the data, the user gives approval after performing certain checks. The checks performed could be checking if the data are correct, quota check, and so on. After releasing the data, the status changes to “released for approval” and remains on the CATS database.

The Release Step is optional and depends on the setup of the data entry profile.

The parameters for customizing the release step are stored in the General settings section of the data entry profile.

The approval procedure is an optional time sheet element.

Most time sheet records contain confidential data relating to, for example, an employee’s payment or the progress of a project.

If employees maintain their own working time data in the system, the approval procedure can be used to check this data before it is transferred to the target components. Each time sheet record is approved individually.

The persons responsible for approving data records, such as supervisors, personnel officers, or project leaders, require special authorizations.

After approval, the status of the data changes to “approved” and is stored on the interface databases of the target component.

The parameters for customizing the approval step are stored in the General settings section of the data entry profile.

The selection of the time data to be approved is based on three options:

Selection using organizational structure Selection according to personal data Selection according to time sheet data

SAP Business Workflow is used for the Approval process.

The workflow for issuing approvals is triggered when the data are released in the time sheet. A notification of records, ready for approval, is received as work items in the specified agent’s integrated inbox. The agent can then either approve or reject the data.

Transferring time data

The data entered are saved in the database table for the time sheet called CATSDB before being transferred to the target component.

After approval, the data are stored in the components’ interface tables. After transfer, it is stored in the corresponding target component databases. The data can be viewed in the target component only after transfer.

Time sheet data can be transferred to HR as attendances and absences, or wage types, using a data transfer report. The Time Sheet supports the unit hours for attendances and absences, and all units for wage types.

A record is created in the specific infotype when an HR related entry, like attendance or remuneration, is made. The RPTEXTPT report is used to transfer data read from the interface table PTEX2000 and PTEX2010. When you run the transfer report, a log, showing the status of the records, is generated.

Time sheet data can be transferred to the Project System for confirmations. If data, such as network number and activity number, are entered in the time sheet, they are transferred to the Project System. The data, transferred using the RCATSTPS report, generate confirmation documents in the Project System.

If a receiver order or an operation is entered in the time sheet, these data are transferred to Plant Maintenance (PM) or Customer Service (CS) using the RCATSTPM report.

If a sender cost center, a receiver cost center, and an activity type are entered in the time sheet, then these data are transferred to Controlling (CO) using the RCATSTCO report.

By setting up specific options in the Implementation Guide (IMG), you can reduce the number of documents generated while transferring data to controlling. Time sheet data can be organized according to different criteria in one document.

Time sheet data can be transferred to Materials Management (MM-SRV) for service entry. Here, all units are supported by the Time Sheet.

If a sending purchase order, a sending purchase order item, and a service number are entered in the time sheet then these data are transferred to the service entry sheet in External Services Management (MM-SRV).

Not every transfer combination is possible. Data cannot be transferred to logistics and controlling simultaneously.

The transfer to single components is also possible, but is not included in the table.

The Report RCATSTAL combines the reports for time data transfers to HR, CO, PM/CS and PS components. Transfers to External Services must be performed in a separate step.

The CATS document number can be used to trace which time sheet record triggered which posting to the target component. The document number can also be used to track changes that have been made to the approved data.

CATS Information System

You can display time sheet documents by personnel numbers, organizational structure, according to sender or receiver parameters, data sources and so on.

The output list screens can be customized to display the functions on the screen. The functions available on the output list screen are:

Print data Find data Display records in detail Display document flow Show and hide fields Calculate totals Calculate subtotals Sort option Filter option

The report RCATSCMP (Time Sheet: Time Leveling) can be used to determine any inconsistencies occurring in the time data entry. If there are employees whose time sheets are inconsistent, you can notify them automatically by mail. You can schedule the report as a background job that sends mails automatically. This is particularly recommended if you have several time sheets to check.

The report Display Single Documents (RCATSBEL) is used to display documents and follow-on documents in the target components. The document number is used for the selection.