What are structures in SAP?

Different
types of structures
Why do we need structures?
Structures are required to represent statutory, regional and organizational conditions
in an organization.
Allocation of employees to the structures is the first step for entering personal data.
Allocation to structures also helps to find out the following:
1. Where does the employee work?
2. Which position does the employee hold?
3. How many hours in a period does the employee work?
4. Which public holidays does an employee get?
5. How is the employee paid?

There are 3 types of structures in SAP
1. Enterprise Structure
2. Personnel Structure
3. Organizational Structure


For an employee, information about these three structures is stored in IT0001

Enterprise Structure
Below is a sample Enterprise Structure-


There are 4 main components of the enterprise structure
1. Client
2. Company Code
3. Personnel Area
4. Personnel Subarea
Lets look into them in detail
CLIENT
It is an Independent legal and organizational unit of the system. A client generally
is an entire corporate group(example GE).
It can be a identified by a 3 character alphanumeric code (like 058,AZZ)
No data exchange can take place between clients (only in exceptional cases)
An employee who changes from one client to another must be assigned a new
personnel number
Client 000 is delivered by SAP and should not be changed.
Your SAP system contains both client-independent (ex. programs , transactions ,
reports) and client-specific elements.(hr master data , om master data)
COMPANY CODE
The company code is an independent company with its own accounting unit; a
company that draws up its own balance sheet (ex. GE Chemicals, GE electric).
Identified by a 4 character alphanumeric code (ex. 0001,AB01)
PERSONNEL AREA
It represents a subdivision of the company code (Ex GE Chemicals Australia , GE
Chemicals UK)
Identified by a 4 character alphanumeric code (ex. 0001,AB01)
You have to assign unique personnel area to company code
Personnel Area is used as selection criteria for evaluations and used in
authorization checks
PERSONNEL SUBAREA
It represent a subdivision of the Personnel Area (Ex for GE Chemicals UK , valid
personnel subareas could be GE Chemicals London , GE Chemicals Brussels)
Identified by a 4 character alphanumeric code (ex. 0002,ABCD)
Some important indicators set by the PSA include groupings for the following:
1. Default values for Pay scale area and Pay scale type
2. Public Holiday calendar
3. Appraisals
4. Assigning of legal persons
5. Default values for Basic Pay
6. Grouping for wage types
7. Assignment for tax-related corporate features
Company regulations (for HR) are defined at the Personnel subarea level. These
regulations maybe legal, contractual or company-specific.
Personnel Structure
Personnel structure displays position of individual people in the enterprise as a
whole. It comprises of
1. Employee Groups
2. Employee Subgroups.
Examples: Active, Retiree, External


EMPLOYEE GROUP
Employee Group is used to classify employees in general terms.
It defines the position of the employee within the company's workforce
Identified by 1 character alphanumeric code (Ex 1, A).
Examples of different valid Employee Groups would be Active, Pensioners,
External
Employee Group has the following important organizational functions
1. Can be used to generate default values for data entry, example for payroll
accounting area or an employee's basic pay.
2. Can be used as a selection criterion for reporting.
3. Can be used as an entity for authorization checks.
EMPLOYEE SUB-GROUP (ESG)
Employee Subgroups are subdivisions of Employee Groups.
Each ESG is assigned a 2 character alphanumeric identifier ($$).
Examples of valid ESGs for an Active employee would be Trainee, Hourly Wage
Earner, Salaried Employee, Non-pay scale employee
Employee regulations (for HR) are defined at the Employee Subgroup level.
Some important indicators set by the ESG include groupings for the following
1. Work Schedules
2. Appraisals
3. Grouping for Wage types
4. Grouping for Collective agreement provision
5. Processing of employee's payroll
6. Assigning employee characteristics like activity status, employment status and
level of training.
7. Time quotas
8. Payroll Area
Organizational Structure
It is based on Organizational plan.
Organizational plan provides foundation of Organizational Management. An
organization uses an organizational plan to represent relationships between
individual departments and workgroups
The organizational plan uses elements called objects like Persons (P), Jobs (C),
Positions (S), Organizational Units (O), Cost Center (K) etc.
There are interfaces present that help one to build Organizational Structures


Integration of OM and PA
Integration switch - PLOGI ORGA integrates PA (Personnel Administration) and
OM (Organizational Management).
If integration between PA and OM exists, then on entering a position in Actions
Infotype (0000), system proposes values stored in OM for EG, ESG and PA.