What are structures in SAP? Different types of structuresWhy 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 Structure2. Personnel Structure3. Organizational Structure

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

Enterprise StructureBelow is a sample Enterprise Structure-

There are 4 main components of the enterprise  structure

1. Client2. Company Code3. Personnel Area4. Personnel Subarea

Let’s look into them in detailCLIENT 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 checksPERSONNEL 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 type2. Public Holiday calendar3. Appraisals4. Assigning of legal persons5. Default values for Basic Pay6. Grouping for wage types7. 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 of1. Employee Groups2. 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

functions1. 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 following1. Work Schedules2. Appraisals3. Grouping for Wage types4. Grouping for Collective agreement provision5. Processing of employee's payroll6. Assigning employee characteristics like activity status,

employment status and level of training.7. Time quotas8. 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.