FOUNDATION OBJECTS

FOUNDATION OBJECTS:-
• Foundation objects are used to set up data that can be shared across the company, such as Legal Entity,
Business Unit etc. …
• Foundation objects are sometimes referred to as “foundation tables”.
• Foundation objects are contained and configured in the Corporate Data Model.
• Most of the foundation objects are effective dated.
There are 3 main types of Foundation Data:
1. Organization structures
2. Job structures
3. Pay structures.
• With foundation objects you set up the data that can be shared across the entire company such as job codes,
department, cost centres etc.
• In the xml file for the corporate data model, you can make changes to the standard setup that is pre delivered
by success factors.
• HRIS element ID: This is the ID that is used to identify the foundation object in the XML files.
• Standard label: This is the label for the HRIS element that appears on the user interface.
You can overwrite this label. If no label is included in the standard XML file, then the label that
appears on the UI is pulled from the backend system.
To overwrite the label, add the corresponding label tags in the XML file below the corresponding HRIS
element and put the new label text inside the label tags.
Employee Description SAP ERP HCM
Central term equivalent
Foundation The primary objects and data that is used in Object Type / Master
Objects employee records (e.g. Company, Job Data / Transparent table
Classification, Pay Grade, etc.)
Assocations Relationships between objects Relationship
Generic Objects Custom objects crated with the Metadata Object Type
Framework
Organization The organization structure used to manage the Organization Structure
Structure enterprise
Propagation Auto-population of field values on an employee’s Default values set by
Employment Information from Foundation Objects Features in PE03

1. ORGANIZATION STRUCTURES:
Eight organization structures are available
a. Legal Entity
b. Business Unit
c. Division
d. Department
e. Cost Centre
f. Location
g. Location Group
h. Geo Zone

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The diagram below illustrates the “top” 4 objects in the structure, with the standard-delivered Associations between
objects:

A Legal Entity cannot have a parent of the same type. A Division can belong to multiple Business Units and a
Department can belong to multiple Divisions. In addition, both a Division and Department can have a parent of the
same type, thus creating a hierarchy of these object types.
• Some of these structures are used in Employee Records.
• An employee has to be hired in a Legal Entity.
• The employee can be assigned to Business Unit, Division, Department, Location and Cost Centre within Job
Information portal.
Foundation Object SAP ERP HCM equivalent
Legal Entity Company Code
Business Unit Business Area / Organizational Unit (Object type O)
Division Organizational Unit (Object type O)
Department Organizational Unit (Object type O)
Location Personnel Area / Personnel Subarea
Cost Center Cost Center (Object type K)

• During the implementation of Employee Central, each Foundation Object can be configured to store certain
details about the object. This can be used for reference or can be used to populate values into fields on an
employee’s Employment Information record (called propagation in Employee Central terminology). Of
course, many of these objects can be re-purposed as required and new objects can be added.

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a) Legal entity:
• A legal Entity is the highest organization structure. It can belong to only one country. It captures
the basic information about the company in the country.
• It represents a company as registered against country laws. It cannot span across more than one
country.
• The country in Legal Entity determines the country of the employee for Job Information,
Employment Details and Compensation Information.
For eg: Creating coco cola (client) legal entity
Admin Center---Employee Files---Manage Data---Create New---Legal Entity

• Every employee must have a Legal Entity assigned when being hired or setup in the system (just
as they would in real life!).
• By default, a Legal Entity defines the country and default Pay Group, Location, currency, and
standard hours for employees within that company.
• Country-specific information can be stored on a Legal Entity object.
• In SAP ERP HCM, the Legal Entity is the Company Code that is selected on the info type 0001
screen during the hiring action.

b) Business unit:
• One Business Unit record represents one operating unit.
• A Business Unit represents a segment of a Legal Entity that focuses on a specific business function,
such as manufacturing, sales, or marketing.
Admin Center → Employee files → Manage data → Create new → Business unit

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c) Division:
• A Division is simply a division of a Business Unit.
• However, it can be used directly as a Division of a Legal Entity if required, such is the flexibility of
Employee Central. One division can belong to multiple business units.
Admin Center → Employee files → Manage data → Create new → Division

d) Department:
• Department foundation object stores all the departments of a company for example Human
Resources, Finance, Sale, marketing etc.
• A Department is usually funded by a Cost Centre.
Admin Center → Employee files → Manage data → Create new → Department

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Here external code is editable. If we want to take it automatic then follow the following steps.
Step1: Go to configure object definition and search object definition and select department and
make correction in take action menu.
Go to external code and edit in details
Admin Center→ Company settings → Configure Object Definitions →Search (Object definition)
Department →Take action →Make correction

Go to external code and edit in detail

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Step 2: Visibility →read only → done

Step 3: select rules like initialize rules to initialize department and validate rules to set department external code
rules and click on save.

Initialize department rule:

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 Set department external code rule:

Then the external code will be shown like below

e) Cost center:
• A cost centre represents the units that account for business costs.
• Generally cost centre are defined in the ERP Financial system and cost centre’s information can be
imported from this system.
• Cost centre maintained in SAP ERP Financials are integrated with Success Factors Employee
Central.

Admin Center→Employee files→Manage data→Create new→Cost Center

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f) Location :
It represents a physical location used to identify the employee's location.
Admin Center→Employee files→Manage organization, job and pay structures→Create new→Location

g) Location group:
• Grouping of all locations into a location group.
• These are generally used for reporting purpose and can be used to group multiple locations.
Admin Center→Employee files→Manage organization, job and pay structures→Create new→Location
group

h) Geozone:
• Grouping of multiple location groups into one geozone.
• Geozone is commonly used with pay range definition to allow for regional pay variations
Admin Center→Employee files→Manage organization, job and pay structures→Create new→Geo zone

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2. JOB STRUCTURES:
Two job structures are available
a) Job classification
b) Job function
a) Job classification:
• A Job Classification object contains details of an employee’s job role.
• Like in SAP, many employees can be assigned the same Job Classification (although in SAP this is
through the Position object).
• It defines a large number of attributes about the job that an employee will hold, such as weekly hours,
employee class, pay grade, and whether the employee is full or part time.

Admin Center→Employee files→Manage data→Create new→Job classification

• It defines a large number of attributes about the job that an employee will hold, such as weekly hours,
employee class, pay grade, and whether the employee is full or part time.

• In the standard-delivered configuration Job Classifications are associated to Business Unit objects.
Country-specific information can be stored on a Job Classification object.

• When a Job Classification is assigned to an employee a number of values from the Job Classification
Foundation Object can be propagated. This is often common fields like Job Title, Pay Grade, Standard
Weekly Hours, etc.
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 b) Job function:
• Job Function describes main functions such as HR, Finance, marketing...
• Several Job Classifications can be linked to the same job function.

Admin Center→Employee files→Manage data→Create new→Job function

3. PAY STRUCTURES:

Seven pay structures are available

a. Pay Group
b. Pay Grade
c. Pay Range
d. Pay Component
e. Pay Component Group
f. Pay Calendar
g. Frequency
• We can compare this structure to SAP object types:

Foundation Object SAP ERP HCM equivalent

Pay Component Wage Type
Pay Component Group Wage Type Group
Pay Group Payroll Area
Pay Grade Grade
Pay Range Pay Scale
Pay Calendar Payroll Calendar
Frequency

• During the implementation of Employee Central, each Foundation Object can be configured to store certain
details about the object. This can be used for reference or can be used to populate fields on an employee’s
Employment Information record – particularly Compensation Information and Payroll.

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a) Pay Group:
• The Pay Group is used to group employees together that share the same payroll.
• For example, this could be by region or by employee class.
Admin Center→Employee files→Manage data→Create new→Pay group

• Each Pay roup defines things such as the payroll vendor, number of weeks in the pay period, and
the lag. It is the equivalent of a Payroll Area in SAP.
b)Pay grade:
• Pay Grade represents the grading structure that is in place in an organization and is normally associated with
Job Classification.
• Pay Grade is used to regroup Job Classifications sharing same Pay Ranges.
Admin Center→Employee files→Manage organization, job and pay structures→Create new→Pay
grade

• If you manage Pay Grades within your organization , fill the Pay Grade sheet of the Foundation
Objects workbook in order to indicate which standard attributes need to be tracked for Pay grade
and if custom attributes need to be configured.
c) Pay range:
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 • Pay Ranges are used to define minimum, median and maximum points of salary range and in the
Standard configuration – a combination of pay grade, Geo zone and legal entity.
• It is primarily used to calculate Compa-Ratio and Range Penetration.
Admin Center→Employee files→Manage organization, job and pay structures→Create
new→Pay range

d) Pay component:
• Pay component is the employee central wage type.
• It defines a certain element of an employee's compensation package such as base salary, bonus target, parking
allowance etc.
Admin Center→Employee files→Manage organization, job and pay structures→Create new→Pay
component

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Pay component have the following attributes.
• Type: Amount or Percentage. If type = Percentage, the percentage on which the percentage is applied needs to
be defined.
• Recurring: Recurring components are components that are paid every month, quarter, year… such as base
salary, car allowance etc. Non recurring components are used for exceptional payments.
• Is Earning: Indicates whether the component is an earning or a deduction.
• Currency, Frequency, Value: By default, it is possible to define the amount, currency and frequency of the
component. In such case, these values can be propagated at employee level e.g. 5000 EUR / month.
• Can Override: If this attribute is set to no, then Currency, Frequency and Value cannot be modified by the user
at employee level. The values defined at the component level cannot be changed once the component is
assigned to the employee.
• Target: This attribute enables to identify components that will be used to define target pay such as target
bonus.
• Tax Treatment: Can be used to indicate if a component is taxable or not.
If you are planning to record Compensation Information within Employee Central,
it is recommended to use Pay Components and to keep all standard attributes.

e) Pay Component Group:

• A pay component group is used to group multiple pay components.
• Its value is the sum of the pay components associated with the pay component group.

Admin Center→Employee files→Manage organization, job and pay structures→Create new→

Pay Component Group

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 f) Pay calender:
• Pay Calendar foundation object stores all the pay periods within a year and is associated to a pay group.
• For eg, it defines when the pay period begins and ends the number of payments, when a pay check is issued.
Admin Center→Employee files→Manage Data→Create new→Pay Calender

• For example, it defines when the pay period beings and ends, plus:
o The number of payments
o When a pay check is issued
o If the pay period is Off Cycle
o The Processing Run ID and Run Type
o Pay Group that this pay period is associated to
g) Frequency:
Frequency is used to indicate the frequency at which a pay component is paid for eg. Annually, Monthly etc.
Admin Center→Employee files→Manage organization, job and pay structures→Create new→Frequency

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 Manage data Manage organization, job and pay structures
1. Legal entity 1. Location
2. Business unit 2. Location group
3. Division 3. Geozone
4. Department 4. Pay grade
5. Cost centre 5. Pay range
6. Pay group 6. Pay component
7. Pay calendar 7. Pay component group
8. Job function 8. Frequency
9. Job classification

4. PROPAGATION:
• Foundation Data can be used to automatically populate data at employee level.
• For example, when an employee is assigned to a job code, the job title associated with the job code
can be automatically updated based on the attributes of the job code.

5. ASSOCIATIONS:
• It is possible to create relationships between Foundation Objects in order to reflect your international
organization.
• Once associations are configured, lists of values that are proposed to the user are filtered depending on these
associations.

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