Business to Administration with the B2A Manager

Purpose
You use this component to enable electronic data exchange betweenemployers and authorities.
Until now you have exchanged application data from the areas of tax,social insurance, statements, and so on with the responsible authoritieson paper or disc. You can use the Business to Administration Manager(B2A Manager) to send and receive data quickly and simply over theInternet.
To do so, you create data records in the relevant area (tax, socialinsurance, statements, and so on) for the corresponding authority. Youcan then use the B2A Manager to send and manage these data records.
Or you use the B2A Manager to request certain information from therelevant authority and then subsequently send your data.
The exact procedure for the process of Business to Administrationdepends on both the area and the country you are working in. For moreinformation, see the country-specific documentation at the end of thisdocument.

Integration
Business to Administration with the B2A Manager is integrated withdifferent areas of payroll (tax, social insurance, and so on) dependingon the country you work in.

Prerequisites

Customizing
To see whether specific Customizing settings have to be made for yourcountry for Business to Administration with the B2A Manager, refer tothe country-specific documentation.
If Customizing settings have to be made for your country, refer to theImplementation Guide (IMG) for Payroll in the sectionBusiness to Administration (B2A).

Encryption
Depending on the authority, the data may have to be encrypted before itis transferred with the B2A Manager. If this is the case, you willrequire the encryption software of a third-party administrator that islinked to the SAP System using an open interface. For more information,see the IMG for Payroll under Business toAdministration (B2A) -> Set up Encryption.

Features
You can exchange data electronically from different areas and usingdifferent data formats like, for example, String or XML (eXtensibleMarkup Language). Depending on the recipient, the B2A Manager supportsdifferent methods of communication, for example, e-mail with fileattachments or HTTPS (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure Sockets), anddifferent encryption methods, such as PEM (Privacy Enhanced Mail) orPKCS#7 (Public-Key Cryptography Standard No.7).
As a rule, the method of communication and, if required, the encryptionmethod are determined by the responsible authority and implementedcorrespondingly by the B2A Manager.
For example, for the data exchange with the receiving offices of healthinsurers in Germany, data is exchanged per e-mail with the standard PEMencryption.

Transfer per e-mail (e-mail procedure)
The relevant data is sent with the e-mail as a file attachment and isexchanged with the relevant authority.
Note:
When you set up or run a test for Business to Administration using theB2A Manager, you do not usually want to send data to any authority. Toensure that data is not sent, you can set the constant MODE toT (Test) in the view V_T50BK (HR-B2A: Constants) This settingensures that, during the e-mail procedure, the recipient is set to theusers e-mail address. Therefore, you send the e-mail to yourself insteadof the authority.
In the production system you set the constant MODE to P(Live).

Transfer per HTTPS in XML format
The relevant application data is exported to XML and exchanged directlywith HTTPS.
Not all authorities support the XML procedure.

Selection

Indicator Only Display Open Processes
In the group box Further Options the indicator Only DisplayOpen Processes is set as standard. This means that only those entriesthat have not yet been completed are displayed. These are entries thathave the status New, In Processing or Error - Reprocess
. Entries with the status OK or Incorrect have eitherbeen completed or can no longer be processed. These entries are notdisplayed if the indicator Only Display Open Processes is set.
If you also want to display entries with the status OK orIncorrect you must deactivate this indicator.

Limit selection using selection criteria
The group box Selection is also available for some countryversions. You can use this to limit the entries to be displayed by usingselection criteria.
These selection criteria could be, for example, the area, the documenttype, or the personnel (sub)area.
You use the input help (F4) to select, for example, the required areaand then only entries for this area will be displayed.
If you do not want to limit the selection, simply leave the field emptyand select Enter. All (open) processes are displayed.
Note:
If you also want to display completed processes, first deactivate theindicator Only Display Open Processes.

Activities
There are several functions available in the B2A Manager foradministering the entries. To execute a function, select the requiredentry and select the relevant function either using the pushbuttons orover the menu option Process.

• Display data:

The data of the appropriate entry is displayed in a detail view. Thedata that is displayed depends on the communication process and theauthority.

• Execute process:

A process (receive or send data over the Internet) is executed for acertain entry. The system changes the status of the entry accordingly,for example, from New to In Processing.
Depending on the authority, the data may have to be encrypted when thefunction Execute Process is called before the data is transferredover the Internet. You can see whether this is the case from the messageEncryption is running... in the lower status line.
Depending on the authority, a process can be single-level or multilevel.
Example of a single-level process:
In the e-mail procedure, the data is sent to an authority as a fileattachment. In this case, the function Execute Process directlytriggers a process in which data is sent via the Internet.
This e-mail procedure is used, for example, for data exchange withhealth insurers in Germany.
Example of a multilevel process:
The function Execute Process first requests data from anauthority for a certain entry. After you have received this data and, ifnecessary, processed it further, you perform the function ExecuteProcess again to send the required information to the authority.
In the group box Further Options, you can make certain settingsfor the function Execute Process.
Indicator Log
If the indicator Log is set, the individual steps of the functionExecute Process are recorded and then output in a tree structure.
The indicator Log is always set in the standard setting. You candeactivate the indicator.
Note:
If errors occur during the process, the log is always displayed,irrespective of whether you have set the indicator or not.
Indicator Simulation
If the indicator Simulation is set, all individual steps for thefunction Execute Process are performed but not stored.
In particular, during a simulation, the status of the entry is notchanged by the system and the process is not written to the history.
If the method of communication is e-mail, in a simulation, the recipientis always replaced with the users e-mail address, which means that ane-mail is not sent to the authority.

• Display history:

All processes that have already been performed are displayed for thisentry. The history includes in particular all changes in status of anentry, both those set by the system and those performed manually.
Note:
If a history is available for an entry, there is an icon that can beexpanded in the first column of this entry. Alternatively, you candisplay the history of an entry directly using this icon.

• Change status:

To document which processes have already been performed for an entry,each entry has a certain status. For more detailed differentiation, astatus can have one or more substatuses. The substatuses available for astatus vary depending on the area and document type.
Each status of an entry is usually set by the system. However, dependingon the area and document type, you can change certain statuses manuallyusing the function Change Status. For example, to show that anentry has been transferred or received successfully, which means thatthe process is completed, you can set the status manually to OK.
In the same way, you can change the status from Incorrect toError - Reprocess if you have solved the error and the processcan be executed again.
Note:
You can only change the status for several entries at the same time ifthe entries have the same area, document type and status.
The following statuses are available (table T50BDT):
New
The system sets this status when an entry appears in the B2A Manager forthe first time. You have not executed a process with this entry.
In Processing
The system sets this status as soon as you execute a process with thisentry, but the process is not yet completed.
Incorrect
A serious error has occurred during a process that you cannot solveimmediately. The process can only be executed again when you havechanged the status manually, for example to Error Reprocess.
Error - Reprocess
You can set this status manually when an error occurred during aprocess, but you were able to solve it. The process can be repeatedimmediately.
OK
The process is completed. This status is not set by the system. You setthis status manually to indicate that a process has been complete, forexample, when you have received the relevant confirmation from theauthority.
Once an entry has the status OK, it cannot be assigned anotherstatus afterwards.
Note:
In the standard setting, the indicator Only Display Open Processes
is activated. This means that entries with the status OK willnot be displayed when this indicator is set.

Country-specific documentation on the Business to Administrationprocess:
The following links describe the exact process of Business toAdministration available in you country and the relevant areas.


• Process for Germany


• Process for Netherlands