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Technical Data

Technical name of business function

FIN_TRAVEL_2

Type of business function

Enterprise business function

Available as of

SAP enhancement package 4 for SAP ERP 6.0

Technical use

Human Capital Management

Application component

Travel Management (FI-TV)

Directly dependent business function you also need to activate

Travel Management (FIN_TRAVEL_1)

This business function encompasses the new and extended functions of the Travel Management (FI-TV) component described below.

This business function improves and simplifies the travel management process for customers who use SAP ERP 6.0 in their back-end system. Most new features, such as the combined display of flights and rail or express expense sheets, are available with the Web Dynpro ABAP-based user interface only, which was introduced with the Travel Management business function (FIN_TRAVEL_1).

The use of this business function provides the following business advantages:

  • Increased acceptance of the Employee Self-Service (ESS) Trips and Expenses for all business units and employees

  • Reduced travel expenses through transparency and comparability of flight and rail connections

  • Accelerated entry of travel expenses

  • Simplified expense report for employees who travel daily or frequently

  • Accelerated booking of trips and expense settlement in the event management process of the enterprise

  • Reduced processing costs for trips in conjunction with meetings and events

  • Additional advantages for the public sector

    • Travel request and travel expense report also available in ESS

    • Automated approval of travel requests and travel plans

    • Increased transparency of costs for managers

    • Faster reimbursement of expenses

    • Improved cash flow

Constraints

Unless indicated otherwise in the details that follow, the new or enhanced functions are available only in the Web Dynpro ABAP-based user interface.

Prerequisites

You have installed the following components from the version specified:

Type of Component

Component

Only needed for the following functions

Software component

EA-HR 604 and SAP_HR 604

Portal content

Business Package for Employee Self-Service 1.41

SAP Enterprise Services

As of EA-HR 604, namespace http://sap.com/xi/Travel/Global2

For you to be able to use the business function, the following criteria must be met:

Features

Travel Requests

You can use the following new features in travel requests:

Travel Mediums and Estimated Costs to Be Approved

In travel requests you can determine the use of individual means of transportation and types of accommodations, thereby explicitly having their use be approved. Similarly, you can have either the traveler, an administrator, or the system, enter various categories of estimated costs. This approach provides more accurate information and transparency of costs, enabling approving managers to make qualified decisions when approving travel requests. For more information, see Customizing for Travel Management under   Travel RequestTravel Request ESS   Travel Mediums and Estimated Costs to Be Approved  .

Standing Approval of Business Trips

In personnel master data, infotype Travel Privileges (IT 0017), you can configure a standing approval of business trips for certain trips for individual employees.

Enhancements for the Public Sector of Germany

Travel requests contain a range of new fields for the public sector of Germany. These include fields for official business (Dienstgeschaeft), different kinds of mileage reimbursement, and car pooling.

Display of the Travel Request Form in Travel Expense Manager (Transaction PR05)

In Travel Expense Manager, administrators can display the form for travel requests that have been created, for example, by travelers in the Web Dynpro ABAP-based user interface. This lets administrators reconcile approved facts with travel expense reimbursement data prior to a trip.

Enhancement of BOR Object BUS2089

The Business Object Repository object Employee Trip (BUS2089) is enhanced with additional methods that enable you to control workflows depending on the means of transportation and types of accommodations, or estimated costs. Using the workflow as an aid, approving managers can make decisions about the relevancy of "significant official interest" without having to go to a different application (public sector Germany only).

Constraints

If you use the new travel request functions, travel requests that have been created in the Web Dynpro ABAP-based user interface cannot be processed in Travel Manager (transaction TRIP).

Travel Plans

You can use the following new features in travel plans:

Combined Display of Flight and Rail Connections

You can configure flight searches so that the system also queries the available rail connections and displays these in a combined display of flight and rail connections. This improves comparisons with regards to travel expenses and travel times. When searching flights, employees can choose to do a comparison. Furthermore, you can define that certain routes require the combined display of flights and rail connections.

The combined display of flights and rail connections is supported in the fare-driven flight availability only and requires a connection to the German rail authority Deutsche Bahn (NVS).

For more information, see Customizing for Travel Management under   Travel Planning   Trip Rules and Profiles   Trip and Class Rules   Trip and Class Rules for Flights   Flight Trip Rules   Flight Availability Query Control   Define Mandatory Combined Flight/Rail Display  .

Enhancements for Flight Reservations

The following new features are available for flight reservations:

  • Grid for Displaying Fare Availability in Travel Plans

    You can configure the fare-driven flight availability so that the system displays an airfare grid above the available flight combinations. The columns of the grid show the lowest airfares per provider, and the rows show the lowest fares for nonstop flights, flights with one stopover, and flights with two or more stopovers. In the grid, users can filter the available connections by clicking the column and row headings or by clicking individual cells.

    For more information, see Customizing for Travel Management under   Travel Planning   Process Control   Dialog and Planning Control   Travel Planning Control   Define Behavior for Price and Availability Queries  .

  • Alternative Airports

    For the fare-driven flight availability, you can define alternative airports for additional queries. This can be done differently for each destination. For example, you can define Stuttgart as an alternative airport for Frankfurt for flights within Europe; or you can define Berlin as an alternative airport for overseas flights to the United States or the Asia-Pacific region.

    For more information, see Customizing for Travel Management under   Travel Planning   Trip Rules and Profiles   Trip and Class Rules   Trip and Class Rules for Flights   Flight Trip Rules   Flight Availability Query Control   Extend Query for Additional Airports  .

  • Premium Economy Class

    Some airlines have introduced a new booking class called "premium economy class," which is situated between business class and economy class. You can specify the routes and the employees for which the premium economy class should be available. Employees can then choose economy class or premium economy class when selecting flights. This does not apply to fare-driven flight availability.

    You can make the assignments for premium economy class in Customizing for Travel Management under   Travel Planning   Master Data   Travel Service Providers   Flights   Define Exceptions of Airlines for Determining Cabin Class  .

    You also can use travel profiles to assign premium authorizations. The Business Add-in (BAdI) required for this is located in Customizing for Travel Management under   Travel Planning   Trip Rules and Profiles   Travel Policy   Travel Profiles   Control and Evaluation of Availability Queries   BAdI: Assign Premium Authorization via Travel Profile  .

  • Improved Display of Airfare Rate Terms

    After a traveler successfully chooses the flight connections, the Check Selection step lists the following in summarized form:

    • Taxes/fees

    • Latest ticketing date (latest date on which the ticket must be issued)

    • Rebooking fees

    • Cancellation fees

    If you use the Amadeus reservation system with Master Pricer, the flight availability display shows the rate terms per price segment when querying best prices with price groups.

    A prerequisite for both cases is that the reservation system provides the rate terms in a format that is readable by the system.

Expense Report

You can use the following new features in expense reports:

Express Expense Sheet

This new Web Dynpro ABAP-based application simplifies the entry of expenses for employees (for example, sales representatives) who typically travel daily and settle their expenses once a month, every week, or in other, user-defined intervals. For more information, see Express Expense Sheet.

Enhancement of Expense Reports for the Public Sector of Germany

The Create Expense Report application is enhanced to accommodate the statutory and industry-specific requirements for the public sector in Germany.

The requirements for the public sector in Germany were already met in the back-end transactions, such as Travel Expense Manager (transaction PR05). All functions needed by casual users are now also available in this application. This includes the public sector requirements at federal and state levels in Germany.

The application also allows for linking trips to start work and trips to return from work with related separation allowance events.

Externally Created Bar Codes in Travel Expense Data Entry

If you use optical archiving for receipts in expense reports, you also can use bar codes that are created externally (for example, bar codes preprinted on receipt envelopes). In this case, the system prompts for the bar codes when you save an expense report, upon which the employees manually record the bar codes printed on their receipts. After the save, the system displays the recorded bar codes in the expense report under the scanned receipts.

You can set the conditions for recording bar codes through the use of a Business Add-In (BAdI). The BAdI also enables you to assign internally generated bar codes to the reference table of the optical archive so that the assignment to the expense report occurs automatically after the receipts and the bar code are scanned.

For more information, see Customizing for Travel Management under   Business Add-Ins and User Exits in Travel Management   Entry   BAdI: Processing of Bar Codes  .

Adobe PDF Forms

A new PDF form (PTRV_EES_FORM) exists for Express Expense Sheets. You can use this form to display and print for a configured time period all expense reports that have saved. New fields have been added to the existing PDF forms for travel requests, travel plans, and travel expense statements/expense reports, and these forms have been optimized. For more information, see PDF-Based Forms in Travel Management.

Integration of Event Management

The following new features support the integration of Event Management systems with Travel Management systems:

  • New Service Interface

    The Event Management system is able to use a new service interface to read the personnel master data relevant for managing participants from an SAP system - for example, the personnel master data of employees who belong to a particular cost center. For more information, see SAP Library under   Enterprise SOA   ES for SAP ERP   SAP ERP enhancement package 4 for SAP ERP 6.0   Enterprise Services for SAP ERP Financials   Travel Management   Travel Planning Arrangement  

  • New URL Parameters

    The Event Management interface of Travel Management is enhanced with a range of new URL parameters. You can use these URL parameters when calling the Web Dynpro ABAP-based applications of Travel Management for creating travel requests, travel plans, and expense reports to transfer travel data from the Event Management system. For more information, see URL Parameters for Integration with Event Management.