Learn how to activate the ABAP Web Dynpro employee self-services (ESS) application for the pay statement in both the SAP Enterprise Portal and NetWeaver Business Client (NWBC) in enhancement package 5. Beginning with enhancement package 5, SAP changed the salary statement format from Java Web Dynpro to ABAP Web Dynpro. This change applies to enhancement packages 5, 6, 7—the latest version. Learn how to implement this standard functionality using the appropriate role configuration with an example using SAP NWBC roles.
Key Concept
Using standard SAP functionality within the IMG, the salary statement can be configured to control the content that is displayed in the statement on employee self-services. Role configuration is used to control what functionality is shown to end users. Role configuration is dynamic and is assigned at the person level so that different people in your organization can see different things depending upon their level of access.
The SAP ERP HCM salary statement application is used by employees to view their salary statements. In this application, both current as well as historical pay records can be seen. The salary statement includes gross amounts, net amounts, outgoing payments, and any additional information such as personnel number and payroll area. Users have the flexibility to customize the form to show the data that is relevant to their organization. It is output as a PDF form on the employee self-services (ESS) application. By default, employees can print the salary statements from the web application or save them as PDF files.
Beginning in enhancement package 5, ERP 6.0, SAP released the Web Dynpro ABAP application for the salary statement. Prior to this there was a Java Web Dynpro application that required SAP Enterprise Portal in order to be displayed. From enhancement package 5 onward, this functionality can now also be displayed by using SAP NetWeaver Business Client (NWBC) for ESS. This opens up the possibility for more organizations to now implement this functionality because, previously, if you did not have an enterprise portal then you were not able to use ESS or manager self-services (MSS).
With this new functionality, you can now use SAP NWBC without having to go through a lengthy SAP Enterprise Portal implementation. This is especially good news for companies that do not use ESS or MSS for functionality outside of SAP ERP HCM. Not having this option could also present a deterrent to companies because the enterprise portal requires a good amount of Basis knowledge and ongoing work to support it, whereas SAP NWBC has a much smaller footprint and does not require as many technical considerations.
This enhancement also gives additional flexibility for customization because you can use Floorplan Manager Configuration as well as normal customizations for ABAP Web Dynpro via the ABAP Development Workbench (transaction code SE80).
Here I explain the standard process and SAP screens for activating salary statements and then go into the details for configuring this application.
Activating the Salary Statement
The standard application released by SAP is HRESS_A_PAYSLIP. This can be viewed in the SAP system via the Development Workbench (transaction code SE80). It consists of a single application that’s launched from within ESS. Once you launch the application in the SAP ESS website and log in to the system you should see a list of all of your payroll results, as shown in Figure 1. Basic information for payment date, gross amount, and payment (net) amount are displayed on this screen as well. The next step is to select the payroll period that you want to be displayed.

Figure 1
The standard salary statement Overview and Selection screen (shown here using SAP NWBC with the Corbu Theme)
To display the PDF version of the payroll run you want, select the results you want to be displayed and double-click. This opens the screen shown in Figure 2, which shows the PDF format of the payroll run with all the details.

Figure 2
The PDF version of the salary statement
Salary Statement Configuration
Before proceeding, you must have the SAP Enterprise Portal or SAP NWBC installed. In addition, you must have run SAP payroll and have payroll results. You can view payroll results by executing transaction PC_PAYRESULTS or within the off cycle workbench (PUOC_10 for US). The transaction PC_Payresults is used to view an individual associate’s payroll results. This allows the user to see if their organization has payroll results for a particular associate by going to this transaction. (If it is not US payroll then it would be PUOC_XX, with XX being the standard country code.)
In order to get the salary statement displayed on ESS, you first need to do some configuration to tell the system which form should be displayed on ESS. Follow IMG menu path location Personnel Management > Employee Self-Service (Web Dynpro ABAP) > Service-Specific Settings > Benefits and Payment > Salary Statement.
Here you have two options for displaying your salary statement. You can either use HR Form Editor (transaction code PE51) or HR Forms (transaction code HRFORMS). HR Forms is the new technology to do this configuration that was released by SAP after HR Form Editor. HR Forms is a different way to do the configuration, which shows your remuneration statement in the SAP system (when you look at it through the off cycle workbench PUOC_10). You can view it within the history tab or through the payroll driver under the Remuneration statement parameters. HR Forms provides more flexibility than the HR Form Editor. For example, it provides the ability to graphically configure the remuneration statement using different fonts, including logos and pictures. With HR Forms you can also define your own fields or tables filled with ABAP and include the information in your remuneration statement.
For the purposes of this article, I briefly explain the HRFORMS configuration. Follow the IMG menu path Personnel Management > Employee Self-Service (Web Dynpro ABAP) > Service-Specific Settings > Benefits and Payment > Salary Statement > Form Using HR Forms Workplace (HRFORMS) > Enter HR Form Name, which results in the screen shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3
Sample feature HRFOR
The standard feature HRFOR tells the system which form should be displayed (Figure 3). It can be customized based on different criteria, such as by country. If you want to use the HRFORMS configuration, then you directly enter the form information (ZSAP_PAYSLIP_US). If you want to use the HR Form Editor (transaction code PE51), then $CEDT$ should be specified in the feature, and then you also need to maintain feature EDTIN (to determine the report variant of RPCEDTx0 according to your criteria) and feature EDPDF (to give the value of the valid smart form.) Directly enter the form information in the feature, as shown in Figure 3.
The logic in the feature first checks the report category (C = Payroll & T = Time Management). Next it checks the country grouping. In the figure you can see that the USA (Country Grouping 10) is pointing to custom HR Form ZSAP_PAYSLIP_US. Oftentimes companies will copy the standard SAP payslip SAP_PAYSLIP_US in order to add additional details to the form or to add a company logo to the form. This requires configuration and can be done within transaction HRFORMS.
To do this, execute transaction code HRFORMS (Figure 4), copy the existing payslip using the copy icon , and change it per your requirements (e.g., adding any logos, format changes, and other information you need to pull into the form).

Figure 4
The HR Forms transaction screen
Configuration of Role
Once you have customized the salary statement as desired within the SAP system, the next step is to add the Salary Statement Application HRESS_A_PAYSLIP. (If you copied the application, then you would enter the copied application to the appropriate role.) The transaction code you use to assign the roles varies depending on which portal you use. SAP NWBC uses transaction PFCG and the Enterprise Portal version of this is LPD_CUST or Portal Roles, but either way the concept is the same. At the user level, the role controls who has access to which applications. For the purposes of this discussion I show us the appropriate role configuration for SAP NWBC.
By default, SAP delivers roles SAP_EMPLOYEE_ESS_WDA_1 and SAP_EMPLOYEE_ESS_WDA_2, both of which contain standard ESS functionality. You can either copy these roles and customize them or simply add the ESS functionality for Salary Statement to the roles. In this case, I add this functionality to the existing customized role. Execute transaction code PFCG (Figure 5), enter the Role, and click the change button to change that role or use the copy icon to copy it to a new one. This opens the screen in Figure 6.

Figure 5
Transaction code PFCG role

Figure 6
Role configuration in transaction PFCG
Enter an existing role that is in place for this ESS functionality and click the Menu button. Click the Transaction button (circled at the top of Figure 6) to add a new transaction and select the Web Dynpro Application option from the pop-up window (circled in the middle of Figure 6). In the screen that opens at the bottom of the figure, create a new transaction based on the standard salary statement using one of the roles mentioned previously. Make sure to add the correct Web Dynpro application name (in this case, HRESS_A_PAYSLIP) and Application Config (e.g., HRESS_AC_PAYSLIP). Then click the green checkmark icon (not shown) to save your changes.
By specifying the Web Dynpro application as well as the application configuration, you are telling the system which application should be called. To customize this application, you need to make a copy of it and then come back to transaction PFCG and edit the same role to point the role to your customized version. If the standard SAP application did not fit your requirements and you have to write your own code for the application, then you need to tell the system which version to use (e.g., the copied one) and not the standard SAP application.
Once these steps are completed, anyone who is assigned to this role by the security team should be able to see the Salary Statement functionality when they launch ESS.
Additional Configuration Options
In this article, I have covered the functionality of the SAP standard salary statement application, but you have two additional configuration options to expand on this standard functionality. They are:
1. You have control of the data that is shown on the salary statement via Business Add-In (BAdI) HRESS_PAYSLIP_BADI_IMPL, which can be accessed from the IMG (see menu path, below). Here you can use the guided BAdI functionality to control what is output to users.
- Personnel Management > Employee Self-Service (Web Dynpro ABAP) > Service-Specific Settings > Benefits and Payment > Salary Statement > Form Using HR Forms Workplace (HRFORMS) > BAdI: Define Settings.
2. You can set up a process model to mass print salary statements. The standard process model is SAPXXPRE which you can copy and adjust via transaction PEST or through the IMG (see menu path, below). This process model calls program RPCEDTX0.
- Personnel Management > Employee Self-Service (Web Dynpro ABAP) > Service-Specific Settings > Benefits and Payment > Salary Statement > Form Using HR Forms Workplace (HRFORMS) > Set Up Process Model for Mass Printing.

Imran Sajid
Imran Sajid is a Senior Education Consultant at SAP based in the Atlanta, GA, area. At SAP, he focuses on teaching classes in the HCM area within both SAP and SuccessFactors. Previously, Imran was a consultant who implemented and provided post-go-live support for more than a dozen different client systems spanning many industries, including manufacturing, automotive, retail, information systems, the public sector, and energy. He is the author of the book entitled, The Payroll Control Center for SAP ERP HCM and SAP SuccessFactors, as well as a frequent contributor to SAP Experts, where he has published almost a dozen articles. Imran is also frequent blogger on SAP Community Network (SCN). He graduated from the Georgia State University Robinson College of Business with a degree in Computer Information Systems. Imran can be found on Twitter @ImranSajidSAP.
You may contact the author at Imran.Sajid@sap.com.
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