With SAP Employee Self-Service (SAP ESS), employees can access SAP Travel Management and Cross-Application Time Sheet (CATS) via SAP NetWeaver Portal. New advances in mobile technology bring enhanced convenience. Did you know that SAP Human Capital Management (HCM) users can now track their time and travel expenses from any laptop, any time, even without a network connection?

SAP Mobile Timesheet (MTS) and SAP Mobile Travel Expenses (MTR), offered as the SAP Mobile Time and Travel (SAP MTT) bundle, extends SAP NetWeaver Mobile functionality to provide improvements for SAP HCM users. In this article, we’ll examine the enhanced features SAP MTS and SAP MTR offer, dissect the technical landscape and its requirements, and share lessons learned from our recent implementation of SAP MTS and MTR. You can use the information in this article to evaluate how mobile technology could streamline your time and travel records.

Functional Overview

If you know the ESS scenarios in SAP NetWeaver Portal, the mobile user interfaces (UIs) should look familiar. Figure 1 illustrates the SAP MTS UI and Figure 2 depicts the SAP MTR UI. The mobile applications have the same UI as SAP NetWeaver Portal with only a few minor differences:

Figure 1

SAP MTS UI

Figure 2

SAP MTR UI

• For travel management, the ESS scenario allows users to create travel plans and travel requests. SAP MTR only offers the ability to view and create expense reports from these travel plans or requests.
  
  
• After you create a trip online, you can view a summary of your trip with the actual costs (i.e., per diem reimbursement). However, if you view it offline, you can only review estimates because it doesn’t contain all the necessary information for actual cost calculations.
  
  
• For time management, the ESS scenario allows you to create leave requests, display time statements in PDF format, and display your worklist online — services that aren’t available offline
  
  
• For performance purposes, SAP MTS only synchronizes time entries of the last 100 days, so the amount of historical data that is available offline is limited. ESS can access the same amount of time entries as the standard CATS application because it is constantly connected to the SAP back end.

SAP MTS and SAP MTR are packaged together in a bundle called SAP MTT, which you can roll out jointly or individually. The SAP MTT applications reside on a local client running on a laptop-based device and can synchronize with the SAP back end when a network connection is established.

Both SAP MTS and SAP MTR applications are built on SAP NetWeaver Mobile, which provides users offline access to data related to the back end via a local client and a data synchronization mechanism. The synchronization mechanism allows applications to update the back end and vice versa. SAP NetWeaver Mobile is discussed with more detail in the subsequent sections of this article.

The SAP MTT applications were designed to look and behave just like their ESS counterpart, which allows users to become comfortable with them and to feel as if they are using the same application — whether online or offline. This inherently reduces end-user training efforts and streamlines time and travel processes for users. Next, we’ll explain the core functionalities of SAP MTS and SAP MTR.

SAP MTS Functionality

SAP MTS enables employees in an organization to record their working times on laptops, anywhere at any time. A network connection is not required for time recording. This option primarily benefits employees who must travel frequently and don’t always have a connection to their corporate network.

Users can employ an intuitive, simple UI that looks and behaves like an ESS UI to record their working times. After they record and save their time entries in SAP MTS, they can then transfer them to their SAP system when they have access to a network connection.

Users can update the recorded working times with their SAP system when they have a network connection — also known as synchronization — at home or in the office. As soon as these working times are transferred to the back end, the records are processed in the same way as any other records entered using any other time sheet UI. SAP MTS replicates the same business logic as SAP CATS; therefore, most checks and validations are performed when working offline.

The user’s CATS profile is sent to the mobile client with the initial synchronization, thus ensuring that the customizing settings (such as the employee profile, field selection, clock times, and release of time entries), are available offline.

SAP MTS offers the following functionalities:

• The ability to change or delete data records that were entered either online or offline
  
  
• Users can trigger synchronization 
  
  
• Automatic transfer of changes in customizing and master data in the back end to SAP MTS
  
  
• An F4 Help is available to select working time attributes. Users can also manually enter new time attributes if they are not yet available through the F4 help.
  
  
• Detailed views of time entries are accessible for all data records
  
  
• You can release time entries by either selecting individual entries or all time entries at once
  
  
• Cut, copy, and paste functionality is available for all data records
  
  
• Capability to download and use more than one field selection in SAP MTS, assuming you already configured them in the back-end customizing
  
  
• Group entry is possible so that an administrator can enter time for other employees
  
  
• The data entry period is customizable and users can define the start and end dates
  
  
• The option to sort a time sheet based on any working time attributes
  
  
• Template functionality supports old templates and users can create or delete templates
  
  
• If you need to book a cost object to a project rather than a cost center, you can integrate SAP MTS with cProjects
  
  
• SAP MTS uses the Mobile Composite Application Framework (mCAF) enhancement concept to easily integrate customer-specific enhancements. For more details on mCAF, refer to the “Enhancements” section of this article.

SAP MTR Functionality

Similarly to SAP MTS, SAP MTR allows employees to capture their travel expenses in a disconnected mode and send the data to the back-end system once a connection is established, also known as synchronization. In both SAP MTS and MTR, the back-end application logic is mirrored with the offline application because the business logic from the back end was recoded for the mobile device. You can access recorded SAP MTR data in the back end as soon as the synchronization is over. Depending on the amount of data you are loading, the synchronization takes between 30 seconds and five minutes to complete. SAP MTR allows users to choose which trips should be synchronized, which is useful if some incomplete expense reports were created offline and are not ready to be sent to the back end yet.

SAP MTR offers the following functionality:

• At trip level, you can enter the general data, additional destinations, mileage, and advances
  
  
• Any amount of receipts can be attached to a trip
  
  
• Additional destinations can be linked to a receipt
  
  
• Receipt itemization is available, very similar to the ESS itemization wizard
  
  
• Synchronization is triggered by the user
  
  
• Any trips can be changed or deleted after their creation, whether they were created online or offline
  
  
• Report simulation is possible for any trip although an initial network connection is required to get the report. After the report is downloaded you have access to it offline.
  
  
• Travel requests and travel plans can be displayed
  
  
• Expense reports can be created from any travel request or travel plan
  
  
• SAP MTR automatically downloads credit cards, which you can assign to any expense report
  
  
• F4 help is available for cost assignment objects
  
  
• Cost assignment at receipt level can either be percentage or absolute values
  
  
• 90-days rule compliant (90-days rule is a legal requirement for taxation in Germany but can also be used in other countries. If a traveler is going to a customer at the same address for more than 90 days in the same fiscal year, this is no longer considered a business trip with tax free reimbursement of per diems).
  
  
• The mCAF enhancement concept is used to easily integrate customer-specific enhancements

When you create a trip offline, you can view a rough estimate of the reimbursement amount. This is just an estimate, however, because SAP ERP calculates the actual amount in the back end after the synchronization completes. After the trip is synchronized, the actual reimbursement amount is available to SAP MTR and its users.

As in SAP MTS, the checks SAP MTR performs are not as extensive as the checks of other Travel Management UIs, which are constantly linked to the SAP back end. If any error messages appear during synchronization, SAP ERP sends the erroneous trips to SAP MTR with all relevant error messages so the user can fix the errors before submitting the trip again. In the event that a trip was changed offline and online at the same time, a conflict resolution screen appears in SAP MTR, which allows the users to see both expense reports simultaneously and determine which report should be recorded. 

SAP MTT Landscape

SAP MTT uses SAP NetWeaver Mobile 7.0, which is a mobile framework that allows you to create mobile offline applications that work without connection to your corporate local area network (LAN). SAP NetWeaver Mobile 7.0 is compatible with both Microsoft Windows Mobile and Win32 (a combination of Windows XP and Vista) devices. A mobile application based on SAP NetWeaver Mobile 7.0 consists of three main components:

• Mobile client
  
  
• Middleware
  
  
• Back end

In the following sections, we delve into each layer that composes the SAP MTT landscape.

The Client Component

The mobile client part is based on Java so it requires a Java Runtime Environment (JRE) installation. For laptops this is JRE 1.4 or 5.0 from Sun Microsystems. The SAP NetWeaver Mobile client offers many services that are helpful for applications such as data storage, configuration, security, and synchronization.

It is possible to install one or more applications on the Mobile client, which multiple users can employ. In addition to SAP MTT, SAP offers other mobile solutions that include Mobile Management and Mobile Sales for Handheld. Figure 3 shows the architecture of the client installation.

Figure 3

The laptop components of the client installation

The Middleware Component

The SAP NetWeaver Mobile middleware is part of the SAP NetWeaver Application Server (SAP NetWeaver AS), which contains functionality for synchronizing data, deploying applications to mobile devices, and accessing the back- end system. It also contains tools for monitoring and administrating your mobile landscape.

It’s important to keep in mind that there is no business logic on the middleware. You use it only for communication between the back-end system and the Mobile client.

The Back-End Component

The SAP MTT back end consists of function modules that the middleware calls, in turn delivering the data to the middleware server. Even though we are focusing on a mobile application in this article, it’s important to realize that the core of the solution is still in the CATS and Travel Management applications and the business logic resides in SAP ERP. The back end can function as a standalone, but the mobile functionality requires a back end. Figure 4 shows an overview of the SAP NetWeaver Mobile landscape.

Figure 4

The SAP NetWeaver Mobile landscape

Customer Enhancements

SAP MTT is based on the mCAF enhancement concept. mCAF is a client-side framework SAP developed that is based on the Model View Controller (MVC) paradigm. It allows you to change the SAP MTT business logic, the workflow, and the UI to meet an organization’s requirements. Figure 5 displays an example of a solution that is built on an SAP MTT foundation. For an introduction to mCAF, read the SDN blog by Karsten Strothmann at www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdn/weblogs? blog=/pub/wlg/5254.

Figure 5

Custom functionality containing a new UI built on top of SAP MTT with the mCAF enhancement concept

If you follow the mCAF concept, you can accomplish all enhancements without modifying any standard files. You can instead create enhancements by writing Java code and creating mCAF-specific XML files. This guarantees that SAP systems can fully support your enhancements.

Top 4 Lessons Learned

During our recent SAP MTT project, we learned a number of key lessons:

Adapt the Workflow: The guided procedures are a great support for casual users, but they do not meet the requirement of power users who enter trips and working time on a daily basis. Here we recommend changing the workflow of the application. For example, replace the guided procedures with tabs to allow a faster business process.

Take advantage of user exits: The performance of the application decreases with a high amount of trips and time entries. To alleviate unfavorable performance, we recommend employing the existing user exits (i.e. MYCATXX) on the back end to limit the downloaded data. This task speeds up the UI and improves the speed of the synchronization process.

Roll out slowly: If you have a large organization, instead of a big-bang approach in which all users go live at the same time, roll out the mobile project department by department, group by group, and so on.

Use transaction PR01 for SAP MTR customizing: Even though SAP MTR uses transaction PR05 (Travel Expense Manager) to create the trips in the back end during synchronization, SAP MTR uses the customizing settings, such as field selection, of transaction PR01. You must customize the field selection in transaction PR01. All other customizing settings (e.g., expense types and trip schemas) affect both PR01 and PR05, so you only need to set them once. This is especially important to remember when applying the customizing settings for the offline application, which you can perform by following IMG menu path Financial Accounting>Travel Management>Travel Expenses.

Alexander Ilg

Alexander Ilg first came into contact with mobile software in 1997 when he implemented a mobile software solution for DaimlerChrysler. He has worked with SAP’s mobile software since 2002 and has been involved in numerous mobile projects, bringing more than 100,000 mobile users live. Alexander was part of the team that implemented the SAP NetWeaver Mobile Time and Travel and Mobile Asset Management solutions. In 2006, he founded msc mobile ltd., which focuses on implementing easy-to-use mobile solutions.

You may contact the author at alexander.ilg@msc-mobile.com.

If you have comments about this article or publication, or would like to submit an article idea, please contact the editor.

Marc Antoine Forand

Marc Antoine Forand is a SAP Mobile expert at msc mobile Canada Inc. He worked at the SAP Labs Canada as a software developer within the mobile group for 5 years before joining msc mobile in 2007. During his stay at SAP, he was involved in the development of SAP Mobile Time and Travel 2.0 and SAP MSA Online, for which he led the development. After joining msc mobile he became solution architect for MTL, a mobile timesheet solution aimed at the legal and professional services and is involved in the implementation of custom mobile solutions.

You may contact the author at marc.antoine.forand@msc-mobile.com.

If you have comments about this article or publication, or would like to submit an article idea, please contact the editor.