Dear All,

Hope you are doing fine.

We are excited to share news about the Best Practices package for Time Management 1H 2026 via the upgrade center. We have some new features (new country localization for Time Off) along with enhancements for existing countries.

Disclaimer: Please note these features are currently available only on preview. The final version will be updated on RTC or production date for 1H 2026.

But before starting, let us share how you can find our Best Practices packages. In the Upgrade Center, filter for SAP Best Practices, and observe that the packages are listed under Recommended Upgrades:

 

Qatar Time Off Localization

We now provide localized configuration for Qatar (QAT) Time Off. By applying the country-specific configuration block, you will get sample configuration for various leave types (like, for example, Annual Leave, Hajj Leave, Mahram Leave, Military Service), time account types, accruals and take rules, time profile, etc.

Some key points:

Military Service

Military Service is one of the most technically complex leave types in the Qatar localization. The pre-delivered take rule enforces several layers of validation automatically:

• Age check 
• Education level check
• One-time usage 
• Duration validation based on education level 

A filter rule ensures that this leave type is visible based on gender and nationality.

Let’s have some brief examples for Military Service:

• If a male employee's age is outside the allowed range for this leave type:

 , an appropriate error message appears: 

 

• If the education level field isn't filled, an appropriate error message appears:

• If the duration doesn't match the education level, an appropriate error message appears:

Annual Leave

The Annual Leave accrual rule is designed to handle the full employee lifecycle — from hire to termination — including seniority changes along the way.

• Hiring year – Employees accrue 1.75 days per full month of service. If the hire date falls mid-month, a prorated amount is calculated based on the number of days worked in that month.
• Subsequent years – Employees accrue:
• 21 days per year if they have completed less than 5 years of service
• 28 days per year if they have completed 5 or more years of service
• Termination year – Employees accrue either 1.75 days/month (below 5 years) or 2.33 days/month (5+ years) for each full month worked. Mid-month terminations are prorated accordingly.

The accrual rule also accounts for changes in seniority during the year and for terminations that occur in the same year the seniority changes.

 

For all the details — including the full list of time types, all take and validation rules, the public holiday calendar, and the time profile configuration — please refer to the workbook available on the SAP Help Portal. You can also download it directly from the Upgrade Center.

And don’t hesitate to deploy the Qatar Time Off Best Practices package directly into your instance via the Upgrade Center to benefit from a quick, accelerated implementation.

Australia Time Off Enhancements

We are thrilled to introduce Long Service Leave (LSL) in Weeks for Australia. Long Service Leave is one of Australia’s most distinctive employment entitlements — a recognition of an employee’s loyalty and long-term commitment to their employer.

Long Service Leave in weeks is a legal requirement for Australia.

Administering LSL accurately is a challenge because each state and territory operates under its own legislation, with differing accrual rates and qualifying periods.

In this release, we deliver LSL in weeks for the following three states/territories: New South Wales (NSW), South Australia (SA), and Northern Territory (NT).

💡: For the remaining Australian states and territories, LSL in weeks will be delivered in the next release (2H 2026). Stay tuned!

The foundation of our LSL in weeks delivery is a set of dedicated Time Account Types, Time Types, and Time Profiles — one set per jurisdiction. This means NSW, SA, and NT each have their own:

• Time Account Type — configured with weeks as the unit of measurement
• Time Type — specific to the state’s LSL entitlement
• Time Profile — ensuring the correct configuration is applied to employees based on their work location

Some absences don’t break the continuous service but don’t count as service. This means employees need to work for a longer period of time to reach a milestone for long service leave entitlement to ‘make up’ for the time which doesn’t count as service. Therefore, the date when the accruals are transferred as entitlements needs to be pushed. To translate this into software, the effectOnTransferDateRule field of Time Account Type object and the notToCountAsTimeInService field of Time Type object have been enabled.

For example, if an employee in South Australia goes on maternity leave, the transfer date is pushed accordingly:

• Initial transfer date: January 1st, 2036

• the employee goes on a 14 days maternity leave
  (💡: The example doesn't reflect the actual maternity leave period the employee would take.)

• for the days the employee is on maternity leave, no amount is accrued, and the transfer date is pushed to January 15th, 2036:

.

When requesting long service leave, the deduction quantity displays in weeks:

In some states, public holidays and weekends count as part of the requested long service leave. These days don’t extend the leave period, meaning, no extra days are added to the leave. The time type for long service leave in weeks for these states is defined to consider this.

For more details on these enhancements, please have a look at our workbook available on the SAP help portal; you can also download it from the upgrade center to review the content.

And don’t hesitate to use the updated Australia Time Off Best Practices package by deploying the content using Upgrade Center (follow the same approach as for Qatar listed above).

 

Automatic Recalculation for Changes in Holiday Calendar

In the Time Management Configuration object instance TIME_CONFIGURATION, the Automatic Recalculation after Holiday Calendar Changes field is set to Yes. With this setting, each change within the Holiday Calendar object triggers a recalculation of all time data for all employees with this holiday calendar assigned.

This update is available in the SAP Best Practices Employee Central Time Off Setup.

 

Germany Time Tracking Enhancement –> On-Call Duty

Based on the feedback and help received from our professional service consultant colleagues, we introduce with 1H 2026 major enhancements to Time Tracking for Germany. A key improvement is the configuration of On-Call Duty, which provides a structured approach for employees to record their on-call time. This configuration clearly defines various scenarios in which employees can log on-call activities, ensuring accurate and consistent recording across different use cases.

The solution also explains how On-Call Duty (OCD) and Active Work Hours (OCW) are configured and tested. In addition, our approach divides the workday into clearly defined segments. In countries like Germany, both the segmentation and the corresponding time records filter are determined based on local requirements.

For each segment, relevant time recordings are collected according to the applicable time types. The resulting durations are then aggregated and assigned to their respective pay types.

While this method may occasionally result in some redundant time valuations, it offers a transparent and maintainable configuration framework. It also allows for efficient adjustments and simplifies ongoing system support.

To maintain this simplicity, each time valuation typically uses a single time type group. Including both “below” and “above” groups within the same valuation would significantly increase complexity and reduce maintainability.

Here are the key terms used:

• OCD: On-Call Duty (Rufbereitschaft) — Employee on standby, not actively working
• OCW: Active Work Hours — Employee is called in and actively working during standby
• CD / ND: Current Day / Next Day
• PH / HPH / Half PH / NPH: Various types of (High) Public Holidays or normal days
• TOIL: Time Off in Lieu (time off instead of cash)
• stfr. / stpfl.: Tax-free / taxable surcharge
• WT0020: Base hourly rate (always paid with a surcharge)

How pay is calculated:

Every OCW payment consists of two components:

TOTAL PAY = Base Hourly Rate (WT0020) + Surcharge Wage Type (%)

Example:

– Employee works Monday night 01:00–03:00

– Receives WT0020 (base pay)

– Receives Wage Type 2519 (100% surcharge, 40% tax-free)

Managing time valuation—especially in complex regulatory environments like Germany—requires a balance between accuracy, flexibility, and maintainability. A well-structured configuration can make all the difference in ensuring payroll correctness while keeping the system easy to manage.

• Segmenting the Workday
  Our approach begins by dividing the workday into clearly defined time segments. These segments are aligned with business rules, legal requirements, and operational needs.
  For example, a typical weekday might be split into:
  • Early hours (e.g., 00:00 – 04:00)
  • Standard working hours (e.g., 06:00 – 18:00)
  • Evening or night hours (e.g., post-20:00)

Each segment represents a specific valuation window where different rules may apply.

• Using Time Records Filters
  Time records filters play a crucial role in identifying which entries belong to which segment. These filters consider multiple dimensions such as:
  • Workday vs. non-working day
  • Shift classification
  • Day of the week
  • Holiday categories (previous, current, next day)
• Mapping Time Types to Pay Types
  Within each segment, relevant time recordings are collected based on defined time types. These are then:
  • Aggregated into durations
  • Mapped to corresponding pay types

For instance:
– Standard hours → Base pay (e.g., Stundenlohn)
– Night hours → 100% surcharge
– Sunday work → 150% surcharge
– Public holidays → Enhanced premium rates

This mapping ensures that employees are compensated correctly based on when the work occurs.

Handling Surcharges and Complex Scenarios

The configuration supports layered pay logic such as:

• Multiple surcharge tiers (100%, 150%, etc.)
• Conditional application (e.g., only for certain days like Sunday or public holidays)
• Special handling for cross-day segments (e.g., night shifts spanning midnight)
• Although this can introduce some redundancy in time valuations, it provides clarity and traceability.

 

Now let’s look at an example. The employee has on-call duty from evening till next day morning:

and records hours worked as follows:

In the summary section of the time sheet, we see details of the remuneration the employee will get:

You can follow the calculation by checking the workbook with the detailed timeframes and corresponding valuations, see below a small excerpt of this workbook::

For more details on these enhancements, please have a look at our workbook available on the SAP help portal; you can also download it from the upgrade center to review the content.

And don’t hesitate to use the updated Germany Time Tracking Best Practices package by deploying the content using Upgrade.

These best practices add significant value in terms of accelerating your implementations and we hope to see more adoption from you (partners) in the coming days.

If you have feedback, please do leave a comment below.

Thank you for your attention.

Best regards,

Monica and Mohan