Effective 31st March 2016, CRA will accept only ROE XMLs which are of Version 2.0

There are multiple changes to the new XML format, some of the changes are the following.

• Dates: the format of all dates has been changed from DDMMYYYY to the ISO 8601 format (YYYY-MM-DD).

• Employee’s Postal Code (B9 – PC): this tag is contained within the Employee’s Information(B9) and reports the employee’s postal code, which is no longer reported in the Employee’s Address Line 3 (A3).

• Total Insurable Earnings (B15B): this box is no longer being reported. CRA calculates this amount based on the data provided in other tags.

• Reason for Issuing this ROE– Separation Code (B16 – CD): a new field has been introduced in the Reason code for issuing a ROE

The details for this can be found in SAP Note : 2206524

Some of the other related notes are ;

2211595 – ROE: dictionary objects for SAP note 2206524

2220338 – ROE: Technical changes required for ROE 2.0

If you're following the discussion on technical and functional configuration in Affordable Care Act (ACA) (also known as "Play or Pay"), you'll notice that a number of organizations seem to be having difficulties getting the latest ACA Notes applied to their systems. It's true that there is a careful order in which the Notes must be applied, and a number of manual steps which must be carefully followed, but they can be applied cleanly. You can get this right the first time. Here is how I did it. Hopefully you will find this a useful reference to guide you through the muddy waters.

Note that I'm not talking about the various configuration steps in the user guide, etc -- I'm Basis, not the Benefits Analyst! But as far as getting the Notes in cleanly so the Benefits Analyst has a good base to start from, here you go.

1. With SPAM, apply HRSP 92 (SAP_HR 604.92 and EA-HR 604.92). You're going to need this HRSP for Year-End Legal Changes for Tax Reporter anyway, so go for it. Note that I did this along with Support Stack 17 in our ERP 6.04 / NW 7.01 system. I also updated the kernel to 7.21_EXT pl600.
   
   
2. In SNOTE, download Notes 2222144, 2211233, 2230800, and 2211234 (1st and 2nd ACA Updates and their associated UDO Notes). Note that you will not be implementing these Notes in numerical order.
   
   
3. With SNOTE, apply Note 2222144 (BEN: UDO Note - Affordable Care Act (ACA) - 1st SAP ACA Update) (version 2) in the normal fashion. This creates the program for the next step. Save this to a new transport request.
   
   
4. In SE38, execute RPU_BENUS_UDO_NOTE_2222144. Run it in Test mode first and ensure that all lights are green (except the one yellow stating it's a test run). Then run it in Update & Activate mode. Online activation is fine. Save the changes to the same transport as step 3.
   
   
5. In SNOTE, apply Note 2211233 (BEN: Affordable Care Act (ACA) - 1st SAP ACA Update) (version 6) in the normal fashion. Use the same transport to save the new and changed objects.
   
   
6. Read the post-implementation manual instructions in the PDF attached to Note 2211233.
   1. Download ACA_Files.zip that is attached to Note 2211233 and extract three form XML files from it to a temporary location on your workstation.
   2. In transaction SFP, locate and change form HRBENUS_1095C_2015. Go to Utilities... Uploading form... and find the file SFPF_HRBENUS_1095C_2015.XML that you extracted and upload it. Save the form; use the same transport request. Activate the form.
   3. Repeat step 2 for forms HRBENUS_1095B_2015 and HRBENUS_1094C_2015.
   4. Note: these forms already exist in your system. You are uploading new versions. I recommend searching for the form names vs typing them in to ensure no mistakes.
      
      
7. In SNOTE, apply Note 2230800 (BEN: UDO Note - Affordable Care Act (ACA) - 2nd SAP ACA Update) (version 5) in the normal fashion. This creates the program for the next step. Use the same transport request.
   
   
8. In SE38, execute RPU_BENUS_UDO_NOTE_2230800. Just like the previous one, run it in Test mode first and ensure all the green lights (except the test mode warning), then run it in Update & Activate mode. There will be a few screens to confirm things, but it should be pretty obvious what you're doing. Save changes to the same transport request.
   
   
9. In SNOTE, apply Note 2211234 (BEN: Affordable Care Act (ACA) - 2nd SAP ACA Update) (version 7) in the normal fashion, saving everything to the same transport request.
   
   
10. Read the post-implementation manual instructions in the PDF attached to Note 2211234.
    1. In SM30, change view V_T5F99K0, hit New Entries, and create an entry as shown in the PDF. Save your changes to a new transport (because this is client-specific and needs a customizing transport, whereas everything up to now has been in a workbench transport).
    2. Change view V_T5F99K1, hit New Entries, and create the two entries as shown in the PDF. Note that you should be able to use the search help to find Option ACAOF after creating the entry in the previous substep, so the order is important here. Save your changes to the customizing transport you created in the previous step.
       
       
11. You're done! Now turn it over to your functional benefits analyst/configurator and point him/her to the instructions and FAQs in Notes:
    1. 1910650: BEN: FAQ about Affordable Care Act (PPACA)
    2. 2060131: Announcement Note for Information Reporting for Employer Sponsored Coverage and Minimum Essential Coverage
       1. This is the one with the attached User Guide.
    3. 2167502: BEN: Main Note - Affordable Care Act (ACA)
       1. Overview of the features, views, programs, etc
    4. 2219762: BEN: Affordable Care Act (ACA) - Frequently Asked Questions

One final note: all of the above Notes are supposed to be included in HRSP 93, so if you can wait....

No doubt by now you've seen some announcements regarding the end of support for the "classic" RFC Library and how this impacts BSI TaxFactory. As a BSI customer, you probably received an email from BSI Support about this. Either way, if you haven't already, I encourage you to have a look at Note 2219445 (BSI TaxFactory wrapper code redesign - old RFC Library going out of maintenance).

You've probably also seen some discussions around the subject of just how to obtain and install or upgrade this new RFC Library, and if you're like me, perhaps even been a little confused as to just what you need to do.

Take heart! It's not that difficult. At the core of it, this is just another Cyclic Update, with only a couple easy extra steps. The basic process for applying a Cyclic Update has not changed from the procedure I described in BSI TaxFactory 10 Cyclic Update. Here I'll just go over the few extra steps.

Remember the deadline for maintaining support: 31 March 2016. So plan on getting this through your DEV and QAS track and into production before that date.

Prerequisite SAP Note

Before you update TaxFactory to Cyclic J, it is necessary to apply Note 2242290 (BSI: Changes for Cyclic J of BSI TaxFactory 10.0) to your ECC system. This is due to some changes in the structure of the data that TaxFactory sends back to ECC once this Cyclic is applied. Note, it's perfectly fine to apply this Note at any time before you apply the Cyclic, as it is backwards-compatible with earlier Cyclics.

Apply the Cyclic

Now apply Cyclic J to your TaxFactory system using the same standard procedure outlined in BSI TaxFactory 10 Cyclic Update. Only a few items are different from the update to Cyclic F described in that blog.

TF10 Client

During the TF10j client update, you may notice the message:

Querying Tomcat7-PRD failed (0). Waiting...

Do not be alarmed! This is normal. What is happening here is that the installer is stopping the Tomcat service and is querying to determine when it has stopped before going on to delete files. The query "fails" until it detects a successful stop, which may take a moment or two. Once the service stops, the query succeeds and the installer proceeds. Otherwise, this part is the same as previous TF10 client cyclic updates.

TF10 Server

Again, this process is mostly the same, but here there is one additional step to take. Also, you might find it necessary to shutdown the SAP Gateway (via SAPMMC) before copying the new executables into the working folder, as the gateway process may hold a lock on the tf10server.exe file.

You will notice two new files that didn't exist in prior cyclics: tf10server_new.exe and tf10serverdebug_new.exe. These are the versions that use the new NetWeaver RFC Library. By default, BSI is providing them as optional files, while the default files still use the Classic RFC Library -- the one that is being deprecated.

However, we don't want to use the old library, we want the new one, so the procedure is to rename the files:

1. Rename tf10server.exe and tf10serverdebug.exe to tf10server_old.exe and tf10serverdebug_old.exe, respectively.
2. Rename tf10server_new.exe and tf10serverdebug_new.exe to tf10server.exe and tf10serverdebug.exe, respectively.

Cyclic Data File

Don't forget, to launch the new client in your browser, you must edit your favorite or shortcut URL. The new URL will look something like this:

http://<TFhost>.<domain>.com:8091/eTF10j/PRD

Notice the part in bold, where the letter indicator of the Cyclic is included. That's the part you must change.

Load the cyclic data file as you would normally. You will notice a new feature in the client for monitoring the manual load status, which is a nice addition.

New RFC Library

Here comes the fun part. At this point, nothing works. Well, ok the TF client works, but you don't have any working communication between ECC and TaxFactory, and not just because you haven't restarted your Gateway yet. If you're like me, you probably assumed that your fancy 7.42 Gateway would have the new RFC functions embedded. Nope. Then you might assume that you can use the 7.42 version of sapnwrfc.dll, etc. Maybe, but I had a devil of a time trying to make that work.

You might assume the readme.txt that came with the new Cyclic J server executables would have detailed installation instructions. Not really. It just says to put the new libraries in the directory where tf10server.exe is running, but doesn't say which libraries. Note 1025361 (Installation, Support and Availability of the SAP NetWeaver RFC Library), which everything points to, does give some hints, but it isn't very explicit in its instructions. Indeed, as it kept pointing to a 7.20 version of the RFC Library, not to mention a full SDK, and it seemed that a 7.42 version was available, I figured the Note must be out of date.

I spent more than a day or two trying to make it work with a 7.42 version of sapnwrfc.dll, fruitlessly.

There might indeed be a way to make the 7.42 dlls work, but for our purposes here you do in fact require the 7.20 version mentioned in the Note.

Download the RFC Library

To obtain the correct library, open up Support Packages and Patches | SAP Support Portal, and under Software Downloads... Support Packages and Patches select Browse Download Catalog. Navigate to Additional Components... SAP NW RFC SDK... SAP NW RFC SDK 7.20... <server OS platform, e.g. "Windows on x64 64bit"> and select the latest patch level of the NetWeaver RFC Library (at this writing, it is patch 38 published on 11/13/2015). Download the file and unpack it with SAPCAR as you normally would.

Install the RFC Library

The installation is simple. You simply copy the appropriate files to the appropriate folder. To find the files you need, drill into the folder you unpacked to \nwrfcsdk\lib and copy all the files you find there.

Paste these copied files into your working TaxFactory server folder (e.g. \BSI\TaxFactory\server), where your tf10server.exe executable resides.

That's pretty much it!

You can restart your Gateway via SAPMMC now.

Test and Sync

Time to test that it works. A connection test to BSI10-US-TAX via SM59 should be successful. Good old RPUBTCU0 via SA38 should be successful. And HRPAYUS_SYNC_TAX_DT should correctly report the new Cyclic and appropriate Regulatory update for Level in BSI Client.

However, you still don't have Cyclic J in your ECC system. For that you'll need to run a sync, even if your Regulatory levels already match. And, as usual after a sync in DEV, you'll need to create both cross-client and client-specific transports to migrate the new status to QAS and PRD.