The A1 application is a mandatory certificate of posting for employment in European companies other than Germany aimed at curbing illegal work in Europe. The application confirms that the worker is covered by social insurance in their home country.
If the worker cannot present this document, they are subject to penalties.
A1 Applications – Now part of the routine
Strict application deadlines, often overburdened HR departments and ultimately the employees themselves who have to submit the information or A1 application to the right office — all of these things create obstacles for many companies in trying to meet this reporting requirement.
The same is also true for customers who for the same reasons need to automate the A1 reporting process and who are also using the travel cost tool SAP Concur.
The Concur Request* Module, which is normally used for the submission of travel applications before a business trip, provides a good starting point. This travel application therefore should include all of the travel data that is relevant for an A1 application.
(*With Concur Request, the employee making the trip can send travel applications in digital form, and here also you can create specific approval workflows or travel guidelines, etc.)
A1 Applications – the right Concur configuration
At a recent client workshop, client representatives joined our Concur and IT specialists to discuss a range of technical and content questions, as well as implementation capabilities, such as: What information absolutely needs to be in the A1 Application? Is there already a need for this information in the existing Concur configuration? How should the application be sent and what does that require? Among the things that came out of the discussion was a joint requirements catalog, together with the associated work packets.
A number of modifications and additions were made to the SAP Concur system, such as the addition of specific fields and rules on the user interface of the travel application, such as the required statement that the trip destination is outside the country. Next, the developers were responsible for sending the travel data from the SAP Concur system on to the SAP HCM/ECC system in the required format so that the A1 application can be submitted automatically from there. For this purpose infotypes in personnel administration were used, from which the A1 applications could then be generated and sent as emails.
Automated A1 applications with SAP Concur – What you need to know
Other technical requirements for successful implementation included the following items in particular:
- Licenses for the use of Concur CPI (Native Integration) and SAP Concur Web Services (access to request data)
- Developer access to the SAP ECC system (if contracting with Nagarro)
- Implementation of transmission and confirmation of A1 applications from infotypes
- SAP Connect (email transmission from the ECC)
Are you interested in a solution like this?
Do you have a pile of A1 applications on your desk and need a lean, automated and digital process to handle it?
Then give us a call. We will be happy to assist you.
