HR Authorization Fields

This post talks about various SAP HR authorization fields. A good understanding of these fields is strongly recommended for understanding HR authorization objects.

As we have discussed earlier in Authorization section, authorizations are grouped into authorization classes. Human Resource i.e. HR is also one of the authorization classes. Various HR authorization objects fall under the class HR. We would be discussing some of the basic HR authorization objects which are used during HR General Authorization Checks in our next post. Our main focus in this post will be to understand SAP HR authorization fields which as is very necessary for understanding HR authorization objects.

As already discussed, General authorizations are given to users via assignment of roles. Roles in turn, are created using PFCG tcode. Roles contain authorization objects and authorization objects contain authorization fields.


Before we move to discuss the various HR authorization objects, lets have a look at some of the basic HR authorization fields which we would be encountering during our discussion about authorization objects.

Some of the basic HR Authorization Fields

Lets discuss the above mentioned HR authorization fields:

AUTHC (Authorization Level): The AUTHC field defines the access mode of the authorization. Various Authorization Levels are:

• R (Read) : This gives “Read” access.
• W Write) : This gives “Write” access.
• M (Matchcode) : This gives “Read” access using F4 help.
• S (Symmetrical) : This gives “Write” access using Symmetric Double Verification Principle. (We will discuss about the Symmetrical Double Verification Principle later)
• E (Enqueue) and D (Dequeue) : These give “Write” Access using Asymmetrical Double Verification Principle. (We will be discussing more about Double Verification Principle in the next topic).

PERSA (Personnel Area): Personnel Area can be defined as an organizational unit that represents specific area of a company. It comes under Personnel Administration and is identified by four alphanumeric characters. E.g. Suppose there is a company code 1000 and within this company code there are four Zones (Personnel Areas), each for a city – ZON1 for Delhi, ZON2 for Mumbai, ZON3 for Kolkata and ZON4 for Bangalore.

Configuration location of Personnel Area : SPRO -> Enterprise Structure -> Definition -> Human Resource Management -> Personnel Areas

BTRTL (Personnel SubArea): Personnel Area is further subdivided into Personnel SubAreas. A Personnel SubArea is identified by four alphanumeric characters. E.g. If Company locations (Zones) are Personnel Areas, then the various departments like HR (HR01), Finance (FIN1) etc can be Personnel SubAreas.

PERSG (Employee Groups): Employees can be divided into groups using Employee Groups based on their relationship to the company. E.g. Employees can be divided into Active employees or retired employees.

PERSK (Employee Subgroups): Employee Groups can be further subdivided into Employee Subgroups. E.g. Employee Group “Active” can be further subdivided into Trainees or Pay scale employees etc.

VDSK1 (Organizational Key): Before we understand VDSK1 (Organizational Key), lets understand a very important point i.e. An Organizational Key (VDSK1) is NOT an Organizational Unit. In standard SAP System, an Organizational Key is a combination of the personnel area and the cost center to which an employee is assigned. It is a 14-character field in infotype 0001 (Organizational Assignment) – the first four characters contain the personnel area and the next ten contain the cost center. The Infotype 0001 (Organizational Assignment) has time-dependent specifications. So, the authorization exist only for certain time intervals which is dependent on user’s authorization.

Other HR Authorization fields like SACHA (Payroll Administrator) – 3 characters field, SACHP (Administrator for HR Master Data) – 3 character field, SACHZ (Administrator for Time Recording) – 3 character field and SBMOD (Display HR Master Data) – 4 character field are also filled from Organizational Assignment Infotype (0001).