2078831 - Troubleshooting Document Transfer Options - Performance Management

• This solution focuses on troubleshooting document transfer issues. For general information on the options and what they mean, please refer to: 2077194 - Manage Templates - Document Transfer Options
• Please refer to our Guided Answers tree to get help in troubleshooting Document Transfer issues when making a change in the subject's Manager, Matrix Manager or HR Rep.
• NOTE: A form may fail to transfer for many reasons beyond incorrect transfer options. Please review our main solution if your template and import settings are correct.
• How to use the Transfer Options
• What transfer options are designed to do.
• When will documents transfer to a new manager?
• What might prevent a document from transferring to a new manager?
• What do the transfer options mean in the employee import?
• Why is it sometimes documents are not transferring to the New Manager when a user import is performed?
• Why do some documents fail to transfer to the new manager? 
• Is the EX role supported in manager transfers?
• Forms appear to be stuck with "System System".

SAP SuccessFactors Performance Management

Forms Moving When We Expected Them Not To

• It is a common misconception that the transfer options manage the full workflow of the form, however this is not the case. Manager Transfer Options only apply to the current route map step if the form meets certain conditions.
• For example. Inbox Manager Transfer ONLY applies to manager roles EM, EX and EH (see KBA 2342203 - Change Engine Rule for user role HR Rep), and only takes effect if its in the INBOX of that manager at the time of the import. Otherwise it has no effect at all. It does not control future steps, so even if deselected, the manager role EM will change in all future steps.
• Likewise the Do Not Transfer is not a feature to control all future manager steps, but to just prevent the form moving at the time of import (it allows current holder to complete it and then move it on)
• The only true way to freeze a form to a manager is using the Change Engine. Therefore, before assuming there is a defect or issue, carefully evaluate the feature, and understand if the form was with the required person, at the required step when the feature was on.
• For more information on forms moving when they shouldn't please see: Performance Management: Routing - Form transferred when it shouldn't

Trigger Events for Document Transfers

There are a number of areas in the product that can trigger a document transfer:

1. A manual change is executed via Admin tools > Manage Users > Documents Transfer
2. Automated FTP employee file import. With this option your transfer options are configured at the time the FTP process was setup and will not change until requested.
3. Manual employee file import. With this option, since it is possible for the user to use different settings on every import, differing results may occur.
4. Company Change Engine: In addition to the standard manager changes that can trigger document transfers, the employee change engine can also be configured to execute a documents transfer on other triggers such as: Jobcode Change and Location Change.

Support for EM, EX and EH Manager Roles Only:

NOTE: For the following settings the term "Manager" only refers to the (EM or EX) direct manager (or first level manager) as well as EH (HR manager).

Support for EX Role: As of B1011 You now have the option to specify how you want to manage forms when there is a matrix manager change (EX role). Previously, you could only specify the settings for hierarchical managers. To use this option, contact SuccessFactors Customer Success to have your account updated. (PMT-4155 Enable via Provisioning > Company Settings > Enable Matrix Manager Document Transfer Support)

Support for EH Role: Please refer to the article 2342203 - Change Engine Rule for user role HR Rep on how to enable document transfer for HR role.

Currently document transfer does NOT apply to other manager roles such as second level manager (EMM), or other manager roles. (EA, EC, etc.)

Impact: This means for example, that if a form was in the Inbox of a second level Manager (EMM), and you selected Automatic Inbox Document Transfer To New Manager, the form will REMAIN with the current holder, and will not transfer to the new manager, as the form is NOT in the Inbox of the 'Manager' as the feature indicates it applies to. You will however still see the new manager update in future steps if the route map does contain a future EM or EM Signature Step.

Common Causes Preventing Transfers

There are a number of reasons that documents may not transfer as expected to a new manager. Often it is difficult to determine the root cause, as you likely only become aware of the failure after the fact, and therefore you are unlikely to have known, or be able to determine, which of the following conditions existed or occurred at the exact time the transfer was performed.

• When making a change via Employee Profile EM or EX field: When making manager changes manually via admin tools > Employee Profile Portlets, and direclty editing new EM or EX user names you need to also set the transfer options in Employee Files > Automatic Manager Transfers. See Article: 2174247 - Forms Do Not Transfer When Manager is Manually Changed via Employee Profile Manager or Matrix Manager Field
  
  
• Using Manage Users to add a Matrix Manager: When the route map has a c-step configured for any role and EX and the subject has no EX at the time of the form creation, but then, once the form is created, a Matrix Manager is added via Manage Users. Thre is a system limitation, the document will not be created to the recently added EX(change from NO_MANAGER to EX1), the new EX will only receive the form when is routed to it in a future step, or routing the form back and forth.

• When doing a manual import: The administrator had not realized that the required transfer document checkboxes were not selected, or that they conflicted with the transfer options on a specific template. The most common cause is during a manual user import as NONE of the documents transfer options are selected by default. You need to set these when importing the employee file. Our system will send a confirmation email to the person executing the import, and in that email, there will be a confirmation of the settings used for the import, so it is possible to determine if this was the cause by contacting the person that receives this email.
  
  
• Form Template Level Settings Conflict with Import Settings

Please go to Admin Center > Form Templates > [Template]: and set the Automatic Transfer Options that you want to occur for that specific template when you perform the import. These template settings apply at the time of the import/transfer, ONLY if they match the setting selected in the Employee Import. There is no option to override the settings set at the template level on the import screens.

Examples of Conflicts between Form Template Settings and Import Settings

Whether you use FTP import, Employee Import via admin tools, or Document Transfer via admin tools, always remember that the Automatic Manager Transfer settings SET AT THE FORM TEMPLATE LEVEL must match those used in the import options to apply! The options on the import screen or document transfer will NOT apply to forms where the template settings differ and may therefore cause unexpected results.

Impact: You have 4 form templates, all with different Automatic Manager Transfer settings set. In the import options you cannot possible make the settings match all 4 form templates, so only those templates that match the same settings on the import will apply.
Challenge: The employee whose manager is changing may also have all four different form types in-progress, so if the administrator executing the import was expecting that all four forms, or all the forms that anybody might have, were going to transfer uniformly based on the ONE set of import settings, then they may be surprised to see unexpected results for some of the forms.

• Forms Stuck with System System

Forms appear to be stuck with "System System". Note: This is the user account all automated transactions are logged against. Typically it is not physically with "system" but with the inactive user or old manager. Check the inboxes of the old managers/previous users/inactive users as it will be with one of them.

Examples of Conflicts between Form Template Settings and Import Settings

Check your Ftp or User Import settings and Form Template settings in admin tools > Form Templates > [form]

Example: All document transfer options on the import are checked:

1. Automatic insertion of new manager as next document recipient if not already
2. Automatic Inbox Document Transfer To New Manager
3. Automatic En Route Document Transfer To New Manager
4. Automatic Completed Document Copy to New Manager, but only option 4 (Automatic Completed Document Copy to New Manager) is checked on the form template

Result: No documents transfer.

Example: Do Not Transfer Documents IS checked on Template
Even though on the Employee Import screen or FTP import setting you have "Automatic Inbox Document Transfer To New Manager" enabled, this IS NOT going to apply for any template where you have Do Not Trasfer Documents set.

Do Not Transfer Documents is NOT the same as the Change Engine, so will not prevent all future manager steps from updating to the new manager. It is just preventing the form from moving from the current holder until that person manually moves it on.
Result: No documents transfer.

Example: All document transfer options on the form template are checked:

1. Automatic insertion of new manager as next document recipient if not already
2. Automatic Inbox Document Transfer To New Manager
3. Automatic En Route Document Transfer To New Manager
4. Automatic Completed Document Copy to New Manager, but when doing an Employee Import, none of the document transfer settings there are checked.

Result: No documents transfer.

Example: User Import document transfer options1 and 2 are checked on the Employee Import page

1. Automatic insertion of new manager as next document recipient if not already
2. Automatic Inbox Document Transfer To New Manager, but the radio button for "do not transfer documents" is selected on the form template

Result: Template settings win; No documents transfer
 
Example: User Import document transfer options1 and 2 are checked on the Employee Import page

1. Automatic insertion of new manager as next document recipient if not already
2. Automatic Inbox Document Transfer To New Manager

BUT only options 3 and 4 are checked on the Form Template page.

3. Automatic En Route Document Transfer To New Manager
4. Automatic Completed Document Copy to New Manager

Result: Template settings win; No documents transfer

Updating Settings on From Templates:

Settings are dynamic, so a change to your template settings after forms have been created will apply to existing forms. 

Example of impact:

• Performance Review forms exist for 10 employees.
• The Form Template has the “Do Not Transfer” setting checked.
• Forms are then launched based on that setting
• The Form Template is then changed so that document transfer options are checked.
• The Employee Import is run and all 5 employees have new managers.
• Result: Although the forms were initially launched with "Do Not Transfer" checked, documents will transfer based on the current template settings for the forms that the 5 employees still have in progress.

Other Common Causes Preventing Transfers

• Main Solution: Please refer to our main solution that outlines the other common causes for forms not to transfer.
• FTP Imports
  • It is possible that your automated FTP import settings have not been correctly set. For example it may be neccessary to to create an API Options Profile and enter the API Option Profile ID in the configuration file of your integration. 
• Employee Change Engine
  • You may have employee change engine settings set to prevent documents from transferring. To check these go to admin tools > System Properties > Change Engine Configuration.
  • When using the Employee Change Engine MANAGER TRANSFER SETTINGS on both the form templates AND the FTP settings need to be 'unchecked' so that the change engine can effectively lock forms to the old manager. Unexpected results may occur where Change Engine is on and where the transfer settings were not unchecked on the import method used.
    For more information on using the Change Engine correctly please see our main Change Engine Solution.

 
CONCLUSION

It is not always possible for SuccessFactors to determine why a form failed to transfer to the new manager. The system doesn't capture every event that could cause a form transfer to fail. If forms are gernerall moving as expected and only small number fail to transfer, it is likely due to one of the considerations above.

document transfer options, routing, document transfer, performance management, pm, form, form transfer, new manager, manager transfer, change engine , KBA , csg_q , sf performance manage live forms , LOD-SF-PM-MAP , Routing, Route Maps & Workflows , How To

SAP SuccessFactors Performance & Goals all versions