SAP Business Objects Planning and Consolidation
– The SAP BusinessObjects Planning and Consolidation ., version for SAP NetWeaver installation consists of an ABAP Application server and Client installation
– NET Server is no longer required
– Enhanced native SAP ERP and NetWeaver BW Integration as well as SAP EPM integration Via Financial Information Management
– New harmonized UI and common EPM add-in
Architectural Changes between BPC NW . and BPC NW .
Architectural Connectivity
–REST (Representational State Transfer) Web Service enables communication between SAP BusinessObjects Planning and Consolidation Clients and SAP NetWeaver BW (Application Server).
-Also known as RESTFul Web Service, it relies on a stateless, Client / Server, cacheable communications protocol and in virtually all cases, the HTTP communication protocol is used.
-All services will be exposed as RESTful Web services for internal communication between BPC NW clients and server.
-SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) Web services will be used to communicate with external applications such as EPM Applications (that is FIM).
Platform Support and Authentication (ABAP Application Server Support)
-Requires SAP NetWeaver .
-Any operating system supported by SAP NetWeaver .
-ABAP Web Application Server
-VMware for productive usage Any database supported by SAP NetWeaver .
-Web Server: ABAP Web Application server
Language support: Install SAP BusinessObjects Planning and Consolidation on non-English OS servers in French, German, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, Russian, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese
Platform Support and Authentication Client Support
-Windows Vista Client ( and -bit), Windows XP (-bit) and Windows (-bit and -bit)
-Internet Explorer and
-Microsoft Office , and (-bit and -bit)
Platform Support and Authentication Security
-SAP NetWeaver Authentication Granular security
-BPC service user role and BPC User role
-Integration into Single Sign-On (SSO) environment
-Limited access to NW security Support for NW Users and Matrix Security CMS (Central Management System) Authentication is NOT supported
Administration and EPM Clients Harmonized Web User Interface and EPM Add-in
-.NET add-on for Office will be implemented and shared by Excel, Word, and PowerPoint.
-EPM Office Add-in Excel replaces all existing classic EPM Excel Clients
-Both Microsoft Office Clients and Web Client can be used for planning activities
-Administration Landing page is a Flex-based thin Client and displays all administration objects
NW Authorization Integration
-Benefits in moving to NW based Author security implementation:
-Better Performance as Security is implemented at the core OLAP engine.
-Meet the Customer demand for identity management
-Solution Manager Integration
-Move closer to supporting GRC Access Controls in the future
-Tighter integration with NW
-Native support of Matrix Security
-One less thing to worry about for Engine Unification for one planning platform within SAP
Faster and easier creation of templates
-New interface for easier template creation
-Maintain dates as additional header items (effective date requirement)
New web interface for journals
-Enhanced interface delivering increased flexibility and usability
-New home page displaying list of journals filtered according to the current view with access to all relevant actions
-Automatic calculation of totals and live syntax check on members saves time & reduces errors
-New options per journal : Balanced by Entity, balanced by Entity Currency (NW only)
-New BADI calculations automatically generating new items, displayed in a separate grids
-Easier creation and usability for posting multiple journal entries
-Advanced Query allows end-users to define criteria making it faster and easier to display specific journals
-All dimensions and journal options can be used as filters
-Filter on text fields “Beginning with…”, “From… To…”
Business Rules
-Faster and easier creation and maintenance of business rules
-New Home Page provides overview of all existing business rules per model in a given environment
-Access methods and method-based multipliers (former rules and rules header) in the same interface for easier navigation
-Simplified interface for business rules creation and maintenance
-New advanced grids for easier maintenance (copy/paste/delete functionalities) New member picker screens for relevant fields
Consolidation Central
-New interface for performing consolidation tasks on the web
-New Consolidation Central folder allows consolidators and authorized users to perform their day to day tasks on the web including:
-Scope creation and maintenance
-Journals data entry
-Controls monitoring
-Consolidation monitoring
Ownership Manager
-Faster and easier creation and maintenance of scopes
-The former Dynamic Hierarchy Editor has b
-New web interface for greater usability
-Automatic calculation of Methods and Percentages based upon ownership data entry
-New contextual menu available when editing a scope (to add an entity in a group, pin/unpin a selected entity)
-Use advanced options to copy/cut/paste data using Excel-like functions or using the right click of the mouse
Consolidation Monitor
-New consolidation monitoring interface
-New Consolidation Monitor interface enables users to track information for a given group, sub-group or entity:
-Control set status
-Work status
-Currency conversion status
-Consolidation status (process to be executed or not)
-Run select tasks directly from the Consolidation Monitor interface for selected entities:
-Run translation
-Run consolidation
-View running processes
-Incremental currency conversion and consolidation will be available for greater performances
Incremental Consolidation
-Faster than ever Consolidation processing time
-Only entities with updated figures are consolidated (and/or converted)
-Response time is drastically reduced
-Instrumental in order to support massive concurrent Consolidation processes
-How this works?
-Internal timestamps will compare last Consolidation and Translation processing versus last data update
-One or both of the processes will be triggered according to this
-What Incremental Consolidation does not consider
-Changes in currency rates and/or Ownership data
-Changes in Business Rules
-Changes in Master data
-Changes in another category’s data (when using Simulate
Controls
-New administration interface for controls –Home Page
-“Controls” replace the former “Validation
-New home page allowing an easy maintenance, thanks to :
-Enable / disable controls per model
-See overview of existing controls, sets and assignments per model
-Gain direct access to controls, sets and assignments per model
-New administration interface for controls –Controls definitions
-New screen provides list of controls that exist for a given model Filter list of displayed controls by control set
-Create, edit, delete or print one or multiple controls New properties improve usability and increase flexibility
“Type” property to identify-blocking controls, for blocking easier control maintenance and non
“Threshold” property allows for setting a tolerance “Level” property, linked to the same property in the controls for a given entity
Shared Query Engine (SQE) Improvements
-SQE will use native BW Query (Bex Query) to calculate Periodic, QTD and
-YTD measures for Periodic Applications instead of MDX. Engineering testing shows that % performance improvement in some cases.
-Similar implementation on YTD Storage Application might be implemented.
-Custom measures for both Storage Application will NOT be supported.
Script Logic Improvements
-Script Logic will now support parallelization by packaging scoped data based on customer mentioned dimension (through new keyword XDIM_PACKAGEBY and no of parallel process provided from DM prompt.
Content Delivery
-Contains templates, examples, blueprints, best practice templates, demo packages, regulations, rules. It is an example how a customer uses an Application Add-on.
Benefits of Content:
-Every customer demands a solution for content— current answer is that content has to bedeveloped as part of implementation (what customers hear: slow and expensive)
-Binds partners to SAP
-Enables Best Practice and “Application” delivering through content
-Enables scaling, fast and more flexible go to market
-Customers can reduce the implementation effort
-Customers have access to dramatically more expertise from the partner ecosystem (as partners can create, package and ship content)
-Customers can reduce costs and speed deployment by upgrading content — fix only the “delta”
Granular Transport
-BPC NW . will support Granular transport to move any given BPC object from customer development system to QA & Production systems. In .x, customers need to transport whole AppSet every time.
-Customers & Consultants will still need to manually make sure logical sequence manually if they are transporting one AppSet’s objects in multiple transports.
-Objects can be collected to a transport from BW Administrative Bench (Transaction RSA) which existing BW customers are very much familiar with.
ERP Integration
-BPC Data Manager will now support loading directly from SAP ERP system both in FULL & DELTA mode through SAP Delivered ERP Extractors.
-Business user will now have ability to load data directly from SAP ECC through already replicated & configured data sources (like EC_PCA_, FI_SL_xx_TT, FI_GL_,FI_GL_, etc.) of underlying BW system to BPC Application
-Users can provide specific selection (For example, specific Company Code) for the data load and they can load data both in full & delta (only changes from prior loading) mode.
-Customers can load both master & transactional data from SAP ECC.
BW Integration
-BPC Data Manager will now support loading directly from BW’s Data Store Objects (DSO) both in FULL & DELTA mode.
-BPC .x supported only loading from Cubes. Now, customers can load from DSO (Typically, EDW layer within BW).
-Users can provide specific selection (For example, specific Company Code) for the data load and they can load data both in full & delta (only changes from prior loading) mode.
-Customers can NOT load master data from DSO to BPC dimension. They can only load to BPC Application.
-Delta loading & Selections from BW Cubes will be supported.
In Summary:
-Full load is supported for Standard Cube, Virtual Cube, Multi-provider, Standard DSO, Write-optimized DSO.
-Delta load is supported for Standard Cube, Standard DSO, Write-optimized DSO.
-Selection will be supported for Standard Cube, Virtual Cube, Multi-provider, Standard DSO, Write-optimized DSO during both Fully & Delta loads.
New BPC NW Administration UI Overview
Web Client
When you first open the Web Client, you are presented with the Home workspace. The
Home workspace is always available, and contains a menu with all components that
you are authorized to access, including:
-Start Page – Describes the initial Planning and Consolidation Web Client page. Fromthis page, you can select from your favorite objects, create reports, and launch client applications.
-Activities – Provides information about using Business Process Flows (processes). For information about setting up process templates, see the Help Administration section.
-Library – Provides information about how to access the objects that are saved in the Library view.
-Documents – Provides information about using the Documents view to post, share, and retrieve files, and to manage the display of content.
Consolidation Central
-Audit – Provides information about reporting on system information and activity.
-Starting the Web Client
To start the Planning and Consolidation Web Client, do one of the following:
From the Windows Start menu, select SAP BusinessObjects Planning and
Consolidation Planning and Consolidation .
-Open a browser and connect to the URL http://<PC_server:port>/sap/bpc, where<PC_server:port> is the server name or IP address and port number of the Planning and Consolidation application location.
-To log on directly to a specific environment, enter
http://<PC_server:port>/sap/bpc/web/<environment ID>.
- The Consolidation Monitor displays:
- The control status: accuracy of reported data
- The work status: level of completeness of submitted data
- In order to display the work status in the Consolidation Monitor, the driving dimensions must be Category, Period, and Entity. If additional dimensions are added, then a member must be selected for each additional dimension, to enable work statuses to be displayed. Every time a work status is changed, the appropriate control set status must be checked.
- The currency translation status: according to the currencies specified in the Group dimension.
- The consolidation status: outcome of the consolidation processing.
- The Controls Monitor is a workspace for executing and monitoring controls.
- Controls are run on the selected entity. If you select a node entity, you can run the controls for all the associated entities.
Features
- Display control status with entity breakdown
- Display controls status for one entity
- Display detailed control status for one entity
- Run controls for the selected entity or entities
- You use the Ownership Manager to define an ownership-based hierarchy entity structure.
- The Ownership Manager allows you to create period-specific hierarchies of corporate entities to use in statutory consolidation, or in cases where hierarchy changes for an application need to be tracked by Category and Time.
- The Administration console is now a full Web Administration client
All the administration tasks are now available through a Web client.
- The Administration console has a brand new User Experience
The Administration console has a dedicated Workspace which you can access by using a link from the Start Page in the Home tab.
- A Navigation Panel enables to access all the administration views that are grouped by consistent domains.
- The members are managed in an “Excel like” grid in which you can use the main features that are expected for this kind of tasks: copy and paste (within the list and from Excel), sorting, filtering and ordering columns, and so on.
- The max length of a Member ID is now
- STATUS OF MEMBERS
In addition, a Member status is displayed in the row headers of the list for all the Members that have been edited (new Member or modified Member). A Specific icon enables to identify the status of these members – New member; changes to be saved; errors – and a tooltip provides with details especially for errors.
- To create a new member formula, open the list of formulas of the dimension and then use the “New” button.
- In the Formulas editor, you can select the member that must be calculated and then type the syntax of the formula.
- “Model” is the new name used for what was named “Application” in BPC NW .x.
You must specify in this step the type of the new model.
- Reporting
Standard new label (“Generic” in .x)
Financial
Consolidation
- Drivers & Rates new label (“Non Reporting” in .x)
Exchange Rates new label (“Rate” in .x)
Ownership
Generic
- YTDINPUT parameter has a new label “Data Entry Mode” in the Administration console and the value can be set now directly when creating a Model using the creation wizard.
- You must select in this step the dimensions you want to assign to the new model among the list of all the dimensions of the environment.
- Starting from a blank model, you must at least assign all the required dimensions types.
- The list of required dimension types depends on the type of the model.
- Starting from a source model, the set of dimensions of this source model is selected by default but you can then change it.
- A status panel at the bottom of the window keeps the user informed on the missing dimension types “in real time”.
- From this list, you can add or remove some users (multiple deletion is allowed).
- You can also edit a user. Multiple edition of users is allowed to enable to modify several users simultaneously (mass maintenance).
- You can see in this list the IDs of the users, their last and first names and also their email address.
- These properties are those from the NW users and cannot be changed in BPC.
- You no longer need to select the business rules to activate when creating a Model or modifying a Model.
- This must be done directly within the Business Rules view you can access under the “Rules” domain.
Enhanced Logic Scripts editor
- You can access the “Logic Scripts” view under the “Rules” domain.
- The Logic Scripts are defined in a brand new script editor.
- The structure of the required syntax is automatically suggested in the text editor when inserting the keyword.
- The system suggests a list of relevant keywords according to the characters you typed in the script.
- Categories of keywords and wrong syntax are highlighted with a specific color coding.
Item
Color
Keywords
Blue
Constant values
Green
Comments
Grey
Everything else
Black
Wrong Syntax (Open parenthesis without closed parenthesis, vice versa, misspelled keywords and dimension name, unrecognized words)
Red
- Enhanced Work Status maintenance capabilities
There are no functional changes but only a new user experience to configure this feature. You can access the “Work Status” view under the “Features” domain. An overview of the Work Statuses defined for the Environment and the Data Locking settings by Models is available as the main page of this view.
- You can activate the locking process for a Model and can configure the email notification settings directly within this view.
- Activating both through the administration parameter is no longer needed.
Context Default
- This view which you can access under the “Features” domain enables you to specify what the defaults are used for the scope context.
- DEFAULT MODEL
In the top panel of the main page of this view, you can specify the default Model that will be used when initializing the scope context.
- DEFAULTS PER DIMENSION/MODEL
In the bottom panel of the main page of this view, you can edit and then specify the defaults per Dimension of the Model selected in the top panel.
The scope context will be initialized with the defaults of the relevant dimensions:
- The default Member in a Report
- The default Member in Data Input document
- Whether the Dimension is displayed in the scope context or not
- The Description of the Dimension is displayed instead of the ID
- Only the ID of the Members is displayed or only the Description or both
- Enhanced Audit capabilities
Changes in the Dimension members are audited if the audit of the Administration activity is enabled. In the Data Audit configuration, you can enable the audit the changes of Ownership and Business Rules data.
- Enhanced UI for the configuration of the Drill-Throughs
There are no functional changes but only a new user experience to configure the Drill-throughs. The overall list of Drill throughs of the Environment is available in a dedicated view which you can access under “Features”.
- The point about “Describe the multi-user behavior with locking of objects” refers to making changes in Administration to objects such as dimensions, models, security profiles, and so on.
- When an object is in Edit mode for one user, another user should not be able to edit it at the same time. There should be some status information about this in the Admin UI. You can certainly see this in BPF Templates with the “Locked by” status.
New Member Formula Editor
- The language used for member formulas is MDX (Multi Dimensional Language); however, only a subset of all the MDX instructions is available inside EPM member formulas.
- Member formulas are dimension related. This means they are valid for all the models sharing those dimensions
- Once you have set up a member formula the related dimension must be processed in order to make the formula applied.
- Member formulas are calculated on the fly: calculated values are not stored in the database.
Note: Pay attention to the number of member formulas you define in your model. They may dramatically decrease application performance.
- On the right pane you can find:
The name of the dimensions that have been enabled to contain member formulas;
The number of the member formulas defined for that dimension;
The status of the dimension (Processed, Not Processed)
- There are three different ways to add members from the right to the formula editor:
By typing directly the name of the member
By using “drag „n‟ drop”
By selecting the member on the right and then
- You can create interdimensional formulas by selecting the dimension from the drop down combination and then choosing the desired member.
- Members not coming from the account dim with the name of the dimension: for example [CATEGORY].[BUDGET].
Only for the Account dimension this name can be omitted.
Click the Save button
BPF Templates
Process Template Management
You can create a new template.
Log into Business Planning and Consolidation. Go to the Administration page.
In the left side panel, go to Business Process Flow à Process Templates.
Enter the following details on the Process settings tab:
Name: This will be the name of the process nDescription: A brief description of the process
Model: The model governs both the time dimension for process instances and the available dimensions for activity context.
Dimensions: The user must select a Driver dimension as well as an Identity dimension
The driver dimension is the dimension that is common to all process contexts the users might use for completing the tasks in the process. This dimension must have a defined Reviewer property.
The identity dimension(s) are one or more dimensions that are common to complete the process. The system automatically selects the Time dimension since it is required for all processes.
Note: When a process instance is created, one user will be chosen as the owner of the process instance.
The user has the right to finalize the process instance.
Enter the following details:
Name: Provide a title for the activity.
Instruction: Provide a description of what is to be done in the activity. This is the instruction that is displayed to a user performing a process based on this process template.
Driving Dimension: Select the driving dimension. This is the dimension that is common to all process contexts that users might use for completing the tasks in the process. This dimension must have a defined Reviewer property. Members: Clicking the members icon opens the Criteria Editor. You can define members’ relationships and add additional criteria as required.
Performer: Select the property that defines the performer for each member. To define an action that a performer must perform when reviewing the activity.
A Performer is the person, to whom the activity is provided to at run time, that is the person, who has to perform the work items in the activity and mark it as complete. This can be one or more users, or a team. Performers are determined by a property of the dimension used as a driving dimension of the activity. You can select the Owner property or any other property for this. Owner has a specific meaning in Planning and Consolidation; it is the dimension property that determines who can change the work status of each member to anything other than unlocked. So you could choose to have an activity that is performed by the same owner as work status.
Require Reviewer
If required, select this checkbox and select a property that defines the reviewer for each member.
To define an action that a reviewer must perform when reviewing the activity. You select the reviewer in the same way as selecting a performer, but you can select a different property to determine the reviewer users.
Opening Criteria
Select the appropriate radio button to open All activity contexts or Matched activity contexts.
Allow Reopen
To allow authorized users to reopen an activity, select the Yes radio button.
Add new contents. There are ways to add contents to the Activity Workspace.
- Add Hyperlinks: Refer to section below for more information.
- Add Content: You can embed existing web contents (Report, Input form, Workspace) to the Activity Workspace.
- Add New Report: Using this, you can create a new report from scratch.
Enter the following details.
- Name & Description
- Select an action group in the first combo list.
- Select an action in the second combo list.
- Set parameter values if required.
Note: You can’t browse a team folder of whi that case, there is a warning message as shown in the screenshot.
- Workspace view context is displayed on top of view canvas.
- Hyperlink context is displayed in the hyperlink editor on the left side. Hyperlink context takes precedence.
- For example, in this example below, view “” applies to all hyperlinks except Input Target” as its context”. for Time is
- Invalid hyperlink doesn’t prevent the Ac
- This template can be saved and instantiated with this invalid hyperlinks.
- At run-time, the invalid hyperlink will be d work with it.
- Once you finished adding contents, save the Activity Workspace by clicking the Save button.
- Close the Activity x”Workspaceintab.the by clicking
Template Version Management
User can edit this version. nUser can delete this template.
If you archive it, all process instances of this template will also be archived only if there are no active instances.
- The system changes the version of the old template from Deployed to Inactive. It means this version is no longer used for instance creation.
- The system changes the version of the latest template from Draft to Deployed. This new deployed version will be used for instance creation.
Perform Activities: In the Activities view, User can see the activities they are involved in.
- Go to end-users Home page.
- Click the link Activities in the left panel: All the process instances which you are involved in will be listed in the upper table.
- Select the process instance: Only the activity instances which you are involved in will be listed in the lower table.
Note: The screenshot above shows the Hyperlinks view which has actions. One of them is an invalid hyperlink so the invalid hyperlink is not clickable.
Note: This screenshot above shows the launch of a hyperlink Input Target by Product. This action can now be executed from the EPM add-In.
Its associatedpenSpecificactionReportoftheisMicrosoft“ Excel action group. Therefore, this hyperlink launches the EPM add-In for Microsoft Excel and opens the specified Excel document
Note: To select multiple Activity instances, select Activity instances you want to complete while pressing Ctrl or the Shift key.
Work Status
- You can access the Work Status view by selecting Work Status under the Features domain in the left side panel.
- The overview page is split into two distinct panes.
- The top pane contains a list view of all the work statuses defined in the environment and, for each of them, is specified who can control it and the authorization access on data for each data entry method.
- In the second pane, for each model of the environment, you can see what are the dimensions specified to define the data region that can be “locked”.
- Unlocked is the default work status that cannot be deleted nor reordered (code order = 0).
- For each of them you can specify who can use it when this status is set to the data All users (authorized users)
The owner(s)
The manager(s)
Or the data is locked
- If locks already exist on data, the user receives a warning that deleting will delete all locks for all models in the environment.
- A work status that is set to Unlocked cannot be reordered.
The Notifications command opens a dialog box in which you can activate the function and then also specify the content of the notification message, unless you want to keep the default one.
The Edit button opens the data locking settings editor for the selected model. In this editor, you can first enable the data locking function in order to activate the work status feature for the model.
If there is no dimension with an OWNER property assigned to the model, you cannot enable the data locking (error message).
If the model has dimension(s) with an OWNER property but there is no hierarchy, you cannot enable the data locking (error message).
You must then specify the Owner dimension and its hierarchy and all the other dimensions that will enable to define the data region for the work status management (five dimensions max in total).
The Owner dimension is a dimension with a property named OWNER which values are user ID(s) and/or team ID(s).
- For a base member in the hierarchy of this Owner dimension, the user ID / Team ID is the Owner of the data region driven by this dimension.
- For a parent member in the hierarchy of this Owner dimension, the user ID / Team ID is the manager of the data region driven by this dimension (see above Manage work status section).
If there is only one dimension with an Owner property, this dimension is selected by default.
If this dimension has only one hierarchy, this hierarchy is selected by default.
Context Defaults
You can access the Context Defaults view by selecting it under the Features domain in the left side panel.
This will display two distinct panes with the following details:
- Available models
- The dimensions and members
In the top pane you can see and set the default model.
In the bottom pane you can see what are the defaults specified for the dimensions assigned to the model.
These core tutorials will help you to learn the fundamentals of SAP BPC. For an in-depth understanding and practical experience, explore Online SAP BPC Training.
To be able to specify the defaults for a model
- Select this model in the top pane
- Click the Edit button available in the toolbar of the bottom pane.
On the next screen you can specify for each dimension of the selected model:
- A default member for the scope context initialized in the Web reports
- A default member for the scope context initialized in the Web data input document
- Whether the dimension must be displayed or not in the scope context
- Whether the name of the dimension must be displayed in the scope context instead of the ID
- Whether the ID or the description of the member must be displayed or both
Drill Trough

This business example provides context for how this feature is used.
Clicking the New button opens a drill-through editor in which you can specify all the general settings and the parameter mapping of the new drill-through definition.
Once the drill-through definition is saved, you can no longer change the ID and the model.
In this example, the red icon is visible because the value of the parameter p is mandatory.
Administration Parameters
Three types of parameters used in BPC:
- Functional Parameters –For example, APPROVALORG
- Configuration Parameters –For example, ALLOW_FILE_SIZE
- System Parameters –For example, AVAILABLEFLAG
In BPC NW 7.5, users can manage the administration parameters in two distinct pages of the Web client:
- Set Application Set Parameters
- Set Application Parameters
In BPC NW 10.0, users no longer have these pages dedicated to the management of parameters:
- All the functional parameters that must be set by the user have been moved to the UI of the Admin workspace.
- All the configuration parameters (mainly technical parameters that must be usually set one time only) have been moved to IMG (NW tool dedicated to the management of the configuration settings).
Finally, all the parameters set by the system (mainly flags) can no longer be set by the user through an Admin UI.
Prerequisites may include:
- BPC 10 Installation – Complete
- BPC 10 Post Installation Configuration – Complete
- Identify the parameters needs to be changed
- Impact of parameter change should be analyzed/assessed
- Log on to Backend system
- Execute transaction SIMGH
How to search and select BPC Configuration in the IMG Structure field
- Open the Find structure editor
- Type BPC Configuration in the title field of the structure description section and then click Execute
- In the next window, select BPC Configuration and click Copy
- IMG structure for BPC configuration is now selected
You can then add it as a favorite by clicking the Favorite button
You can also directly type the name of the IMG structure in the first field.
Here you can either edit the IMG structure or just display it.
- Click Change the IMG Structure to set some parameters.
In this page, you can see the structure for BPC. Under the Configuration Parameters node you can see three levels of parameters you manage in IMG:
- Global (cross environment = platform level) nEnvironment level
- Model level
- Click the level of parameters you want using the IMG –Activity button.
- Depending on the level selected, you then need to specify an environment or/and a model and click Execute.
The list of parameters (if any) is displayed in the next page.
- You can select a parameter and click the Change button to modify the value of this parameter
- You can also display or delete a parameter
- You can insert a new parameter by using the Insert button
- Click Insert
- In the Detail dialog box, you have to enter the name of the new parameter and then click OK
- In the next dialog, you have to specify the value of this new parameter and click OK
- Back to the list of parameters, you must click Save in order to take into account your changes.
Data Manager- UI in the EPM Add In for Excel
You can access a BPC model using two connection types:
- Webservice: Planning and Consolidation connection type
- ODBO provider: Local connection type, and cho BusinessObjects Planning and Consolidation” (not not the same between BPC for MS and BPC for NW).
Notice that the use of the Data Manager is only possible via a Webservice connection.
WEB Client
The Home Tab can be broken into five main areas:
Header area which describes who is logged in, ability to change Preferences, and a link to Help
Built-in screens (Activities, Process Monitor, Library, Documents Consolidation Central, and Audit Workspace, Report, and Input Form Creation
Launch area for the EMP Add-in for Excel, EMP Add-in for Word, EMP Add-in for PowerPoint, and Planning and Consolidations Administration
And the Footer area which shows the Environment you are currently in as well as links to Show the current Access Rights, Download Center, and About
The Header area of the Home Tab shows who is logged in, a button to log off, hyperlink to customize a users’ preferences, and a hyperlink for Help.
A user can customize the User Interface by adjusting the Text size (100, 150, or 200) percent as well as the Theme. The default theme is Streamline, which is black with a white background. The High Contrast Theme is solid black with white lettering and the Signature Theme contains a light blue background with black lettering.
Language, Time, Date and Number format can also be customized by the user.
The Create Area allows the user to create new Workspaces, New Reports, and New Input Forms (formally Input Templates or Input Schedules).
To create a New Workspace, click New Workspace and a new Tab is titled “Untitled Workspace” is created. A Workspace allows the user to store Contents (documents), Reports, and Input Forms in single place. Workspaces will be covered more in-depth in a later Unit.
To create a New Report, click New Report and a new Tab is titled “New Report” is created. Across the top of the new Tab will be the default dimension members. To add dimensions to the current context, click the blue plus (+) sign. Just below the dimensions is a dropdown box signifying this is a Report.
To create a report, drag the available dimensions from the Available dimensions box on the right down the appropriate axis (Row and Column). To Save the report, click the Save button in the upper right-hand corner. Reporting will be covered more in-depth in a later unit.
To create a Input Form, click New Input Form and a new Tab is titled “New Input Form” is created. As with the reports, the current context dimensions are displayed across the top, but they type has now changed to Input Form. To customize the Input Form, drag the available dimensions from the Available dimensions box on the right down the appropriate axis (Row and Column). To Save the Input Form, click the Save button in the upper right-hand corner. Input Forms will be covered more in-depth in a later unit.
The Launch Area allows users access to EMP Office Add-in Excel, EPM Office Add-in Word, EPM Add-in PowerPoint, Planning and Consolidation Administration, and FIM integration.
The Footer Area shows which Environment (formally Application Set) the user is currently logged in to, the current users’ access rights, the Download Center to obtain the EPM Add-in for Office products, and a hyperlink describing SAP
BusinessObjects Planning and Consolidations.
To change Environments, click the current Environment hyperlink and a listing of available Environments will be listed. Select the one you want, then click Connect.
To see the current users’ access rights, click the hyperlink to Show Access Rights. When this is clicked, a new tab is opened allowing the user to see the current environment, ID that is logged in, the Full Name, and the email address of the current user. Additionally, the user can see which Teams, Task Profiles, and Data Access Profiles they are assigned to. This screen is read only and modifications can not be made. In order to make changes, the user would need to have Administration access. To close out of this screen or tab, simple press the X next to the My Security tab.
To install the EPM Add-in for Microsoft Office, click the Download Center hyperlink. After the new Internet Explorer page opens, click the Install hyperlink.
The Home Tab comes with built-in screens for Processes, Library, Documents, Consolidation Central, Analysis and Audit.
Processes guide users through a prepackaged set of application tasks that must be completed sequentially. Steps can have sub-steps that do not need to be completed sequentially and may not be required for every step of the process. Depending on your role in the organization, the tasks you can perform involve completing steps, such as entering data in data in an input form, or reviewing an already completed step. The first step is select a process, then select the correct context, and finally open the Process.
The Library enables you to create, open, delete, and edit Planning and Consolidation objects, such as workspaces, reports and input forms, SAP Crystal Dashboards, and books. These objects can be stored in three different folders, Private (only you have access), Public (everyone has access), or
Teams (only a specific Team has access to it). Favorites allows the user to group objects together that they use frequently. The Folder column shows the folder where the object is actually stored. The Library will be covered more in-depth in a later unit.
The Documents view is a central repository for storing or sharing files and websites. You can use the features of the Documents view to post, share, and retrieve files or the contents of a website, and to manage the display of content.
Documents will be covered more in-depth in a later unit.
The Consolidation Central module in BusinessObjects Planning and Consolidation enables you to generate and manage consolidated data, giving you an accurate view of the financial situation of your organization. Within Consolidation Central, there are two sub steps: Journals and Ownership Manager. Consolidation Central will be covered more in-depth in a later unit.
Journals allow the user to create and manage journal entries. Journals will be covered more in-depth in a later unit.
Ownership Manager allows the user to create and manage ownership-based hierarchies. Ownership Manager will be covered more in-depth in a later unit.
Automated variance analysis provides analysis in real-time, removing the manual effort of investigation. It can evaluate the data stored within a given model and navigates the model automatically, determining the key contributors of performance.
By clicking AVA Admin, a user can setup Global Indexes, Default Comparisons, and Traversal Dimensions.
By clicking KPI Admin, a user can setup different KPI’s, users who can access them (Authorization), what the comparisons should be, performance indexes specifically for that KPI, as well as the Constraints (specifying the dimension members).
Audit allows the user to prepare reports containing system information. Audit is separated into three groups, Processes, Security, and General Audits. Processes Audits allows a user to audit BPF’s. Security Audit reports can be reported by Users, Teams, Task Profiles, Data Access Profiles and Processes.
Additionally, reports can be created on data changes, comments, work status, and administration activity. Audit will be covered more in-depth in a later unit.
Library
The Web Client Library is accessed from the left menu of the home page allowing users to create, view, and edit different Planning and Consolidation objects (Workspaces, Reports, Input Forms, Dashboards, and Books). The folders and documents that the user has access to depends on his/her access rights. There are four main folders:
Private – The Private folder is specific to each user. Users can update content and subfolders in their private folder and no one else can access this content. Users also require specific “edit rights” for document types to create those documents.
Public – This folder contains content that can be accessed/read by all users, but can only be updated by users with certain task security (“Edit content of Public Folder”). These users also require specific “edit” rights for document types to edit those documents, such as “edit workspaces”, or “edit reports”.
Teams – This folder is created automatically by the system and removed when a team is created/removed. Team members can access all content of the team folder, but only the team lead can update the content.
Favorites – A user can add objects to this folder to group objects used frequently.
A user can filter on the objects displayed by clicking the appropriate hyperlink (Workspaces, Reports, Input Forms, Dashboards, Books, or All).
Library actions are just below the filtering option, allowing the user to create, open, delete, rename, and move objects to certain folders. By clicking New, the user is able to create new objects as long as they have the proper security access (edit rights).
To Open an object, either double-click the object or highlight the object and select Open. In this case, a new folder displays the Rates workspace is opened rendering two subfolders (Rates and Ownership). Also, notice the default context is displayed (Actual from GL, 2009.Dec, and Rate Entity) but can be modified by selecting the blue plus button.
To Delete an object, highlight the object and select Delete. After selecting Delete, a confirmation box appears making sure you want to delete the object.
To Rename an object, highlight the object and select Rename. A prompt screen is opened for the user to rename the object.
To Move an object to another folder, highlight the object and select Move To and the folder list will appear. Select the desired folder and select OK.
Navigation and Context in Reports and Input Forms
Web reports can be accessed via the Library view or via the Start Page if the report has been created as a Favorite. Notice in the Favorite view, the folder where the report is stored is in shown to the right of the report name.
When the report opens, the current context scrolls along the top of the report. Notice, some of the dimension members are a shade of white, while others are a light gray. The white context boxes tells the user the current member does not match system context defaults set in Administration. Also available in Administration is the ability to show/hide certain dimensions as well as set the member defaults.
To change the current context, cursor over the dimension to change and click the blue hyperlink dimension member. A box will open the dimension embers allowing the user to navigate to the appropriate member. To add an additional dimension to the context, click the blue plus sign and select the dimension(s) to be displayed. There is also a hyperlink to add all dimensions to the current report at the bottom of the splash screen.
To remove a dimension from the current context, place the cursor in the upper left corner of the dimension and click the “x”. To restore the dimension member to the context default, click the blue arrow in the upper left corner of the dimension member.
To drill down within a report, click the plus buttons next to the dimension member within the report. This can be done on both the row and column axis.
To restore the report to it’s original format, select Refresh. To Save the report, click Save in the upper right corner of the report. When saving the report, you will have two options: Save and Save As. Save saves the report to it’s original place while Save As allows the user to specify which folder to save the report.
Web Reports
Web reports are replacing what was called “live reports” in previous BPC version. There are two types of web reports: “Reports” and “Input Forms”. Reports are for consuming data while input forms are used for entering data. In order to create either reports or input forms, the user needs to be granted the task security of “Edit Reports.” If the user does not have this task security, neither link (New Report or New Input Form) will be seen on the Start Page. To get started, select the appropriate link and a new tab will be opened rendering the web report designer.
When the report designer is opened, the user will notice the current context. The default context is inherited from what the administrator setup in BPC Administration, but can be modified as needed. Remember, different Context defaults can and should be setup for reports and input templates. It is best practice to set up context defaults for reports at an aggregated level to allow users to drill down. On the other hand, the context default for input forms should be set up at the base or bottom level since data can not be entered at aggregated or calculated levels.
To the left of the Context default are three blue files allowing the user to change the model as well as determine how the dimension names should be displayed (default, display all, or hide all).
On the right side of the report designer are dimensions. Below the dimensions are the axis for both rows and columns.
Below the Context default is the report action menu where you can define the type of report, either Report or Input Form On the right side of the report designer are dimensions. Below the dimensions are the axis for both rows and columns.
To add dimensions to the either the row or column axis, the user can highlight the dimension, select the icon on the right, and click Add to Row or Add to Column. An alternate way is to drag and drop the dimension to the appropriate axis.
The current expansion will show under the dimensions of the highlighted dimension, in this case Children of (Current Context). To change the dimension definition, highlight a different dimension. To modify the expansion behavior, click the icon to the right of the highlighted dimension and choose Select Members.
The user can define the expansion criteria by choosing one of the following:
a single member: renders only the member chosen
Children of: renders the direct descendants of the member (previously known as dependants)
Descendants of: all levels below the member chosen. For example, if the current member is 2010.TOTAL, this expansion would render all quarters and months below.
Base Members of: renders just the base members of the current member
Fixed list: the user can chose multiple dimension members.
After the expansion criteria is defined, the next step is select either Current Context or Select a Fixed Member. When Select a Fixed Member is chosen, the Member Selector dialog box is opened allowing the user to select a single member. If the user had selected Fixed List in the expansion parameter, then the Member Selector would allow multiple selections of members.
The last selection defines the starting members behavior, to include it or not. If the user decides to include it, the starting member can be at the beginning or the end of the expansion. Additionally, the web client can have multiple expansions within the same dimension by clicking the blue plus sign.
Below the Context Default is the report action menu where you define the type of report (Report or Input Form), the format of the data, Comments, and Chart characteristics. The formatting menu allows the user to set the scaling factor (1, 1,000, or 1,000,000) and number of decimal points.
It is possible to display a chart below the grid, or even only a chart. There are some options that can be setup to select the type of chart. The choice of displaying a chart or not is only available in “edit mode”. Use the “Chart” menu to select the display mode for the chart and modify Chart options.
To modify the type of chart, select Modify Chart and the chart option box opens. The user can select up to four types of bar graphs, a line graph, and a pie chart. The user can also select which dimension is grouped and as well as which one is in the Series. Lastly, the user can turn on/off the legend, tooltips and modify the grid display.
After making the appropriate selections, the report renders data as well as the chart. The time series is a dropdown since the report is displaying multiple timeframes. Also included in the chart is the legend which is dynamically changed when the current context is change or as the user drills down the report.
When the Report or Input Form is finished, select Finish Editing and be sure to Save it.
When entering data via an input form, it is important to make sure you are entering data at a base member level, not at a parent level. If you are at a parent level intersection, the grid will be locked and input will not be allowed. In this example, even though the cursor is an Account base member and a Time base member, the Intercompany dimension in the current Context is at a parent level (All Intercompany). To remedy this, change the Intercompany dimension to a base member.
After changing the Intercompany dimension to a base member, the user can enter data. When the data has been entered, select Save Data. After selecting Save, a splash screen appears making sure you want to send the data. In input forms it is possible to copy & paste data from and into the grid, but make sure you are only pasting to input cells though.
Data has been successfully saved to the database.
Comments can be entered at the cell level, for base members or for parents. To add a comment, click Comment and select Add Comment.
Enter the desired comments, set the Priority (None, Low, Medium, High, or Critical), as well as a Keyword (if needed). Select Modify Context to specify a custom or alternate context. The user can also select “None Specified” for a dimension, which means that the comment will not apply to any particular member for this dimension, and that this comment is not related to this dimension.
After entering the Comment, the report action menu shows a (1) as well as an Excel Comment tick mark in the report. Place the cursor in the cell and the comment will appear.
A user can Edit Comments, Delete Comments, View History, as well Manage Comments. When Editing a comment, a dialog box will appear that is very similar to the Add Comment dialog box with the only difference being the user is not able to modify the context. When deleting comments, choose Delete Comments and a pop up confirmation dialog box will appear to make sure it is ok to delete the comment. View History allows a user to view multiple comments made in the same cell, from one or multiple users. To Manage Comments, select Manage Comments to view the last comments entered in a web report. In order to have access to Manage Comments, the user needs to have the correct rights.
Publishing Books
Book Publishing is new to the BPC 10 NetWeaver release, though has been in the Microsoft release for some time now.
In both cases, the interface for creating and publishing book templates in BPC 10.0 has been updated with the new EPM Add-In. The new graphical interface aids in the creation and modification of book templates.
There is also a new book viewer for multi-page PDF books that have been published to the web. This will be covered in a later section.
Book publishing is a relatively straight forward tasks however you do need a clear idea of how the finished book should look. Some example questions are:
-Which members do I need to execute a report for (variable members)?
-Do I want to override any current view settings (fixed members)?
-Do I want to exclude a report if a dimension members value is zero (suppressed members)?
Another key prerequisite is that the reports must exist before creating the template.
Additional examples:
Before you can build a new scorecard, you must have in place:
Perspective and Objectives (see previous section)
Key Performance Indicators (see section on creating and managing sustainability KPIs)
We will go over four topics in this session.
The section on creating a book template will show and explain the new book template user interface.
The section on editing a book template will show how to launch the edit interface. Since editing a book is basically the same as creating a new template this section is rather short.
The section on validating a book will show you how to open a book template outside of the new graphical interface, and execute the validation operation. The section on publishing a book will review options like scheduling, book formats, destination locations and book template / section selection.
New templates are created by selecting Book Publication > New Template from the EPM ribbon. Once selected the book template interface will be displayed allowing you to configure the different aspects of a book template.
The book fields relate to the entire template.
The section fields allow you to:
-Create multiple sections
-Determine which reports to include within each section
-Configure which dimension members a published book includes
A book template can have one or more sections. Each section is generally synonymous with a chapter in a regular book. At least one section is required. Each section can have reference multiple reports, which will be included in the final book during publication. Each section must have at least one report and can have more.
The Add/Replace drop down allows you to configure whether a section gets overwritten when you publish subsequent times. This can be set at the book or the section level.
Sections can be combined or published separately when you publish a book.
Although the same types of dimension member selection existed in the BPC Microsoft release previously, there are differences in how members are selected (to be reviewed in a following slide).
The mapping between legacy to new member selection names is:
-FIXKEY = Fixed Member
-SUPPRESSKEY = Suppressed Member
-VARKEYS = Variable Members
In this step you select which dimensions will be included in Fixed Member, Suppressed Member and Variable Members. Actual member selection occurs later.
Fixed members are dimension / member pairs that will override current view settings at the time of publication
Use suppressed members for dimensions and members you want to suppress when their value is zero.
Variable Members are used to get data in for multiple members of one or more dimension.
Member selection occurs here. The prior syntax, for example %BAS% WorldWide1, has been replaced by a graphical interface.
It is important to note that you can only select a single member for dimensions included in Fixed and Suppressed Members although multiple members may be selected for Variable members.
The only unique attribute to editing a template is the navigation. To edit a template select Book Publications > Open Template. You have the same options as you did when creating a new template.
It is not possible to validate a template from the graphical interface displayed after clicking Book Publications > New / Open Template. To validate a template you must open it from the Server Root Folder directly and then select Book Publications > Validate.
The process of publishing a book includes:
-Selecting the publication type (schedule or publish now)
-Selecting the output format (printer or PDF)
-Selecting the templates and selections to be included in the book
There are two publication types –Publish now and Schedule. If you choose to schedule a book publication you will receive an additional dialog allowing you to configure the schedule.
Scheduling a book results in a Windows scheduled task being created on the client system. This means that the client will have to be on and connected to the network whenever it executes.
In addition, the Windows account password is for the user currently logged into BPC.
An error message is displayed when processing the Book Publication if you enter the wrong windows password.
You can publish a book directly to a printer, or to a PDF.
If you choose to publish to a PDF, you can also decide if you want a single PDF.
Publishing to multiple PDF’s will always web library.
IMPORTANT –The new book viewer is only available if you publish to multiple PDF’s
If you select to publish a single PDF you will see an additional dialog that allows you to configure the name of the book and where (local, public or private folders in the web library) to publish it.
You can select multiple templates and sections to include in a book
The summary screen highlights the book publication operation to be executed.
Click Process to publish a book immediately. A status will be displayed in the log.
Book Viewer
Book Publishing is new to the BPC 10 NetWeaver release, though it has been in the Microsoft release for some time now.
In both cases, the interface for creating and publishing book templates in BPC 10.0 has been updated with the new EPM add-in.
There is a new book viewer for multi-page PDF books that have been published to the web. This functionality is described in this section.
Sections:
A book template can have one or more sections. Each section is generally synonymous with a chapter in a regular book. At least one section is required. Each section can reference multiple reports, which will be included in the final book during publication. Each section must have at least one report and can have more. Sections can be combined or published separately when you publish a book.
- You can publish a book directly to a printer or to a PDF.
- If you choose to publish to a PDF, you can also decide if you want a single PDF.
- Publishing to multiple PDF’s will alway the web library.
- IMPORTANT: The new book viewer is only used if you publish to multiple PDF’s.
- Once published, the books will be available in the Library section of the Home tab.
-Please note that the Context is not scoped.
That means that there is only one level of Context: the Book Section; all reports in the Section share the same VaryKey.
-Therefore, the Context Bar for Books does not include the Scoped Context mechanisms available in the Context Bar for Workspaces.
We have just a very simple set of filters, on
-The list of available members in the filter control should be only those for which the Book Section has been generated.
-In almost all cases, a Book will use 2 or 3 dimensions;. For example:
Period & Entity
Category, Period, Entity
Period, Entity, Product
The design objective is to support both modes in the Book Viewer without additional work and without trying to detect on the client which setting is active.
To configure the browser to use Acrobat or Adobe Reader to open PDF files, do the following:
Close Internet Explorer. nStart Adobe Reader.
Choose Edit > Preferences.
Select Internet in the list on the left.
Deselect Display PDF in Browser, and click OK.
Restart Internet Explorer.
For more information about the general preferences in Acrobat or Acrobat Reader, see the Acrobat Help.
Ownership
You can access the Ownership Manager from your Start Page if you have been granted sufficient security task access.
The former Dynamic Hierarchy Editor has been renamed Ownership Manager. BPC 10 now has the Ownership Manager conveniently located within the web UI (User Interface).
You can access the Ownership Manager from your Start Page if you have been granted sufficient security task access. The new web interface provides for greater usability.
Ownership Manager can define an alternative hierarchy that is time, category, and group specific.
Selection of a specific Ownership definition can be accomplished by modifying the context values for time, category, and group in the context menu.
Each entry can be automatically proposed by the system (Generated) or a manual override (Current) can be entered by double clicking in the cell and typing in a changed value.
The Ownership Manager retains the same functionality as with the earlier Dynamic Hierarchy Editor.
Generated values are system derived values.
Current values can be manually entered and these values will override any Generated values in the system.
Although the Ownership Manager uses terms such as Consolidation Rate and Financial Interest Rate, the data is stored with the same data modeling as in previous versions. For example, Consolidation Rates are stored as PCON values and Financial Interest Rates are stored as POWN values in the database.
The context menu can be changed to allow viewing of different Ownership definitions.
The system will remember your last selection which can be restored if desired.
The ownership definition can be viewed in hierarchy or flat format. Values can be displayed with a specified number of decimal points.
Show or hide descriptions of your member selections
Ownership Manager can define an alternative hierarchy that is time, category, and group dependent.
Selection of a specific Ownership definition can be accomplished by modifying the context values for time, category, and group in the context menu.
Each entry can be automatically proposed by the system (Generated) or a manual override (Current) can be entered by double clicking in the cell and typing in a changed value.
New Tab is opened titled Edit Ownership (selected context for Category, Time , and Group).
Modify context selections to define new ownership hierarchies
Use the Add/Remove features to add entity nodes to the group definition.
Use the Unpin/ Pin function to initiate drag and drop features.
Context menu provides similar functions as on control ribbon.
Use up/down arrows to move a node within a hierarchy.
Use the Show Description checkbox to turn on/off viewing of member descriptions.
Click the top group node to view summary of all entities entered.
Click the individual entity nodes to view settings for that entity.
Double-click current cells to modify settings.
Click the Update Ownership Upwards checkbox. This feature allows the system to calculate the consolidation rates and the financial interest rate for parent nodes in the ownership hierarchy.
The Show Empty checkbox forces the system to display entities with zero consolidation rates and financial interests.
Save the ownership definition by clicking the Save button.
Copy the displayed ownership definition by clicking the Copy to button. A popup box will appear that allows you to enter new values for Category and Time that will be associated with the new copied ownership definition.
The Calculate feature used to be performed by running the Calculate Ownership data manager package. The Calculate button replaces the Calculate Ownership data manager package and provides automatic calculation of Methods and Percentages based upon ownership data entry.
Save all changes before closing editing tab.
Journals
Access to the journal template definition is via the Admin Web Client under the features selection.
Journal templates can be created for Planning as well as Consolidation models.
The journal action ribbon allows the creation/modification of the template, setting the journal parameters, and deletion of the template
Note: Before deleting any template, all journal entries associated with the template need to be deleted.
Only one template can be defined for a specified BPC model.
The journal header must, as a minimum, contain the Account dimension. Additional dimensions can be added to the header.
Before deleting a template, all journal entries associated with the template will first need to be deleted.
Enforcing Balance Journals will make sure the user enters only balanced entries prior to saving the journal entry. Any out of balanced entries will be highlighted in red to warn the user.
The Journal header requires the Account dimension as a minimum.
By selecting both the Balance by Entity and Balance by Currency checkboxes, all combinations of Entity/Currency will be subtotaled and displayed.
Additional header fields can be designed as text or date fields.
The ability to reopen a closed template is determined by BPC security task settings.
When entering journals via the EPM 10 add-in for Excel, the Journals hyperlink in the Excel EPM control ribbon will open the web interface for journal entry.
The journal landing page leverages the context bar. Header dimensions are being displayed and used as a filter to the journal list. The overall strategy for the Journal module in BPC 10 was to implement a web based interface as to integrate journals to overall BPC Web UI (User Interface) as part of the workspace for a business user.
All existing functionalities in BPC 7.5 journals are kept in BPC 10.0.
A new starting page has been developed: when users enter the journal module, they no longer reach a blank page. From this page, a list of journals is displayed, according to the current view members selected.
The following standard actions are available.
-Create new journal Entry
-Open a saved journal Entry nCopy Journals
-Delete Journals nPost Journal Entry nUnpost Journal entry
-Ungroup Journal entry (new : provides the ability to transform a multi-header or multi-value journal into simple journal entries)
-Reopen Journals
-Report and print out for Journal
-Lock and unlock Journal entry
-Query/Filter Journals
Click any journal entry and its preview is displayed at the bottom.
Journals inherit from the workspace philosophy, where each page can be opened in a separate tab. Several journals can be open into several tabs.
Groups can be created by selecting to create journals through: using multiple header regions, entering different set of debit/credit values for a specified dimension, or both methods at the same time.
Groups are being managed in an homogenous way, that is, statuses are identical to every journal within a group.
Groups can be dissociated, resulting in individual journals which can be then managed separately.
Single journal entries will not be grouped after creation.
Using multiple headers will generate a group of individual journal entries with common values but different header selections.
Using multiple values will generate a group of individual journal entries with potentially different values but the same header selection.
Journal entries will assume the values of the dimensions listed in the context definition.
Multi Posting tab is activated when Multiple Headers and/or the Multiple Values options are activated.
The Additional Properties sub tab allows the user to enter additional property fields defined in the template.
Access via transaction code SE18
-Enhancement Spot: UJJ_CALCULATED_AMOUNT
–BAdI Definition: BADI_UJJ_CALCULATED_AMOUNT
-BAdI Interface: IF_UJJ_CALCULATED_AMOUNT
-BAdI Method: CALCULATE_AMOUNTS
Migration
In this list, you’ll find all former EV fo add-in.
All those functions have new names in BPC 10, but former BPC 7.5 function names will continue to be recognized.
Nevertheless, the Excel wizard displayed when building those formulas are only available for the new BPC 10 function names.
Moreover, for some of those, the parameters can be slightly different between 7.5 and 10.0. In this case, some manual adjustments can be required (especially for functions related to BPC web portal documents such as: evHNV, evDNV, evBNV, osCLD, mainly due to the new web client).
Even if the evMNU function is still recognized, the EPM add-in contains a new public API, so the parameters used in the BPC 7.5 function will need to be updated manually with the new macro name. A list of all available functions is documented in the EPM add-in User Guide.
A custom menu function is not provided anymore in the EPM add-in. In replacement, customers should use BPFs or the new Workspace concept, depending on their needs.
There is a new UI available for Books and Distribution. Nevertheless, former books or distribution templates are automatically migrated and can be reused. Published books will need to be generated again.
EVDRE migration tool is accessible via the More button in the EPM add-in interface.
There are several ways of migrating your reports:
–Migrate the active worksheet – Migrate the active workbook
–Migrate an entire folder of workbooks stored on the BPC server –Local
When you choose a folder of workbooks to migrate, the existing workbooks will be automatically duplicated by the system. You can then decide if those copies are stored in the same folder or in a sub folder of the initial folder (this option is available through the not last move original check box workbooks in a call different). folder”
If you choose to migrate the active worksheet, or workbook, there is no automatic copy performed. The user himself can decide if he/she wants to perform the copy before. Moreover, after the migration, there is still a possibility to not save the generated report and keep the initial EVDRE report as is.
Data Collection using Excel Workbook
Distribution wizard is exactly the same as in BPC 7.5 client. There is just a new user interface for creating the distribution templates.
Before launching a distribution, you must have defined a distribution template: nSelect EPM > Distribution > Distribute. The Distribution Wizard opens. nSelect Distribute Now or Schedule Distribution and click Next
To save the workbooks to a specific folder:
Select Switch to offline mode and save to folder and click Next
In the Folder Location area, enter the path to the folder in which you want to save the workbooks or select the path by using the ellipsis button
If you are using a Planning and Consolidation connection, select the location where the template you want use is stored (Company or a specific team) Select the templates, then the template sections you want to use to generate the workbook When using a Planning and Consolidation connection, you can select a team so that all the templates for the selected team are displayed. You can then select the template and sections you want. A summary displays information about the workbooks to be generated.
Click Next
The distribution is launched and the process steps are displayed
The workbooks are generated and stored to the specified folder or the workbooks are sent by email as attachments, accordingly to the users spec ified for each variable member in the distribution template
To collect data, you must have previously performed a workbook distribution on the same connection.
Select EPM > Distribution > Collect. The Collection Wizard opens.
Follow these steps:
-To collect data entered in workbooks that users have sent you by email, select the Outlook Mailbox option. Then click the ellipsis button in the Working Folder area. In the Microsoft Outlook dialog box, select the Outlook folder in which the emails with the workbooks are stored. Back in the Collection Wizard, select the emails containing workbooks that you want to collect and click Next twice.
The workbooks are automatically connected and the data are saved to the server.
When using a Planning and Consolidation connection, the Variable Time field is displayed. If no member is selected for the Time dimension in a section of the template as a variable or fixed member, the time member selected here applies to all the sections of the template and is hard coded. If you select a Time member in a section, it overrides the member selected in the Variable Time field for this section.
To add a function to BPC Workbook, click on the Insert function button on the EPM ribbon. In the Dialog box select EPMFunctions from the Category drop down menu, select the EPM Function to add and click OK.
This function retrieves a specified text you can double-click to open a book published in the BPC web client.
If the books you want to view have been published in several PDFs, do not use the locationType nor the teamID parameters
If the books you want to view have been published in one single PDF, you must specify the locationType parameter, that is the location type that has been specified in the book publication template:
2=Public
3=Private
4=Team. If you specify the team location type, you must then specify the teamID parameter.
When you double-click the cell, a web browser opens, displaying the book specified.
Parameters:
Model Name – Name of the model. If not specified, the model for the active connection is taken into account
Template Name –Name of the Book Publication Templat
Section Name –Name of Section
Location Type –(Only for single PDF) specify the location as above (2=public, 3=private, 4=team)
Team ID –Only for Single PDF and team location)
Display Text –This is the text in the cell that you double click on
Member 1…- Optional variable member.
This function retrieves a specified text you can double-click to open a document stored on the Planning and Consolidation Documents view. The document opens in a web browser.
Parameters:
Model Name –Name of the Model. If not specified, the model in the active connection is taken.
Doc Name –Name of the file to open
Team –Team with access to the document
doc Type –What document type was assigned to the document
target window –where in the web browser to display the document. 0= same tab/window (this is the default), 1= a new tab in the same browser window, 2= new browser window
Display Text –Text in the cell that is double clicked to open the document
This function opens the Planning and Consolidation Documents view and retrieves a filtered list of documents. Then, you can double-click a document in the list to open it.
Parameters:
Model Name –Name of the Model. If not specified, the model in the active connection is taken
Doc Type –Optional – Document type assigned –leave blank to return all document types
Doc Subtype –Optional –leave blank to return all document subtypes
Doc Description –Optional –Description of the document
Start Date –Start date from when to search
End Date –End date to when to search
Sort Field –Criteria on which you want to sort the documents. 0=title; 1=type; 2=sub-type; 3=model; 4=date. Optional.
Sort Order –Sorting order. 0=ascending; 1=descending. Optional.
Target Window –where in the web browser to display the document. 0= same tab/window (this is the default), 1= a new tab in the same browser window, 2= new browser window
Displayed Text –text display in cell to double click to open document
This function retrieves a specified text on which you double-click to open in a browser a Planning and Consolidation web page or any other web page, depending on the URL address you have specified
Parameters:
URL –Web address or specific text to a BPC web page
Display Text –text displayed in the cell to double click to open the link.
MS Word and PowerPoint Integration
There are many benefits for this new feature, some which are mentioned above. In more general terms, any EPM application can now take advantage of this feature to provide business users with the best of both worlds –centralized, consistent, and agreed EPM results data presented using the standard formatting options of the familiar Microsoft Office Tools.
These are the high level steps that are required to embed EPM data in Word/PowerPoint. More detail can be found on the following slides.
Note: You may Launch Word or PowerPoint from within Excel using the APIs (Application Programming Interfaces)of the EPM add-in combined with, for example, a push button in Excel.
Connection type “local connections“ means that the c on the user local machine. Typically, when using the previous EA Analyzer 7.5 in standalone mode (for example, after running Analyzerstandalone.reg), the connections information was stored locally in the same way. When using the previous EA Analyzer 7.5 in integrated mode (for example, integrated with BOE (Business Objects Enterprise) platform), the connections were defined in the CMC part and then could be shared between different Analyzer users.
The EPM 10 add-in, as Analyzer 7.5, cannot connect directly to a BOE Universe. The supported datasources for the EPM 10 add-in are: FC 10.0 (SAP BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation 10.0) BW (Business Information Warehouse) and SSAS (SQL Server Analysis Services) cubes, PCM 10.0 (SAP BusinessObjects Profitability and Cost Management 10.0), SSM 10.0 (SAP BusinessObjects Strategy Management 10.0), BPC NW 10.0 (SAP BusinessObjects Planning and Consolidation 10.0, version for NetWeaver) and BPC MS (SAP BusinessObjects Planning and Consolidation 10.0, version for Microsoft)10.0 ODBO (Object Linking and Embedding in Database for On-Line Analytical Processing) providers as well as BPC NW 10.0 and BPC MS 10.0 web services.
The connection type “BPC” is new, compared t or NW web services connection.
The steps to establish a connection from within PowerPoint are identical to those in Word.
You can copy a report from Excel, Word or PowerPoint and paste it into Excel, Word or PowerPoint.
Note: Both the report definition AND the necessary connection(s) are pasted into the new document/presentation.
This single entry is not considered a separate report.
–After you embed a Single Entry in Word or PowerPoint and you click on the Single Entry field itself, the EPM Pane changes to show you the specific selections you made in the EPM-Member Selector pop-up. These selections then override any member values set as the default in the EPM Context Panel. Conversely, changing default values in the EPM Context Panel for any other Dimensions/Measures not specifically selected in the EPM-Member selector pop-up will likely change the single data value (after Refresh).
A direct link between EPM Report data and a chart is not currently supported. Instead, you should populate a table in Word/PowerPoint with report data and then use this tabular report data to generate a chart.
The implication of excel formulas not being available in Word/PowerPoint is that local members are therefore not supported in Word/PowerPoint.
–However custom members based on MDX (MultiDimensional eXpressions) are supported. Local members established in MS Excel can be converted to Custom Members via right clicking on the cell(s) and selecting EPM Client > Convert to custom member. Custom members are only possible when using ODBO (Object Linking and Embedding in Database for On-Line Analytical Processing) sources.
These core tutorials that helps you to learn the fundamentals of the SAP BPC platform. For in-depth knowledge and practical experience explore Online SAP BPC Training.