SAP BusinessObjects Planning and Consolidation

Sridhar Srinivasan is a solution architect for Zebra Consulting, Inc., in Houston, Texas. He holds a bachelor's degree in engineering from the College of Engineering in Guindy, Chennai, India. He graduated from the Master of Business Administration program at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business with a specialization in finance.Sri has over two decades of experience in information technology and has been working with SAP products since 1995. He is certified by SAP AG for the SAP BuinessObjects Business Intelligence and SAP Business Planning and Consolidation (BPC) products. He has been directly involved with implementations of solutions in these areas for clients in the United States and has functioned as a lead consultant in managing the entire lifecycle of SAP BPC project implementations, from the project preparation phase through post-implementation support. His expertise is in the functional, technical, and project management areas of the implementation.Sri lives with his family in Houston, Texas. He can be reached at sri.srinivasan@zebraconsultinginc.com. Kumar Srinivasan is a senior business intelligence/SAP business planning and consolidation consultant for Zebra Consulting, Inc., in Houston, Texas. He holds a master's degree in finance from Loyola College in Chennai, India. He is also a certified cost accountant.Kumar has almost two decades of experience in information technology and has been working with SAP products since 1999. He is certified by SAP AG for the SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence and SAP Business Planning and Consolidation (BPC) products. Kumar has expertise providing solutions in the areas of SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse (BW), SAP Business Planning and Simulation (BPS), SAP BI Integrated Planning (BI-IP), and SAP BPC. He provides diverse solutions to clients in areas that cover both back-end configuration and development of front-end user interfaces. His articles on topics related to SAP NetWeaver BW and BPC have been published in "BWExpert."Before working with Zebra Consulting, Inc., Kumar was employed with The World Bank as an information officer. During this time, he worked with relational database management systems, including Ingress, Informix, and Oracle. He also has extensive experience in the development of applications using messaging tools such as Lotus Notes.Kumar lives with his family in Cary, North Carolina. He can be reached at kshrini77@yahoo.com.

* ... Foreword ... 13
* ... Acknowledgments ... 17
* 1 ... Overview of Enterprise Performance Management ... 19
* 1.1 ... Enterprise Performance Management ... 19
* 1.2 ... Planning, Budgeting, and Forecasting ... 22
* 1.2.1 ... Planning Horizon ... 23
* 1.2.2 ... Planning Types ... 25
* 1.2.3 ... Planning Areas ... 26
* 1.2.4 ... Common Scenarios for Planning in Business ... 29
* 1.2.5 ... Considerations in Planning ... 30
* 1.3 ... Consolidation ... 33
* 1.3.1 ... Elimination of Intercompany Transactions ... 33
* 1.3.2 ... Consolidated Net Income ... 35
* 1.3.3 ... External Minority Interest ... 35
* 1.4 ... Summary ... 36
* 2 ... Overview of SAP BusinessObjects Planning and Consolidation ... 37
* 2.1 ... Business User Owned and Managed ... 38
* 2.1.1 ... Software Usability and Flexibility to Support Change ... 38
* 2.1.2 ... SAP BusinessObjects Planning and Consolidation (Microsoft and NetWeaver) ... 40
* 2.1.3 ... SAP BusinessObjects Planning and Consolidation (for NetWeaver) ... 44
* 2.2 ... Unified Planning and Consolidation ... 45
* 2.2.1 ... Planning in SAP BusinessObjects Planning and Consolidation ... 46
* 2.2.2 ... Consolidation in SAP BusinessObjects Planning and Consolidation ... 46
* 2.3 ... SAP BusinessObjects Planning and Consolidation NetWeaver Architecture ... 49
* 2.3.1 ... Client Interface ... 50
* 2.3.2 ... Web Server and .NET Application Server ... 50
* 2.3.3 ... SAP NetWeaver Application Server ... 50
* 2.3.4 ... Database Server ... 51
* 2.4 ... Introduction to SAP NetWeaver BW ... 52
* 2.4.1 ... Objects Used in SAP NetWeaver BW ... 52
* 2.4.2 ... Extraction, Transformation, and Loading Data in SAP NetWeaver BW ... 55
* 2.4.3 ... Process Chains ... 58
* 2.4.4 ... SAP Business Content ... 58
* 2.5 ... Terminology and Objects in SAP BusinessObjects Planning and Consolidation ... 59
* 2.5.1 ... Terminology ... 59
* 2.6 ... Summary ... 64
* 3 ... Modeling an Application with SAP BusinessObjects Planning and Consolidation for NetWeaver ... 65
* 3.1 ... Rich Bloom, Inc. ... 65
* 3.1.1 ... Business ... 66
* 3.1.2 ... Offices ... 66
* 3.1.3 ... Products ... 66
* 3.1.4 ... Currency ... 67
* 3.1.5 ... Case Study ... 67
* 3.1.6 ... Decision to Use SAP BusinessObjects Planning and Consolidation for NetWeaver ... 68
* 3.2 ... Building the Data Model in SAP NetWeaver BW ... 69
* 3.2.1 ... Creating and Activating InfoObjects ... 72
* 3.2.2 ... Creating an InfoArea ... 83
* 3.2.3 ... Creating a Sales InfoCube ... 84
* 3.3 ... Building Applications in SAP BusinessObjects Planning and Consolidation ... 90
* 3.3.1 ... Accessing the BPC System ... 92
* 3.3.2 ... Application Set ... 96
* 3.3.3 ... Dimensions ... 102
* 3.3.4 ... Application ... 115
* 3.4 ... Summary ... 126
* 4 ... Loading, Scheduling, and Managing Data in SAP BusinessObjects Planning and Consolidation for NetWeaver ... 127
* 4.1 ... Loading Data into an InfoCube in SAP NetWeaver BW ... 128
* 4.1.1 ... Creating a DataSource ... 128
* 4.1.2 ... Creating Transformations ... 133
* 4.1.3 ... Creating the Data Transfer Process (DTP) ... 135
* 4.1.4 ... Creating InfoPackages ... 137
* 4.1.5 ... Load Data from the PSA to the Data Target ... 141
* 4.2 ... Loading Data into SAP BusinessObjects Planning and Consolidation ... 142
* 4.2.1 ... Transformation and Conversion ... 143
* 4.2.2 ... Data Manager Packages ... 152
* 4.2.3 ... Process Chains ... 157
* 4.2.4 ... Loading Data from a Flat File into a Dimension ... 158
* 4.2.5 ... Loading Data from an InfoCube into an SAP BusinessObjects Planning and Consolidation Application ... 165
* 4.3 ... Copying Data Inside an SAP BusinessObjects Planning and Consolidation Application ... 174
* 4.4 ... Summary ... 178
* 5 ... Reporting, Planning, and Analysis in SAP BusinessObjects Planning and Consolidation ... 181
* 5.1 ... Reporting and Analysis in SAP BusinessObjects Planning and Consolidation ... 182
* 5.1.1 ... SAP BusinessObjects Planning and Consolidation for Excel ... 184
* 5.1.2 ... Current View ... 187
* 5.1.3 ... Measures Dimension ... 188
* 5.1.4 ... Develop Reports Using Dynamic Templates ... 190
* 5.1.5 ... Developing Reports Using Ev Functions ... 193
* 5.1.6 ... Control Panel ... 205
* 5.1.7 ... Developing Reports Using SAP BusinessObjects Planning and Consolidation Web ... 211
* 5.1.8 ... Developing Reports Using Structures and VB Macros ... 214
* 5.2 ... Planning in SAP BusinessObjects Planning and Consolidation Using Input Schedules ... 221
* 5.2.1 ... Standard Templates for Input Schedules ... 222
* 5.2.2 ... Workbook Options ... 223
* 5.2.3 ... Developing an Input Schedule ... 225
* 5.2.4 ... Worksheet Dimension Lock Option ... 228
* 5.2.5 ... Park N Go ... 228
* 5.3 ... Summary ... 229
* 6 ... Developing Business Logic in SAP BusinessObjects Planning and Consolidation ... 231
* 6.1 ... Dimension Logic ... 232
* 6.1.1 ... Dimension Formulas ... 232
* 6.1.2 ... Solve Order ... 234
* 6.2 ... Script Logic ... 237
* 6.2.1 ... Script Logic Construct ... 237
* 6.2.2 ... Executing Script Logic ... 243
* 6.2.3 ... Creating Script Logic to Revalue Plan Data ... 243
* 6.2.4 ... Script Logic Files Provided by SAP ... 252
* 6.3 ... Business Rules ... 253
* 6.3.1 ... Account Transformation ... 254
* 6.3.2 ... Intercompany Booking ... 254
* 6.3.3 ... Carry-Forward ... 254
* 6.3.4 ... Automatic Adjustments ... 254
* 6.3.5 ... Currency Translation ... 255
* 6.4 ... Allocations ... 262
* 6.5 ... Using BAdIs to Code Logic ... 267
* 6.6 ... Validation ... 268
* 6.7 ... Summary ... 275
* 7 ... Process Management and Collaboration ... 277
* 7.1 ... Work Status ... 278
* 7.2 ... Comments ... 286
* 7.2.1 ... Add Comments ... 287
* 7.2.2 ... Viewing Comments ... 290
* 7.2.3 ... Report on Comments ... 294
* 7.2.4 ... Ev Functions for Comments ... 296
* 7.3 ... Distribution and Collection ... 297
* 7.3.1 ... Creating a Distribution List ... 299
* 7.3.2 ... Offline Distribution Wizard ... 302
* 7.3.3 ... Collection ... 307
* 7.4 ... Integrating SAP BusinessObjects Planning and Consolidation Data into Word and PowerPoint ... 311
* 7.5 ... Menus ... 315
* 7.6 ... Summary ... 322
* 8 ... Essential Tools for Building Applications ... 323
* 8.1 ... Transporting SAP BusinessObjects Planning and Consolidation Objects ... 324
* 8.2 ... Concurrency Locking ... 331
* 8.2.1 ... Approaches to Locking ... 332
* 8.2.2 ... Locking Features in SAP BusinessObjects Planning and Consolidation for NetWeaver ... 332
* 8.2.3 ... The Locking Process in SAP BusinessObjects Planning and Consolidation for NetWeaver ... 333
* 8.3 ... Web Administration Parameters ... 337
* 8.4 ... Statistics ... 341
* 8.5 ... Audit ... 345
* 8.6 ... Content Library ... 346
* 8.6.1 ... Accessing the Content Library ... 347
* 8.6.2 ... Posting a Document ... 347
* 8.6.3 ... Editing Document Properties ... 349
* 8.6.4 ... Add Web Page to Content Library ... 349
* 8.7 ... Security ... 353
* 8.7.1 ... Users ... 353
* 8.7.2 ... Team ... 353
* 8.7.3 ... Task Profile ... 353
* 8.7.4 ... Member Access Profile ... 355
* 8.7.5 ... Security Model ... 355
* 8.8 ... Summary ... 355
* 9 ... Consolidation with SAP BusinessObjects Planning and Consolidation ... 357
* 9.1 ... Business Rules ... 357
* 9.1.1 ... Carry Forward ... 359
* 9.1.2 ... Intercompany Eliminations (US Eliminations) ... 366
* 9.2 ... Journals ... 373
* 9.2.1 ... Creating a Journal Template ... 374
* 9.2.2 ... Managing Journals ... 377
* 9.2.3 ... Journal Reports ... 379
* 9.3 ... Consolidation Logic ... 380
* 9.4 ... Summary ... 383
* 10 ... Outlook for SAP BusinessObjects Planning and Consolidation ... 385
* 10.1 ... Harmonization ... 385
* 10.1.1 ... Authentication and Single Sign-On ... 386
* 10.1.2 ... Platform Support ... 386
* 10.2 ... Integration ... 387
* 10.2.1 ... ETL Integration ... 387
* 10.2.2 ... Data Replication ... 388
* 10.2.3 ... Drill-Through ... 388
* 10.2.4 ... Integration with SAP BusinessObjects Process Control ... 389
* 10.2.5 ... Integration with Xcelsius ... 389
* 10.2.6 ... Integration with SAP BusinessObjects Voyager ... 389
* 10.3 ... Enhancements ... 390
* 10.3.1 ... Audit Enhancement ... 390
* 10.3.2 ... SAP BusinessObjects Planning and Consolidation for Excel Enhancement ... 390
* 10.3.3 ... Business Process Flow ... 391
* 10.3.4 ... Enhancements to Consolidations ... 394
* 10.3.5 ... Enhancements to Work Status ... 394
* 10.3.6 ... Enhancement to Script Logic ... 394
* 10.4 ... Summary ... 396
* 10.5 ... Conclusion ... 397
* ... The Authors ... 399
* ... Index ... 401