reading_sample_sap_press_sap_analytics_cloud_financial_planning_and_analysis (1).pdf

Reading Sample
In this chapter, you’ll learn how SAP Analytics Cloud supports different
financial planning scopes. You’ll follow step-by-step instructions to
manage and seed planning versions and input your planning assump-
tions.
Satwik Das, Marius Berner, Suvir Shahani, and Ankit Harish
SAP Analytics Cloud: Financial Planning and Analysis
468 pages, 2022, $89.95
ISBN 978-1-4932-2236-0
www.sap-press.com/5486
First-hand knowledge.
“Setting Up the Planning Process”
Contents
Index
The Authors

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Chapter 3
Setting Up the Planning Process
This chapter explains how SAP Analytics Cloud supports different plan-
ning scopes such as a long-term strategic plan, targeted budget, annual
operating plan, and a rapid or rolling forecast.
Chapter 1 introduced the different types of planning, including their uses and applica-
tions for running a business. We also explained that SAP Analytics Cloud has capabili-
ties to enable these various types of planning. In this chapter, we’ll look at the specific
functions and capabilities in SAP Analytics Cloud that allow you to not only create and
manage the various planning versions but also prepopulate or initialize and seed these
versions. We’ll also explain planning assumptions and look at capabilities in SAP Ana-
lytics Cloud that can be used to input and store them. At the conclusion of this chapter,
we’ll explain the collaboration and harmonization features of SAP Analytics Cloud that
make the planning process efficient and easily manageable, thereby enhancing the
overall user experience.
3.1 Managing Planning Versions
In Chapter 1, we explained annual operating plans and forecasts. Before we delve fur-
ther, let’s look at another version of plan that has a longer horizon than a typical annual
operating plan: the long-term strategic plan. Long-term strategic plans typically span
multiple fiscal years and result from a company’s mission.
In the following sections, we’ll first introduce budgeting and see how it differs from the
different types of plans and forecasts. We’ll then look at the features and functionalities
provided by SAP Analytics Cloud to enable implementation of various types of plans,
budgets, and forecasts.
3.1.1 Strategic Planning versus Budgeting versus Forecasting
The board and executives of the company set long-term goals for a business by identi-
fying broad key strategies. Some examples of these goals are that the company may
want to expand into a new region or market, the company may want to acquire a new
business to enter a new area of business or a market, or the company may want to
divest a business that no longer aligns with its core competency. These long-term goals
set the direction for the company for the next 5–10 years. To achieve these long-term

3 Setting Up the Planning Process
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goals, a long-term plan needs to be devised and broken into some immediate and near-
term plans and some mid- to long-term plans. This can be achieved using SAP Analytics
Cloud, but it’s different from the annual plans and forecasts we looked at in Chapter 1.
In Chapter 1, we discussed plans and forecasts in detail. A budget determines how a
company will use its capital. A budget’s primary goal is to determine what resources to
allocate to each part, from salaries to office supplies. Once a budget is prepared and
finalized, it’s static and used as a baseline to gauge performance of actuals or forecasts.
While a plan is used to set the roadmap for a company, a budget is used to gauge perfor-
mance, and a forecast is used to take stock of what was already achieved and what can
and needs to be changed and/or adjusted to keep on track per the plan.
3.1.2 Maintaining the Version and Date Dimensions
A version dimension in SAP Analytics Cloud enables separating the plan, budget, fore-
cast, and actuals. In this section, we’ll look at certain model-level settings, along with
the version and date dimension, to understand how to track and manage different
types of versions such as plan, budget, forecast, and actual.
When a planning model is created in SAP Analytics Cloud, Version and Date dimen-
sions are created by default, as shown in Figure 3.1.
Figure 3.1 Version and Date Dimensions Created by Default When Creating a Model
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We’ll take a closer look at these dimensions in the following sections.
Version Dimension
Once the model is saved, click on the Version dimension to navigate to its members.
The actual public version is automatically created in this dimension grouped under the
category Actuals, as shown in Figure 3.2. Other category types available are Budget, Plan,
and Forecast.
New members in this dimension can’t be created directly through dimension manage-
ment. We’ll review how to create them in Section 3.2.1.
Figure 3.2 Actual Version Created Automatically
When you click on the Version dimension, the Dimension Settings panel opens on the
right side of the screen. The version dimension allows for a user-defined name and
description; in our example, “Scenarios” is entered for the Description, as shown in
Figure 3.3.
Figure 3.3 Version Dimension: Name and Description

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The version dimension doesn’t have a hierarchy but allows for creating custom-defined
properties, which can be referenced in formulas and for reporting and analytics.
Date Dimension
After the model is saved, when you click on the Date dimension, it opens the Dimension
Settings panel to configure more details for the date dimension, as shown in Figure 3.4.
Similar to the version dimension, the date dimension can also have a user-defined name
and description (Period is entered for the Description). In addition, the date dimension
doesn’t allow for new members to be created or maintained via the dimension mainte-
nance screen. The date members are internally stored by SAP Analytics Cloud depending
on the settings for granularity and hierarchy values specified here.
In this example, set the Granularity as Month. This enables the user to plan, budget, and
forecast in this model with month being the lowest level of input. This is the most
widely used level of granularity for planning.
Figure 3.4 Settings for the Date Dimension
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Note
For long-term plans, the planning horizon is typically 5–10 years, whereas for plans,
budgets, and forecasts, the planning horizons are typically a year. If a rolling forecast is
being implemented, then the planning horizon could span between 12 and 24 months.
This is often dependent on the industry and what each enterprise decides is the most
effective way to manage its business.
Therefore, for a long-term plan, in the Dimension Settings for Date, the Granularity
would be set to Year, which then only allows for one hierarchy to choose from (i.e.,
Year).
Because this is a model-level setting and applies to all versions in the model with a
long-term strategic plan that spans multiple years and will be planned with annual
granularity, it will be housed in a separate model from the other versions, such as the
annual operating plan, budget, and forecast, which are all planned at a monthly granu-
larity.
Scrolling down, you’ll see the Default Hierarchy dropdown, as shown in Figure 3.5,
which enables you to select the default hierarchy to use in stories for inputs and
reports. Set this to Year, Quarter, Month. Selecting the default hierarchy doesn’t pre-
vent you from using the other hierarchies in stories or data actions. However, when
using certain functions, such as data locking, this default hierarchy setting is used and
can’t be changed. Once the granularity and hierarchy are selected, and the model has
transaction data, SAP Analytics Cloud doesn’t allow for these settings to be changed
easily, so only make these settings after careful thought and consideration.
Figure 3.5 Available Hierarchies in the Date Dimension
Selecting the gear icon in the date dimension, as shown previously in Figure 3.4, takes
you to the model-level settings. Figure 3.6 shows the Model Preferences screen, specifi-
cally the Fiscal Time section.

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Figure 3.6 Model-Level Settings for the Date Dimension
In the Fiscal Time section, specify the Starting Month as January if the planning horizon
starts in January and the fiscal year is January to December. If the company’s fiscal year
is April–March, then specify the Starting Month as April. The Denote Fiscal Year option
is self-explanatory; for example, when fiscal year spans two calendar years, this setting
gives you the option to denote the fiscal year as the calendar year of the start period or
calendar year of the ending period. When a fiscal year is April 2021–March 2022, the fis-
cal year could be denoted as either the calendar year of the start period (i.e., 2021) or the
calendar year of the ending period (i.e., 2022). Click OK when you’re done adjusting the
settings.
3.2 Initializing and Seeding Planning Versions
Seeding is the process of prepopulating the version with base data so planners have
some starting point or a reference to use. This helps in leveraging data that may be
already available from previous planning cycles and speeds the planning cycle by reduc-
ing the total planning cycle time. There are multiple options for the seeding process, and
they differ depending on the version of the current planning cycle being seeded.
When using SAP Analytics Cloud, the version dimension enables storage of all prior
annual operating plans, forecasts, budgets, and actuals. For example, as shown in Fig-
ure 3.7, if you want to start the annual operating plan cycle for 2022 and are currently in
June 2021, then the annual operating plan for 2021, budget for 2021, forecast for June
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2021, and actuals for January through June 2021 are all available in their respective ver-
sions to seed from. You may want to use the latest forecast, which is the forecast for
June 2021, to copy to the annual operating plan for 2022 as base data to use as a starting
point. This provides the planners with the best available information at a given time to
plan from. The drivers that were used for planning in the prior planning cycles are also
stored and can be made available in current planning cycles via the seeding process.
Figure 3.7 Seeding a Plan
If you’re preparing a budget for 2022, one of the two options to seed is copying from
prior budget 2021 to budget 2022 and then overwriting the January to June 2022 peri-
ods data in budget 2022 with the latest available actuals for those respective months in
prior year 2021, as shown in Figure 3.8. This way, you have the best possible information
available for the planners and a good starting point for planning. The other option is to
copy the latest available actuals and apply run-rates to forecast future periods. In this
section, we’ll look at the first option.
Figure 3.8 Seeding a Budget
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Plan
Forecast 1 + 11
Forecast 2 + 10
Forecast 3 + 9
Forecast 6 + 6
Load and Lock Actuals
Public Version
Forecast
Forecast
Forecast
Forecast
…
Public Version
2022
2021
Forecast
Forecast
Forecast 2 + 10
Forecast 1 + 11
Copy Forecast 6+6 (2021) to Plan (2022)
Plan
Budget
Public Version
Budget
Public Version
2022
2021
Copy Latest Actuals (Jan 2021 – Jun 2021) to Budget
Actuals

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In the following sections, we’ll explain how to set up the seeding process in SAP Analyt-
ics Cloud, starting with basic version management and moving on to advanced seeding
scenarios.
3.2.1 Basic Version Management
As seen in Section 3.1.2, the version dimension doesn’t allow for creating new members
via the dimension member maintenance screen. Every story in its menu has an option
for version management that enables new versions to be created. In SAP Analytics
Cloud, a story is the simplest way to consume data that is stored in a model. To under-
stand more about what a story is and how to create it, see Chapter 5, Section 5.2.
In this section, we’ll use an already created story called TQ_FI_ANA_IM_SALESPLAN_
INPUT, which has input templates for planning, as shown in Figure 3.9.
Figure 3.9 Version Management via Story
Clicking the Version Management icon at the top of the screen launches the Version
Management panel to the right, as shown in Figure 3.10.
Seeding using the version management method in a story always involves the step of
creating an intermediate private version. A private version, unlike a public version, is
only available and visible to the user who creates it unless it’s explicitly shared with the
other users and given appropriate access for read and/or write.
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Figure 3.10 Version Management Panel
In this example, you’ll copy the version from Plan, including all the data, into a private
version called budget. Click the Copy icon to arrive at the Copy Data to Private Version
screen shown in Figure 3.11. Provide a Version Name (here, “Budget”).
You can choose whether to Copy all data, Choose which data to copy, or Create a blank
version.
Figure 3.11 Copying a Public Version to a Private Version

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Depending on what you’re trying to accomplish, you’ll can select the appropriate op-
tion. When creating a new version dimension member without any data, choose the
Create a blank version option. In this example, however, where you’re seeding one ver-
sion from another, choose either the Copy all data or Choose which data to copy op-
tion, then click the OK button.
When you select the Choose which data to copy option, on the next screen shown in
Figure 3.12, you’ll need to specify the filter for each dimension available in the model to
provide an intersection of data to copy from. Choose Period from the Dimension drop-
down, and click OK.
Figure 3.12 Choosing Data to Copy from a Public to a Private Version
Back on the Version Management screen, the new intermediary private version, Bud-
get, is created, as shown in Figure 3.13.
Figure 3.13 Private Version Created
If a public version with the same name doesn’t already exist as in our example, then
select Publish As from the dropdown (see Figure 3.14); otherwise, select Publish to
update the values in the existing public version.
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Figure 3.14 Publishing the Private Version
Selecting Publish As allows for naming the version being published with a different
name from that of the private version before clicking the Publish button, as shown in
Figure 3.15. You can see the final Budget public version in Figure 3.16.
Figure 3.15 Publish Private Version As
Figure 3.16 Published Public Version

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3.2.2 Implementing Advanced Seeding Scenarios
Once version members are created, seeding them during every planning cycle can be
achieved by either using the version management functionality with the story or by
using data actions.
To understand how to use data actions for implementing advanced seeding scenarios,
you need to first understand what a data action is, the different types of data actions
available, and how the data actions can be executed.
Creating a Data Action for Seeding Scenarios
Very often in planning scenarios, you’ll need to perform repeated simple and complex
operations, such as copying and pasting data, running allocations or scripted calcula-
tions, and publishing versions. Data actions are flexible planning tools for making struc-
tured changes to data in models within SAP Analytics Cloud. One of the options within
a data action allows for copying data within the same model or between two models.
Once the data actions are set up, they can be launched by planners via buttons in a story
or analytic applications, or they can be scheduled through a calendar. (Refer to Chapter 5,
Section 5.2.3, to understand SAP Analytics Cloud, analytics designer, and see Chapter 6,
Section 6.1.1, to understand the calendar feature in SAP Analytics Cloud and how it can
be used in the context of planning.)
In the following steps, you’ll see how to create a data action for seeding scenarios. For
general instructions on creating data actions, see Chapter 4, Section 4.3.1.
The first step is to navigate to Data Actions from the left-hand menu in SAP Analytics
Cloud. You’ll arrive at the Welcome to Data Actions screen shown in Figure 3.17. Create
a data action by clicking on the + icon.
Figure 3.17 Creating a Data Action
Give the data action a meaningful Name and Description for the seeding scenario, and
select the model on which this data action will be performed, as shown in Figure 3.18.
Click the Save icon.
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Figure 3.18 Data Action Name and Description
Now you’ll create the steps that this data action will perform. The different types of data
action steps can be accessed from the icons in the Add Step section, as shown in Figure
3.19, and include the following options:
쐍 Add Copy Step
쐍 Add Cross-Model Copy Step
쐍 Add Allocation Step
쐍 Add Embedded Data Action Step
쐍 Add Currency Conversion Step
쐍 Add Advanced Formulas Step
Figure 3.19 Different Types of Steps in a Data Action
As you’ve seen in the preceding sections, seeding is basically using data that already
exists and is available to prepopulate a current version. The data can be prior actual,
forecast, or any other information that is readily available and that can be leveraged.
Therefore, the type of data action steps that can facilitate seeding in SAP Analytics
Cloud are copy step, cross-model copy, and advanced formula. Each of these data
actions will be discussed, step by step, in Chapter 4, Section 4.3.
Calling a Data Action in a Story
Now let’s see how this newly created data action is called from within a story. Once
you’ve navigated to the story, go to Designer mode by selecting the Edit option, as
shown in Figure 3.20. The Designer mode in the story allows for inserting the data
action as a button and any other widgets.

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Figure 3.20 Designer Mode in the Story
When in Designer mode, many other options for designing and modifying a story
become available in the Story menu. From the + menu option, insert a Planning Trigger,
as shown in Figure 3.21.
Figure 3.21 Inserting a Planning Trigger
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There are three trigger types to choose from on the next screen, as shown in Figure 3.22.
Select Data Action Trigger.
Figure 3.22 Types of Planning Triggers
This brings you to the Data Action Trigger details in the Builder pane, as shown in Fig-
ure 3.23. For this example, name the data action “Seed Plan”, and select the data action
TQ_FI_ANA_SEED_PLAN. In the Parameter section, you can enter a fixed value or keep
it blank to allow the user to specify when running this data action.
Figure 3.23 Data Action Trigger Details

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Now switch to the View mode to display the newly created data action button for Seed
Plan, as shown in Figure 3.24.
Figure 3.24 Data Action Button in the Story
Select the Seed Plan button, and a popup for user input prompt automatically provides
a list of values for the user to choose from, as shown in Figure 3.25. Unless any additional
parameters were added, this will show the default parameter called Target Version.
Figure 3.25 Parameter Prompting for User Input
Select Plan from the list of values shown in Figure 3.26. This is the version that will be
seeded from the source version Forecast 6+6, which we specified as a filter for the data
action section (see Chapter 4, Section 4.3.1, for instructions on creating a data action).
Figure 3.26 List of Values for User Selection
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The data copied by the data action, that is, from Forecast 6+6 into Plan, changes to a dif-
ferent background color to indicate that this data is still in a buffer and not yet updated
into the model, as shown in Figure 3.27.
Figure 3.27 Data Action Copied but Not Published
In the story’s menu bar, there is an option to revert the changes that are still in the buf-
fer or to publish this data to update the model, as shown in Figure 3.28. Only when the
copied data is published does the data get updated into the model and become avail-
able to all users of the model to view and use.
Figure 3.28 Revert or Publish
A similar data action can be created for Seed Budget as well. The difference is that
instead of the source in the filter of the data action, which was set to Forecast 6+6, here
you would set it to Budget. You would then also add another step in the data action to
then overwrite the first six months of copied data with the latest Actuals.
Seeding Using Version Management versus Data Actions
Table 3.1 lays out the difference between the two methods discussed in this chapter for
seeding plan data. Careful consideration needs to be made before selecting the method
to use for seeding plan data.

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Note
Data actions also allow for more advanced seeding scenarios using the cross-model
copy and advanced formula options, which we’ll discuss in Chapter 4, Section 4.3.
3.3 Inputting Planning Assumptions
In the following sections, we explore top-down and bottom-up planning in detail to
understand why both are essential tools for improving the accuracy of planning. Then
we’ll discuss the capabilities that SAP Analytics Cloud provides for implementing top-
down and bottom-up planning and the flexibility of maintaining planning assumptions.
3.3.1 Top-Down versus Bottom-Up Planning
Planning is both an art and a science. Although not necessary, it’s valuable for a good
planning process to use both top-down and bottom-up methods for generating mean-
ingful and accurate results. Refer to Chapter 1, Section 1.1.3, where we defined the terms
top-down and bottom-up planning. Some industries and enterprises may choose to
use one method over the other, depending on the industry, area of planning, nature of
Version Management Data Action
Create New Version Allows for creating new versions
during copy
Doesn’t allow for creating new
versions during copy
Copying Data Allows copying with data, with-
out data, or with partial data by
selecting the respective radio
button during the copy process
Allows to copy with data, with-
out data, or with partial data by
specifying in the filter when set-
ting up the data action
Copying Comments Allows copying of comments Doesn’t allow copying of com-
ments
Manual/Automation Multiple manual steps required,
including first creating an inter-
mediate private version
Multiple steps required and all
can be set up as automatic in the
data action; bypasses the need
to create an intermediate private
version
Repeatability All steps must be repeated man-
ually whenever a new version
needs to be seeded
All steps set up in the data action,
with the only manual step for the
user being specifying values for
prompts (e.g., target version)
Table 3.1 Comparison of Seeding Using Version Management versus Using Data Actions
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business, objective of planning, stage in the evolution that the enterprise is in, resources
on hand, and so on.
The science in a planning process can become complex and requires an enormous
amount of effort to meticulously gather data and apply assumptions at a very detailed
level. This can cause planners to lose sight of the forest for the trees. This is where the
art comes in, and intuition is needed to fine-tune the plan by looking at the results
from both top-down and bottom-up planning and then adjusting where appropriate.
Top-down planning deals with the big picture and application of high-level assump-
tions to the data on hand for preparing a plan. Bottom-up planning is a more collabora-
tive process where the various teams involved gather details and collaborate with their
respective divisions and departments within the company, such as sales, marketing,
supply chain, and manufacturing, to validate and input detail-level assumptions to
prepare a plan.
In the following sections, we’ll use two scenarios—annual operating plan for illustrat-
ing top-down planning and forecast for illustrating bottom-up planning—and finally
bring them both together. This will help us illustrate the features and functions that a
planning solution should offer and the ease with which these are enabled in SAP Ana-
lytics Cloud for implementing top-down and bottom-up planning.
Top-Down Planning
We’ll start with a scenario where the management of the company wants to prepare an
annual operating plan for the next year (2022) in July of the current calendar year
(2021). In our example, calendar year is the same as the fiscal year.
As we’re in July, our options are to start by prepopulating or seeding next year’s (2022)
annual operating plan with one of the following four options:
1. Actual data, which is available until June 2021, and then apply assumptions for next
year
2. Prior year’s plan
3. Latest forecast available, that is, forecast 6+6; actuals for January–June and forecast
for July–December
4. Start from scratch
We can quickly eliminate options 2 and 4 because option 2 is dated and therefore not so
relevant, and option 4 would require a lot of effort to build from. Option 1 is incomplete
as we’ll have the data for six months but will need to build the forecast for the remain-
ing six months of the year. The best option available is therefore to use the latest fore-
cast (option 3), which is available to us and has the best available information at the
time of planning.
To begin the process, we copy the latest forecast 6+6 for 2021 to the plan for 2022.
You’ve seen in Section 3.2 various ways this can be accomplished in SAP Analytics

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Cloud. Management now decides that next year, the company should grow the reve-
nues by 5% and reduce costs by 2%, thereby improving the profitability of the com-
pany. Although these assumptions can be applied on the back of an envelope and
calculated at a total level to use, the objective really is to see how these assumptions
play out within each profit center, customer, and product within the enterprise.
SAP Analytics Cloud offers the following features and functions to enable these scenarios:
쐍 Disaggregation
쐍 Distribution
쐍 Allocation
쐍 Advanced formulas in data actions
Of these, disaggregation and distribution are out-of-the box functionalities in SAP Ana-
lytics Cloud, which we’ll review in this chapter. The more advanced features, allocations
and advanced formulas in data actions, will be covered in Chapter 4.
Let’s start with disaggregation, which is a feature delivered out-of-the-box with SAP
Analytics Cloud. When you enter or change a value in a cell for a node in a hierarchy of
a dimension, the value is automatically spread to its leaf members that aggregate up to
it. This process is called disaggregation. In planning models, all the data is stored in the
leaf members for each dimension’s members, whereas the nodes of the hierarchy,
which are also referred to as parent members, show the aggregated values of their leaf
members and generally don’t store values of their own.
We begin by reviewing the plan version that was seeded from the latest forecast, as
shown in Figure 3.29. This view shows the total revenue across all profit centers, cus-
tomers, and products parent nodes in the hierarchy for the customers and products
expanded to their respective leaf members.
Figure 3.29 Seeded Plan Version
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Next, we’ll increase the total revenue by 5% as set by senior management of the com-
pany. In the input template shown in Figure 3.30, enter “5%” in the cell intersection for
rows TOT_CUSTOMER and TOT_PRODUCTS, and for column 2022.
Figure 3.30 Increase Revenue by 5%
This value gets disaggregated proportionally to the values that already existed in the
leaf members, as shown in Figure 3.31. Therefore, the increase of 5% is disaggregated
down not only to the customers and products but also across months and by profit
centers, which you don’t see in the table but is occurring behind the scenes.
Figure 3.31 Revenue Increase Disaggregated to Leaf Members

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Note
If there is no value in the leaf members during disaggregation, then the values are dis-
aggregated equally among the members within each node.
The limitation with the disaggregation feature is that the increase being input at a node
of the hierarchy gets disaggregated proportionally to the values that already exist in
the leaf members. What if you want to specify a different aggregation methodology?
The distribution functionality overcomes this very limitation. To use it, click the Allo-
cate icon, and select Distribute Value from the dropdown, as shown in Figure 3.32.
Figure 3.32 Distribute
You can either specify a source cell value to be distributed or input a different amount,
which will be booked as an additional amount, as shown in Figure 3.33. You can select
to Book as additional amount or overwrite the existing amount in the data cell, if any.
Figure 3.33 Book as Additional Amount
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In this example, manually calculate what the 5% increase to the total revenue will be
(5,373), and enter it here to be booked as an additional amount. Choose the Distribute to
Customer members one level below option under Recommendations, as shown in Fig-
ure 3.34. This will disaggregate the input value to the customers that are one level below
in the hierarchy.
The other options to choose from are as follows:
쐍 Redistribute among Customer members
Lets you change the proportions among a group of customers along the rows.
쐍 Distribute to Period members one level below
Lets you disaggregate the input value to the period (date) members that are one level
below in the hierarchy.
쐍 Redistribute among Period members
Lets you change the proportions among a group of period (date) members along the
column.
Figure 3.34 Distribute Options
You can choose to Append to the existing values in the cell or Overwrite the values, as
shown in Figure 3.35. Within these options, amounts entered can be disaggregated
based on one of the following options:
쐍 Input Values
Add the exact target values, either in the table or in the panel.
쐍 Input Weights
Set the proportional weights for each cell.

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쐍 Equally
Divide the source value equally among the cells.
쐍 Proportionally
Use the existing proportions between the cells.
For this example, choose Append, and select Input Weights as the Driver.
Now specify custom weights by which the 5% increase in revenue needs to be disaggre-
gated. These weights are different from how the default disaggregation was performed.
The default disaggregation is performed on a proportion of the values that already
exist in the cells and equal weight basis if no data exists in the cells that are being dis-
aggregated to. The Input Weights options use the weights that are input in the cells in
this panel, which could be different from what exists in the cells already.
After inputting the weights, click Apply to get the results.
Figure 3.35 Specify Weights
Compare the results of Figure 3.36 with the disaggregation results shown previously in
Figure 3.31. Although the total increase in revenue is the same, the amounts for the cus-
tomer are different.
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Figure 3.36 Disaggregation Results of Distribute
In top-down planning when using the default disaggregation, no consideration is given
to the company’s ability to execute on the plan, such as capacity constraint in the
plants for their ability to manufacture the demand, or to market saturation, to bottle-
necks in the supply chain process, and so on. The assumption is also that every cus-
tomer will be able to increase their purchases by 5% and that they will purchase the
same mix of products. Another assumption is that every region will grow by 5%, not
factoring in the competitive landscape of the region and/or whether the revenue will
grow due to increase in price or volume, and so on. Some of these limitations are over-
come by the Distribute functionality, but this method still doesn’t take into consider-
ation the ability for the company to execute on the increase in revenue, which may
be due to manufacturing constraints as in plant available capacity, supply chain con-
straints of material and labor availability, and so on.
Bottom-Up Planning
Bottom-up planning is a more scientific and granular approach to planning. The data is
gathered at a very detailed level by each company/region and for each customer and
product by inputting assumptions for demand and for price to calculate revenue for
each customer and product combination. Depending on the number of customers and
products, companies often decide to plan only for top customers, who are the major
contributors of revenue at a granular level, and group the smaller customers into one
and plan for them in aggregate.

162
In our example, we’ll use a forecast for bottom-up planning. We’ll use the annual operat-
ing plan that was prepared in the previous section for top-down planning to prepopulate
our forecast version. Now for each customer and product combination who are top cus-
tomers, you can adjust the Volume Base and Price Base individually and calculate the
revenue, as shown in Figure 3.37 and Figure 3.38, respectively. As these values are being
entered at the customer and product level, the values get aggregated up the hierarchy to
total customer and total product automatically.
Figure 3.37 Bottom-Up Planning: Adjust Volume
Figure 3.38 Bottom-Up Planning: Adjust Price
This is just one example of bottom-up planning for revenue planning. If you were to
extrapolate this level of detailed bottom-up planning to other areas of planning (e.g.,
cost-expense planning, manufacturing, human resources (HR), and marketing), and
to every company in every region, the process would become extremely arduous and
time-consuming to track versioning and manage various interdependencies. This is
especially true if these tasks are performed without the use of good technology.
However, once this level of detailed bottom-up planning is completed, data is aggre-
gated to prepare a profit and loss (P&L) for the enterprise and compare it with the top-
down version, which is the annual operating plan from our example in previous sec-
tions. The annual operating plan is used as a baseline against which the other versions
163
3
are compared, and the forecast keeps getting fine-tuned with the latest and greatest
information to keep the forecast numbers fresh and up to date. Thus, comparing the
top-down version to the bottom-up version in an iterative manner and adjusting the
bottom-up version helps improve the accuracy of the forecast.
SAP Analytics Cloud offers some sophisticated features for enabling the capture, input,
and calculation of the plan at a very detailed level. However, careful consideration is
needed during the design and build of planning models by selecting dimensionality
and the members and hierarchies in each dimension.
This method of using a combination of top-down and bottom-up planning is an art
that gives companies the flexibility to adjust to new information and incorporate it
into generating the forecasts with agility and without having to compromise accuracy.
Comparing Top-Down and Bottom-Up Planning
The top-down planning process goes from generic to specific and involves a decision-
making process of a few key senior executives. In this process, strategies are defined at
the top and percolated through the enterprise, and it relies on the enterprise’s manage-
ment to identify the framework plan based on the company’s goals, market research,
and growth targets. Subplans are created and handed off to the respective depart-
ments, divisions, and employees at lower levels.
Bottom-up planning, meanwhile, goes from specific to generic and involves diversified
decision-making in an inclusive environment. This is a very collaborative process and
involves distributed decision-making and gathering of specific data such as demand
forecasts, market trends, and production capacity.
Table 3.2 compares the pros and cons of the top-down and bottom-up planning ap-
proaches.
Pros Cons
Top-Down
Planning
쐍 Saves time and resources by not
having to focus on coordination
and collaboration
쐍 Centralizes decision-making and
creates subplans that are distrib-
uted to lower levels and therefore
aligns from the start
쐍 Supplies clear goals to middle
management to act on
쐍 Pushes down plans that haven’t
been run through constraints and
could therefore be nonexecutable
쐍 Poses risk that targets could be-
come unrealistic and unachievable
쐍 Doesn’t provide opportunity for
creative thinking at lower levels
Table 3.2 Top-Down versus Bottom-Up Planning

164
It’s therefore very important to have and use good technology for implementation of
both top-down as well as bottom-up planning.
3.3.2 Annualized versus Periodic Planning
In Chapter 1, we introduced the concepts of budget, plan, and forecast, and in Section 3.1,
we looked at how they can be implemented in SAP Analytics Cloud with the use of the
version and date dimensions. We also looked at changing the granularity of the time
dimension whether it be annual or periodic. We defined and explained the terms gran-
ularity and horizon for planning.
In this section, we’ll introduce the frequency of planning, which is how often planning is
performed. It’s a very common practice for companies to prepare an annual operating
plan, which forms the baseline against which actuals and forecasts are compared and
measured once every year. Budgets are also prepared once every year and used as a base-
line for measuring performance. This annual exercise is time consuming for companies,
and by the time the next year rolls in, the annual operating plan or budget has already
become stale. Therefore, many companies are either assessing the use of rolling fore-
casts or have already implemented them. If we stick to the traditional method, that is,
using an annual operating plan, then when the year for which the annual operating
plan was prepared rolls in, actuals start coming in, and the forecast cycle begins to pro-
vide the most up-to-date information to the executives for managing the business.
Forecasts can be performed at a monthly or quarterly frequency; either way, they can be
referred to periodically, whereas the annual operating plan is annualized.
Granularity and horizon for planning are set in the model settings, whereas the fre-
quency of planning is set in the calendar (this feature will be discussed further in Chap-
ter 6).
Bottom-Up
Planning
쐍 Gives a sense of ownership at
lower levels
쐍 Considers constraints of the com-
pany and is therefore executable
쐍 Can be used to drive accountabil-
ity if executed well
쐍 Allows creativity atlower levelsthat
can result in higher productivity
쐍 Can be very time-consuming for
the enterprise
쐍 Requires a lot of collaboration and
communication within the various
teams in the enterprise without
which it could create a chaos
쐍 Can slow the decision-making
process
쐍 Can create misaligned incentives
and not focused on overall success
of the company if done in silos
Pros Cons
Table 3.2 Top-Down versus Bottom-Up Planning (Cont.)
165
3.4 Collaboration and Harmonization of Planning Inputs
3
Figure 3.39 shows where you can specify the Granularity of planning in two variations.
For an annual operating plan, you select Month (left-hand side), whereas for a long-
term plan, you input values for the total year and select Year (right-hand side).
Figure 3.39 Monthly versus Yearly Granularity
3.4 Collaboration and Harmonization of Planning Inputs
Planning processes for companies are very collaborative and require inputs and com-
munication between teams across the company who could be in different countries, or
belong to different departments, divisions, business groups, and so on. This is also a
very iterative process, and inputs from one team may skew the results or become mis-
aligned with overall strategic goals. In our example, the forecast that was created using
the bottom-up method may provide a very different result from what management
intended and laid out in the annual operating plan, and, therefore, it may have to be fur-
ther adjusted before publishing. This becomes an iterative process to get the variances
between the two versions to be acceptable and yet achievable. Best practice is also to
keep the number of iterations to as few as possible, and there needs to be a compromise

7
Contents
Foreword .................................................................................................................................................. 11
Preface ....................................................................................................................................................... 13
1 Collaborative Enterprise Planning in
SAP Analytics Cloud 17
1.1 Collaborative Enterprise Planning ................................................................................. 17
1.1.1 Planning, Budgeting, and Forecasting ............................................................. 17
1.1.2 Rolling Forecasts ..................................................................................................... 22
1.1.3 Top-Down versus Bottom-Up Planning .......................................................... 22
1.1.4 Collaborative Planning and Forecasting ......................................................... 23
1.1.5 Challenges in Planning and Forecasting ......................................................... 26
1.2 Why Perform Enterprise Planning in the Cloud? ..................................................... 26
1.2.1 What Is the Cloud? ................................................................................................. 27
1.2.2 Benefits of the Cloud ............................................................................................. 28
1.3 What Is SAP Analytics Cloud? ........................................................................................... 29
1.3.1 Evolution of SAP Analytics Cloud ...................................................................... 29
1.3.2 Deployment Options and Integration Capabilities ..................................... 32
1.3.3 Models and Stories ................................................................................................ 35
1.3.4 Addressing the Challenges .................................................................................. 36
1.4 Sample Business Planning Process ................................................................................ 38
1.5 Summary ................................................................................................................................... 41
2 Data Acquisition and Modeling 43
2.1 Defining the Data .................................................................................................................. 43
2.1.1 Common Types of Data Required to Support Planning Processes ........ 44
2.1.2 Data Latency Considerations .............................................................................. 53
2.1.3 Configuring Import Connections for Data Acquisition .............................. 54
2.1.4 Configuring Live Connections for Real-Time Analysis ............................... 59
2.1.5 Configuring Live Connections for Hybrid Planning with SAP BPC ......... 65
2.2 Modeling the Data ................................................................................................................ 65
2.2.1 Defining the Scope, Granularity, and Dimensionality ............................... 67

Contents
8
2.2.2 Translating Functional Process Requirements into Models and
Dimensions ............................................................................................................... 70
2.2.3 Data Acquisition, Harmonization, and Wrangling ...................................... 104
2.2.4 Implementing Security for Access to Data Models ..................................... 126
2.3 Summary ................................................................................................................................... 136
3 Setting Up the Planning Process 137
3.1 Managing Planning Versions ........................................................................................... 137
3.1.1 Strategic Planning versus Budgeting versus Forecasting ......................... 137
3.1.2 Maintaining the Version and Date Dimensions .......................................... 138
3.2 Initializing and Seeding Planning Versions ............................................................... 142
3.2.1 Basic Version Management ................................................................................ 144
3.2.2 Implementing Advanced Seeding Scenarios ................................................. 148
3.3 Inputting Planning Assumptions .................................................................................... 154
3.3.1 Top-Down versus Bottom-Up Planning .......................................................... 154
3.3.2 Annualized versus Periodic Planning ............................................................... 164
3.4 Collaboration and Harmonization of Planning Inputs ......................................... 165
3.4.1 Planning Input Tasks ............................................................................................. 167
3.4.2 Discussions and Comments ................................................................................ 175
3.4.3 Workspaces .............................................................................................................. 178
3.4.4 Publications and Scheduling .............................................................................. 180
3.5 Summary ................................................................................................................................... 182
4 Automated Planning Logic 185
4.1 Driver-Based Planning ......................................................................................................... 185
4.2 On-the-Fly Calculations ...................................................................................................... 189
4.2.1 Account Member Formulas ................................................................................ 189
4.2.2 Calculated/Conversion Measures ..................................................................... 193
4.3 Persisted Logic Calculations .............................................................................................. 201
4.3.1 Creating Data Actions ........................................................................................... 201
4.3.2 Copy Data Action .................................................................................................... 202
4.3.3 Cross-Model Copy Data Action .......................................................................... 208
4.3.4 Advanced Formulas ............................................................................................... 214
4.4 Value Driver Trees ................................................................................................................. 238
9
Contents
4.5 Allocations ................................................................................................................................ 246
4.6 Currency Conversion ............................................................................................................ 253
4.6.1 Setting Up Your Model for Currency Conversion ......................................... 254
4.6.2 Creating a Currency Rate Table ......................................................................... 257
4.6.3 Using Advanced Overrides in Currency Conversion ................................... 259
4.6.4 Currency Triangulation ......................................................................................... 260
4.7 Summary ................................................................................................................................... 265
5 Analysis and Simulations 267
5.1 Key Analytic Goals and Reporting Strategy ............................................................... 268
5.2 User Experience ...................................................................................................................... 270
5.2.1 Reporting and Analysis through Stories ......................................................... 271
5.2.2 Creating Presentations in SAP Digital Boardroom ...................................... 287
5.2.3 Configuring Analytic Applications .................................................................... 294
5.2.4 Extending Data Models into Microsoft Excel ................................................ 302
5.3 Simulations and What-If Analyses ................................................................................ 311
5.3.1 Simulations through Version Management ................................................. 312
5.3.2 Simulating Changing Relationships with a Value Driver Tree ................ 317
5.4 Augmented Analytics .......................................................................................................... 321
5.4.1 Using Search to Insight for Natural Language Querying of Models ..... 322
5.4.2 Leveraging Smart Insights to Enhance Analysis .......................................... 326
5.4.3 Using Smart Discoveries for Freehand Data Exploration ......................... 327
5.5 Predictive Analytics .............................................................................................................. 331
5.5.1 Predictive Scenarios ............................................................................................... 332
5.5.2 Automated Trend-Based Predictive Forecasts .............................................. 333
5.5.3 Creating and Tuning Predictive Models Using Smart Predict ................. 336
5.6 Summary ................................................................................................................................... 345
6 Organizing Your Planning Processes 347
6.1 Planning Workflows ............................................................................................................. 347
6.1.1 Managing the Planning Calendar ..................................................................... 348
6.1.2 Timing and Governance through Locking ...................................................... 361
6.1.3 Using Roles to Manage Planning Task Profiles ............................................. 364
6.2 Sharing and Collaboration ................................................................................................ 368
6.2.1 Sharing Updates with Users and Teams ........................................................ 368

Contents
10
6.2.2 Additional Collaboration Features ................................................................... 371
6.3 Summary ................................................................................................................................... 375
7 Publishing to Stakeholders 377
7.1 Sample Profiles of Key Stakeholder Groups .............................................................. 377
7.2 Data Export and Submission Approaches .................................................................. 380
7.2.1 Exporting Data to Offline Formats ................................................................... 380
7.2.2 Exporting Data to External Systems ................................................................ 391
7.3 Summary ................................................................................................................................... 392
8 Implementation Best Practices 395
8.1 Predelivered Business Content and Accelerators .................................................... 395
8.1.1 Standard Planning Models .................................................................................. 395
8.1.2 Using Standard Content in Your Implementation Project ....................... 399
8.2 Best Practices for Performance Optimization .......................................................... 404
8.2.1 Performance Architecture ................................................................................... 404
8.2.2 Optimizing the User Environment ................................................................... 405
8.2.3 Optimizing Data Acquisition Performance .................................................... 407
8.2.4 Optimizing Planning Scenario Performance ................................................. 409
8.3 Summary ................................................................................................................................... 423
9 Sustaining Your SAP Analytics Cloud Investment 425
9.1 Release Management .......................................................................................................... 425
9.2 Maintenance and Rollouts ................................................................................................ 428
9.2.1 Transporting Developments and Enhancements across Systems ......... 428
9.2.2 Troubleshooting and Traceability ..................................................................... 438
9.3 Summary ................................................................................................................................... 451
The Authors ............................................................................................................................................. 453
Index .......................................................................................................................................................... 455

455
Index
12-month view ......................................................... 22
A
Accelerators ............................................................ 395
FP&A ..................................................................... 398
headcount planning ....................................... 398
sales planning model ..................................... 397
Account dimension .............. 69, 72–73, 189–190
create properties ................................................. 79
hierarchies ............................................................. 79
new model .............................................................. 85
scoping ................................................................. 234
settings .................................................................... 76
Account hierarchy ................................................ 400
Account member formula ............. 188–190, 228
best practices ..................................................... 414
operations ........................................................... 189
setup ...................................................................... 190
stacking ................................................................ 415
Account type .............................................................. 76
Accuracy ................................................................... 340
Acquired connection ...................................... 33–34
Acquired data ............................................................ 56
model ....................................................................... 70
Acquisition model ................................................ 407
Action bar ...................................................... 291–292
Active event ............................................................ 298
Activities page ........................................................ 438
Activity audit .......................................................... 438
Actuals ...................................................... 20, 341, 396
category ............................................................... 139
Administration ...................................................... 128
Advanced formula ............................. 214, 414, 416
add step ................................................................ 230
add to story ........................................................ 237
calculation .......................................................... 234
configuration ..................................................... 216
configure script ................................................. 230
define parameters ............................................ 217
design options ................................................... 214
driver-based planning .................................... 229
editor ..................................................................... 190
examples ............................................................. 221
execute ................................................................. 238
general rules ....................................................... 221
hierarchy nodes ................................................ 229
retrieve results from the model .................. 228
Advanced formula (Cont.)
scoping .............................................. 216, 221, 231
script ..................................................................... 215
script versus visual view ............................... 234
sequence of calculation ................................ 227
Advanced logic ...................................................... 187
Advanced override ............................................... 259
Agenda ...................................................................... 287
Aggregation ............................................................ 274
type .................................................................... 77, 92
Algorithm ....................................................... 334, 343
Allocation ....................................................... 188, 246
configure ............................................................. 248
create .................................................................... 247
create rule ........................................................... 250
execute ................................................................. 251
scenarios ............................................................. 246
scope ............................................................ 248, 252
verify results ...................................................... 252
Analysis ................................................. 267, 273, 304
design ................................................................... 307
enhance ............................................................... 326
Microsoft Excel ................................................. 302
Analytic application ............................................ 294
create .................................................................... 295
design process ................................................... 295
run ......................................................................... 300
Analytics designer ............................. 294, 297, 300
open ...................................................................... 295
Analytics model ................................................ 31, 35
Annualized planning .......................................... 164
Annual operating plan ................. 19–20,22,142,
155, 162
example .................................................................. 21
Append value ...................................... 159, 204, 212
Application design .................................................. 31
Artificial intelligence (AI) ......................... 321, 331
Assignee .......................................................... 168, 353
input ..................................................................... 172
notifications ...................................................... 171
select ..................................................................... 170
summary .................................................... 172, 174
Assigner ........................................................... 168, 172
summary ............................................................. 174
Assumptions .......................................................... 154
Attribute ..................................................................... 68
Auditing .......................................................... 438, 441

Index
456
Audit trail dimension ................................... 72, 231
scoping ................................................................. 234
Augmented analytics .......................................... 321
Authentication method ........................................ 61
Authentication type ............................................... 58
Automated forecast ................................... 331, 334
Automated planning logic ................................ 185
B
Backend .................................................................... 405
Balance sheet ............................................................. 22
Bar chart ................................................................... 279
Baseline ........................................................................ 20
Basic authentication ............................................... 58
Best-case scenario ....................................... 312, 315
Best-fit algorithm ................................................. 336
Best practices ................................................ 395, 399
calculation .......................................................... 413
data actions ....................................................... 417
performance optimization ........................... 404
planning model ................................................. 410
predelivered models ........................................ 396
stories ................................................................... 419
Booking account ................................................... 249
Bottom-up planning .................... 22, 37, 154, 161
pros and cons ..................................................... 164
versus top-down ............................................... 163
Broadcast .................................................................. 180
Budgeting ................................................ 17, 137, 143
frequency ............................................................. 164
Builder panel ......... 151, 199, 240, 251, 273–274,
280, 288, 296, 299, 318
Built-in date dimension ........................................ 72
Built-in version dimension .................................. 72
Burst ........................................................................... 180
Business intelligence .............................................. 32
Business Intelligence license ................. 126, 128
Business rule .............................................................. 46
Button object .......................................................... 297
C
Calculated measure .......... 94, 188, 193, 274, 278
create .......................................................... 194–195
dos and don'ts ................................................... 193
scenarios .............................................................. 194
Calculation ....................................................... 73, 234
add ......................................................................... 276
advanced ............................................................. 187
best practices ..................................................... 413
create .................................................................... 319
Calculation (Cont.)
editor ................................................. 274, 276, 278
engine ............................................................... 37, 76
input controls ........................................... 275, 277
management ........................................................ 94
on-the-fly ............................................................. 189
persisted logic .................................................... 201
scope ............................................................ 224, 226
sequence ............................................................... 227
stacked .................................................................. 415
trigger multiple ................................................. 354
types ....................................................................... 188
variance ................................................................ 273
workspace .................................................. 194–195
worst-case scenarios ....................................... 320
Calendar .......................................................... 171, 361
assign roles .......................................................... 352
events .......................................................... 348, 352
generate events with wizard ........................ 358
manage ................................................................. 348
notifications ....................................................... 360
tasks ....................................................................... 354
task types ............................................................. 350
Canvas .............................................................. 272, 295
Cardinality ............................................................... 217
Carryforward statement ..................................... 419
Chart ........................................................................... 279
add .......................................................................... 280
add hyperlinks ................................................... 285
add to analytic applications ........................ 297
engine .................................................................... 404
export .................................................................... 386
search .................................................................... 326
structure ..................................................... 280, 297
styling .................................................................... 281
view .............................................................. 298, 301
Chrome extensions and plug-ins ................... 406
Classic account model ........................................... 84
create ....................................................................... 87
migration ............................................................... 86
Classification ........................................................... 332
Client-server interaction .................................... 404
Cloud ..................................................................... 26–27
benefits ................................................................... 28
connection ...................................................... 51, 61
Cloud connector ........................................ 32, 46, 51
Cloud-first strategy ............................................... 310
Collaboration ...................................... 165, 368, 371
features ....................................................... 175, 371
panel ...................................................................... 177
workspace ............................................................ 178
Collaborative enterprise planning ............ 17, 23
scenarios ................................................................ 23
457
Index
Comments ........................ 154, 175–176, 306, 373
view ........................................................................ 177
Commercial sales forecasting ............................. 39
Communication .................................................... 175
Company code dimension ................................ 234
Compatibility ............................................................ 51
Composite task ................................... 176, 350, 354
distribution ......................................................... 353
roles ....................................................................... 352
rules ....................................................................... 352
Concurrent license ............................................... 127
Conditional operator ........................................... 189
Confidence .............................................................. 334
Configuration definition ................................... 216
Connection type ........................................ 45, 51, 59
cloud ......................................................................... 51
comparison ........................................................... 52
direct ........................................................................ 51
flat files .................................................................... 46
import ...................................................................... 45
live ............................................................................. 49
select ...................................................................... 106
tunnel ....................................................................... 51
Connectivity .............................................................. 45
access ............................................................... 55, 59
compare connection types .............................. 52
import ...................................................................... 45
live ............................................................................. 49
on-premise ............................................................. 47
SAP Analysis for Microsoft Office .............. 303
scenarios ................................................................. 46
security ............................................................ 46, 50
Constant value ....................................................... 319
Content library ...................................................... 405
Content network storage ......................... 428–429
create new export ............................................ 430
target system ..................................................... 433
Context menu ........................................................ 291
object-specific .................................................... 292
Conversion measure ................................. 193, 195
maintain currencies ........................................ 197
Conversion operator ........................................... 189
Conversion rule ..................................................... 263
Copy ........................................................................... 202
rules ....................................................................... 203
Core data services (CDS) view ...... 45, 48, 59, 61,
104, 408
select ...................................................................... 109
Cost center dimension .......................................... 71
Create permission ................................................ 366
Creditor ..................................................................... 378
Cross-model copy ....................... 86, 208, 343, 417
completion options ........................................ 210
mapping .............................................................. 210
options ................................................................. 212
result ..................................................................... 213
settings ................................................................ 209
Cross-origin resource sharing (CORS) ............. 51
CSV delimiter ......................................................... 386
Currency ........................ 37, 75, 79, 81, 94, 98, 254
enable ............................................................ 83, 254
flexbility ................................................................. 85
link measure to dimension .......................... 256
maintain rates .................................................. 197
property .................................................................. 69
rate table .................................................... 255, 257
translation ............................................................ 69
Currency conversion .......................... 72, 253, 274
add step ............................................................... 262
create rate table ............................................... 257
currency triangulation .................................. 260
enable ............................................................ 98, 255
enable currency ................................................... 81
execute ................................................................. 264
maintain rates .................................................. 197
rate types ............................................................... 79
set up rules ......................................................... 263
use advanced overrides ................................. 259
versions ................................................................... 69
Currency triangulation ...................................... 260
create measure ................................................. 261
Current property .................................................. 419
Customer ................................................................. 378
Customer dimension ............................................. 72
scoping ................................................................. 234
Custom expression .............................................. 115
create columns ................................................. 116
editor ........................................................... 115, 124
output .................................................................. 117
Customization ....................................................... 400
Custom logic ............................................................. 48
Custom property ..................................................... 79
Cutover date .................................................. 419, 421
D
Dashboard ...................................................... 287, 322
add jump target ............................................... 290
import stories .................................................... 288
navigation ................................................. 289, 292
open ...................................................................... 287
presentation settings ..................................... 290
topics .................................................................... 288

Index
458
DATA() ................................ 219, 222–225, 236, 417
Data access ................................................................. 96
best practices ..................................................... 412
controls ................................................................... 97
enable ...................................................................... 74
full .......................................................................... 131
levels ...................................................................... 370
limitations .......................................................... 367
through teams ................................................... 134
Data acquisition ............................... 33–34, 43, 105
configure import connections ....................... 54
live connections ................................................... 59
optimize performance ................................... 407
Data action ................................. 154, 188, 354, 416
add copy step ..................................................... 203
add currency conversion step ..................... 262
add to story ..................................... 204, 206, 237
advanced formula ........................................... 230
analyze performance ...................................... 448
best practices ........................................... 416–417
call in stories ...................................................... 149
copy ............................................................. 153, 202
create ................................................. 148, 201, 230
cross-model ........................................................ 212
cross-model copy ............................................. 208
execute ................................................................. 207
parameter ........................................................... 151
performance analysis ..................................... 450
seeding scenarios ............................................. 148
settings ................................................................. 201
specific use cases .............................................. 418
steps ............................................................. 149, 202
task .............................................................. 350, 354
trigger ................................................ 151, 206, 237
versus version management ....................... 153
Data Action Performance Statistics and
Analysis story .................................................... 450
Data archiving ........................................................ 413
Data audit ......................................................... 96, 441
enable ................................................................... 441
report .................................................................... 442
Data connector ......................................................... 32
Data consumption .................................................. 35
Data copy ................................................................. 417
Data exploration ................................................... 327
Data export ............................................................. 380
chart objects ....................................................... 386
CSV ......................................................................... 386
details ................................................................... 382
external systems ............................................... 391
OData ................................................................... 392
offline formats .................................................. 380
Data export (Cont.)
PDF or PowerPoint ........................................... 387
SAP BPC ................................................................ 391
SAP IBP .................................................................. 392
SAP S/4HANA ..................................................... 391
scheduling ........................................................... 388
stories .................................................................... 384
story level versus object level ....................... 386
Data foundation .................................................... 101
Data latency ............................................................... 53
Data loading .................................................... 58, 105
choose source connection ............................. 107
draft mode ........................................................... 106
flat files ................................................................. 110
incremental ......................................................... 105
into model ........................................................... 111
options .................................................................. 122
partition ............................................................... 409
performance ....................................................... 407
schedule ................................................................ 121
Data locking ..................................... 37, 97, 361, 363
automatic ............................................................ 356
configure .............................................................. 362
enable .................................................................... 361
task ............................................................... 350, 356
Data management workspace ............... 106, 381
Data manipulation language (DML) .............. 221
Data mapping ............................................... 111, 118
Data modeling ................................................... 43, 65
Data preparation ......................................... 111–112
Data privacy ............................................................... 97
Data provisioning ................................................. 104
Data replication ....................................................... 46
import connection ............................................. 58
Data repository ........................................................ 67
Data set ...................................................................... 102
create ........................................................... 102, 342
Data source ............ 44, 55, 87, 101, 105, 107, 402
add-in .................................................................... 307
flat files ................................................................. 110
import ................................................................... 120
import connections .................................... 48, 56
live connections ........................................... 52, 59
live data model .................................................... 63
Microsoft Excel .................................................. 302
select ...................................................................... 108
time series ............................................................ 338
Data transfer protocol ......................................... 405
Data transformation .................................... 66, 105
operations ........................................................... 114
Data volume .............................................................. 48
459
Index
Data warehousing .................................................... 53
Data wrangling ................................................ 66, 111
Date and time operator ...................................... 189
Date dimension ........................... 69, 138, 140, 255
configure ................................................................ 91
model preferences ............................................ 141
scoping ................................................................. 234
settings ................................................................. 140
Default hierarchy .................................................. 141
Default mapping ................................................... 119
Default model ........................................................ 209
Default node configuration .............................. 240
Default role .............................................................. 131
Delete permission ................................................ 366
Dependency ............................................................ 121
Dependent objects ............................................... 431
Deployment options .............................................. 32
Designer mode .................................... 149, 240, 273
Design objectives ........................................... 70, 104
Design panel ................................................. 304, 306
Destination .............................................................. 431
Details pane ............................................................. 112
Digital boardroom ................................................ 287
open dashboard ................................................ 287
Dimension .......................................................... 67–68
add ............................................................................ 89
best practices ..................................................... 411
built-in ..................................................................... 73
create ....................................................................... 73
custom expressions ......................................... 124
data locking ....................................................... 362
details ................................................................... 167
input controls .......................................... 275, 282
link currency measure .................................... 256
linked .......................................................... 285–286
maintenance ......................................................... 75
mapping .................................................... 118, 210
properties ............................................................ 403
required ................................................................... 93
scoping ................................................................. 233
settings ................................................................. 139
setup ......................................................................... 73
slicing .................................................................... 292
source .......................................................... 210, 248
split ........................................................................ 412
standard ................................................................. 68
target .................................................................... 248
types ................................................... 68, 71, 73, 83
unassigned .......................................................... 211
Direct connection ............................................ 51, 59
Disaggregation ............................................. 156, 158
default .................................................................. 160
Discussion ...................................................... 172, 175
features ................................................................ 176
thread ................................................ 175, 371, 373
Distribute value .................................................... 158
results ................................................................... 160
Division overhead ................................................... 40
Draft mode ....................................................... 58, 106
load ....................................................................... 106
load from flat file ............................................. 110
Drilldown ........................................................ 283, 285
Drill state ................................................................. 416
Drill through .......................................................... 285
Driver .................................. 187, 190, 238, 246, 248
map ....................................................................... 317
Driver-based planning .................... 185–186, 317
advanced formulas ......................................... 229
Driving dimension .............................................. 362
Dropdown ............................................................... 301
properties ............................................................ 299
Dynamic filter ........................................................ 274
E
Employee ................................................................. 378
expense planning ............................................ 398
End date ................................................................... 402
Enterprise ................................................................... 23
sample .................................................... 38, 71, 104
Enterprise performance management
(EPM) .................................................................... 187
Entity ......................................................... 69, 339, 343
Event ................................................................. 298, 348
generate with wizard ..................................... 358
Exception aggregation ................................... 78, 93
Exchange rate ........................................................... 79
Execute permission ............................................. 366
Executive leadership team ............................... 378
Expand indicator .................................................. 278
Expected MAPE ............................................ 340, 344
Expense calculation ............................................ 189
Explanation ............................................................ 341
Explorer .................................................................... 292
Export job ....................................................... 381, 391
details ................................................................... 382
Export package ............................................. 430, 435
Extended planning and analysis
(xP&A) ............................ 267–268, 311, 347, 377
External driver ...................................................... 186
External reporting ............................................... 268
External stakeholder ........................................... 377

Index
460
F
F(x) layer ................................................................... 409
Feature roadmap ................................................... 426
Feedback ......................................................... 268, 374
File system ............................................................... 435
transport .................................................... 428, 435
Financial planning and analysis (FP&A) ........ 21,
39, 45, 185, 347
challenges ...................................................... 26, 36
model .................................................................... 398
Fiscal year .......................................................... 91, 142
Flat file ................................................................ 46, 103
generate ............................................................... 381
import ................................................................... 120
load .............................................................. 106, 110
Follow-up action ................................................... 206
Forecasting ............ 17, 19, 22, 137, 155, 162, 185
add forecast ........................................................ 334
automated .......................................................... 331
best and worse case ........................................ 312
challenges ...................................................... 26, 36
choose algorithm ............................................. 334
commercial sales ................................................. 39
confidence ........................................................... 335
example ............................................................... 187
frequency ............................................................. 164
manufacturing ..................................................... 40
predictive ................................................... 333, 335
process flow ........................................................ 348
publish .................................................................. 342
recalculate .......................................................... 316
requirements ...................................................... 332
rolling ...................................................................... 22
simulations ......................................................... 313
train and forecast ............................................ 340
versus actual ...................................................... 341
Forecast layout ....................................................... 419
identify current version ................................. 420
Formatting ....................................................... 94, 196
Formula .......................................... 76, 277, 298, 421
advanced ............................................................. 214
editor ..................................................................... 190
inverse .................................................................. 191
result ..................................................................... 219
Formula extension (FOX) scripting ............... 214
Formula script ........................................................ 215
configuration definition ................................ 216
result/data generation .................................. 219
scope definition ................................................ 216
Frequency ................................................................ 164
Frontend ................................................................... 404
Function ............................................................ 95, 116
help ........................................................................... 95
G
Gantt chart ..................................................... 349, 358
Geomap ..................................................................... 280
Governance ................................................... 379, 425
Granularity .......................................... 109, 140, 165
Graphical view .......................................................... 35
Grid ......................................................... 198, 272, 363
Group currency ............................................ 261, 263
H
Headcount planning .................................... 40, 398
Heat map .................................................................. 325
Hierarchy ................. 37, 68–69, 76, 223, 229, 285,
357, 400
account dimensions .......................................... 79
best practices ...................................................... 415
default ................................................................... 141
disaggregate ....................................................... 156
edit nodes .............................................................. 80
multiple .................................................................. 76
organization dimension .................................. 82
parameters .......................................................... 218
topics ..................................................................... 288
types ......................................................................... 82
view .......................................................................... 80
Historical data .......................................................... 22
best practices ...................................................... 413
Horizon ..................................................................... 141
Hybrid planning ............................................ 65, 271
Hyperlink .................................................................. 285
I
Implementation project ..................................... 395
using standard content .................................. 399
Import connection ......................... 44–47, 52, 308
configure ................................................................ 54
data sources .......................................................... 56
limitations ............................................................. 48
parameters ............................................................ 57
SAP S/4HANA ....................................................... 48
Import job ................................................................ 120
set dependencies ............................................... 121
settings ....................................................... 121–122
Import method ...................................................... 122
outputs ................................................................. 124
Import package ............................................ 433, 436
461
Index
Import review ............................................... 111, 119
Index model ............................................................... 97
Influencer ................................................................. 340
Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) ........................ 28
Inheritance .............................................................. 306
Input control .......................................................... 420
collapse ................................................................ 422
Input parameter .................................................... 105
Input task ................................................................. 167
completion settings ........................................ 170
create .......................................................... 167–168
manage ................................................................ 171
models .................................................................. 170
send to assignees .............................................. 170
summary page .................................................. 169
Input template ....................................................... 192
Input value .............................................................. 159
Input weight ........................................................... 159
Insight generation ................................................ 268
Integrated Planning (IP) ........................................ 32
Integration ................................................... 32–33, 37
Intelligent technologies ..................................... 321
Intermediary currency ............................. 261, 263
Internal driver ........................................................ 186
Internal reporting ................................................. 268
Internal stakeholder ............................................ 377
Inverse formula ..................................................... 191
IT department ........................................................... 40
J
JavaScript .............................................. 296, 298–299
Jump target .............................................................. 290
K
Key influencers ...................................................... 330
L
Label .............................................................................. 78
Lagging ...................................................................... 406
Landscape ................................................................ 431
Lane ............................................................................ 279
Layout ........................................................................ 291
Legal costs ................................................................... 40
Legal reporting ....................................................... 270
Level-based hierarchy .................................. 82, 223
Library panel ........................................................... 288
predictive ............................................................. 336
Licensing ............................................... 126, 365, 379
access .................................................................... 380
type ..................................................... 126, 129, 365
Linear regression .................................................. 334
Line graph ................................................................ 279
Line of business (LoB) manager ...................... 378
Linked analysis ............................................. 283, 285
filter ....................................................................... 284
options ................................................................. 292
Linked dimension ................................................ 286
List .............................................................................. 349
Live connection ........... 33–34, 44, 49, 52, 54, 308
configure ................................................................ 59
create model ......................................................... 62
data sources .......................................................... 59
enable ................................................................... 303
hybrid planning with SAP BPC ...................... 65
parameters ............................................................ 59
security ................................................................... 50
types ......................................................................... 51
Live data model ................................................. 62, 70
create ....................................................................... 87
generate ................................................................. 64
parameters ............................................................ 62
use in stories ......................................................... 64
Local currency .............................................. 254, 263
Logical operator .................................................... 189
Long-term strategic plan .......................... 137, 141
LOOKUP() ................................................................. 416
M
Machine learning ........... 321, 326, 331, 336, 341
Maintenance ................................................. 425, 428
permissions ........................................................ 367
Manage permission ............................................. 367
Manufacturing department ................................ 25
Manufacturing forecast ........................................ 40
Mapping ................................................................... 210
Margin of error ...................................................... 334
Marketing forecast ............................................... 187
Master data
add properties to dimensions ..................... 403
source ................................................................... 402
Mathematical operation ................................... 189
Mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) .... 340
Measure ............................................................. 67, 242
add ............................................................................ 92
add calculations ............................................... 274
advanced settings ........................................... 196
calculated .................................................... 94, 193
calculation ......................................................... 276
conversion ................................................. 193, 195
currency ............................................................... 261
duplicate ............................................................. 277

Index
462
Measure (Cont.)
dynamic filters .................................................. 274
filters ..................................................................... 277
input controls .................................................... 275
link to curerncy dimension .......................... 256
multiple ................................................................... 85
source .................................................................... 195
MEMBERSET ...................... 216, 223, 226, 231, 417
Microsoft Excel ........ 25, 271, 302, 304, 307, 310,
384
add-in .................................................................... 307
connect to SAP systems ................................. 302
create views ........................................................ 308
Migration .................................................................... 86
Model .................................................... 65, 69, 87, 405
add dimensions .................................................... 89
add link ................................................................ 286
add measures ........................................................ 92
best practices ..................................................... 410
classic versus new ....................................... 84, 86
components ........................................................... 67
create ....................................................................... 87
currency conversion ........................................ 254
data foundation view ..................................... 101
data loading ....................................................... 111
default .................................................................. 209
design objectives ................................................. 70
dimensions ............................................................ 68
display data sources ....................................... 101
extend into Microsoft Excel ......................... 302
import into Microsoft Excel ......................... 308
input tasks .......................................................... 170
live ............................................................................. 62
migration ............................................................... 86
natural language querying .......................... 322
prebuilt ....................................................... 395–396
predictive ............................................................. 340
purpose ................................................................... 67
read data ............................................................. 219
save ........................................................................ 100
search .................................................................... 324
security ................................................................. 126
select ...................................................................... 131
select type ............................................................... 88
set as planning ..................................................... 98
setup ......................................................................... 84
source .................................................................... 209
toggle view .......................................................... 100
train ....................................................................... 339
types ......................................................................... 70
Modeler
create calculated measures .......................... 194
create conversion measure ........................... 195
create export jobs ............................................. 391
create live data models .................................... 62
create model ......................................................... 87
currency conversion ........................................ 257
data locking ........................................................ 361
public dimensions .............................................. 73
Modeling ..................................................................... 35
Model preferences ........................................... 92, 96
access and privacy ................................... 96, 134
currency ........................................................ 98, 255
data and performance ..................................... 99
date dimension .................................................. 141
display ................................................................... 100
fiscal time .............................................................. 98
general settings ................................................... 96
planning and time range ................................. 98
structure priority ................................................ 99
Model structure workspace ............................... 362
Multiaction task ........................................... 350, 354
Multidimensional query .................................... 414
Multidimensional services (MDS) ........ 414, 417
N
Named license ........................................................ 127
Natural language processing ............................ 321
Natural language query ............................ 323, 326
Network ..................................................................... 405
New model ................................................................. 85
add dimensions ................................................... 89
add measures ....................................................... 92
benefits ................................................................... 85
create ....................................................................... 87
migration ............................................................... 86
settings ................................................................... 89
setup ........................................................................ 85
Node ........................................................................... 240
add .......................................................................... 242
configure .............................................................. 242
fit to screen .......................................................... 244
relationships ....................................................... 244
Noncumulative account ....................................... 78
Notification ......................................... 171, 174, 360
send via email .................................................... 176
Null .............................................................................. 418
O
OData connection ....................................... 105, 108
463
Index
OData services .............. 47–48, 61, 105, 108, 296,
392, 408
Offline export ......................................................... 380
stories ................................................................... 384
On-premise ................................................. 27, 32, 47
On-the-fly calculation ...................... 188–189, 414
Operating hours .................................................... 239
Operational reporting ......................................... 269
Organization dimension .............................. 69, 80
hierarchies ............................................................. 82
settings .................................................................... 82
Overview page ........................................................ 330
Overwrite dimension .......................................... 248
Overwrite preferences ........................................ 434
Overwrite target .................................................... 248
Overwrite value ........................ 159, 204, 212, 263
Owner ........................................................................ 352
P
Package properties ............................................... 431
Page
analyze ................................................................. 447
best practices ..................................................... 422
define interactions ........................................... 284
Parameter ...................................................... 217, 417
define .................................................................... 217
Parent-child hierarchy ................................... 76, 82
Parent process ........................................................ 357
Passive event .......................................................... 298
Performance ................................... 20, 99, 277, 450
analyze ................................................................. 444
architecture ........................................................ 404
best practices ..................................................... 406
bottlenecks .......................................................... 447
comparison ........................................................ 449
data acquisition ............................................... 407
live connections ................................................... 50
optimization ...................................................... 404
pages ..................................................................... 422
planning scenarios .......................................... 409
Performance analysis tool ...................... 444, 449
output ................................................................... 447
Performance Statistics and Analysis
story ...................................................................... 450
Periodic planning ................................................. 164
Permissions .......................................... 130, 365–366
Persisted calculation ........................................... 414
best practices ........................................... 415–416
Persisted logic calculation ....................... 188, 201
Person responsible ....................... 74, 81, 167–168
assign .................................................................... 167
Pie chart ................................................................... 280
linked analysis .................................................. 284
Pivot table ............................................................... 308
Planning ..................................... 17, 19, 21, 137, 154
add-in for Microsoft Office .......................... 310
annualized versus periodic .......................... 164
calendar ............................................................... 348
capabilities ............................................................ 31
challenges ....................................................... 26, 36
collaboration and harmonization ............ 165
compare to best practices ............................ 400
data requirements .............................................. 44
driver-based ....................................................... 185
frequency ............................................................ 164
horizon ................................................................. 141
input assumptions .......................................... 154
iterations ............................................................. 166
live connections .................................................. 50
manage task profiles ...................................... 364
manage versions .............................................. 137
operators ............................................................. 189
optimize performance ................................... 409
organize your processes ............................... 347
roles ....................................................................... 364
sample business process .................................. 38
seeding versions ............................................... 142
standard content ............................................. 395
teams .................................................................... 127
top-down versus bottom-up ................ 22, 163
Planning model ...... 35, 70, 84, 96, 240, 407–409
best practices ..................................................... 410
load data ............................................................. 408
set .............................................................................. 98
split ........................................................................ 412
standard .............................................................. 395
Planning Professional license ................ 126, 128
Planning Standard license ....................... 126, 128
Planning trigger ................................. 150, 206, 237
types ...................................................................... 151
Planning version .................................................. 313
Planning workflow .............................................. 347
Plant dimension ................................................... 234
Platform as a service (PaaS) ................................. 27
Point indicator ...................................................... 279
create .................................................................... 280
Popup ............................................................... 299, 301
coding ................................................................... 299
Predelivered business content ....................... 395
Predictive analytics .................................... 321, 331
scenarios ............................................................. 332
Predictive capabilities ........................................... 31

Index
464
Predictive forecast ...................................... 333, 335
accuracy ............................................................... 340
publish .................................................................. 342
Predictive goal ....................................................... 339
Predictive library .................................................. 336
Predictive model training ................................. 339
Predictive scenario ............................................... 336
create .................................................................... 338
data source ......................................................... 338
parameters ......................................................... 339
Preferences .............................................................. 100
Presentation ........................................................... 288
configure ............................................................. 288
navigation ................................................ 289, 292
settings ................................................................. 290
start ....................................................................... 291
Price base ....................................................... 162, 317
Private cloud .............................................................. 27
Private data set ...................................................... 102
Private dimension ................................................... 73
Private version ........ 37, 144, 167, 314, 316–317,
342, 413
best case ............................................................... 315
copy public version .......................................... 145
publish .................................................................. 146
worst case ........................................................... 316
Process task .......................................... 350, 356–357
Product dimension ............................. 72, 217, 220
scoping ................................................................. 234
Profit and loss (P&L) .............................. 22, 24, 162
Profit center ............................................................ 403
dimension .............................................................. 71
scoping ................................................................. 234
unassigned .......................................................... 403
Project lifecycle ......................................................... 18
Publication .................................................... 180, 377
scheduling ................................................. 180, 388
Public cloud ................................................................ 27
Public data set ........................................................ 102
Public dimension ............................................. 73, 89
Public version ............................... 37, 167, 316, 413
copy to private version .................................. 145
update .................................................................. 146
Q
Quality rating ......................................................... 335
Query ......................................................................... 109
create .................................................................... 110
edit ......................................................................... 121
Query builder ......................................................... 109
Question ......................................................... 323, 326
R
Rate table ........................................................ 198, 255
create ..................................................................... 257
settings ................................................................. 258
Rate type ........................................................... 78, 259
Rate version ............................................................. 259
Read permission .................................................... 366
Real-time reporting ................................................ 54
Recommendations ............................................... 159
Reconciliation reporting .................................... 269
Recurrence ........................................... 350, 357, 389
Reference dimension ........................................... 249
Regression ................................................................ 332
testing ................................................................... 438
Reimport data ......................................................... 103
Relationships .......................................................... 244
Release cycle ............................................................ 425
Release management .......................................... 425
Repetition ................................................................. 248
Reporting
real-time ................................................................. 54
strategy ................................................................. 268
task ......................................................................... 349
Request generator ................................................. 404
Requirements gathering .................................... 400
Residence time ....................................................... 413
Responsibility .................................................... 74, 81
Responsive page ................................ 204, 272, 279
add charts ............................................................ 280
add data actions ............................................... 206
Restricted export ..................................................... 97
Restricted measure ..................................... 274, 277
RESULTLOOKUP() ..................... 219, 236, 416–417
Retention time ....................................................... 413
Revenue planning ....................................... 162, 317
Reviewer .................................................................... 353
Role request ............................................................. 131
Roles .................................... 126, 128, 352, 364, 368
access ..................................................................... 364
add permissions ................................................ 366
assign .................................................................... 367
assign teams ....................................................... 133
configure .............................................................. 131
create ........................................................... 129, 365
define ..................................................................... 130
maintain .............................................................. 365
view permissions .............................................. 365
Rolling forecast .............................................. 22, 141
Rollouts ..................................................................... 428
Rules ........................................................................... 116
Runtime distribution .......................................... 449
465
Index
S
Sales and operations planning
(S&OP) ........................................................... 39, 166
Sales department ..................................................... 24
Sales planning ........................................................... 72
model .................................................................... 397
Same origin policy ................................................... 51
SAP Analysis for Microsoft Office ................. 271,
302–304
analysis ................................................................ 304
design panel ............................................. 304, 306
versus add-in ...................................................... 310
versus SAP Analytics Cloud .......................... 306
SAP Analytics Cloud ........................ 17, 29, 36, 395
add-in .................................................................... 307
agent ......................................................... 32, 46–47
architecture ........................................................... 29
augmented analytics ...................................... 321
benefits .................................................................... 31
capabilities .................................................... 30–31
connection types ................................................. 45
connect to SAP Analysis for Microsoft
Office ................................................................ 303
defining data ........................................................ 43
deployment options ........................................... 32
direct access .......................................................... 49
evolution ................................................................ 29
implementation best practices ................... 395
integration ..................................................... 32–33
licensing ............................................................... 379
maintain .............................................................. 428
model calculations .......................................... 187
modeling data ...................................................... 65
navigation .......................................................... 285
organize planning processes ....................... 347
planning models .................................................. 84
predictive analytics ......................................... 331
release cycles ...................................................... 425
security ................................................................. 126
setting up the planning process ................. 137
sustain your investment ............................... 425
tenants ................................................................. 303
transport objects .............................................. 428
user experience ................................................. 270
web client .................................................. 271, 295
workflows ............................................................ 348
SAP Analytics Cloud, analytics
designer .................................. 294–295, 297, 300
SAP Analytics Cloud add-in for Microsoft
Office ........................................................... 271, 307
features ................................................................ 310
select data source ............................................ 307
SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
(SAP BusinessObjects BI) ................................. 32
SAP Business Planning and Consolidation
(SAP BPC) ......... 32, 65, 206, 214, 257, 271, 391
version for SAP NetWeaver ...................... 47, 62
SAP Business Technology Platform
(SAP BTP) ................................................................ 29
SAP Business Warehouse (SAP BW) ... 33, 53, 62
SAP Customer Experience ................................... 48
SAP Digital Boardroom ......... 287–288, 291, 294,
395
SAP Fiori ...................................................................... 49
SAP HANA .............................. 33, 54, 405, 414, 417
SAP Integrated Business Planning
(SAP IBP) ....................................................... 32, 392
SAP S/4HANA ...... 45, 55, 71, 104, 391, 395–396,
401, 408
import connection ...................................... 48, 57
SAP S/4HANA Cloud ................. 55, 395, 399, 401
SAP S/4HANA Finance ........................................... 33
SAP SuccessFactors .............................................. 395
SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central ........ 398
Scalability ............................................................ 28, 78
Scheduling ........................................... 180, 383, 388
data load ............................................................. 121
modes ................................................................... 180
Scoping ......................................... 216, 221, 227, 231
dimensions ......................................................... 233
initialization without scoping .................... 221
initialization with scoping ........................... 222
manipulate initial scope ............................... 225
Script-based builder ............................................ 215
Script logic ............................................................... 214
Script view ............................................ 230–231, 234
Search to insight ................................ 322–324, 326
Security ........................................ 28, 37, 66, 97, 126
activity audit ..................................................... 438
connectivity .......................................................... 46
data audit ........................................................... 441
dimensions ............................................................ 74
framework .......................................................... 126
import connections ........................................... 53
roles .................................................... 129, 364, 368
sharing updates ............................................... 368
teams .................................................................... 132
users ...................................................................... 135
Seeding .................................................. 142, 149, 155
advanced scenarios ........................................ 148
create data actions ......................................... 148
select target version ....................................... 152

Index
466
Seeding (Cont.)
use data action ................................................. 152
using version management ......................... 144
version management versus data
actions ............................................................. 153
Selected objects ..................................................... 431
Self-service ............................................ 131, 135, 285
Sharing ......................................... 182, 368, 370–371
access levels ........................................................ 370
permission .......................................................... 367
Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP)
server .................................................................... 176
Simulation .................................. 268, 311, 330–331
best-case scenarios .......................................... 314
decreased price sensitivity ............................ 315
growth in market size .................................... 314
value driver trees .................................... 317, 319
version management ..................................... 312
worst-case scenarios ............................. 316, 320
Single sign-on (SSO) ................................. 35, 50, 61
Smart discovery ..................................................... 327
preview data ...................................................... 329
results ................................................................... 330
run .......................................................................... 330
set up topics ....................................................... 328
Smart insights .............................................. 326–327
Smart predict ................................................ 333, 336
Software as a service (SaaS) .................................. 27
Software update ....................................................... 28
Source dimension ....................................... 210, 248
Source measure ..................................................... 195
Source model .......................................................... 209
Source system ........................................................ 438
Stakeholders ........................................................... 377
Standard dimension ............................................... 68
Standard model ........................................................ 70
planning .............................................................. 395
Start date .................................................................. 402
Story ............................ 35, 64, 70, 86, 271, 294, 419
add advanced formulas ................................. 237
add currency conversion ............................... 264
add data actions .............................................. 206
add grid ................................................................ 198
add measure calculations ............................ 274
add responsive pages ..................................... 204
add rows and columns ................................... 273
add to workspace ............................................. 178
add value driver tree ....................................... 240
best practices ..................................................... 419
call data actions ............................................... 149
choose live data model ..................................... 64
create input task ............................................... 168
Story (Cont.)
execute allocation process ........................... 251
export as PDF or PowerPoint ....................... 387
filter/prompt ...................................................... 274
import into dashboard ................................... 288
library .................................................................... 288
link .......................................................................... 176
offline export ...................................................... 384
pages ...................................................................... 272
performance analysis ..................................... 446
performance optimization ........................... 405
publish data ........................................................ 153
save ........................................................................ 200
schedule publication ....................................... 388
simulations ......................................................... 314
smart discovery ....................................... 328, 330
templates ............................................................. 272
version management ...................................... 144
view activity ....................................................... 440
Strategic objective ................................................... 19
Strategic planning ................................................. 137
Strategic reporting ................................................ 269
Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and
threats (SWOT) analysis ................................. 312
Structure priority .................................................... 99
Styling panel ................................................. 280, 297
Sum ............................................................................... 77
Supplier ..................................................................... 379
System type ............................................................... 62
T
Table ........................................................................... 273
ACDOCA .............................................. 45, 104, 408
ACDOCP ................................................................ 391
add widget ........................................................... 296
object ..................................................................... 274
view ........................................................................ 298
Table export ............................................................ 384
scope ...................................................................... 385
Table of contents ................................................... 291
Tabular view .............................................................. 35
Target dimension .................................................. 248
Target mapping ...................................................... 118
Target system ......................................................... 438
import ......................................................... 433, 436
Target version ..................................... 152, 206, 263
select ...................................................................... 152
Task ................................................................... 130, 167
create ..................................................................... 167
manage ................................................................. 171
profile .................................................................... 364
467
Index
Team ................................................................ 126–127
access data ......................................................... 134
assign to roles .................................................... 133
assign users ........................................................ 134
create .................................................................... 132
S&OP ..................................................................... 166
share stories via workspaces ....................... 178
Template library .................................................... 272
Time series graph .................................................. 279
Time series predictive scenario ............ 333, 338
Top-down planning .... 19, 22, 37, 154–155, 161
pros and cons ..................................................... 163
versus bottom-up ............................................. 163
Topic card ................................................................. 288
Traceability .............................................................. 438
Training .................................................................... 339
Transform operations ......................................... 114
Transport mechanism .............................. 428–429
Transposing ............................................................ 112
Triple exponential smoothing .............. 334–335
Troubleshooting ................................................... 438
Tunnel connection ................................... 51, 59, 61
U
UI interactivity module ...................................... 404
Unbooked data ...................................................... 221
Unexpected value ................................................. 330
Unit ................................................................................ 94
Update option ........................................................ 407
Update permission ............................................... 366
Usage .......................................................................... 450
Use case .................................... 38, 71, 104, 127, 229
User ............................................................................ 126
assign .......................................................... 132–133
create .................................................................... 135
environment ...................................................... 405
User experience ..................................................... 270
enrich .................................................................... 279
V
Validation rule .......................................................... 96
Value driver ............................................................. 186
Value driver tree .......................................... 238, 317
add nodes .................................................. 242, 318
add to story ........................................................ 240
configure nodes ................................................ 240
create widget ..................................................... 240
filter ....................................................................... 245
link nodes ............................................................ 244
simulations ............................................... 317, 319
Variable cost ........................................................... 239
Variance calculation ......................... 273–274, 277
Variance column .................................................. 278
Verification report ............................................... 198
Version dimension ................... 69, 138–139, 142,
144, 277
scoping ................................................................. 234
settings ................................................................ 139
Version management ......................... 37, 144, 154
add private version ......................................... 146
best practices ..................................................... 413
initialize planning version ........................... 313
seeding ................................................................. 144
simulations ........................................................ 312
start and end dates ......................................... 402
versus data actions ......................................... 153
Version plan ........................................................... 210
Viewer ....................................................................... 353
View mode .............................................................. 152
Virtual memory .................................................... 406
Visual builder ......................................................... 215
Visualization ............................................ 37, 49, 279
add or remove lanes ....................................... 279
explanation ....................................................... 341
recommendations ........................................... 324
Visual view ..................................................... 230, 234
Volume base ........................................ 162, 317, 319
Volume prediction ............................................... 343
W
Web client ....................................................... 271, 295
Weight ....................................................................... 160
What-if analysis ........................ 311–312, 317, 331
Widget .............................................................. 279, 296
drilldown ............................................................. 448
linked analysis .................................................. 283
styling ................................................................... 281
switch ................................................................... 298
table ...................................................................... 296
total time ............................................................ 447
unit weight ......................................................... 422
value driver trees ............................................. 240
Wizard ....................................................................... 358
generate process instances .......................... 360
Workbook ....................................................... 308, 310
Work breakdown structure (WBS) ................. 411
Work files ........................................................ 352, 354
Workflow ................................................. 37, 348, 354
sharing ................................................................. 368
Workforce planning model .............................. 397

Index
468
Workspace ..................................................... 100, 178
add content ........................................................ 178
assign administrator ...................................... 178
create .................................................................... 178
multiple ................................................................ 180
Worst-case scenario .......................... 312, 316, 320
Write mode .............................................................. 204
Z
Zero ............................................................................. 418

First-hand knowledge.
We hope you have enjoyed this reading sample. You may recommend
or pass it on to others, but only in its entirety, including all pages. This reading
sample and all its parts are protected by copyright law. All usage and exploita-
tion rights are reserved by the author and the publisher.
Satwik Das is an associate partner at TruQua, an IBM company.
He has more than 15 years of experience leading and mana-
ging large-scale SAP analytics, financial planning, and finance
transformation projects. He has extensive experience in SAP
Business Warehouse, SAP Business Planning and Consolidation,
and various reporting tools, and he has worked with clients to implement
SAP Analytics Cloud as the platform for their financial planning and analytics
(FP&A) processes.
Marius Berner is a principal business analytics consultant at Tru-
Qua, an IBM company, with more than seven years of experience
designing, implementing, and delivering solutions for planning,
budgeting, forecasting, analytics, performance management,
and financial consolidations. Marius’s project experience inclu-
des end-to-end implementations, business and finance transformations, and
process automation and optimization.
Satwik Das, Marius Berner, Suvir Shahani, and Ankit Harish
SAP Analytics Cloud: Financial Planning and Analysis
468 pages, 2022, $89.95
ISBN 978-1-4932-2236-0
www.sap-press.com/5486
Suvir Shahani is a cloud planning and consolidation specialist
with more than 22 years of experience working with clients
across various industry verticals, including financial services,
CPG, manufacturing, energy, pharmaceutical, distribution, and
consumer electronics.
Ankit Harish is a senior managing consultant at TruQua, an IBM
company, and has more than 15 years of experience in finance
analytics. He has a key focus on the media and entertainment
industry leveraging SAP and non-SAP technologies. Ankit has
led large-scale finance transformation programs and defined
reporting and planning roadmaps for clients.

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