Configuring Currency Conversion

• Local Currency (LC) refers to the functional or operating currency of a company. For example, a company in the US uses the US dollar as its local currency but a company in Germany uses the euro.
• Group Currency refers to the corporate level currency. For example, a company in the US that has a German parent will have the euro as its group currency.
• Translation is used interchangeably with conversion.

In our scenario, the large corporation you work for has companies in various countries/regions. Each company plans their income statement in their own local currency. Find out how you can use currency conversion in SAP Analytics Cloud.

Currencies can be converted as and when needed, based on converted measures in models or stories. Currencies can also be converted via data actions and the results can be stored in the model.

Currency conversion use case examples include:

• Display corporate (group) and local operating currencies in stories.
• Import and plan in local currency and immediately translate to group currency.
• Translate with category-specific exchange rates.
• Import both local and group currency actual values.
• Isolate exchange rate changes with a constant currency analysis.

• Exchange rates are stored in the SAP Analytics Cloud currency translation table.
• Currency tables can be updated using:
  • Flat files
  • SAP BPC rate models
  • SAP Business Warehouse queries
  • Manual data entry
• Exchange rates originate from financial institutions and are automatically or manually updated into SAP Analytics Cloud.

Currency conversion tables are defined independently of models. You can apply a selected table to any model you create.

You can add a currency table by going to the Modeler and selecting the Conversions tab.

In the following example, the fields in a translation table explained:

1. Source Currency: CAD values will be translated to EUR values at an exchange rate of 0.65 for accounts that have the Average rate type for postings that occur on 2024.01.01 or later.
2. Category: Use this to assign exchange rates to specific categories such as actual or plan.
3. Rate Version: Use this for optimistic or pessimistic scenarios for example. Use a category value = Specific to use rate version.
4. Rate Type: These are assigned to accounts. Income statement accounts use Average and balance sheet accounts use Closing.
5. Conversion Errors: Check the dropdown to view the conversion error log, if needed.

For more information on currency conversion tables, visit Learn about Currency Conversion Tables

SAP Analytics Cloud models designed for SAP ERP financial data typically contain the following measures:

• Local currency amount
• Group currency amount
• Quantity

Measures can also be added to the model that calculate currency values on-the-fly.

In the Model Settings:

1. Activate currency conversion.

   When currency conversion is activated for the model, the Rate Type property is added to the Account dimension, and the Rate Version property is added to the Version dimension.

2. Select the source Currency Rates Table.
3. Select the dimension for the Date Determination.
4. Create a currency variable (optional).

   The currency variable can be used to determine the target currency dynamically when the story is opened. If the currency variable is turned on, the variable can be used to determine the target currency for a translated measure (but not in a measure).

To enable currency conversion, create the currency property for the dimension. This can be any dimension, not just organizational dimensions. A column is added to the dimension and using three-character currency codes, it identifies the source currency for data that belongs to each leaf member.

The Currency column is enabled by default for the Organization dimension, and can also be added to generic dimensions (but not for any other dimension types).

If required, you can edit the property. If needed, change the name of the currency property by updating the Description (for display in input forms).

You can see in the following example, LC is the local (or operating currency) of the entities. A store in Canada, STORE08 has a local currency of CAD.

For each converted measure in the model, a dimension (any dimension with currency enabled) is set as the currency dimension.

In the account dimension, the Rate Type property column appears when you switch on currency conversion in the model preferences.

With currency conversion switched on, you must set the Rate Type by accounts and update the Units & Currencies property:

• EXP and INC use the Average rate type.
• LEQ and AST use the Closing rate type.
• The Units & Currencies property must be set to Currency.

The setting corresponds to the rate type for exchange rates in your currency table. It lets you distinguish between the average exchange rate for a period and the closing rate at the end of the period.

Measures in models are used to store values in the database. In the Measures in a Model example, there are two measures:

1. Local Amount This stores the amounts in the currency of each company. The currency for each company (or entity) is stored in its dimension.
2. Group Amount This stores the amounts in the corporate currency. The group currency is fixed in the group amount definition.

Converted measures are calculated as and when needed. The calculated values aren't stored in the database.

Model-based measures are available to story designers and therefore reduce the need to create story-based converted measures.

To confirm the conversion, you can preview the results for converted measures in models in the Calculations workspace.

For models with measures, you can use data actions to copy from the local amount the group currency amount. The conversion rule can use measures or parameters as the source and target.

The Date options available in the Conversion Settings include:

• Booking Date: The date of the transaction data record.
• Booking Date +1: The date following the date of the transaction data record.
• Booking Date -1: The date preceding the date of the transaction data record.
• Fixed Date: A hard-coded date.

The category can be set to Dynamic when the data action applies to various categories. Or, a specific category can be specified.