Cross Topics

Objective

After completing this lesson, you will be able to understand the innovations for Cross Topics

SAP Best Practices for SAP IBP2502

This figure displays two screenshots of SAP software interfaces featuring various charts and graphs related to maintenance and operations planning, including donut and pie charts for costs and workforce information.

New in 2502:

Technical upgrade to product version 2502 of the SAP Integrated Business Planning solution

  • We've enhanced the SAPIBP1 sample planning area as follows:
    • Adjusted the calculation in key figures PLEADTIMEDELTAUL and TLEADTIMEDELTAUL
    • Added new diagnostic key figures to the Forecast Error Profiles - Inventory app. Recency is a method that assigns higher statistical weighting to recent periods, allowing businesses to react to changes in the forecast error more quickly.
  • We've enhanced the solution process for maintenance, repair, and operations (MRO) with a preconfigured Planner Workspace for the maintenance and operations planner. We've also added a preconfigured analytics story called IBP Best Practices - M&OP - Maintenance & Operations Planning. These enhancements allow you to create effective planning and analytics views for end-to-end MRO planning scenarios much more quickly. Use our workbooks and stories that are available for key process steps-demand and segmentation review, inventory review, supply and capacity review, and finance review. They offer insights from high-level overviews to part location-level details for maintenance planning. 
  • We've added an example to solution process IBP for demand - new product introduction that illustrates how to show active product assignments in the SAP IBP, add-in for Microsoft Excel. Planners do no longer have to switch to the Manage Product Lifecycle app, but can directly check the product assignment.
  • The solution processes for Demand Driven Replenishment have been retired.
This figure provides a detailed overview of various solution processes within Integrated Business Planning (IBP) for sales and operations, as well as IBP for demand, including their respective SID codes, statuses, and brief descriptions of functionalities and new features.
This figure compares the SAP Integrated Business Planning (IBP) processes, tools, and best practices for various planning areas and operations, highlighting their integration with SAP S/4HANA and the evolution from previous modules (such as SAP4H(C/S), SAP6, SAP9) to newer configurations (such as SAP7F).
This figure depicts a maintenance, repair, and operations (MRO) process workflow alongside various analytics dashboards for capacity utilization, resource usage forecast, and inventory management.

The purpose of integrated maintenance, repair, and operations planning is to provide full transparency for mid-term and long-term MRO parts and resource requirements by leveraging statistical forecasting methods, inventory and supply planning algorithms. In a first step, the inventory planner needs to check the updated MRO parts usage history at the beginning of each planning cycle. During this task, the planner also run the demand classification job. The maintenance planner then creates MRO part and resource consumption corrective maintenance forecasts for a period of 12 months for mid-term forecasting. After that, the inventory planner carries out an MRO part segmentation analysis in which parts are segmented based on their costs and usage volumes as well as their lead time risk. Once the service levels are defined, the inventory planner creates an inventory plan and determines the new safety stock, reorder point or target inventory position for MRO parts being planned. After the inventory parameters are defined, the maintenance planner can create a supply plan for MRO parts and labor resources for the mid- to long-term horizon. Upon completion of the supply plan, the financial calculations are populated in the planning area which can be reviewed by a finance manager. Finally, the finance manager can approve the expected maintenance expenditures and complete the cycle of the integrated business plan for maintenance, repair, and operations.

​Scope​Technical details​User interaction

​Use Case

  • Preventive/proactive Maintenance
  • Corrective/reactive Maintenance ​

Benefits

  • Optimize inventory levels
  • Visibility at the current and projected MRO parts stock levels
  • Increase asset availability and reliability
  • Highlight overutilization of labor resources ​

Frequency

  • Monthly

Participants

  • Inventory Planner
  • Maintenance Planner
  • Finance Manager

Input

  • Corrective/reactive maintenance: MRO parts & resources historical consumption
  • Preventative maintenance plans with task list data

Output

  • Safety stock, reorder points and target inventory position for MRO parts
  • Projected stock for MRO parts that considers demand from the preventive maintenance activities and forecasted MRO parts demand for the corrective maintenance activities
  • Mid- to long-term estimated maintenance costs overview

Planning Level

  • Weekly / Maintenance activity / Location / Asset / Campaign
  • Weekly / Product / Location
  • Weekly / Resource / Location ​

Planning Operators

  • MRO Demand Classification
  • Statistical Forecasts
  • Segmentation
  • Maintenance, Repair, and Operations: Inventory Planning Operator
  • S&OP Operator

Fiori Apps

  • Planning Filter
  • Application Job Template
  • Application Jobs
  • Data Integration Jobs
  • Manage Analytics Stories: NEW!
  • Planner Workspaces: NEW!

Planning Views

  • Corrective Maintenance Overview with 4 worksheets
  • Preventative Maintenance Overview with 2 worksheets
  • Inventory Planning Overview with 3 worksheets
  • Total Maintenance Supply Overview with 2 worksheets
  • Financial Planning Overview with one worksheet

Alerts

  • No predefined alerts

Analytics

  • No predefined analytics ​

Collaboration

  • No predefined process management and no integration with SAP Build Work Zone, advanced edition

SAP IBP1 Documentation 2502

2502 Summary of Changes in SAPIBP1

Inventory Optimization

  • New diagnostic key figures for recency weighting > NEW
  • Adjusted calculation of key figures PLEADTIMEDELTAUL and TLEADTIMEDELTAUL > CHANGE
  • Adjusted ABC/XYZ Segmentation profile INV_Consumption_Group_Profile > CHANGE
  • Changed key figure SMISLOWMOVINGINDICATOR to avoid division by 0 > CHANGE
  • New helper key figure HCONVFINALIOSAFETYSTOCK > NEW

Inventory Optimization: New diagnostic key figures for recency weighting

Reason for Change

New diagnostic key figures have been added that can be used in the Forecast Error Profiles app. Recency weighting is a method that gives greater statistical significance to recent periods, allowing for businesses to react more quickly to changes in forecast error.

For further information about this feature, please refer to the SAP IBP product documentation:

Steps

Refer to the sample planning area SAPIBP1 for the changes below:

1. Create new key figure RECENCYFACTORWEIGHT:

This figure displays the configuration details for the Recency Factor Weight calculation within an inventory optimization system, including its characteristics, calculation definitions, and related settings.

Steps (continued)

2. Create new key figure RECENCYFACTORWEIGHTINT:

This figure shows a configuration screen for an Inventory Optimization Intermediate Output calculation setting called Recency Factor Weight Over Interval, which outlines various parameters and a specific calculation formula for averaging recency factor weights.

Steps (continued)

3. Add the two new key figures to forecast error profile IO_ForecastErrorCV:

This figure displays a configuration interface for defining forecast error measures in SAP, showcasing input and output settings, including recency factor weights and outlier period indicators for two measures: FE_OLT and IO_FECV.

Inventory Optimization: Adjusted calculation of key figures PLEADTIMEDELTAUL and TLEADTIMEDELTAUL (1/2)

Reason for Change

As part of the lead time analytics, originally a modeling approach with helper key figures was used to compare the most recent production/transportation lead times with the current production/transportation lead times. We've simplified the calculation by removing the helper key figures. We now use the original key figures directly in the calculation of the PLEADTIMEDELTAUL and TLEADTIMEDELTAUL. This avoids displaying outdated data in analytics where this key figure is used.

Steps

Refer to sample planning area SAPIBP1 for the changes below:

1.Change calculation in key figure PLEADTIMEDELTAUL:

This figure shows a change in a code snippet where the highlighted text in both sections is updated from HPHISTLEADTIMEUL to PHISTLEADTIMEUL.

Inventory Optimization: Adjusted calculation of key figures PLEADTIMEDELTAUL and TLEADTIMEDELTAUL (2/2)

This figure details a step involving a change in calculation for the key figure 'TLEADTIMEDELTAUL,' specifically replacing 'HISTLEADTIMEUL' with 'THISLEADTIMEUL' in the formula.

Inventory Optimization: Adjusted ABC/XYZ Segmentation profile INV_Consumption_Group_Profile

Reason for Change

We've adjusted the INV_Consumption_Group_Profile ABC/XYZ segmentation profile to rolling 52 weeks. The previous setting was 1 year.

Steps

Refer to the sample planning area SAPIBP1 for the changes below:

  1. Change the segmentation profile INV_Consumption_Group_Profile (Perodicity, Calculation Horizon) as in the screenshot:
This figure shows a segment of the SAP system screen for the INV_Consumption_Group_Profile configuration, focusing on ABC Segmentation settings, including periodicity, time scope, and calculation horizon.

Inventory Optimization: Changed key figure SMISLOWMOVINGINDICATOR to avoid division by 0

Reason for Change

The calculation of the SMISLOWMOVINGINDICATOR key figure has been enhanced to avoid division by 0. Another IF check has been added.

Steps

Refer to the sample planning area SAPIBP1 for the changes below: 1.Change the SMISLOWMOVINGINDICATOR key figure:

The image shows a comparison of code changes where a new condition has been added to check if `SMIINITIALSTOCK@REQUEST` is 0 and return NULL; otherwise, it evaluates the existing condition.

Inventory Optimization: New helper key figure HCONVFINALIOSAFETYSTOCK

Reason for Change

The helper key figure HCONVFINALIOSAFETYSTOCK has been added. It supports unit of measure conversion for the FINALIOSAFETYSTOCK key figure. The additional key figure is required for the new 2502 feature to calculate inventory components using either the FINALIOSAFETYSTOCK key figure, which can be manually adjusted, or the recommended safety stock.

For further information about this feature, please refer to the SAP IBP product documentation.

Steps

Refer to the sample planning area SAPIBP1 for the changes below:

  1. Create key figure:
The image shows a SAP screen displaying the key figure 'HCONVFINALIOSAFETYSTOCK' along with its calculation definitions and related administrative information, indicating it supports inventory optimization.

Process Management 2502

Enhanced Integration of Planner Workspaces with Process Management

This figure shows you how task owners and task assignees can update workbook assignments in the Manage Tasks app, with task owners adjusting assignments on the Tasks Assigned by Me page and task assignees overriding variants on the Tasks Assigned to Me page using the Change button in the Linked Objects section.
This figure explains that when a task assignee opens a task with an assigned workbook in their collaboration tool, they will find an attachment containing a link to the workbook and selected variant in the Planner Workspaces app.

Improved Notifications in Process Management

This figure explains how users can navigate to the Planner Workspaces or Manage Tasks apps from task-related notifications in the SAP Fiori Launchpad, either directly from the notification area or specific task details such as task status changes and task assignments.
This figures shows how SAP has updated email templates for process management notifications to include clearer formulations and relevant links to the Manage Tasks app and Planner Workspaces app for tasks assigned or status changes.

Enhancements in the Planner Workspaces App 2502

This figure shows the Filter Behavior configuration step within the process of editing contextual navigation, where users define how navigation context and filters should apply to the target component, including mapping source and target attributes using master data.

When you define contextual navigations using master data, you can select master data first, source attributes, or target attributes. Your initial selection determines the data available for the subsequent fields. If you start by selecting master data, the mandatory attributes from the navigation context are used as source attributes and the attributes from the master data are used as target attributes. You can also map source or target attributes to other attributes from the selected master data. If you start by selecting source or target attributes, you can also map the attributes to other attributes from the planning area, and select master data at the end based on the selected source and target attributes.

Attribute mappings allow you to navigate across your data, while hiding the complexity of the associated planning levels. Filters are being applied as part of the navigation, which impacts the usability and the performance in a positive manner. You can now also look up attribute values using master data.

Use case A: Look up Customer Group

Step 1: Analyze demands on ID level

This figure displays the consensus demand for headphones from three domestic German customers over two weeks.

Step 2: Analyze demands on Customer Group level

Context passed to target component: "Customer Group"Sub step processed in the background: Look up "Customer Group" in master data type "Customer" using the "Customer ID" selected in the planning view given above.

Master data "Customer"

This figure shows the resulting planning view filter by Customer Group.

Resulting planning view filter by "Customer Group"

This figure shows a table detailing retail demand figures for two weeks, with Consensus Demand at 10,000 units in Week 1 and 12,000 units in Week 2, and Constrained Demand remaining at 10,000 units in Week 1 and 11,000 units in Week 2.

Use case B: Check projected stock in locations of the same region

Step 1: Analyze Transportation Receipts

This figure displays a data table showing Transport Receipts for headphones (Product ID 100) being shipped to Location ID 3710 from three different Ship-From Location IDs, with quantities received in Week 1 and Week 2 being 70 each from Ship-From Loc. ID 1310.

Step 2: Analyze projected stock in locations of the same regionContext passed to target component: "Location Region" and "Product ID"Sub step a: Map "Ship-From Loc. ID." to "Location ID"Sub step b: Look up "Location Region" using "Location ID" in master data type "Location".

This figure displays the projected stock levels of headphones for two locations in the US over a period of two weeks, showing Location ID 1310 with stock decreasing from 100 to -20 and Location ID 1710 with stock increasing from 50 to 70.

Please have in mind that the filters are always applied together. It's not yet possible to define combination specific filters. E.g. show product A for location 1 and product B for location 2. If product A is also available in location 2, this combination will show up as well.

This figure demonstrates how to create and edit contextual navigation in design mode, showing options for launching the contextual navigation wizard and managing available navigations for components.
This figure shows a dialog box prompting the user to choose between editing the contextual navigation, the target component, or to cancel the action.

In case you have set the "Navigation Target" to "Any Component", and you launch the wizard from the context menu, you can now decide whether you want to edit the contextual navigation or the target component. We added this possibility to avoid that you need to add the target component first, make the required changes, and remove the component again.

This figure shows a screenshot of a planning workspace interface with a navigation option (PLAI8P1: Navigate to PP/DS) highlighted, displaying details related to bill of materials.

In the Manage Navigation to Other Systems app, you can now create generic navigations to other SAP systems and transactions, Web-based applications, or Web pages that can be configured further as contextual navigations in the Planner Workspaces app. Planners can then select data in a source component and navigate to another system or app. The data in the other system or app is filtered using the selected data in the source component and the external contextual navigation definition.

The main advantage of this approach is that you can control under what circumstances the navigation shows up. Without the contextual navigation definition, the navigation shows up whenever the required attributes are included in the source component. Now you can define for instance that a navigation is only required in a certain component.

Creating and Editing Workbooks, Variants, and Components

We further revised the flow of creating and editing workbooks, variants, and components. The changed flow is described in the following slides.

Here are the major changes:

  • The "Workspace save" has been removed
  • Changes to the workbook variant need to be saved separately
  • The following changes to the workbook are now saved automatically:
  • Assigning an existing component
  • Removing a component
  • Replacing a component
  • Changing component positions
  • Changing the workbook layout
This figure depicts the SAP Planner Workspace interface where no workbooks have been added yet, and prompts the user to add a workbook by clicking the Add Workbook button.
This figure shows an SAP Planner Workspace interface with a dialog box titled Add Workbooks / Variants, indicating no existing workbooks or variants and providing options to create a new one, search, or add.
This figure shows the creation of a workbook named Demand with the variant name Headphones in an SAP planner workspace.
This figure shows the user interface of SAP's Planner Workspace with options to add components, set filters, and save component changes.
This figure shows the SAP Planner Workspace interface prompting the user to define and save a filter before designing a workbook.
This figure shows the SAP Planner Workspace interface with no components added, specifically focusing on demand planning for the product group Headphones.
This figure shows a user interface from SAP Planner Workspace where no components have been added yet, with an option to add a component displayed prominently.
This figure shows a user interface for selecting a component type within an SAP planning workspace, with options for Planning View, Analytics Chart, and Master Data.
This figure shows a user interface where a planner is adding a new planning view in SAP Planner Workspace, specifically for the Demand of Headphones.
This figure shows an SAP Planner Workspace interface for demand planning of headphones, where no content has been created for the component yet and filtering options are being applied on the right side panel.
This figure displays an SAP Planner Workspace interface for managing and analyzing the consensus demand of various headphone products over multiple weeks in 2024 and 2025.
This figure illustrates the SAP Planner Workspace interface with instructions on how to save a new component using the Save Component button or the new Save button in the side panel for individual component saving.
This figure displays a screenshot of the SAP Planner Workspace, showing a data table for headphones' demand across different regions and periods along with various filter options and settings.
This figure shows a user interface for SAP's Planner Workspace, specifically for managing headphone demand data, where a pop-up prompts the user to save a copy of a dataset and choose whether to replace the original component.
This figure shows a data filtering and viewing interface in the SAP Planner Workspace for managing the demand and customer receipts of headphones across different locations and time periods.
This figure displays a screenshot of the SAP Planner Workspace, highlighting the alterations in the save functionality for data and configuration changes.
This figure shows a screenshot of the SAP Planner Workspace containing demand planning data for headphones across various customer locations and time periods.
This figure shows a data table in SAP's Planner Workspace, detailing the demand and customer receipts for headphones across different weeks and locations.
This figure shows a selection dialog in SAP Planner Workspace, allowing the user to choose between Planning View, Analytics Chart, and Master Data component types.
This figure shows the SAP Planner Workspace interface where an analytics chart named Demand Distribution is being added, with data related to headphone products displayed in the background.
This figure shows the distribution of demand for headphones across different customer groups in the SAP Planner Workspace application.
This figure compares the main intentions and available features of the Plan and Design phases, highlighting their focus on performing planning tasks and defining workbooks and components, respectively.

We aim for a clearer distinction between Plan and Design mode. Based on this distinction Planner Workspaces offers a different set of features in the appropriate modes. This distinction is also the reason why we removed the "workspace save" button in Plan mode. For sure it can be the case that you adjusted a component during a planning activity and you want to persist this change afterwards. You can still achieve this by switching to Design mode. Now you can even save components individually.

This figure depicts a waterfall chart highlighting the components of Consensus Demand Plan, including Profit, Cost, and Revenue.

You can now use waterfall charts in Planner Workspaces. Waterfall charts are helpful to illustrate how a value adds up. For instance, you can illustrate how the revenue is split into profits and costs.

This figure shows a demand distribution bar chart for headphones, segmented by common group and common demand, using SAP Planner Workspace.

You can now choose your own colors for your charts.

The color option is not available for the following chart types:

  • Geo
  • Table
  • Scatter
  • Horizontal Waterfall
  • Vertical Waterfall
  • Waterfall with time dimensions
This figure shows a map highlighting planned profits across various locations in Europe with varying bubble sizes.

As previously announced, a new SAP-managed communication scenario is now available for the integration of map content in the Planner Workspaces, Intelligent Visibility, Analytics - Advanced, and Dashboards - Advanced apps. This has the following effects:

  • By default, all geographic visualizations and charts now display map tile images provided by SAP HANA Spatial Services (HSS) using the external map content provider HERE. If needed, you can adjust the displayed map tiles to reflect your country's or region's political view. If you don't want to use these map images, you can disable the fetching of map tile images altogether.
  • The SAP_COM_0630 and SAP_COM_0583 communication scenarios that were previously available for the integration of external map content are removed.

Changes in Map Content Integration

With the introduction of the new SAP-managed communication scenario for the integration of map content, we've also created two new global configuration parameters: ENABLE_GEOMAP_TILES and GEOMAP_POLITICAL_VIEW.

You can use the ENABLE_GEOMAP_TILES global configuration parameter to enable or disable the fetching of map tile images. The default value for this global configuration parameter is set to TRUE. This means, you can make use of the new communication scenario, and all map tile images in the Planner Workspaces, Intelligent Visibility, Analytics - Advanced, and Dashboards - Advanced apps are provided by HERE through SAP IBP using HSS. If you set the value for this global configuration parameter to FALSE, no map tile images are fetched at all.

If the value for the ENABLE_GEOMAP_TILES global configuration parameter is set to TRUE for your SAP IBP system, you can use the GEOMAP_POLITICAL_VIEW global configuration parameter to customize the displayed map tile images to reflect your country's or region's political view. The following options are currently available: ARE, ARG, BHR, DEF, EGY, IND, KWT, MAR, OMN, PAK, QAT, RUS, SAU, SRB, TUR, VNM. The parameter value must have the following format: HSS_<MAP PROVIDER>:<SUPPORTED VALUE>, for example, HSS_HERE:IND.

This figure shows the change history for additional receipts over the last 30 days, detailing changes made by Patrick resulting in a final value of 125 units, reduced from an initial value of 150 units.

You can now see detailed change history summaries directly in the Planner Workspaces app. The change history information can be accessed via the context menu. The menu entry only appears in case the key figure is enabled for change history. The selected combination is being passed as filter to the change history component.

Administrators need to assign business catalog Change History Component (SAP_IBP_BC_CHG_COMP_PC) to users to enable them to view the change history. 

This figure shows the settings for creating a Geo Bubble chart in a data visualization tool, grouping by Customer ID and using Consensus Demand Plan Quantity as the key figure with the target unit of measure set to PC.

When you are changing the settings for your planning views, analytic charts, or master data views, you can now collapse each section on the General tab in the side panel. Similarly, when changing the settings for your analytics charts, you can collapse each section on the Options tab in the side panel. This makes it easier to focus on the sections that interest you the most without having to read through less important sections.

The setting to have a section collapsed or not is applied per component type and is valid across sessions.

Improved Notifications in Process Management

We've updated the email templates for process management notifications as follows:

  • Notifications about tasks now contain a link to the Manage Tasks app instead of the Manage Processes app.
  • Notifications about tasks that are assigned a workbook from the Planner Workspaces app also contain a link to the Planner Workspaces app.

This also applies to the SAP Fiori launchpad notifications if the task status changed or if the task was assigned to someone. If the SAP Fiori launchpad notification is for due tasks, we currently list all the due tasks in one notification and you will always navigate to the Manage Tasks app, regardless of whether the listed tasks contain workbooks.

This figure displays a product planning and profit calculation tool, highlighting the use of a filter to select specific product IDs in a tabular data interface.

In previous releases you were not able to make use of formulas and apply a grid filter in parallel. As of this release you are able to make use of both features.

Dealing with Missing Planning Object Records

In general, disaggregation considers only the planning object records that already exist in the time series table. Only if for a combination of attribute values of the aggregation level no matching time record exists, new planning object records are being created. In this case, all planning object records, which result from the combination of the following, are created:

  • All periods of the root period of the base planning level that match the aggregated period
  • All planning objects of the base planning level that match the other aggregated attribute values

To ensure that the system always generates all missing planning object records that are needed for disaggregation, you can set the global configuration parameter ADD_ALL_PLAN_OBJECT_RECORDS to "Yes". This parameter can also has a positive impact on the performance as the check for existing planning object records is no longer required.

As the disaggregation to all missing planning object records is a more common approach and because of the positive impact of the performance, we plan to change the default value for the parameter to "Yes" as of release 2508. If you want to keep the existing disaggregation logic, you need to change the parameter in all of your systems to "No" until then.

Let's consider the following example:

Key figure KF1 is stored on a base planning level with root attributes Product and Month. Its values are set to be equally disaggregated without proportionality. For product PROD_01, a planning object exists on this base planning level, but no planning object records. The planner now maintains a value of 100 for product PROD_01 and key figure KF1 in the period February.

This figure shows the monthly records for PROD_01, with no records existing for January and March, and a value of 100 for February.

The planner then switches to a quarterly view, and changes the value of the first quarter from 100 to 150. Depending on the value that is set for the global configuration parameter ADD_ALL_PLAN_OBJECT_RECORDS, the result of the disaggregation are the following.

This figure shows the first quarter sales data for product PROD_01, indicating no records in January and March, and 150 units in February.
This figure shows the default value Yes for the first quarter (January, February, and March) with a consistent value of 50 for PROD_01 each month.

SAP IBP Excel Add-In 2502

Value help for SAP IBP formulas (formerly called local members) Recap: New naming and changed location

It is possible to create own formulas (local members) in a planning view in the SAP IBP, add-in for Microsoft Excel (Excel add-in).

Local members appear like key figures in a planning view, but they contain standard Microsoft Excel formulas and functions. By using local members, you can quickly add your own Microsoft Excel formulas on top of data from SAP IBP. Local members are specific to the planning view that they're created in and are saved together with the template or favorite.

With version 2411.2.0, local members have been renamed SAP IBP formulas, as they appear like normal Microsoft Excel formulas in the planning view. However, there are some differences to normal Microsoft Excel formulas and how those are set up. Especially when referring to specific SAP IBP objects that are included in the planning view, we recommend using SAP IBP formulas.

In previous versions, local members could be created and edited by using the Local Member tab in the Report Editor function. With version 2411.2.0 and newer, you can create and edit SAP IBP formulas (formerly called local members) when creating new planning views on the new Formulas tab, which is included in the Create/ Edit Planning View dialogs.

This figure shows the Edit Planning View interface with options for configuring formulas including time-based total and grand total formulas, and their positions along with other settings.

Value help for SAP IBP formulas (formerly called local members): Inserting functions to the formulas field

There are several functions available that can be used to define SAP IBP formulas, see SAP Help at Functions and Attachments for SAP IBP Formulas:

With Excel add-in version 2502.2.0, you can use the Insert Function dialog to figure out which function with which parameters you want to use when creating new SAP IBP formulas:

  1. In the Create Formula dialog, choose the fx button next to the Formula field.
  2. In the Insert Function dialog that opens, you find the available functions along with a description text which is displayed when selecting a specific function. Select a function and choose OK.
  3. If parameters are required an additional dialog is opened, where you can enter values by using the type-ahead value help or select values by using the … button. Information icons describe the parameters needed. Enter the values and choose OK.
  4. The function is added to the Formulas field, where your cursor was placed before. It includes the selected parameter values. You can include further functions or adjust the formula as needed.
This figure depicts a step-by-step process for creating and configuring a formula in a software application, including selecting functions, parameters, and members within a series of dialog boxes.
The figure shows a dialog box for creating a formula in a software application, with fields for entering its ID, name, header, and the formula itself, along with options for positioning and activating the formula.

You can only insert functions if a = symbol has been added as the first symbol before you start typing.

When you create new formulas an = symbol is included by default.

This figure demonstrates the process of creating a custom formula in a software tool, highlighting the steps of inserting a function and configuring its parameters, including using specific member values and positioning the result in relation to the row axis.

Any texts or functions in the Formula field that are not IBP specific stay as they are if a new function is inserted. If no arithmetic operator or symbols that are used in functions are included, a + symbol will be added to separate the SAP IBP function from any other function or name.

This figure shows you a screenshot of a user interface that is used for creating a formula to calculate the delta between statistical forecast quantity and actual quantity for the previous year in a software application.

If you already have functions included in the Formulas field, you can adjust selected parameters by moving the cursor into the function (name or parameter) before choosing the fx button next to the Formula field.

This way the Select Parameter Values… dialog for the respective function is opened and you can adjust the parameter selection as needed. If you already had entered parameter values, only valid values will be taken over and invalid values will not.

This figure is a warning message in SAP IBP indicating that empty cells with formatting or comments can negatively affect performance and asking whether to delete these cells for better performance.

With version 2502.2.0, the Excel add-in recognizes if there are empty, but formatted cells outside the planning view when adding or updating planning view templates or favorites.

If so, a warning message is displayed asking the user if the empty but formatted cells should be deleted before adding or updating the template or favorite. If the user confirms the empty but formatted cells are removed.

Please note: Not only formatting but also comments and notes on empty cells outside the planning view are recognized and removed.

Removing empty formatted cells from outside the planning view - Background

With versions of the Excel add-in older than 2405.2.0, formatted cells of a planning view were not deleted or cleared when a planning view was opened the planning view size was reduced by setting more restrictive filters, for example.

If planning view templates or favorites include such empty but formatted cells outside the planning view, this affects the size of the Microsoft Excel workbook and therefore the performance when you open templates or favorites.

In the past, we recommended using the function Clean Excess Cell Formatting: of the Microsoft Excel COM add-in Inquire, before uploading planning view templates or favorites to the SAP IBP system.

With the new function, this is no longer needed, the Excel add-in recognizes and removes the empty but formatted cells if the user confirms.

Removing empty formatted cells from outside the planning view - Important to know

  • The warning message is displayed only if empty cells that include formatting, comments or notes are located 20 rows below or 20 columns to the right of the planning view data area.
  • If any content (numbers, formulas, and so on) is included in cells outside the planning view, the respective cells are not recognized as empty formatted cells.
  • If empty but formatted cells exist outside the planning view and users confirm to delete them, any other cells outside the planning view containing content (numbers, formulas, and so on) are not removed.
  • Conditional formatting rules on empty cells outside the planning view are not recognized as empty formatted cells. However, conditional formatting rules on respective cells are removed, if empty but formatted cells exist outside the planning view and users confirm to delete them.

Replaced setting "Keep planning view size when adding or updating templates or favorites" - Recap

As of Excel add-in version 2405.2.0, the workbook size is reduced by default when templates or favorites are uploaded to the SAP IBP system. For more information, see What's New in SAP IBP 2405: Reduced Workbook Size When Adding or Updating Templates or Favorites:

However, the new way of uploading workbooks may cause reference errors if you have Microsoft Excel formulas included in your planning view templates or favorites that reference specific cells in the planning view, or if you are using, for example, VLOOKUP() to gather information from a planning view and write it to an overview worksheet.

To mitigate this, the Keep planning view size when adding or updating templates or favorites checkbox has been added to Options under Settings in the About group.

Please note: SAP IBP formulas: (formerly called local members) are handled differently and do not have such kind of problems; only Microsoft Excel formulas are affected. Depending on your use case you can also think about using SAP IBP formulas instead.

This figure shows a change in settings within an 'Options' window, specifically highlighting the renaming of a checkbox option from Keep planning view size when adding or updating templates or favorites to Prevent automatic deletion of planning view cells.

With version 2502.2.0, we have changed the behavior and the name of the setting to better support using Microsoft Excel formulas.

Replaced setting "Keep planning view size when adding or updating templates or favorites"

The setting Keep planning view size when adding or updating templates or favorites didn't solve reference errors when having Microsoft Excel formulas included in the planning view that reference specific cells and adjusting the planning view settings the way that the planning view gets smaller or bigger. This was also introduced with 2405.2.0, see What's New in SAP IBP 2405: Improved Handling of Planning View Worksheets that Have Data Outside of the Planning View:

To also support the use case mentioned above, the previous setting Keep planning view size when adding or updating templates or favorites is replaced by a new setting in version 2502.2.0, called Prevent automatic deletion of planning view cells.

Replaced setting "Keep planning view size when adding or updating templates or favorites"

The new setting Prevent automatic deletion of planning view cells changes the behavior when adjusting the planning view settings in a way that the planning view gets smaller or bigger.

Instead of as per default deleting the cells that are no longer needed if the planning view size is reduced, those cells are cleared when having selected this setting. This way Microsoft Excel formulas included in the worksheet that reference specific cells in the planning view won't get a reference error as the cells still exist.

However, when the planning view grows, the cells are just written into the worksheet and any data included in the cells is overwritten. So, if you have any Microsoft Excel formulas or content below or on the right to the planning view data, we are not recommending selecting this setting as those formulas will be overwritten if the planning view increases in size beyond the original size.

By default (without having selected the setting), the cells are inserted at the right position, and therefore Microsoft Excel formulas or content below or to the right to the planning view data are not overwritten.

Please note: The setting needs to be selected for all relevant worksheets in a workbook.

Replaced setting "Keep planning view size when adding or updating templates or favorites"

By default, this setting is not selected. However, when you previously selected the setting Keep planning view size when adding or updating templates or favorites with any version of 2405, 2408 or 2411, the setting Prevent automatic deletion of planning view cells will be selected for the related worksheets when you open the planning view with 2502.2.0 or newer.

Different from the previous behavior, the planning view size is not kept, but reduced when adding or updating planning view templates or favorites and having selected this setting. But the planning view size is reduced the same way as when reducing the planning view by changing the planning view settings manually, which means cells are cleared and not deleted. This way Microsoft Excel formulas referencing specific cells in the planning view should not get any reference errors, when you've selected the setting Prevent automatic deletion of planning view cells.

This improves the performance when opening templates or favorites whether you have the setting selected or not.

This figure explains the impacts on cell deletion and insertion in Microsoft Excel when the Prevent automatic deletion of planning view cells checkbox is selected or not selected, detailing the resulting behaviors for making the planning view smaller, automatically reducing the planning view size, and making the planning view bigger.
This figure shows a compatibility and maintenance chart for various versions (2302 to 2502) of an Excel add-in, indicating which versions are incompatible, compatible, or have received maintenance.

As part of the SAP IBP release 2502 we will raise the minimum version to 2308.2.0 (version six versions before 2502).

Please note: Since SAP IBP 2311, we are raising the minimum Excel add-in version with each release by one major version in a rolling manner. This means once SAP IBP 2505 is released the minimum required Excel add-in version will be 2311.2.0 and so on. Maintenance: as before, Excel add-in versions are in maintenance and supported for 6 months after their release. This means that the current and previous versions of the Excel add-in are in active maintenance and will receive updates. In certain cases, depending on the urgency of the fix, updates will be only applied to the current version. 

Compatible: Users can use the current version or six prior versions of the Excel add-in. As a consequence, upgrading just once a year is still possible. Nevertheless, we propose a regular upgrade schedule to keep up with security, stability, performance and feature enhancements.

Incompatible: Affected versions of the Excel add-in are incompatible. The installation of a newer version is mandatory.

This figure instructs that images must have an Alt_Text element containing a brief description of the image and provides an option to insert the element.

Mitigation:

  • If not done yet, download: and roll-out a newer version of the Excel add-in to your user base.
  • Check in the Login Statistics for Excel Add-in app to see which of your users are affected

and notify them to upgrade their Excel add-in in time. 

By using the global configuration parameter MINIMUM_ADDIN_VERSION you can let the system bring up a warning message each time a user logs on with a version older than the specified one. To do so, change the value of the parameter to, for example 2308.2.0. 

Recap: Required update of outdated templates and favorites - Background

Planning view templates and favorites that have last been updated with a version of the Excel add-in older than 2111.2.0 can't be opened when using .NET Desktop Runtime 9 or newer. Therefore, we recommend updating them as soon as possible.

.NET 9 is has been released in November, 2024 and will only be supported for 18 months, so it can happen that you don't use it at all. However, when the support of .NET 8 ends in November, 2026 you will need to switch to version .NET 10 and face the restrictions which were introduced with .NET 9.

In general, it is good practice to update your planning view templates or favorites from time to time for the following reasons:

  • To include new features that are only available with newer Excel add-in versions
  • To improve the performance when opening templates and favorites
  • Sometimes migration steps are done in the background when opening old templates with newer versions (for example the migration of old formatting settings to newer formatting settings)
  • As of version 2405.2.0 of the Excel add-in the size of the workbook is reduced when updating templates or favorites
This figure is a warning message from SAP IBP indicating that certain planning view templates and favorites need to be updated for compatibility with newer versions of .NET and the Excel add-in, and asking the user if they wish to start the update process now.

With version 2411.2.0 and newer, a warning message is displayed when you log on, showing the number of outdated templates and favorites in your system and planning area that have last been updated with a version of the Excel add-in older than 2111.2.0.

You can decide whether you want to start the update process directly, which may take some time depending on the number of templates and favorites, or whether you start it the next time you are logging on.

It is possible to cancel the update process at any time. If you stop the process, you won't need to update the templates and favorites again for which the update was finished. You can update the remaining templates and favorites the next time you log on.

Recap: Required update of outdated templates and favorites - Permissions

To be able to use this function, you need to have write permissions for the Migration Planning View Templates and Favorites (IBP_WBMIGR) restriction type which belongs to the Basic Planning Tasks (SAP_IBP_BC_EXCEL_ADDIN_PC) business catalog.

In the restriction type, you can define the planning area and the workbook type (templates or favorites) for which the user should be able run the update process.

For administrators who have write access set to Unrestricted, the function will be available without the need to change the restrictions in the related business role.

Please note: If you only have the permission to update templates but not favorites, the message lists 0 favorites that need to updated, even if there could be favorites that need to updated in the system and planning area.

This figure shows the Migration Planning View Templates and Favorites section within the SAP system, specifically under the Maintain Business Roles area for SUPPLY, detailing options such as write, planning area, and type.

Recap: Required update of outdated templates and favorites - Important to know

Before updating your templates and favorites, please check if the new handling to reduce the workbook size works for all of your templates and favorites. If it doesn't, select the Prevent automatic deletion of planning view cells checkbox, and update the templates and favorites manually. See the previous slides for details.

This figure shows the Member Sorting and Grouping settings window, illustrating options for enabling member sorting, sorting order, grouping by property, and creating a local member with a specified formula.

With an upcoming version of the SAP IBP, add-in for Microsoft Excel, we plan to deprecate the Member Sorting and Grouping function in the Report Editor. Please make sure that you adjust your planning view templates and favorites in due time so that they use the alternatives that are already available instead of the deprecated functions. Planning views will keep working after the deprecation, but functions relying on the deprecated member sorting and grouping will no longer work.

You can use the following alternatives:

  • For member sorting, use other sorting capabilities, such as attribute-based sorting, and value-based sorting, as well as the sorting provided by Microsoft Excel.
  • For creating local members before or after groups set up local members in the new Formulas tab of the Create/Edit Planning View dialog or in the Local Member tab of the Report Editor, when using older versions of the Excel add-in.

Grouping and sorting of members based on properties is planned to be deprecated completely.

In the release in which we remove member sorting and grouping, we also plan to deliver new functionalities with which some of the existing capabilities of member sorting and grouping can be replaced more easily.

Dealing with missing planning object records

In general, disaggregation considers only the planning object records that already exist in the time series table. New planning object records are created only if no matching time record exists for a combination of attribute values of the aggregation level. In this case, all planning object records, which result from the combination of the following, are created:

  • All periods of the root period of the base planning level that match the aggregated period
  • All planning objects of the base planning level that match the other aggregated attribute values

To ensure that the system always generates all missing planning object records that are needed for disaggregation, you need to set the value of the global configuration parameter ADD_ALL_PLAN_OBJECT_RECORDS to Yes. This parameter can also have a positive impact on performance as the check for existing planning object records is no longer required.

As the disaggregation to all missing planning object records is a more common approach and because of the positive impact on performance, we plan to change the default value of the parameter to Yes as of release 2508. If you want to keep the existing disaggregation logic, you must change the value of the parameter in all of your systems to No until then.

Let's consider the following example:

Key figure KF1 is stored on a base planning level with root attributes Product and Month. Its values are set to be equally disaggregated without proportionality. For product PROD_01, a planning object exists on this base planning level, but no planning object records. The planner now maintains a value of 100 for product PROD_01 and key figure KF1 in the period February.

This figure shows a table indicating that for product PROD_01, no records exist for January and March, while there is a record of 100 for February, suggesting preparation for an upcoming release.

The planner then switches to a quarterly view, and changes the value of the first quarter from 100 to 150. Depending on the value that is set for the global configuration parameter ADD_ALL_PLAN_OBJECT_RECORDS, the result of the disaggregation are the following:

The value is set to the default NO

This figure shows a table with product records for the first quarter, indicating no records in January and March, and a record of 150 in February for PROD_01.

The value is set to the default Yes

This figure shows a table labeled 'First Quarter 150' with a product, 'PROD_01', having consistent inventory levels of 50 units in January, February, and March, alongside a 'Prepare for upcoming release' button.

Log in to track your progress & complete quizzes