Reporting in SAP S/4HANA

SAP S/4HANA blends transactions and analytics, allowing operational reporting on live transactional data. SAP S/4HANA comes with prebuilt content (similar in concept to SAP BW content) in the form of ABAP-based Core Data Services (CDS) views for real-time operational reporting. The content is represented as a Virtual Data Model (VDM), which is based on the transactional and master data tables of SAP S/4HANA. SAP HANA Studio contains an ABAP development tool where you can create the ABAP-based CDS views.

CDS views are SAP’s strategic modeling approach for business entities. High flexibility for further multiple use cases are available (for example, Search, and so on) and Scripted (SQL plus extensions) are offered. SAP S/4 HANA is fully integrated with ABAP, Life-cycle, Authorization Management, and so on.

A CDS view contains the following three levels:

• Basic view:

  This is directly related to the standard data tables. It is also called private (SAP) view and cannot be used by customers.

• Interface view:

  This view accesses the basic view. On this level, joins (associations) can be built between CDS views.

• Consumption view:

  As a result, the analytical query can be used for all kinds of analytical front ends based on the consumption view.

Company data is distributed across several applications that are used for entering data. Analyzing this data is difficult, not only because it is distributed across several systems, but also because the data is saved in a form that is optimized for processing and not for analysis.

SAP S/4HANA delivers the following project-related CDS views as standard:

• Project Definition Overview
• WBS Element Overview
• Network Overview
• Network Activity Overview
• Milestone Overview
• Material Component Overview

If you want to check if an SAP Fiori app is available, you can do this at https://fioriappslibrary.hana.ondemand.com/sap/fix/externalViewer/#. You can search for an app by Line of Business (LoB), role, application component, and so on. For each app, you also get information about which role you have to assign to your user.

It is possible to create an SAP Fiori tile through the KPI Modeling app Manage KPIs and Reports.

The Manage KPIs and Reports app is a single platform for creating all analytical applications using KPIs, reports, and stories. You can create applications that can be launched directly from SAP Fiori launchpad. You can configure metrics in the KPI, visualize the data either in chart or table format, and analyze the data to improve the quantity and quality of the different business units belonging to an organization.

This app is integrated with SAP Analytics Cloud, which helps to analyze and interact with real-time data. With SAP Analytics Cloud, data can be imported, or connected live from SAP S/4HANA Cloud systems, modeled, and converted into various visualizations. This helps the business units in data-driven decision-making. For more details, see the following section, which explains the capabilities of Embedded Analytics powered by SAP Analytics Cloud.

You can create groups, KPIs, reports, and stories from this page by choosing the relevant tabs. The basic functions, such as edit, copy, and delete, can be performed on the relevant entities by choosing the icons from the toolbar. The number groups, KPIs, reports, and stories are displayed for each entity. Using the Search tab, you can refine your search based on names, description, tags, and status.

The following features are available in the Manage KPIs and Reports app:

• Groups: You use this section to create groups for multiple KPIs.
• Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): KPIs are used to identify and measure the key metrics of a business. You create an evaluation to define a specific representation of a KPI, which means that you define a certain selection of the KPI data, the targets and thresholds that are relevant, together with some additional information. For example, you've defined a KPI to monitor car sales in a particular country. You can then create a KPI that restricts the results to a certain area of that country for which one sales representative is responsible. You must specify an active group when you're creating a KPI.
• Reports: You configure the reports for active KPIs as the starting point for further analysis. At runtime, you select the application to open either an SAP Smart Business generic drill-down application or a Data Analyzer and Story runtime. You can choose how to visualize the tile by selecting one of the available tiles (numeric, comparison, trend, or actual vs. target).
• Stories: With the integration of SAP S/4HANA Cloud with SAP Analytics Cloud you can create stories, add data, and generate powerful visualizations and analyze the data using Data Analyzer and Story runtime application

The analytical SAP Fiori apps Project Cost Overview and Project Cost Line Items can be used by project financial controllers to monitor planned and actual project costs.

With the app Project Cost Overview, you can analyze actual costs and planned costs of a project, its WBS elements, internal orders, the assigned networks, network activities and elements, and plant maintenance orders with header account assignment. The planned costs are derived from the central financial planning table, ACDOCP, and the table for universal journal entry, ACDOCA.

You can use the app to do the following:

• Analyze actual, planned, and additional planned costs, for example baseline costs, for a selected project, its WBS elements, internal orders, assigned networks, network activities and elements, and plant maintenance orders with header account assignment.
• Analyze the financial data in different currencies.
• Display variances of planned and actual costs in global currency.
• Switch between an aggregated and non-aggregated display of financial data.
• Navigate to the Project Cost Line Items application and expand and collapse the project structure to view detailed information about the cost postings.
• Navigate to related apps to view the details of entities such as project, WBS element, and network header. Export the contents of the analytical table to Excel.

You can select and filter the data based on the required fields, such as Plan Category, Additional Plan Category (for comparison purposes), Project Definition, Controlling Area, and G/L Account Hierarchy. You can select a single project in the filter option for Project Definition.

In addition, you can also filter the data based on various optional categories, such as WBS Element, Network, Internal Order, Plant Maintenance Order, Order Type, or organizational data such as Company Code and Profit Center, or based on the Posting Date.

You can also save your filter as a variant for later use.

The Plan Category is used to distinguish between different sets of plan data. It is also possible to group several plan categories together using virtual plan categories.

The Plan Category determines which data is loaded from the central financial planning table and is displayed in the corresponding report column. Since different plan categories are used for different object types, the selection of the plan category also determines the object types for which planned costs are displayed. Plan categories have to be defined in Customizing.

The G/L Account Hierarchy determines how the costs are selected by allowing you to define a structured list of G/L accounts. You can specify the G/L account hierarchy that you want to use for data selection and display in the project cost overview. Only the cost postings related to G/L accounts, which are part of a G/L account hierarchy are considered within the report. Postings related to other G/L accounts are not selected or displayed.

The app supports the following functions for analyzing costs:

• Aggregated Cost View: The costs of WBS elements and the assigned orders are aggregated by the project hierarchy. You can use this view to analyze the financial situation at all WBS element levels, considering the costs of lower-level objects in an aggregated way. The total aggregated costs are displayed against the project definition. In this view, selecting the parent WBS element automatically selects all the nested WBS elements within that hierarchy. The variance is also displayed in an aggregated way.
• Non-aggregated Costs View: The costs are displayed at the level of the account assignment objects such as WBS elements, internal orders, assigned networks, and plant maintenance orders. You can use this view to analyze the financial situation of individual objects. In this view, selecting the parent WBS element does not select all the nested WBS elements within that hierarchy automatically. You must separately select the individual objects you want to analyze. The variance is calculated and displayed for individual account assignment objects.
• View Cost Line Items: When you select a project object from the aggregated or non-aggregated cost view, the View Details button is enabled. You can click on this button to navigate to the Project Cost Line Items app for further analysis.

Using the app Project Cost Line Items you can analyze actual costs line items and planned costs details for a project, its WBS elements, internal orders, assigned networks, and plant maintenance orders with header account assignment. The planned costs are derived from the central financial planning table, ACDOCP, and the table for universal journal entry, ACDOCA.

You can use the app to do the following:

• Analyze actual cost line items, and details of planned, and additional planned costs, for example baseline costs, for a selected project, its WBS elements, internal orders, assigned networks, and plant maintenance orders with header account assignment.
• Analyze the financial data in different currencies.
• Use configurable chart and tables views for the analysis.
• Navigate to related apps to view the details of journal entries and of entities such as project, WBS element, network header, and network activity.
• Specify the object types (WBS element, networks, plant maintenance orders) to be displayed.
• Specify whether settlement items are to be displayed.
• Use filtering, sorting, and grouping capabilities.
• Navigate to related apps to view the details of entities such as project, WBS element, network header, network operation, plant maintenance order, and so on. Export the contents of the analytical table to Excel.

You can select and filter the data based on the required fields, such as Plan Category, Additional Plan Category, Include WBS Hierarchy, Project Definition, Include Settlements Controlling Area, G/L Account Hierarchy, and Include Objects. You can select a single project in the filter option for Project Definition.

You can also filter the data based on various optional categories, such as Cost Component, WBS Element, Network, Network Activity, Internal Order, Plant Maintenance Order, Order Type, Posting Date, and Company Code.

If you specify a WBS element and a project, you can define whether to display the financial data of only the WBS element (and the assigned network and plant maintenance order respectively) or all lower-level WBS elements as well.

This report also uses the Plan Category and the G/L Account Hierarchy similar as the overview report.

Also, you can Include Settlements, so all settlement postings for the selected objects are shown along with the other actual cost postings. Without this setting, only the settlement postings from the external sender, which are not assigned to the project are shown along the other actual cost postings.

However, the costs settled from the project or within the project are hidden from the results list.

Using the Include WBS Hierarchy setting when using a WBS element as filter parameter, the result displays the cost line items for the WBS elements, all child WBS elements, and other assigned object that you select under Include Objects. Otherwise, only the cost line items for the individual WBS element and assigned objects is displayed.

The Cost Component filter refers to the lowest node to which a predefined group of G/L accounts belong in a G/L account hierarchy. The cost components available depend on the G/L Account hierarchy that you selected. Using this filter you can display the financial information that you want to be selected and displayed by the nodes of the G/L account hierarchy.