Planning notes provide a means for different planners to gain business insights, be notified of the reasons for changes in the data and collaborate more efficiently.
You can use planning notes to record additional business information from different participants in the planning process not only in the form of numbers, but also as text. Planning notes can be created for key figure values in the SAP Integrated Business Planning, add-in for Microsoft Excel and in the Web-Based Planning, and Planner Workspaces apps. You can use the Manage Planning Notes app to view, delete, and systematically manage planning notes. In that app you can also create new keywords, rename existing keywords or delete keywords. Keywords can be used as a search criteria in the app and to add information to the notes in an effective and standardized way.
In Microsoft Excel UI, planning notes are visualized by a red triangle in the top right corner of the cell.
Planning notes can be enabled for multiple key figures and are visualized as Microsoft Excel comments in the planning view but are stored in the database and hence can be shown at any level of aggregation or disaggregation that the respective key figure allows.
Prerequisites
- Planning Notes are enabled for the key figure in configuration
- You have the necessary permissions to view planning notes
- You have set the display options in settings or on the Key Figures tab
- Global configuration parameter New_Query is set to True
Planning View Settings
You can make the following settings for each planning view in the key figures section or for all planning views in settings.
- Don't Show: No planning notes display
- Show from this Planning Level Only: Planning notes that were created on the aggregation level of the planning view display
- Show from All Levels: All planning notes from all levels of aggregation and disaggregation display
Planning notes created on an aggregated level are disaggregated to the base planning level of the respective key figure.
When you create a planning note on a more aggregated level and save the planning view, the planning note is disaggregated to the base planning level of the key figure for which you created it. However, as disaggregating planning notes down from a very aggregated level can result in large amounts of data, please keep the following in mind:
- The SAP IBP, add-in for Microsoft Excel does not allow the saving of planning notes when the disaggregation of the planning note to the base planning level of the key figure would result in more than 20 million attribute - period level combinations.
- The maximum number of attribute - period ID - planning note combinations in the database is limited to 2 billion entries per planning area - version - key figure combination.
- You can edit or delete existing planning notes that you created.
- You need admin permission to edit or delete planning notes that were created by other users.
Planning Notes and Microsoft Excel Comments
Planning notes and native Microsoft Excel comments display in the same way, but are different in their functions. Planning notes use the Microsoft Excel comments functionality to visualize planning notes in the planning view. However, there are differences in their functionality, so please bear in mind the following:
- Editing and deleting planning notes using the Microsoft Excel comments function, either through the context menu or the Review tab is not supported. The SAP IBP, add-in for Microsoft Excel displays a warning message about this when you save your planning view, and the changes you made through the Microsoft Excel comment functionality are lost when the planning view is refreshed.
- Creating a Microsoft Excel comment in a planning view is also not supported and leads to a warning message. Microsoft Excel comments are also not saved in the SAP IBP system and are lost after a refresh of the planning view.
- You can use other features of Microsoft Excel comments from the Review tab, such as Previous, Next, Show/Hide Comments, Show All Comments.