Configuring an SAP IBP, add-in for Microsoft Excel

The SAP IBP, add-in for Microsoft Excel allows you to review and modify your planning data and run simulations. Depending on the SAP Integrated Business Planning (IBP) for Supply Chain applications that your company has licensed and configured, it also provides advanced planning functions, such as inventory optimization and statistical forecasting methods for creating accurate forecast data from historical sales figures.

The add-in supports localized date and number formatting.

Before you can start working with data in Microsoft Excel, you need to ensure that the SAP IBP, add-in for Microsoft Excel is installed. Then, you establish a secure connection between Microsoft Excel and the SAP IBP database. A connection establishes access to a specific system and planning model. Once the connection preferences have been configured, the user only needs to provide the user ID and password to gain access to the database.

If the SAP IBP, add-in for Microsoft Excel is installed, the SAP IBP tab is embedded in Microsoft Excel. The Microsoft Excel UI provides a familiar, easy-to-use interface for demand planners, supply planners, sales staff, finance staff, and executives. The interface allows users to review and modify plans directly in Microsoft Excel. These changes are saved in the in-memory database (SAP HANA).

The following list provides an overview of the available SAP IBP toolbar options as shown in the figure SAP IBP, add-in for Microsoft Excel:

• Connection

  • Log on/Off: Logs you completely out of system; the Remember me setting is deleted

  • Disconnect: Disconnects from the IBP system

• Planning View: New View and Favorites

  • New View: Allows you to create a new planning view report with or without a template

  • Favorites: Allows you to create or access user-specific planning view reports (save settings)

  • Edit View
  • Filters

• Planning View: Edit View → Settings

  • Time: Allows filtering on different time levels and time periods (start and end periods) with Telescopic time settings

  • Planning Level: Provides master data attributes, for example, customer, product family, and location ID

    Totals and sub-totals are available at planning levels

  • Key Figures: Allows selection and ordering of key figures in the planning view

  • Layout: Allows you to change the layout of the page

  • Filters: Selects subset of data based on a planning level and allows named filters to be defined

    Note

    Setting a small filter as mandatory prevents a long runtime when a template is used.

  • Alerts: Allows you to select alerts to be used in a planning view

• Data Input

  • Save Data: Saves any changes made to the database

  • Simulate: Displays the impact to a planning report if an update is performed

  • Refresh: Removes unsaved changes and refreshes planning view data from database alerts

  • Go Offline: Converts all IBP formulas to Excel formulas

• Dashboard Alerts: Shows a list of alerts

• Master Data

  • Manage: Allows you to create and maintain single or mass master data from the Microsoft Excel UI

  • New Planning Object: Allows you to add a new combination of attributes to the planning view or delete existing combinations

  • Favorites
  • Master Data Workbook

• Scenarios: Allows you to create and manage scenarios

• Versions Manage: Provides options to copy or delete key figure data by version, with or without filter by attribute values, and for specific date ranges

• Application Jobs: Allows you to execute in real time or schedule algorithms in the SAP HANA library, which are configured by planning operators

• Tasks

• Template Admin

  • Templates: Provides customized planning views available to users based on access

  • Advanced: Create and edit reports

• About

  • Settings: Shows general settings (time, language, and so on)

    Options: Provides formatting options, such as for SAP IBP Formulas (Formerly Called Local Members), protection, formatting

  • Help: opens IBP Help, as well as provides information on IBP release, message history and logs

  • Web Apps: Opens IBP Home Page

A planning view is one of the main methods used to interact with the data in SAP Integrated Business Planning, which includes viewing and editing plans and simulation and scenario planning. A planning view displays the details of the key figures, user-defined filters, planning levels, and time selection. It allows users to view, analyze, and edit key figure data at any level of granularity.

Time Settings

The time setting allows the user to select the required time granularity, the number of periods to be displayed, and whether it is a fixed-time or rolling-time window. In a rolling calendar, the number of periods is defined and the horizon shifts relative to the current month.

Attributes Settings

The planner (user) can defined the level of aggregation for selected key figures. Planning can be based on any set of attributes, which are part of master data types. Flexibility in selecting attributes allows user to analyze information in multiple ways.

An attribute represents data, which is associated with a master data type but is not time phased - for example, a product family, which is tied to the product master data type. A master data type is a collection of related data members, which represents one aspect of a business, for example, products, locations, and customers.

Key Figure Settings

Key figures represent any data over time that is tied to master data types and attributes. A time series can be imported, edited, or based on calculations. They represent various plans and actuals, which include sales forecasting, market forecasting, consensus demand planning, projected inventory, and capacity planning.

Filter Settings

A planning filter allows users to filter the data that they can access. It is possible to apply an ad hoc filter that is not named and cannot be reused.

Suppose a user has complex filters to access the data they are responsible for planning. In that case, these filters can be named and saved to be applied to other planning views without recreating the complex filter criteria. When filters are named and saved, they are also accessible in the Web UI to be used in application jobs.

Value-Based Filter

You can use a value-based filter to define that planning objects should only display in the planning view if the values they have for the selected key figures in the selected time periods relate in a specific way to the values you specify.

If you don’t specify any value, you can filter for empty, non-empty, zero or non-zero data points.

Cascading Filter

You can use the cascading filter to filter attributes based on other attribute filters. This is very useful when you want to filter using attributes that have a large number of values.

For example, in your master data workbook, you filter by Product Family. Using the cascading filter, the system displays a list of products that are part of the product family that you specified.

Planning Filters

You can use the Planning Filters app to manage filters that you can apply in other SAP Integrated Business Planning (IBP) for Supply Chain apps, such as Application Jobs, Application Job Templates, and planning with the SAP IBP, add-in for Microsoft Excel. You can apply filters to view subsets of data in the following objects:

• Jobs in the Applications Jobs app

• Job templates in the Application Job Templates app

• Analytics Charts in Analytics Advanced app

• Planning view templates in SAP IBP, add-in for Microsoft Excel

• Planning view favorites in SAP IBP, add-in for Microsoft Excel

• Worksheets in SAP IBP, add-in for Microsoft Excel

Note

You can only view filters that you have created. Filters can be shared with other users and user groups.

The filters you can create and manage in this app are the same as the saved filters you can set up in the SAP IBP, add-in for Microsoft Excel.

A favorite allows users to save and use planning that have preselected settings. Favorites are private to the end user but can be shared. To create a favorite, on the SAP IBP tab, choose Favorites → Add.

If you have created a new planning view and you want to add it to your favorites, ensure that the report is displayed when it is created because this will save the favorites with settings from the planning view.

In the settings, the template administrator can set various default values, for example, the default currency and unit of measure. These default values save time when working with planning views.

These values can be overwritten with the user-specific ones in the template planning views.

The settings are valid for the particular connection (system/planning area combination). If settings need to be changed, that has to be done individually for each connection. The settings are not stored locally on your PC.

The settings that the administrator creates are applied to all users if there are no settings made by the users for the same value, while the settings that end users make are valid for their user only. The system uses the settings that are made as permanent settings to automatically fill them wherever they are displayed. For example, if you specify your computer's time zone as the default time used, the time is displayed accordingly throughout the SAP IBP Add-in for Microsoft Excel (for example, in the job status).

The following settings are available:

• Language

• Time zone

• Currency and unit of measure conversion

• Default value for planning unit
  Note

  Suppose you select the Overwrite Template checkbox next to the Currency to ID, Unit of Measure to ID, and Subnetworks checkboxes. In that case, when you create a new planning view from a template, the SAP IBP Add-in for Microsoft Excel overwrites the values used in the template with the values you specified in these fields. The system also uses these values when creating a new planning view without using a template.

  Observe that there are information boxes that you can mouse over and review the help content for some settings.

• Display operator types grouped according to the actions that the user can do (in groups of Run, Status, and Schedule).

• Show master data instruction (displays help text when you are working with master data worksheets)

• Expand Cascading Filter
• Various settings for planning notes

• File path for the folder where the SAP IBP Add-in for Microsoft Excel saves your workbooks other than the default …\Documents\SAP_IBP folder

  This can be useful if you want to store your workbooks in a different folder than the one created by the SAP IBP Add-in for Microsoft Excel by default, or if the default folder cannot always be reached in your network. If, after specifying your own folder, you would like to use the default folder again, you must choose the Reset to Default button. If you are using macros in your workbooks, you must make the folder a trusted folder in Microsoft Excel.

• Settings for display of connection speed information
• And so on