Planning Activity Quantities and Cost Rates

Objectives

After completing this lesson, you will be able to:

  • Outline the plan value upload process.
  • Upload cost center plan values per cost account.
  • Upload activity type plan data.
  • Upload planned statistical key figures.

Plan Data Upload

In this lesson, we go over the file preparation and upload process for different types of plan data.

At the Bike Company, the departments perform three types of cost center relevant planning:

  • Expense planning per cost account and cost center,
  • Activity planning for each activity type and cost center combination, and
  • Planning statistical key figure values.

You need to be able to support the department managers in preparing their planning files for handover. You also need to know the process for uploading the files into SAP S/4HANA for all the different types of planning.

Expense Planning

Expense Planning Process

To prepare the file to collect expense planning data for the a cost center:

  1. Open the Import Financial Plan Data app.
  2. Download the template CostCenterPlanning.csv file locally.
  3. Fill in the planned data for your cost center.
  4. Upload the filled in template.

Upload Expense Plan Data

The cost center planning phase has started. Plan data should be provided per cost center via flat file. Therefore, you send a flat file template to the cost center managers. They fill in the flat file with the planned expenses on their cost centers and send the file back to you to check the data entered in the file and import the data.

ExerciseStart Exercise

Activity Type Planning

Activity Planning Upload

Planning activities involves the following types of plan data:

  • Activity output planning, where you define which cost centers provide which activity types in which quantity in the planning periods.
  • Activity input planning, where you plan the quantities of activity a cost centers will receive from another cost center.
  • Activity cost rate planning, where you plan the fixed and variable prices for each activity per activity unit.

Check the video below to understand the process:

Activity Planning Process Overview

Activity Output and Input Planning

The figure above gives an idea of how to set up the flat file for the upload of activity outputs:

  • The quantities of the receiver cost centers (on the right in the example) are planned with partner cost centers (on the left in the example) and credit values (negative sign) from the perspective of the sender cost center.
  • Quantities for which no planned receiver cost centers are known are planned without partner cost center and also with credit values (negative sign).

Note

If you check the file you will find that not only the quantities, but also the costs have to be uploaded (quantity * cost rate). The costs are uploaded using secondary cost G/L account 94311000 (Pers H). This G/L account is assigned in the master data of activity type ITS – IT Services (H).

Activity Cost Rate Planning

You use the Manage Cost Rates Plan app to download the PlanCostRateTemplate.xlsx where you maintain the planned activity cost rates. After upload, the planned cost rates are stored in the system.

Upload Activity Inputs, Activity Outputs and Cost Rates

The costs of activity outputs from providing cost centers, the cost rates of these activity types, and the costs from activity inputs for activity receiver cost centers have to be planned. The departments maintain their plan data in CSV files and you upload them to SAP S/4HANA.

ExerciseStart Exercise

Statistical Key Figure Planning

Uploading statistical key figure values is done using the Import Statistical Key Figure Plan Data app. You download the CostCenterStatisticalKeyFigures.csv template, fill in the data, and then select the file to be uploaded.

Upload Planned Statistical Key Figures

The final planning step is to upload the statistical key figure plan values per cost center.

ExerciseStart Exercise

Log in to track your progress & complete quizzes