Profitability Analysis in SAP BPC with HANA

If you have a background in SAP COPA (Controlling-Profitability Analysis) and wondered if similar planning can be done in SAP BPC, you will find this article interesting.

SAP COPA is a great tool to collect the actual data, but does not have a good user interface for planning. Users of COPA usually plan in Microsoft Excel sheet and plugin the values in COPA planning templates. This defeats the whole purpose of interactive planning. This is due to the fact the templates are not flexible and cannot be generated dynamically.

In earlier blog we discussed about 'Key Figure' limitation in BPC. 

The other limitation is COPA can have 50 Characters, whereas a BPC Model ('Application' in 7.5 am older versions) can have only 20. An Environment ('ApplicationSet' in BPC 7.5 an older versions) can have 50 or more dimensions, if required we can create multiple Models each with different sets of COPA characteristic (or Characteristic groups) and join them using a common denominator (e.g. a segment).

We have helped clients to address COPA planning limitations in BPC. Contact us to discuss your case scenario.

With HANA, many limitations of COPA using traditional database can be overcome. We will cover COPA+HANA in over next blog. 

SAP BPC NW Consolidations Movements in Flow or Account Dimension?

Whats the advantage of flow dimension over accounts?

In my experience is Flow makes things application complex, Account is relatively easier to report and manage.

Account movements are required for many Balance Sheet accounts- e.g. Cash, Fixed Assets. These movements are reported in financial statements in cash flow and disclosure sections.

I believe capturing movements in accounts is much efficient because

1. Reporting is much simpler, no need to remember which flows are valid for which accounts.e.g. Cash account do not need retirements, additions flows dimensions. 
2. If you have flow dimension, then users have to be careful ion which flow they enter data. Overload on Business User.

What's your take?

Profitability Analysis Using SAP BPC

Can I make my Profitability Analysis (COPA) Planning in SAP as simpler as my Cost center or Revenue Planning in SAP BPC?

Agile Answer: Yes, you can.

SAP BPC's design is based on an Amount (Keyfigure), whereas SAP COPA can have multiple value fields (Keyfigure's). 

How do you load the COPA multi-Keyfigure in BPC? The key word to use in your transformation file is MVAL.

Dimension =*MVAL(keyfiguretype1|dim_mem1||keyfiguretype2|dim_mem2||keyfiguretype3|dim_mem3)

For reporting, you need to expand this Dimension on same axis as your key figure.

Challenges with COPA data in BPC

1. I like COPA, but the only limitation for business users in planning scenarios is 'inflexible' layouts. Unlike BPC reports/input schedules, COPA reports/planning layouts have to be configured. Which means a IT resource is required.
2. Users can plan quantities (or revenue) and COPA  can derive the revenue(or quantity) based on standard price or other measures. To achieve similar results enhancements are required in BPC.
3. If you get past #2, now some users would like to copy BPC data to COPA. How do we do it? It’s a complex development with a BAdI.  

We have helped clients to clear all the above barriers to create COPA like scenario in BPC. Do contact us and we will be glad to help you.