Maintain Planner Profiles

In this activity, you define planner profiles, which you can use to organize your organization's planning. A planner profile determines which planning layouts can be used with which default parameters for each planning area. You can enter any number of planning layouts for each planning area. These layouts are sorted according to their "Profile item" number. It is also possible to use the same layout in different items of the profile, specifying different default parameters each time.

Planner profiles are hierarchical in structure:

- General planner profile

- Profit Center Accounting

- Layouts for Profit Center Accounting

- Default parameters

• General planner profile

You can assign each planner profile an authorization group.
Using these authorization groups and by defining parameters settings that the user cannot change (see "Default parameters" below), you can define detailed authorizations for planning.

The system always displays all the planner profiles defined in your system, regardless of what application you are working in. This allows you to use the same planner profiles in different applications.

• Profit Center Accounting

For each planner profile, the system proposes the planning areas Costs/revenues, Balance sheet accounts and Statistical key figures for Profit Center Accounting.
The fields "Currency distribution key" and "Quantity distribution key" contain default keys for distributing currency values and quantities to periods. You can overwrite these values if you wish. For each planning area, you need to specify a document type for document number assignment.
If you select the field Auto. valuation , you can have the system automatically valuate the quantities of representative materials using transfer prices. If you do not select this field, it is still possible to valuate the quantities with transfer prices manually in planning. (Valuation with transfer prices is only possible, of course, if the other necessary settings have also been made. For more information, see the online documentation for Profit Center Accounting.)

If you select the field Costs: auto. der., you can have the system automatically derive the cost of the representative material quantities from material costing.

For more information, see the documentation contained in the R/3 library and in the Implementation Guide (IMG) under Quantity-Based Planning.

• Layouts for Profit Center Accounting

For each planning area, you can specify which planning layouts should be displayed in which order. You must define at least one item for each planning area and assign a planning layout to that item.

The flag Deflt shows whether default parameters have been defined for the planning layout. The system sets this indicator automatically when you have defined default parameters.

If you deselect the Overw. indicator, users cannot overwrite the default parameters with other values when they enter the planning transaction. If this indicator is selected, however, the values are treated as proposals, which users can change if they desire.

If you select the Integrated Excel indicator, the system calls up Microsoft Excel in the R/3 window as the planning screen for that layout.

A file description is a generic file name for use with integrated Excel and with the Excel upload function that assigns the cells in the Excel spreadsheet with those in the planning layout. The system automatically enters a file description when you save the generic file name for your Excel template (see "Default Parameters" below). If you want to use the same layout more than once, you can enter the generated file description for the next planning layout. For more information about integrated Excel and the prerequisites for working with Excel, see the online documentation for Profit Center Accounting.

• Default parameters

For each item in the planning area, you can define default parameters for the variables in the planning layout.

When you enter planning using this planner profile, the system proposes these values.

If you have selected "Integrated Excel" for your planning screen and want the system to generate a file description, choose Goto -> Overview screen from the "Default Parameters" screen. Note that you first need to enter values in the fields on this screen before you can choose this function. The system calls up Excel in the R/3 window and displays the planning layout in an Excel worksheet. Here you can move parts of the layout around, enter your own area for external calculations, change formattings, and so on. Using the function Save file description , you save the assignment of the fields in the SAP layout area between R/3 and Excel. Using Save Excel Layout , you can save the layout information (formulas defined in Excel, formattings, and so on) of the Excel worksheet. You can enter a generic name for the files you want to upload into R/3 using the <>Generic file name function. See the online documentation for more information about defining defaults in Excel.

Planner profiles help you structure your organization's planning process, especially if your organization uses a decentralized planning process. You can assign your users planning layouts in which the objects they are allowed to plan are predefined and nonchangeable.

Preconditions

To create a planner profile, you first have to have defined all the planning layouts that you want to use in that profile. If you have not already done so, carry out the step Create planning layout.

Activities

If you want to assign planner profiles to authorization groups, you first need to carry out the step Maintain authorization groups to define these. Authorization groups determine which users can maintain which planner profile. You can assign authorizations using the authorization object CO: Planner profiles (K_TKA50).

To define planner profiles, choose the activity Maintain planner profiles and proceed as follows:

1. General planner profile

a) To create a new planner profile, choose New entries.

To copy an existing profile, select the existing profile and then copy it using the Copy as function.

b) Enter a name and a short text for the planner profile.

c) If desired, assign the profile to an authorization group.

2. Profit Center Accounting

a) Select the planner profile that you want to maintain, and then choose Profit Center Accounting.

b) If desired, change the default distribution keys for currencies and quantities. Enter a document type for plan data.

c) If desired, select the "Auto.TP vltn" field to valuate plan data using transfer prices and the "Mat.costs auto." field to derive material costs automatically using material costs estimates.

d) If you want to select a planning area, choose New entries.

3. Layouts for Profit Center Accounting

a) Select the planning layout you want to process and choose Layouts in Profit Center Accounting.

b) Choose New entries, and enter an item and an existing planning layout.

c) Activate the Overw. indicator if you want to define default parameters for the variables in that layout, and if you want users to be able to overwrite these parameters.

d) Select "Integrated Excel" if you want to use Microsoft Excel as your planning screen. Enter a file description manually or save the automatically generated one in the default parameters.

e) Save your entries.

f) Select a planning layout for which you want to define default parameters and choose Default parameters.

4. Default parameters

a) Enter the desired values in the variable fields.

b) Make the desired settings for working with Excel.

5. Optional steps:

• Authorizations

In the section Create Activity Group/Profile and Assign Users, you can define authorizations for authorization object K_TKA50 and assign these to users by placing the authorizations in authorization profiles. For further information, see Authorization Management.

• User profile

Assign the desired planner profiles to individual users by entering them in the user parameters using parameter ID "PPP" ( System -> User profile -> Own data).