During short-term business planning, which is based on a planning horizon of one fiscal year, the following sub-plans are generally created:

• A sales plan or multiple sales plans
• A master production schedule or multiple master production schedules
• A cost plan or multiple cost plans
• A revenue plan or multiple revenue plans

The planning process connects the individual planning areas through a planning network.

In this scenario we use the example of a product to show how the system supports the linking of subplans to create a short-term business plan. The sales quantity plan created at article level in Profitability Analysis is transferred to Sales and Operation Planning (SOP) in Production. The sales quantity plan is used to determine the production quantity in the SOP planning, taking into account the production capacities. The activity requirements are also determined and transferred to Cost Center Accounting. Cost planning is undertaken in Cost Center Accounting, based on the activity requirements (cost influencing factors). One of the results of Cost Center Accounting is the determining of the planned prices. These planned prices are made available to product costing, where they are used to determine the planned cost of goods manufactured for the article. The planned cost of goods manufactured are transferred to Profitability Analysis to determine the planned sales and profits through a revaluation of the article.