This component enables a consolidation unit to enter its financial data locally in user-defined matrices, save it to a Microsoft Access database for the offline data entry program, and then transfer it to a central SAP System.

You can use this component if, for technical or organizational reasons, the following methods of data entry are not feasible or desired for the parent and subsidiary in question:

• Online data entry in the SAP System
• Integrated data transfer from an SAP System
• Flexible upload from a non-SAP system
• Offline data entry with Microsoft Access as a standalone solution for decentralized data entry

In a data matrix, you enter financial data for various characteristics and combinations of characteristics. In order to simplify definition of a data matrix, you can use lists of proposals for the characteristics predefined in Interactive Excel. These are generated from the master data and control parameters in the database.

However, you are also free to define your own matrix or part of a matrix without using values from Access, and to apply any formatting that you require.

Interactive Excel is added on to the standard Microsoft Excel application in the form of a template. It therefore has the advantage of being based on a well-known spreadsheet program that offers a wide range of formatting functions.

Before you enter data in a matrix, you can run a preparation for data entry. During this procedure, matrix cells in which data cannot be entered are blocked, and data from the database is imported into the matrix as a reference.

Interactive Excel checks the consistency of data before exporting it to the database. You also have the option of triggering a validation of reported financial data using validation rules stored in the database.