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Procedure for Creating Planning Layouts

With some exceptions, defining planning layouts is similar to defining report with Report Painter.

The following is essential information on defining a planning layout. For a detailed description of functions, see the "SAP Library" under Financials -> Controlling -> Cost Center Accounting -> Information System -> Define Reports -> Creating Reports with Report Painter, or in the Implementation Guide for Cost Center Accounting under Information System -> Own Reports -> Create reports.

A planning layout consists of the following components:

Header

Defining a planning layout begins by entering general selection criteria (Edit -> General selection -> Display/Change. These criteria control which characteristics and which characteristic values are in the header of the planning layout.
The "General Selections" characteristics apply to the whole planning layout. This reduces the time required for defining the planning layout and also improves the response times when you execute the planning, since the SAP R/3 System has to read less data.
You have the option of defining the characteristics and the lead and value columns as variables. Defining them as variables means that these fields are ready for input on the initial screen when you execute the planning.
In a layout for cost element planning, you would under general selections choose the characteristics version , period, fiscal year, and cost center . The lead column contains the characteristics activity type and cost element . The value columns contain key figures like e.g. Plan costs in object currency and actual costs in object currency.
In a layout for a quarterly comparison, you would for example choose the characteristics Version and Fiscal year as general selections. You would enter the period and the cost center in the lead column or value columns.
In a further step, you can determine the hierarchical order in which characteristics in the general selection criteria are used (Edit -> General selection -> Header ). Without header entries, the hierarchical order given by the SAP System as a default is retained.
Lead columns and value columns
You now define the content of the lead and value columns in the planning layout. The layout of the columns and rows is based on the
selection of particular characteristics that are preset by SAP. You assign an attribute to each characteristic.

Definition of Lead Columns

Definition of Value Columns

Characteristics and characteristic values

When defining headers, lead columns, and value columns, you must enter one or more characteristics.

Characteristics are predefined by the SAP R/3 System for the corresponding planning area.

Characteristics

After specifying the characteristic, you must determine the characteristic value controlling the data selection.

Characteristic Values