Planning Models and Analytic Models

SAP Analytics Cloud offers fully featured planning models or simpler, more flexible analytic models. Additionally, you can create analytic models from a live data source but you cannot create planning models from a live data source.

The available model types support different sets of features:

• Planning-type model: to support and streamline the planning process, planning models are prepared with many off-the-shelf features to give you a quick start in the planning process.

  Planning models are preconfigured with:

  • Categories for budgets, plans, and forecasts.
  • Default time periods that you can quickly adjust to suit your data.
  • Auditing features for traceability.
  • Security features that make it possible for you to restrict access to specific values in data grids to named individuals.

  When working with a planning model in a story, users with planning privileges can create their own versions of model data, as well as writing data to the model by typing new values, copying and pasting data, and using allocations features.

• Analytic-type model: unlike the planning model, analytic models are not preconfigured with categories (for budget and forecast data), and although a Date dimension is available, it is not required, and you can remove it from the model during the design stage.
• Analytic model from a live data source. For more information, see Live Data Connection.

The model type is determined by switching the Planning Capabilities setting on or off in the model preferences. See Model Preferences.