Automatic Data Collection

Purpose

Automatic data collection is an overall term for those methods the consolidation system uses to collect data that is either ready for transfer from other systems or is delivered as data files. In comparison to manual data entry, the methods for automatic data collection are beneficial when dealing with large volumes of data or when you want to efficiently process recurring period tasks for data collection.

Features

The following methods are available for automatic data collection:

The following figure illustrates the general principle behind the methods for automatic data collection:

The system reads the data from either a data file (the flexible upload method) or a data stream. Data streams can be processed as follows:

  • In the load from data stream method, the data comes from a data stream you specify, and is written to the InfoCube of Consolidation.

  • In the copy method, the data also comes from a data stream you specify, but is written to a different selection of characteristics in the same data stream.

After determining the method, you define mapping rules for mapping the source data fields to the fields of the consolidation data basis. The system uses these rules to transform the data into a format required for Consolidation and then writes the data to the data basis. You can specify a target selection, for example, to write data only for certain consolidation units or certain versions.

A common feature shared by all methods for automatic data collection is that the system's behavior is dependent on the method's update mode setting, which is a property all methods have. For more details, see Control of Data Collection Using Update Mode .

You can choose different types of data to be collected. The following table shows which specific objects are collected when a data type is chosen:

Data Types and the Objects Collected

Type of Data

Objects Collected

Master data, customizing settings

The master data and settings specified in the method

Changes in investment

Characteristics with the roles version, group currency, fiscal year, period, and investee unit (each with their independent compound characteristics) and also the characteristics that are fixed in the consolidation area

Changes in investee equity

Characteristics with the roles version, group currency, fiscal year, period, investee unit, and (cost center) activity type (each with their independent compound characteristics) and also the characteristics that are fixed in the consolidation area

Equity holdings adjustments

Characteristics with the roles version, group currency, fiscal year, period, consolidation unit, and (cost center) activity type (each with their independent compound characteristics) and also the characteristic that is compounded with the role item

Goodwill

Characteristics with the roles version, group currency, fiscal year, period, consolidation unit, investee unit, (cost center) activity type, year of addition, and period of addition (each with their independent compound characteristics) and also the characteristics that are fixed in the consolidation area

Inventory data

Characteristics with the roles version, group currency, fiscal year, period, consolidation unit, partner unit, and product group (each with their independent compound characteristics) and also the characteristics that are fixed in the consolidation area

Supplier data

Characteristics with the roles version, group currency, fiscal year, period, consolidation unit, partner unit, and product group (each with their independent compound characteristics)

Constraints

You should ensure that the format of the collected data exactly matches the data structure in the consolidation system. Otherwise, the system assumes there is an error and does not completely execute the data collection, or does so only partially. This can also happen even if the data at first glance appears to be correct. For example, the system behaves like this in the following situations:

  • You want to collect transaction data that has a currency without decimal places. However, the monetary values in the data include decimal places. In this case, the system terminates the collection run. The system still terminates the run even if the decimal places are all filled with zeroes.

  • In the customizing settings for the data collection method, you defined fields for monetary values in local currency and in group currency. Although the collected data contains the amounts in group currency, it does not contain the currency key for the group currency. In this case, the system collects only the amounts in local currency and sets all amounts in group currency to zero. In this situation, the fact that the method contains a field for the group currency prevents the loading process from implicitly translating the local currency amounts to group currency.

Example

For detailed examples of data collection, see Data Collection: Examples .