Comments for Documents and Additional Financial Data

You use this function to create additional information for documents and additional financial data, to save this information in a specific context, and to access it on demand.

Integration

Comments are stored in SAP NetWeaver Business Intelligence (BI).

Prerequisites

Enabling the Creation of Comments

The following table shows you how the characteristics in BI need to be set up to allow comments to be created in the consolidation system.

All characteristics denoted with an X must have an activated Characteristic is Document Attribute indicator in the corresponding InfoObject in BI (see also the procedure described below the table).

Characteristic is Document Attribute Indicator in BI
Data Stream/ InfoObject	Documents	Inventory Data	Supplier Data	Supplier Share	Goodwill	Noncurrent Assets	Noncurrent Asset Transfer
Document number	X
Fiscal year	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
Fiscal year variant	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
Posting period	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
Consolidation of investments activity					X
Activity number					X
Company		X	X	X		X	X
Profit center		X	X	X		X	X
Item		X
Item type		X
Partner company		X	X	X			X
Partner profit center		X	X	X			X
Product group		X	X	X
Investee unit (company)					X
Investee unit (profit center)					X
Asset main number						X	X
Asset subnumber						X	X
Asset main number (asset bought)							X
Asset subnumber (asset bought)							X

To enable the comments to be created in the consolidation system, set up the document attribute in an InfoObject:

Launch Data Warehousing Workbench.
Choose Modeling InfoObjects .
Navigate to the characteristics for the consolidation.
Double-click the InfoObject to start editing – for example, the InfoObject Document Number (with technical name OAC_DOCNR).
Go to the General tab page and select the Characteristic is Doc. Attribute indicator.
Save and activate the InfoObject.

Now you can use the comment function in the consolidation workbench and the consolidation monitor.

Enabling the Calling of Comments for BI Reporting

To be able to call comments in a BI report, you need to have deactivated the document attribute in the InfoProvider for certain characteristics. This needs to be done for characteristics that (a) belong to multiple data streams, and (b) are not used by the consolidation system as keys for comments in certain data streams (or more specifically, in certain virtual InfoProviders).

Example Example

The Item (OCS_ITEM) characteristic is not used as the key for comments in the document data stream. Therefore, you need to deactivate the document attribute for the Item characteristic in the virtual InfoProvider for documents.

In this data stream, the same applies to the Company and Profit Center characteristics.

End of the example.

You follow these steps to deactivate the document attribute for these kinds of characteristics (the Item characteristic is used here as an example):

In the Consolidation Workbench, call the data basis for editing, and go to the Data Streams tab page.
To call and edit the virtual InfoProvider for the document data stream, double-click the InfoProvider.

The BI system displays the InfoObjects of the virtual InfoProvider.
To call the Item (OCS_ITEM) characteristic, choose Provider-specific Attributes from the context menu of the characteristic.
Switch to edit mode (if you are in display mode).
In the Provider-specific Attributes of InfoObject dialog box, select the Deactivated option for the Document Attribute.
Confirm your entry.
Save and activate the virtual InfoProvider.

For characteristics that the consolidation system uses in a data stream as a key for comments, you must ensure in the Provider-specific Attributes of InfoObject that the Default from InfoObject option is activated for the Document Attribute.

Example Example

The Item (OCS_ITEM) characteristic is used as the key for comments in the data stream for inventory data. Therefore, it is necessary to take the document attribute for the Item characteristic from the Item InfoObject in the InfoProvider for inventory data.

End of the example.

Features

For documents and additional financial data, you can:
- Create new comments
- Display and change existing comments
- Create multiple comments
You can activate an authorization check for changing comments for documents.
You can enter comments online in the SAP Editor (in plain text format).
You can upload documents with the following file formats or create these documents online.
- Plain text (.txt)
- Microsoft PowerPoint (.ppt, .pptx)
- Microsoft Excel (.xls, .xlsx)
- Microsoft Word (.doc, .docx)

The following functions are available when comment creation is activated:

Function	Explanation
(Create Comment)	Creates a new comment
(View Comment)	Displays a comment: Plain-text comments are viewed on the Comment tab page. Comments in PowerPoint and other formats are shown in their respective application.
(Change Comment)	Changes an existing comment: Plain-text comments are changed in the text editor on the Comment tab page. Comments in other formats are changed in their respective application.
(Import Comment)	You can select a file in a separate dialog box.
(Delete Comment)	Deletes a comment.
Display Attributes of Comment	Comments have the following types of attributes: Generic attributes: Title, size, type of comment, last changed by, and so on Consolidation-related attributes for documents: Document number, fiscal year, period, and so on Consolidation-related attributes for additional financial data: Activity number, investee unit(s), fiscal year, period, and so on

Comments are subject to locking: When a user is editing a comment, other users can only display the comment.

The consolidation system displays all comments in a single list. The list shows the most important attributes for each comment (for example, the title, size, and last changed by). To display, change, or delete an existing comment, select the line in the list and choose the corresponding symbol. By double clicking on a line, you can open the comment or change it, depending on which of the two actions you have already performed.

The comments you have stored can also be used in SEM-BPS or the BI system. For example, you can access comments from within BI Reporting. (However, this is only beneficial when the reports use InfoObjects 0AC_DOCNR and 0CS_COINR.)

Activities

Creating Comments for Documents and Additional Financial Data

Before you can create a comment for a document or for additional financial data, you need to call the document or additional financial data.

For example, you can create a comment for a document when running a task for manual posting in the consolidation monitor:

Call the task for manual posting in the consolidation monitor.
Go to the Comment tab page and choose Create.

The Create/Import Comments dialog box appears.
Enter the title and type of comment (for example, Microsoft PowerPoint), and confirm your entry.
Proceed as follows, depending on which type of comment you specify:
1. To enter a plain-text comment online, choose the Text Comment type. Enter the text in the text editor on the same tab page and save the text.
2. To create a comment in Microsoft Word, Excel, or PowerPoint, choose the corresponding comment type. Create the comment in the application and then choose the corresponding menu item in the file menu to close the file and return to manual posting.
Save the comment.

Authorization Check for Changing Comments for Documents

Assign the authorization for the Extended Maintenance activity of the authorization object R_UC_TASK in the user master record.
You activate the authorization check under the Global Parameters node in the entry Authorization Check when Changing Comments in Documents in the SEM-BCS configuration menu (transaction UC00).

Import Comment

Call the task for manual posting in the consolidation monitor.
Go to the Comment tab page and choose Import.

The Create/Import Comments dialog box appears.
Enter the title and type of comment (for example, Microsoft PowerPoint), and confirm your entry.

The Import Comment dialog box appears.
Select the file to be imported and confirm your selection.
Save the comment.

Calling a Comment from Within a BI Report (Query)

Queries for a Specific Document Number (BEx Web Analyzer)

You use the Query Designer to execute the query in the Web browser.
In the browser display of the Ad-Hoc Report, specify the document number as well as the fiscal year and period as the variables for the Ad-Hoc Analysis and then execute the query.
The BEx Ad-Hoc Analysis screen appears.
Go to the Data Analysis tab page and choose the Comments pushbutton.
The BI session displays the comment in the Document Browser.
Change the comment if required, and save it.

Note

You can also call a comment from a query in the BEx Analyzer (Microsoft Excel environment). You use the same procedure as for the BEx Web Analyzer.

End of the note.

Queries Without a Specific Document Number (BEx Web Analyzer)

You use the Query Designer to execute the query in the Web browser.
In the browser display of the Ad-Hoc Report, specify only the fiscal year and period as the variables for the Ad-Hoc Analysis and then execute the query.
The BEx Ad-Hoc Analysis screen appears. A list with the document numbers appears on the Data Analysis tab page.
To call up a comment for a specific document number, place the cursor on the document number and choose Goto Documents for Navigation Status from the context menu.
The BI session displays the comment in the Document Browser.
Change the comment if required, and save it.