You use planner profiles to control the process flow for planning. They are hierarchically structured. In a planner profile, you specify the planning layout to be used for each planning area, such as cost elements/activity inputs, activity types/prices, or statistical key figure planning. You can store any number of planning layouts for each planning area in a planner profile.

The planning layouts are assigned to a planner profile as profile items. Each planning area may contain any number of profile items. The profile item determines the sequence of the planning layouts in a planner profile. Using different profile items you can assign the same planning layout (with different default parameters) to one planner profile.

In a planner profile, you can set the following planning conditions.

• You can control planning authorizations by assigning an authorization group to a planner profile. This is particularly important for decentralized planning. By using specialized planner profiles for planners, and by assigning authorization groups, you ensure that planning is restricted to the relevant area of responsibility.

• By setting default parameters for the planning layout in the planner profiles, you can enter default settings for the variables of a planning layout. You enter values for these variables in the planner profile. You can overwrite these values, and you can also prevent overwriting by selecting the appropriate indicator in the planner profile definition. In a planning session, the system checks all variables defined in a planning layout and handles them as parameters.