Show TOC

Display Planner Profiles

Note

The possible planner profile settings described below are not relevant to preparing the initial planning screen (see Prepare Initial Planning Screen ). It may be necessary to display your settings for planner profiles if you had already set up sales and profit planning prior to Release 4.6A and are now changing over to the initial planning screen.

If it is not possible to switch to the initial planning screen for the moment, you can make changes by choosing Table View -> Display->Change. However, this option should only be used in exceptional circumstances since SAP reserves the right to phase out the transactions for the old planning functions in future releases.

Defining Planner Profiles

In this activity, you can define planner profiles to shape your planning process in sales and profit planning.
Planner profiles are used throughout CO as well as in Profitability Analysis. The other applications include Overhead Cost Controlling (CO-OM), Profit Center Accounting (EC-PCA), and the Executive Information System (EC-EIS). Consequently, you can define separate parameters for planning in these applications and planning in Profitability Analysis.

Planner profiles have a hierarchical structure:

- Planner profile overview

- Settings for Profitability Analysis
- Profitability Analysis layouts
- Parameter settings for layout

You can assign each planner profile an authorization group.
By assigning authorization groups and specifying fixed parameters (i.e. those which cannot be overwritten), you can provide your users detailed authorizations for creating plan data.
Here you can define default settings for the current operating concern. Note that the type of Profitability Analysis also plays a role here. ( Set operating concern.)
The field "Items" indicates whether or not any planning layouts have already been assigned to the profile.
For Profitability Analysis, you can store two default distribution keys for each planner profile. The system automatically defaults the distribution key "2" (Distribution as before) here. If you want to use segment-specific distribution keys, you can specify an access key here instead of a distribution key.
You can also select the "Auto.TP vltn" and "Suppress zeros" options if desired.

If you want to use top-down distribution in manual planning, you need to specify the desired distribution profile. This contains all the parameters for top-down distribution in manual planning (see Define Distribution Profile).

You can assign one or more planning layouts to each planner profile. If you assign more than one, you can scroll between the planning layouts in planning using "Goto -> Next layout" and "Goto -> Previous layout".
If no layout has been assigned to the profile yet, you can enter a new one. The system automatically issues an item number. If you would like to change an existing layout, delete the entry and create a new one.
The "Default parameters" field indicates whether default characteristic values have been predefined for the layout.
If you deselect the "Overwrite" field, the users who work with that profile must use the parameters you specify in the profile. They cannot overwrite the defaults with other values.
If you leave indicator selected, the parameters you specify serve as defaults which can be overwritten at any time.
The "File description" and the "Integrated Excel" fields are only relevant if you want to use Microsoft Excel as your planning tool. If you select "Integrated Excel", the system displays Excel within the R/3 window in planning. In this case, you can enter a file name that should be used to link the fields of the Excel worksheet with those in the planning layout. If you do not enter a file name here, the system defines one automatically when you save.
You can specify characteristic values to be used as default parameters for the planning layout.
The system lets you specify values for all the variables defined in the planning layout. You can specify these parameters separately for each profile item for the planning layout.
If you have selected "Integrated Excel", you can define a template for planning in Excel as well by choosing "Goto -> Overview screen". For information on what settings you can make in an Excel template, see "Setting Up Integrated Excel" in the CO-PA online documentation.

Requirements

The operating concern must be complete and active before you can create planner profiles for Profitability Analysis (see Maintain Operating Concern). In addition, planning layouts must already be defined (see Create Planning Layouts).

Activities

Process the planner profiles in the following order:

1. Planner profile overview
a) Create a new profile using the function "New entries", or copy an existing one using "Copy as".
b) Enter an explanatory text for the new profile and, if desired, assign an authorization group.
2. Settings for Profitability Analysis
Enter the default distribution keys for the operating concern. Select the entry and choose "Profitability Analysis Layouts" in the navigation box.
3. Profitability Analysis layouts
Assign a planning layout to the profile. Deactivate the indicator "Overwrite" if you do not want the users to be able to overwrite your settings. Select "Integrated Excel" if you want to use Microsoft Excel as your planning screen with this layout.
4. Default parameters
Enter values for the variables defined in the planning layout. If desired, define and format an Excel worksheet has a template for your planning screens.