Creating a Form for Actual/Actual Quarterly Comparison  

To create a form for an actual/actual quarterly report, proceed as follows:

  1. In the General Ledger Accounting Implementation Guide, choose the activity "Maintain Forms".
  2. Select "Financial statement analysis" and enter a name for the form.
  3. Choose Form ® Create.

    4. From the "Create Form" screen, define the structure of the form. For all types of financial statement analyses, use the structure "One axis with key figure".

    The SAP System includes standard forms you can use as a reference for creating your own forms. The predefined range of names for these reference forms runs from 0SAPBLNCE-01 to 0SAPBLNCE-NN. You cannot use these names for your own forms.

  4. Select the Basic screen button.

    5. The form appears with the default setting row display. By choosing Goto ® Column display, you can switch to column display.

    Define characteristics for all columns

  5. You first define the characteristics that you want to be valid for all columns in your form. Since actual data will be entered in all columns, you can define this as a general characteristic by choosing Edit ® Gen. data selection.

    6. In the dialog box that appears, you can select the characteristics for the general selection criteria. Here, select the characteristic "Plan/ actual indicator".

    In the dialog box that appears, enter a value for your characteristic. Enter 0 for actual data.

    Define the first column:

  6. Once you have defined the general characteristics, you can then define the characteristics of the individual columns.

    7. Place your cursor on the first column and choose Edit ® Element ® Define element....

  7. A dialog box appears in which you select the "Characteristics" option.
  8. Another dialog box appears. In this box, the characteristic "Key figure" is already selected. The characteristic "Key figure" stands for the values to be taken from the financial statements and included in your report.

    9. For a Actual/Actual quarterly comparison, you also need the characteristics "Fiscal year" and "Period" (since certain periods within certain fiscal years are valuated).

    A third dialog box appears, and you enter the value of the characteristic you selected here.

    – Use the F4 help to select the "Financial statement value".

    – You can enter either fixed values or variables for the fiscal year. To use variables, position your cursor on the input field you want to use and select Variable on/off. The input field is adjusted accordingly. You can now use F4 to display a list of predefined global variables for the fiscal year. Select the predefined variable "&3FY" for the first column of the quarterly comparison.

    To use a fixed value, simply enter a value such as 1995.

    The advantage of using variable is that you can use the defined form for various reports since the variables are only replaced with real values when the report is executed. For more information on this, see Valuating Variables.

    – You can enter either fixed values or variables for the period. For quarterly periods, you how to define the period (from - to). Enter "&3PF" for the "Period to" value and "&3PF" for the "Period to" value. These variables are predefined in the system. If you want to enter fixed values, enter the desired quarter, such as 001 to 003 (January to March).

  9. In the next screen you enter three texts for the column heading. You can enter a short, medium, and long text. You can later use the text length option to determine which text is used. If you want to have a two-line heading, separate the text of the two lines with a semi colon (;).

    10. If you use variables, you can use the variables in the column header. For the quarterly comparison, you could use texts such as the following:

    – as a short text: GJ;&3FY

    – as a medium text: FY &3FY; &3PF - &3PT

    – as a long text: Fiscal year &3FY; Per. &3PF - &3PT

    Choose Formatting ® Column ® Column width to change the column width. Choose Formatting ® All columns ® Text type to change the type of text.

    Variables in columns texts are replaced with values when the report is executed.

    Define the second column:

  10. Once you have defined the first column, you can then define additional columns as described above in steps six through nine. You can also copy the column attributes from one column to another.

    11. To do this, mark the column to be copied, position the cursor on the column to be defined, and choose Edit ® Selected area ® Copy. The column attributes are transferred from the first column to the second column. You now have to define the characteristics that you want to be different in the second column:

    For the quarterly comparison, you have to enter a different fiscal year in the second columns, such as 1994. If you want to use variables, enter the variable "&3FY-1" as the characteristic.

    Define differences:

  11. In the third column, you need to define the difference between the first and second columns.

    12. Place your cursor on the third column and choose Edit ® Element ® Define element....

  12. In the screen that appears, select the element type "Constant".
  13. The next screen to appear is the formula editor. Here, you enter the formula that calculates the difference. With the formula editor, you can use standard mathematical functions (+,-,*,/) along with all elements.

    14. With a double-click, select the first value under "identifier" , the minus sign, and the second value.

  14. In the next screen, enter text types for the "Difference" column.
  15. You can delete the columns that you do not need by marking these columns and choosing Edit ® Delete.
  16. Save the form.