Executing Manual Entry of Planning Data 

Use

For sales and profit planning, you use the Planning Framework to enter and display planning data manually. You use the respective planning methods Enter planning data and Display planning data. You can enter and modify plan values directly for individual profitability segments.

Prerequisites

You need to have defined a planning level and a planning package (see Setting Up Planning Content) and a parameter set for the Enter planning data planning method (see Setting Up Manual Entry of Planning Data).

Features

You can enter or display planning data in an R/3 screen, or you can activate Microsoft Excel as your interface for entry and display. You specify your choice in the parameter set. For more information on planning with Integrated Excel, see the section Integrated Excel in Planning.

To enter data, you can use a wide range of Planning Methods, such as valuating, forecasting, or revaluating planning data, as well as General Functions, such as copying, cutting and pasting values. You can exclude usage of the planning methods in the parameter set in the Methods tab page. By doing so, they are not made available during the manual entry of planning data.

Activities

After executing the parameter set for the planning method, the system displays the overview screen, which contains the relevant planning layout. If Microsoft Excel has been set up as the interface in the parameter set you have executed, then Excel is integrated into the overview screen.

Use to switch to the period screen. The period screen is generated automatically from the overview screen. It moves the information from the rows of the overview screen to the header and places the periods in the rows. If you are using integrated Excel, you cannot display the period screen.

If a characteristic of time (such as Period/Year or Week/Year) was defined in the value columns of the overview screen, you can only enter values in those rows that correspond to the intervals in the columns.

Next Combination/Previous Combination

If the header of the planning layout contains several values for one characteristic, you can scroll back and forth on the overview screen using the Next combination and Previous combination functions.

On the period screen, these functions let you navigate through the rows of the overview screen (which moved to the header of the period screen).

Settings for Decimal Places and Display Factors

The number of decimal places and a display factor (10s, 100s, and so on) may be defined for individual rows and/or columns in the planning layout. You can change these settings during planning if you wish.

Selection of Existing Planning Data

Before displaying the planning screens, the system reads the existing planning data for the selected profitability segments from the database. If you are planning on a higher level (such as at the Product group level), the system reads the planning data for all the segments which lie below that level (individual products) and adds these together bottom-up. The changed plan values (the changes to the figures already stored in the database) are then written to the database at the higher level, such as at the product group level. The lower level (product) remains blank in this database record, ("not assigned", shown by "#").

It has already been specified in the planning level whether you want to plan on the basis of the posting periods in the operating concern or on the basis of weeks (only possible in costing-based Profitability Analysis). If you plan in weeks, the data is automatically distributed to the correct posting periods based on the calendar. Consequently, when you display the data by period, you also receive the data that was planned in weeks. In contrast, values that you plan in periods are not distributed to weeks. This is similar to summarizing at the product group level the planning data that was entered at the product level. The data you plan for individual products is summarized in the corresponding product groups, but the data planned for product groups directly is not displayed for the individual products.

Technical Note

The data is generally selected from the segment level. This may lead to long runtimes, depending on the configuration of your system and the data volume. If this happens, you should define a summarization level to store the summarized planning data at the desired planning level.

If the system reads the data from a summarization level, it displays a message telling you this during the selection.

See also Defining Summarization Levels.

Characteristic Derivation

After it reads the data, the system automatically derives characteristic values according to the rules that were defined in Customizing. For more information, see Characteristic Derivation. These derived characteristics can later be used to analyze the planning data. If an error occurs in derivation, the system locks the affected profitability segments so that you cannot plan them, but it still displays them for information purposes. You can see the derivation log to find out why derivation could not be performed. To display the complete profitability segment, including the derived characteristics, choose Other characteristics.

Note that the system cannot derive values for a characteristic if

Lock Logic

In order to prevent more than one user from planning the same profitability segments at the same time, the system locks the segments that are currently being planned. It is still possible for more than one person to plan at the same time, even in the same version, provided that none of the segments being planned overlap. It is also possible to perform manual planning and automatic planning in the same version, as long as different segments are planned.

You can plan product group PG1 and all the products contained in it, while at the same time a co-worker plans product group PG2 and all the products contained in that group.

Entry Currency

In Profitability Analysis, planning data is generally stored in the database in the currency of the operating concern.

However, as an entry aid, you can enter or display your planning data in another entry currency. When you save, the system automatically translates the data into the currency for the operating concern. When you display data in another currency, the system first selects the data, then translates it into the entry currency before displaying.

Currency translation is always performed using the exchange rate from the first day of the current period. The exchange rate type (such as the buying rate or a user-defined rate) is stored in the definition of the plan version. Only value fields are translated, not quantity fields.

There are three ways you can specify the entry currency:

If you want to enter your planning data in a currency other than the operating concern or company code currency, it is recommended that you choose the attribute Unit when you define the planning layout.

Do not confuse this function with the use of a second database currency in profit planning. For each plan version, you can decide whether to store the planning data in the operating concern currency or the company code currency. See also Multiple Currencies in Planning.

Quantity Fields and Units

Quantity fields are displayed with the number of decimal places defined for the corresponding unit of measure in Customizing. In CO-PA, the unit of measure of each value field represents an individual characteristic. If the characteristic Unit of measure was not specified in the selection criteria for the planning session you are in, the system tries to find the correct unit based on the transaction data or using characteristic derivation. If the units found are incompatible, you cannot plan the corresponding quantity.

This is the case when

You can also display these fields in the log.