Versions for Planning (SAP Library - Investment Management (IM))

Versions for Planning

Use

Planning for investments in an approval year is often not a one-step process. Instead it involves a series of steps or versions. These versions represent various stages in the development of planning, or various stages in the approval process.

Features

You can manage the plan values of an investment program in the system, therefore, in multiple plan versions. For each investment program position, you can enter alternative plan values in each plan version. You define the plan versions in Customizing for Investment Management (choose Investment Programs ® Planning in Program). You have to link each version to an approval year.

Caution

The structure of the investment program remains the same when you create a new version. The new version simply enables you to enter new plan values.

Measures

You can also manage versions at the level of the measures (WBS elements or orders) assigned to your investment program. However, these versions are not year-dependent. This means that the plan values of version 001/1998 are overwritten by the plan values of version 001/1999, for example. Therefore, if you want to roll up the plan values from investment measures over the course of several years to the investment program, and you want the values to be dependent on the given version, then you have to use a unique key for the versions that is not year-dependent.

Example

A version for the year 1999, for example, cannot have the same key as the version for the year 1998. One option is for you to include the year in the key for the version (971, 972, 981, 982, and so on).

Another option is to use the same versions each year (for example, 001, 002, 003). Then you have to make sure that you revise the plan values of the versions at investment measure level each year. Otherwise, the outdated values at investment measure level from version 001 will flow into the current version 001 of the investment program in the current year. If you want to prevent the plan values from the outdated version at investment measure level from being overwritten, you can create a summarization database (refer to Summarization ).

Appropriation Requests

You cannot create versions for appropriation requests. Instead, you can create any number of appropriation request variants (refer to Appropriation Request Variants ). You can assign one version to each appropriation request variant. Using this method, you can link each different variant for planning or implementing the appropriation request to a given version. You make this assignment individually for each appropriation request.

This graphic is explained in the accompanying text

Versions and Appropriation Request Variants
Activities

When you create a new version for an investment program, you have to carry out another rollup of the plan values from the assigned measures and appropriation requests on the investment program. The procedure is outlined below:

Generate a new version for the plan values of the assigned measures. Normally, not all the plan values of the assigned measures change in a new version. Therefore, you can copy the old version for orders or projects (Orders or Projects: Planning ® Utilities ® Copy version). The system then copies the plan values of the reference version of the order or project, and enters them in the new version.

It also applies to appropriation requests that not all plan values change in a new appropriation request variant. Therefore, there is a function that carries out one of the following, per appropriation request, depending on your settings:

It copies the existing assignments in an existing appropriation request variant to a program position or version for the new version (the variant is then assigned to both versions).
It creates a new variant with the required assignment. In addition, the system copies the plan values from the variant, to which the reference version is assigned.

This function is found under Periodic processing ® Copy version assignment.

You can then process the plan values of the new measure versions and appropriation request variants, and roll them up on the investment program (see Cost Planning on the Investment Program).

Rolling up the plan values supplies values only to the current plan values of the investment program (not balances carried forward). Therefore, you have to repeat the fiscal year change. When you carry out the fiscal year change, enter the new version as the target version (refer to Fiscal Year Change ). The system then fills the carryforward values of the new version with the values of the version from the previous fiscal year, which you specified in Customizing for Investment Management (Planning in Program ® Versions ® Define Approval Level for Versions).

Caution

However, when you make changes to the carryforward version of the old year, this can result in different carryforward amounts in the versions in the current year.

Blocking a Version

In Customizing, you can block a version to changes. When you block a version, the system also blocks the assignment of variants to this version, as well as blocking any currently assigned variants themselves to changes.

Example

The following graphic shows the forwarding of plan values, dependent on versions, from fiscal year 1997 to 1998.

This graphic is explained in the accompanying text

Versions and the Fiscal Year Change

In 1998, the system rolls up only the difference between 1997 and 1998 for projects 1 and 2 on the investment program. Using this difference is made necessary by the fact that the plan values from 1997/version 2 were already carried forward to the current investment program (1998). Now, at this point only the difference in the plan values is added to the current planning for these projects.