Characteristics determine how your data can be classified. The SAP organizational units Controlling area, Company code, Business area, and Division are examples of characteristics. The time reference (fiscal year, period) is also a characteristic.

The master data comprise the permitted values of a given characteristic, or so-called characteristic values. In this documentation, a combination of characteristics or characteristic values will be referred to as a report object.

A report object defined with three characteristics can be represented graphically in the form of a cube. The three dimensions of the cube represent the three characteristics: In the figure below, these characteristics are the region, the division, and the customer group. Each characteristic has a number of possible characteristic values, which are represented by the small cubes within the overall cube. Thus one possible report object could be the region "North", the division "Pharmaceuticals", and the customer group "Wholesale".

In a report, you could display the Sales, the Sales quantity the total Sales deductions, and other values for this combination of characteristics.

Your application contains a number of key figures which may be relevant for analysis purposes. Key figures include not only stored values and quantities, but also values which are calculated from these based on formulas which you can define.

Examples of key figures:

• Value: Costs, sales, sales deductions
• Quantity: Number of employees, sales quantity
• Calculated value: Sales per employee and contribution margin

A form constitutes the basic content and formal structure of a report list. Forms can be seen as semi-finished products, which you complete when you define an individual report. You can use characteristics both in the form and in the report itself. Likewise, you can choose key figures either in the form or in the report.

A distinction is made between two types of lists for a report, depending on what information is displayed there: drilldown lists and detail lists.

• Detail list

A detail list contains either all the key figures or a selection of key figures for a single report object (such as "Pharmaceuticals/North"). The rows contain the key figures in a detail list. The columns can contain plan or actual values, or different fiscal years or periods.

• Drilldown list

A drilldown list displays key figures for a number of report objects (such as "Pharmaceuticals/North", "Pharmaceuticals/South", "Pharmaceuticals/West"). The key figures form the columns of the list.