Automatic Sign Assignment 

Use

The account-based SAP applications store credit balances (revenue, liabilities and owner’s equity) with negative signs in the data basis, and also transfer these values in this form to SAP BW. SAP BW is used as the data basis for BW-BPS. In this way it is guaranteed that debit and credit balances are not implicitly added up. To simplify plan-actual comparisons, and the reference to actual data, it is also useful to keep this convention in BW-BPS.

Automatic sign assignment enables the user to always enter and display plan data without the entry of a +/- sign (therefore always appearing as a positive amount), however, the system determines the correct sign on the basis of the current characteristic value, and stores it in the data basis. This type of number treatment is frequently used in the presentation of balance sheet or income statement data, which is usually displayed without signs.

Prerequisites

In order to be able to use this function, you must assign a key figure of the type number or integer as display attribute to a characteristic specified by you in the Administrator Workbench of the SAP BW. Subsequently, you maintain the corresponding value of the attribute key figure for each characteristic value. Only the values 1 and -1are possible. In the context of manual planning, the system multiplies the value of a key figure contained in the layout with these values, to be precise taking account of the existing characteristic values.

The key figures that you want to use for the entry of plan data in connection with the automatic sign assignment, must be of the type quantity or amount.

Features

As soon as you have made the preparations described in the section Prerequisites, in Manual Planning, you can enter plan data on the corresponding characteristic values fundamentally without entry of the +/- sign. The system recognizes, with the help of the value if the attribute key figure, which +/- sign is necessary for the current characteristic value, and takes this into account when saving data in the data basis, and when displaying the data later.

For the use of this function, which was already mentioned in the scope of balance sheet and income statement planning, you add to the account characteristic with an appropriate attribute key figure, which specifies for each account of the chart of accounts whether the values posted here have a positive or negative sign.

The system offers the possibility to display the values of an attribute in an individual column. Therefore, you can decide whether in the case of a sign attribute you only want to display the amount without signs in the layout, or whether you want to output the signs used internally in an additional attribute column.

Activities

In order to be able to use the automatic sign assignment when entering and displaying plan data, proceed as follows:

...

       1.      Choose Change Layout from the context menu of the required planning layout.

       2.      Choose   Continue to display the second screen of layout definition.

       3.      Check whether the planning layout contains a characteristic to which an attribute key figure was defined for the sign assignment.

If this is the case, an additional column Sign Attribute is displayed on the tab page Data Columns.

       4.      Position the cursor in the field Sign Attribute in the row that contains the key figure for which you want to activate the sign assignment

       5.      Transfer the name of the attribute key figure from the input help (F4).

       6.      In order to output the sign itself in a separate column, transfer the value 2403 Sign attr. from the input help (F4) into the Attribute column column.

Result

In the data entry, the system determines for each characteristic whether the data entered must have a positive or negative sign, and adds the sign, which it has determined to the key figure value when saving in the data basis.

When displaying the saved data, the system reverses the negative signs saved in the data basis, so that there are only values without signs (seeming positive) in the planning layout.

On the other hand, when calculating totals rows, the system always falls back on the values with signs from the data basis, so that negative values can also be displayed in totals rows. Thereby it is possible to present all line items displayed in the planning layout without signs, and simultaneously to report correct balances in totals rows (which can also be negative if required). The sign attribute always has the fixed value ’+’ for totals rows, subtotals, and hierarchy nodes.

The system calculates the value of the sign as follows:

·        A key figure for the sign is assigned to a key figure in the planning layout. This sign key figure is an attribute of a characteristic that appears in the planning layout.

·        The system now calculates all characteristics of the layout that have this sign key figure as an attribute. The product for the sign attribute of this characteristic value is then the sign attribute of the key figure.

In the lead columns, the planning layout contains the characteristics item and subitem. Both have the attribute SignAttr. Key figure value and sign attribute are displayed in the data columns. The item 1000 has the value +1 for SignAttr, 2000 has the value -1 for SignAttr. The subitem 100 has the value +1 for SignAttr, 200 has the value -1 for SignAttr. The following values are then produced for the sign attribute:

Item	Subitem	Sign Attribute	Key Figure Value
1000	100	+	100
1000	200	-	200
2000	100	-	300
2000	200	+	400

If you have assigned a sign key figure to a key figure in the planning layout and want to assign another sign key figure to the same key figure in an additional column or row, the system uses the sign key figure that was assigned first.