Status and Tracking System (STS) 

Use

You can use the Status and Tracking System in the Budget Planning for Plant Maintenance and Customer Service, to automatically monitor the processing progress of the various tasks in the budgeting cycle and to organize the sending of an automatic e-mail.

For more information on the STS in general, see the SAP library in the Status and Tracking System.

Integration

The STS adds an organizational level over the planning objects created in the planning environment of the BW-BPS (SAP Business Information Warehouse).

Prerequisites

·        You have made all the settings that are also required for using the Budget Planning for Plant Maintenance and Customer Service without STS (see Preparing the Budget Planning).

·        You have activated the STS. For more information, see the description of the variable STS Use (4MCBV506) under Defining the Variables.

·        You have maintained the web service for STS.

For this, choose Tools  ® Administration ® Administration ® Network ® HTTP Hierarchy Service Maintenance.

·        You have customized the STS.

For this, choose Business Planning and Simulation ® Status and Tracking System ® Customizing in the BW-BPS system.

Assign the appropriate authorizations in the master records of the people involved in the budgeting process.  For more information, see Defining Report Groups and Budgeting Groups.

·        In the STS you can connect various status changes with planning sequences. The following options are available in the Budget Planning for Plant Maintenance and Customer Service:

Status Change for Maintenance Planners

From Status	To Status	Sequence
New	Submit for approval/review	4MCBSTS1
In process	Submit for approval/review	4MCBSTS1
Submit for approval/review	In process	ZMCBSTC1
Submit for approval/review	Back for revision	ZMCBSTC1

Commentary on the planning sequences:

¡        The planning sequence 4MCBSTS1 is user-dependent and can only be executed by the maintenance planner.

¡        The planning sequence ZMCBSTC1 is user-independent and cannot, therefore, be supplied as content. You must create this sequence yourself (see “Activities” section).

Status Change for Highest-Level Manager

From Status	To Status	Sequence
Submit for approval/review	Approved	4MCBSTS2

·         

For more information on the meaning of the global planning sequences, see Planning Levels and Global Planning Sequences.

Activities

       1.      Call up the planning workbench in the BW-BPS system under Business Planning and Simulation ® Planning Workbench.

       2.      Copy the planning level Reject Approval II (4MCBL043).

       3.      Delete the variables for the report group (4MCBV013) and the budgeting group (4MCBV033) from the planning level.

       4.      Create a planning package for each of the following combinations:

¡        For the report group A and the budgeting group C1

¡        For the report group A and the budgeting group C2

       5.      Call up the global planning sequences and create a separate planning sequence for each user with the following combination: level, package, and the function of ZMCBL043. There should be two planning functions in each planning sequence.

For example, a planning sequence ZMCBSTC1 with the levels and functions and the package for the combination A and C1.

       6.      Assign this planning sequence to the user C1 in the STS.

Only the manager and the maintenance planner can change this status on the level of the user. The planner can thereby reprocess his or her budget proposal; the manager can reject the planner’s budget proposal.

Example

...

       1.      The budgeting process begins with the automatic sending of an initial mail (setting in the STS Customizing) to the people involved in the budgeting process.

This signals the beginning of a new budgeting round. This mail contains a link to the personalized STS monitor. The manager uses this to open the planning application Budgeting for Plant Maintenance and Customer Service in a separate window where he or she defines the budget proposal (top-down budgeting process).

       2.      A mail automatically informs the maintenance planner when the manager has changed the status.

       3.      The maintenance planners user their respective STS monitors to open the planning application in a separate window where they start planning the budget proposals.

       4.      If the planner wants to send his or her budget proposal for approval (bottom-up budgeting process), he or she sets the corresponding status (such as, For Approval) in his or her STS monitor. The prerequisite for this is that data was planned in the Sent for Approval planning version.

       5.      The higher-level manager automatically receives a mail informing him or her of this status change, and can react accordingly, for example, by rejecting the budget proposal.

Depending on the new status, further planning activites may be required for the maintenance planners.

For a more detailed process overview, see Creating a Budget Proposal.