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

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

Features

As soon as you have made the preparations described in the Prerequisites section, in manual planning, you can enter plan data on the corresponding characteristic values without entering the +/- sign. The system uses the value of the attribute key figure to determine the +/- sign for the current characteristic value and takes this into account when saving data in the data basis and when displaying the data later.

To use this function, which has already been mentioned in the scope of balance sheet and income statement planning, you enhance the account characteristic by an appropriate attribute key figure. This specifies, for each account in the chart of accounts, whether the values posted here have a positive or negative sign.

The system offers the option of displaying the values of an attribute in an individual column. Therefore you can decide whether you want to display the amount only in the layout without signs, or whether you want to display 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 planning layout you require.

       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 has been defined for sign assignment.

This is indicated by an additional Sign Attribute column on the Data Columns tab page.

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

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

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

Result

When data is entered the system determines, for each characteristic value, whether the data entered has to have a positive or negative sign and adds this sign to the key figure value when saving to the data basis.

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 determines all the characteristics of the layout that have the sign attribute as an attribute. The product for the sign attribute of this characteristic value is then the sign attribute of the corresponding key figure values.

In the lead columns, the planning layout contains the characteristics item and subitem which each 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

●     With totals rows, subtotals and hierarchy nodes, the key figure values that are being used determine the sign.

○     If all the contributory cells have the same sign, the relevant cells inherit this sign.

○     If they do not, the sign is ‘+’.

●     For planning layouts with budget hierarchies, which also have key figures with signs, the signs should always be the same.