Executing Customizing 

Use

You execute the Customizing of the Status and Tracking System in order to create subplans and planning sessions, to schedule them chronologically, and to make an assignment between individual planning tasks and the employees responsible for them.

Procedure

The different settings which you make in Customizing, can be divided into two areas:

·        General settings
Here you create basic elements that you require to control the planning process with the Status and Tracking System (for example subplans, planning sessions). In addition, you assign a hierarchy to the subplans.

Executing the general settings is a prerequisite of being able to execute subsequent settings for the planning session.

·        Settings for the planning session
Here you make settings that refer to a certain planning session within a subplan. In particular, you assign your employees to planning tasks to be fulfilled within the planning session.

You make all the settings described below in the initial screen for Customizing of the Status and Tracking System. To do this, choose Business Planning and Simulation → Status and Tracking System → Customizing from the SAP Easy Access Menu screen.

General Settings

Subplans

...

       1.      Select the option Define Subplan and choose Execute.

You get to the view maintenance for subplans.

       2.      Enter the names of the subplans that are relevant for your company.

Planning Sessions

...

       1.      Select the option Define Planning Session and choose Execute.

You get to the view maintenance for planning sessions.

       2.      Enter the names of all required planning sessions.

Here you enter all names for planning session in all subplans relevant for your company. You establish the connection between subplan and the planning session intended in it subsequently in the setting for the planning session.

Hierarchies

...

       1.      Select the option Determine Hierarchy for Subplan and choose Execute.

       2.      Make the desired settings. For more information, see Determining a Hierarchy for the Subplan.

Settings for Planning Session

...

       1.      Choose the desired combination of Subplan and Planning Session for which you want to execute the subsequent settings.

       2.      Select the option Determine Attributes for Plng Session and choose Execute.

The system displays a dialog box to set up the attributes. You can make the following settings here:

·         Determine Planning Direction
Determines the direction in which the assigned organization structure is run during the planning session: top down or bottom up. How the e-mails are sent, and which status is available for the subtasks within the planning session depends on this setting (for example, the status “approved” is only available in bottom-up planning). Note that with top-down planning the start e-mail is sent to the person responsible at the uppermost level of the hierarchy.  With bottom-up planning, the start e-mail is sent to all responsible persons who have been maintained for the subplan hierarchy.

·         Determine Planning Sequence
Determines whether it is possible to assign a global planning sequence to status switches. This is then automatically executed when an appropriate status switch occurs. For example, you could assign a sequence to the status switch from “for approval” to “approved”, which copies the approved data into another version. You can choose whether the global planning sequence is to be executed synchronously or as a background job when a status switch occurs.

Only the global planning sequences existing in the system are available as a function which should be executed on a status switch.

·         Automatic E-Mail Dispatch Active
Determines whether the automatic e-mail notification system should be used when status switches occur or not.

·         Use Time
Determines whether the time of completion is defined with a time and time zone as well as a date. See Determining Date, Person Responsible, Layouts .

Taking account of the time zone only has an effect on monitoring the completion times. Time data that the system logs during the planning session (for example, time stamp for status switch or comments) are always saved in system time.

·         Use Cascading Status Switch

By cascading status switch we mean a status switch that is assigned to a particular level of a hierarchy and is passed down the hierarchy from that level.  The starting point can be any characteristic node that has further characteristic nodes arranged under it. The cascading status switch only affects the lower-level nodes and does not change the initial node. In contrast to a normal status switch, the status of the lower-level nodes only is set with a cascading status switch. No global planning sequences are executed and no e-mails are sent.

·         Enter Text Element

A text element can be created with additional information on the planning session of a subplan. See Maintaining Text with Additional Information.

·        Enter Theme Root

·        You can use different stylesheets in each subplan and planning session. For this purpose you enter the desired theme root here. SAP makes different, predefined theme roots available, for example, SAP_STANDARD, SAP_TRADESHOW or SAP_CHROME. If you do not make an entry here, the theme root set as the standard theme root in the system is used. You can find additional information on using your own stylesheets under Business Server Pages.

       3.      Select the option Initialize/Reset Planning Session and choose Execute.

The system sets the status of all planning tasks in the planning session to “New”. In addition, the following objects are deleted (provided that they exist):

·         Comments on planning tasks

·         Write locks for already entered and approved plan data

·         Editing or status history on planning tasks

       4.      Select the option Define Header Chars for Planning Session and choose Execute.

The system displays a dialog box in which you can select characteristics. You have already determined the planning area and a particular InfoCube by assigning a hierarchy to the selected subplan. The dialog box allows you to select those characteristic values of this InfoCube for which plan data is to be entered in the chosen planning session.

The selection that you set for the header characteristics is used by the system to delimit the dataspace which is locked against changes after the completion of a planning session. If possible, you should only make a restriction to central characteristics, typically to the version- and time-bearing characteristics.

       5.      Select the option Determine Date, Person Resp., Layouts and choose Execute.

The system displays a maintenance screen in which you can make numerous settings. For more information, see Determining Date, Person Responsible, Layouts.

       6.      Select the option Test Call with Display of URL and choose Execute.

The system displays a dialog box in which the URL that refers to the monitor of the Status and Tracking System is displayed.  Choose  Test Call to start the Web browser with the URL specified.

       7.      Select the option Send Start E-mail and choose Execute.

The system generates an e-mail in which all employees involved in the planning session are informed that the planning session was started. You have the option to send this e-mail as a background job and schedule the start to take place immediately. In addition, the notification texts delivered by SAP contain hyperlinks to the direct start of data entry or to the start of the Status and Tracking System. You can change the predefined text of the e-mail to suit your requirements. For more information, see Adjusting Notification Texts.

The system automatically sends the e-mail to the persons responsible for planning. The e-mail addresses are used which you have maintained in step 5. Depending on whether it is a bottom-up or top-down planning session, the system proceeds differently:

·         Bottom-up: The start e-mail is immediately sent to all persons responsible for planning.

·         Top-down: The start e-mail is only sent to the person who is entered as the person responsible at the highest level of the assigned organizational hierarchy. The persons responsible for the next lowest hierarchy level are only informed when there is a status switch to Completed & Released.

Reminder Function

In order to make sure that a planning session is completed at the planned deadline, you can schedule a report which checks the status of subtasks which belong to the planning session at the time of execution. You can use this to search for planning tasks that do not have the status Approved. If such planning tasks are found then the system automatically sends an e-mail to the persons responsible to remind them about completing their tasks. You can change the predefined text of the e-mail to suit your requirements. For more information, see Adjusting Notification Texts.

...

       1.      In the Customizing transaction of the Status and Tracking System, choose Goto? Administration ? Reminder function (or Shift + F9).

       2.      Or proceed as follows:

                            a.      From the SAP Easy Access screen, choose Tools →ABAP Workbench →Development → ABAP Editor (transaction SE38).

                            b.      Enter UPS_STS_REMINDER as the report.

                            c.      Choose  Execute (F8).

       3.      Enter the desired criteria in the selection screen.

       4.      Choose  Goto → Variants → Save As Variant.

       5.      Enter a name for the variant and save the variant.

       6.      Using System → Services →Jobs → Define Job, define a job with which you want to execute the  report UPS_STS_REMINDER with the variant already created at the desired point in time.

SAP recommends that you schedule the report so that it runs some days before the due date you defined for a planning session. This way, you give the persons responsible opportunity to complete the planning tasks not yet executed on time. For more information on scheduling and background processing of jobs, see Computing Center Management System or Background Processing: Concepts and Features.

As an alternative to scheduling a report, you also have the option to execute the reminder function directly. To do this, choose Execute (F8) from the selection screen instead of following steps 3 to 5 listed above.

Copying Settings to Planning Sessions

You can use the settings which you have made for planning sessions to create further planning sessions. In this way, the Customizing effort of the Status and Tracking System can be considerably reduced.

To facilitate the reusability of Customizing, SAP delivers an auxillary program. You can start this in the Customizing transaction of the Status and Tracking System using Goto?  Administration ? Copy (or shift + F6), or in the ABAP Workbench (transaction SE38):

·        UPS_STS_COPY_CUSTOMIZING: Copying Customizing. You can find additional information by clicking on the info button.

When executing this program, you enter the subplan and the planning session whose settings you want to transfer, as well as the subplan and the planning session into which you want to copy the settings. Customizing that was already defined for the new planning session is deleted by this.

Deleting Subplans and Planning Sessions

You can either delete complete subplans or individual planning sessions.

To make it easier to delete subplans and planning sessions, SAP delivers an auxillary program. You can start this in the Customizing transaction of the Status and Tracking System using Goto?  Administration ? Delete (or shift + F2), or in the ABAP Workbench (transaction SE38):

·        UPS_DELETE: Deleting subplans and planning sessions. You can find additional information by clicking on the info button.

When you execute this program you either specify the subplan that is to be completely deleted, or the subplan and planning session that is to be completely deleted.

Transporting Subplans and Planning Sessions

You are able to transport subplans with the desired planning sessions.

To make it easier to transport subplans, SAP delivers an auxillary program. You can start this in the Customizing transaction of the Status and Tracking System using Goto?  Administration ? Transport (or shift + F8), or in the ABAP Workbench (transaction SE38):

·        UPS_TRANSPORT_STS: Create transport request for Customizing subplans/planning session. You can find additional information by clicking on the info button.

When you execute this program you specify a subplan and at least one planning sesion that is to be transported and choose a transport request.

 

Result

You have set up the subplans and planning sessions for your business planning and started a planning session.