Workbooks in Controlling
Target Groups and Report Types
Both regular reports and more detailed analysis reports are provided for each area within Controlling. Regular reports have a simpler design and are easier to use than analysis reports. They enable the user to quickly spot unusual figures that need to be analyzed in more detail. The title of a workbook indicates the type of reports that it contains:
Process (Range): Costs – Target/Actual Situation
If an employee such as a cost center manager notices unusual figures in the report (high variances or inexplicable results, for example), he can turn to a cost management specialist who can then use the more powerful analysis reports to investigate the cause.Analysis reports allow the objects to be freely selected and are very flexible, supporting drilldown techniques that enable in-depth analyses. Examples of workbooks that contain such reports:
Cost Center (Range): Analysis – Activity Quantity – Plan/Actual
Workbooks with More Than One Query
When a workbook contains more than one query, the queries always have the same variables. This has the advantage that when you refresh, only one entry screen has to be filled. If the queries had different variables, there would have to be a separate entry screen for each query.
Caution
When you refresh a workbook in the BexAnalyzer, make sure the cursor is not positioned on a query. If the cursor is positioned on a query, only that query is refreshed.
Currency
When the queries were set up, it was assumed that the cost manager or supervisor is in charge of an area with a local currency. The default setting in the filter is usually the currency type of the company code (10) or that of the Controlling object (70). You can of course change this setting when you copy a query.
Note
If your company code currency is the same as your controlling area currency, currency type
10
is not updated in the R/3 Controlling object. This means that the standard queries will not contain any data. In this case you should copy the queries and replace currency type 10 (company code currency) with the setting
20
(currency type of controlling area) or with a variable.
Graphics in Workbooks
Some workbooks contain graphics. The graphic always displays the entire results of the query. Note in particular that all totals lines are displayed graphically.
In some drilldowns, this can result in the graphic being changed such that the display is no longer meaningful. For this reason, graphics are only used in reports with little navigation scope.
SAPExit Time Variables
A number of SAPExit time variables are provided, such as
all periods of the previous fiscal year
,
cumulative up to the previous fiscal year period
,
current fiscal year period
, and
previous fiscal year period
.
These variable are particularly useful when you want to create your own regular reports. If the variable is specified in the filter of the query as a restriction to a time characteristic, or if a key figure is restricted using the variables (such as
actual costs of current month
or
actual costs of previous month
), the variables automatically establish the time frame for which the reports are generated.
For example, if a cost center report is executed in September with the variable
cumulative up to previous fiscal year period
, it will contain the data of periods 01 to 08; if it is executed in October, it will contain the data of periods 01 to 09.
Caution
To enable these variables (such as the current fiscal year) to be filled, the fiscal year variant must have been set beforehand. Otherwise the system cannot determine the current fiscal year, the previous period, the previous fiscal year, and so on from the system date. If you use the SAP exit variable 0P_FVAEX , the fiscal year variant will be derived automatically from the controlling area or company code.
If your company uses only one fiscal year variant, it is best to enter this variant as a constant in the query.
Variables to Be Filled by the User
In the area of filters, user-defined characteristics, or rows, a number of queries show InfoObjects with variables that are to be filled by the user.
The documentation for the individual queries shows which variables are used. You can also see this information in the query builder. In addition to the designation, you can also see what type of variable was used. Examples:
Single value entry, required
– the user must enter a single value
Interval entry, required
– the user must enter a range of values
Selection options, optional
– the user can limit the selection using the selection options (such as from/to cost center)
Note
The queries provided by SAP sometimes contain more entry variables than are actually needed in practice. For example, since SAP cannot know the technical key your company uses for the controlling area, the controlling area is an entry variable in the supplied queries.
When you copy queries, specify your special data as standard (for example, make the controlling area a constant). This will reduce the number of entries that your users have to make.