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Creating a planning input task in SAP Analytics Cloud for Planning

In this blog we’ll take a look at how we can build an input task to allow us to build our planning event and workflow within the solution. Workflow is a capability that always get discussed and requested for planning and the solution offers an integrated way of setting this up and kicking the process off.

 

The business scenario used in this blog is for a simple spend plan for our business units. We have 2015 actuals and want to plan for 2016.

The model (which planning enabled and has already been built) has a dimension of “Organisation” type which allows us to assign a person responsible – this is the driver to allow us to push the planning input tasks out to those individuals (note that these users need to be users with Cloud for Analytics and with e-mail addresses assigned to the accounts this will drive the e-mail notifications).

 

Pic 1 - Business Unit dimension.png

 

First up is creating a new story with a crosstab component, linked to the model. After choosing the appropriate measures and dimensions in the row/columns the crosstab is ready. Note that crosstabs replace the previous report concept, see this blog for further details. In this example the Cost Element dimension, like the Business Unit, also has a hierarchy assigned to it. We’ll focus on the Internal Labor figure.

 

Pic 2 - New Story.png

We can then create the input task by selecting the icon as a property of the crosstab within the story (I’m creating the input task under my user – Matt Potts).

 

Pic 3 - Input Task.png

 

After giving the task a name, description, due date and setting up a reminder if required (set to a number of days before the due date) then we can assign the contributors to the planning input process.

 

Pic 4 - Input Task Details.png

 

The assignees can then be selected from the Organisation Dimension (in this our Business Unit dimension was marked at the organisation type). In our case we will select the R&D business line (which falls under the responsibility of Aggy Works).

 

Pic 5 - Organisation Dimension.png

 

Creating the input task the triggers the process (creating an event in the calendar, a notification in the C4A notifications inbox and sending of e-mail notifications).  It has also created an event in the Event calendar.

 

Pic 6 - Events.png

 

Logging on as the user Aggy Works we can see a task alert has been created. We can click on this to view the task which we can then choose to accept or decline.

 

Pic 7 - Notification.png

 

The data is filter to the business unit of the user, R&D (as per the input task that was created).

 

Pic 8 - Input Task Screen.png

 

After accepting the task we can start to update/modify the planning values (for My Version of the budget). In this case we’ll change the Internal Labor spend. The current budget for Internal Labor spend is at £33,021,885. We’ll modify this by increasing it by £100,000 (note that this will also update the values in the parent and child nodes of the Cost Element hierarchy).

 

Pic 9 - Planning Change.png

 

We can click done once finished, this updates the numbers relative to the delta change we have inputted. This will also send a notification back to the approver (my account).

 

Pic 10 - For Approval.png

 

When logging back into my account I have a task notification asking me to approve the input task and clicking on the notification takes me to the input form, I can change the view version to see what the assignee(s) have changed. I can then approve or reject the changes (rejecting will push the task back to the assignee).

 

Pic 11 - View Assignee Changes.png

 

After approving the task (and because I only had one assignee) I’m then able to complete the input task.

 

Pic 12 - Complete Input Task.png

 

 

The completion of the import task update the original budget for Internal Labor from £33,021,885 to £33,121,885.

 

Pic 13 - Original Plan.png

 

Whilst this is a really simple example, it demonstrates the ease of creating a workflow for planning in the solution. This is something which business users could own and manage in the Cloud for Analytics solution to deliver a planning model with workflow – without the need for any system configuration or complex setup.

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      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi Matt,

      I am unable to create a cross tab component, I have Created a story and clicked on '+' symbol and selected Cross tab component then it asked to select to Existing Model or No Model. selected the existing model and clicked Ok.

      After few seconds a error is thrown "Currency conversion from unit 'EUR' to unit 'USD' on date '2015.09.01' failed" with empty screen

      Can you please help me on this, don't know whether I am doing it in correct way. Please suggest .

      Capture.PNGCapture1.PNG

      Capture2.PNG

      Thanks,

      Pavan Kumar Rachuru

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Pavan,

      I see your using the delivered sample Mode (MO10_10_Operating_Income) - I had the same issue when trying to use this at first.

      Try updating the MO10_00_Currencies table in the Modeller area by changing the valid from date, this worked for me.

      Regards,

      Matt

      Author's profile photo Henry Banks
      Henry Banks

      Very nice set of blogs! kudos!

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member
      Blog Post Author

      Thanks for the feedback Henry, appreciated.

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi Matt!

      We're trying to replicate the steps from your wonderful blog post, however once the assignee opens the input task, the corresponding values under 'My Version' are grey and unresponsive.

      Any thoughts on this?

      Author's profile photo Henry Banks
      Henry Banks

      please contact support, log an incident to component LOD-ANA-PL

      thank you!

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      It's a bug:

      Title: Assignee couldn't enter value into version cells ("My Version") after accepting input task in SAP BusinessObjects Cloud

      Link: https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/2353189/E

      This is a problem as we have customers very interested in this kind of functionality and we're having a big demo on the 13th of October.

      Author's profile photo Henry Banks
      Henry Banks

      apologies for the inconvience caused. i don't personally have visibility if this bug is fixed in the forthcoming wave, as there will be an update pushed out before your demo date . hopefully someone from engineering will be along soon to confirm

      please could you unformat your URL Link - it has a redirect in it

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Lovely, thanks for the help.

      I'll give you the note number and title:

      2353189 - Assignee couldn't enter value into version cells ("My Version") after accepting input task in SAP BusinessObjects Cloud

      Author's profile photo Sachin Joshi
      Sachin Joshi

      How to restrict Cost Center for certain users for Input form ?

      Has any body faced this issue before please help me resolve it