Assigning Signage for Account Dimension in SAP BPC Embedded

Introduction – Business Case

In BPC Classic/Standard or in other words while doing planning on the account based model, the ACCTYPE property defines the signage of the data stored in the BW serer. Setting these property affect how data is stored and retrieved in the system.

In the Account (A type) dimension, there are 4 different possible values for the Account Type (ACCTYPE) property: AST, LEQ, INC and EXP. For Account Types LEQ and INC: BPC will send data into database and retrieve data via an input schedules/reports with reversing the signed data value (+/-). For Account Types AST and EXP: BPC will send data into database and retrieve data via an input schedules/reports without a change in the signed data value (+/-).

Functionally, for planning purposes the incomes should be treated as negative and expense positive, even though the business will want to enter/retrieve them without any signage.

The following steps will guide you on how to configure this in BPC 10.1 Embedded leveraging the generic BW / IP (integrated planning) functionalities.

Step 1: Make sure your hierarchy is set up for signage at the info object level

As the first step ensure that you enable hierarchies in your info object and create the necessary hierarchy. It is important to enabled the “reverse sign for the node” option.

Step 2: Maintain the signage at the hierarchy level or in BPC Admin interface

Now while maintaining your hierarchy in BW or in BPC Admin interface you will be allowed for maintaining signage or reversal related information. In the example below we have reversed the signage of income account (base node) and profit (parent node)

Step 3: Create a new key formula at the key figure level in your Bex query

Now you should create a new formula under your key figure.

Step 4: Edit formula >> Create new formula variable

Edit the formula created in the previous step and create a new variable. This variable will be assigned the signage and used for changing the sign of the hierarchy nodes.

Step 5: Use the following configurations

Create a variable with the following settings.

• General > Description = SIGNAGE
• General > Type of Variable = Formula
• General > Processing By = Replacement Path
• General > Reference Characteristic = Account
• Replacement Path > Replace with = Hierarchy Attribute
• Replacement Path > Attribute = Sign Change

Step 6: Create the following formula in the newly created variable.

Now enter the formula. We are trying to change the signage of ‘Amount’ key figure in the case below.

Step 7: Make the formula input ready.

Make the formula input ready in the planning tab. This will create a new inverse formula property under the newly create formula.

Step 8: Maintain the inverse formula

Enter the following formula in the inverse formula section of the new formula.

Step 9: Create Analysis for office query and save data using planning layout.

Open the query in Analysis for office or EPM add-in and enter the following data. You will observe that Income and expense are being entered without any signage but system automatically treats them as opposite signage and aggregates correctly.

Step 10: Check the results in BW Cube

Based on the inverse formula the following data is stored in the BW cube. You should be aware of this while building more BEX queries out of this cube.