This blog post is co-authored by James Leigh , from NIMBL Worldwide Inc.

Analysis for Office has recently become available for use with SAP Analytics Cloud. It utilizes the same analytic and planning functionalities that so many users are familiar with when using with other datasources such as BW and S/4 HANA.

So far there have been some observed differences between some functionality that exists in Analysis for Office and Analysis for Office for SAC.

1. Filtering on attributes in “Filter by Member” is not available

When displaying data in the full version of Analysis for Office, there is an option to both display and filter on member attributes.  In this case, we try to filter on the attribute company code, but the only available selection methods are key and text on the parent member.  Only display is available for the attribute.

There are two recommendations in this case.  It is possible to adjust your hierarchy to suit your filtering needs by incorporating the attribute into the structure.

Another method is to add the attribute as its own dimension into the model in SAC.  This will allow for easier filtering.

2. Flat Hierarchy display in change mode

In SAC it is not allowed to display account dimension hierarchies in flat mode when used for planning.

This will also behave similarly in Analysis for Office.  It will not be possible to display singular leaves while the workbook is in change mode (input-ready).

Switching to display mode allows us to see individual leaves of the hierarchy instead of the full hierarchy.

3. Attribute on Account Dimension Limitation

In the Account dimension in SAC, we added an attribute and named it “Business_Area”.

After opening the model in AFO, it is expected to be able to display and filter on it. For example, the attributes in the Cost Center dimension are shown in the screenshot below.

However, the created attribute in the Account dimension cannot be seen in AFO.  The reasoning is account dimension is a measure and AFO does not support attributes for measures.  This is a disconnect between AFO and the SAC model.

Analysis for Office has many useful features that an end-user can appreciate.  The current version works in the same way with SAC as with BW and S/4.  There have been only a few noticed limitations.  It will be interesting to see how these will be handled in the upcoming SAP Analytics Cloud, an add-in for Microsoft Office.