Financial Planning Options in S/4HANA

(as of release S/4HANA 1909)

Planning applications have steady evolved at SAP.  In this blog we will explore available planning options with a focus on S/4HANA 1909.

Summary of available SAP planning applications:

Quick Overview:

SAP Cloud Platform (SCP) tools are SAP long term strategic offerings. SAP Analytics Cloud for Planning (SAC), which runs on SCP, is SAP’s recommended strategic planning application for most customers.  For those customers requiring an on-premise planning application, the SAP BPC Optimized for SAP S/4HANA application is the official alternative recommendation.

SAP S/4HANA ERP (Classic ERP Planning Transactions)

The former FI-CO planning t/codes have been removed from the user menu in SAP S/4HANA and the classical planning capabilities have been replaced by modern BPC/SAC functionality and content, there may be situations when it becomes necessary for the classic t/codes to be re-activated. For example, if the customer needs to use a robust planning allocation solution leveraging their actual allocation build, there is no equivalent feature in BPC/SAP.

CO-OM planning, P&L planning, and profit center planning are now covered by SAP BPC for S/4HANA Finance (formerly known as Integrated Business Planning) (SAP Note 2081400).  If you do not want to use SAP BPC for S/4HANA but classic FI-GL and CO-OM planning functions instead, you can continue to use the classic planning transactions. Bear in mind, however, that in this case the planning results are written to totals tables and not the ACDOCP table. Reports designed specifically for use with S/4 HANA Finance do not read these totals tables, so the planned data will only be visible in Report Writer/Painter transactions.

The following key SAP Notes provide details on availability of classic ERP planning and its re-activation:

Key note on using the classic FI-GL and CO-OM planning functions:
2270407 – S4TWL – Profit and Loss Planning, profit center planning, cost center planning, order planning, and project planning

FI-GL Planning – SAP Note 2253067 describes how to reactivate
Profit Center Planning (classic)

SAP Notes 2345118 and 2313341 describe how to reactivate Cost Center Planning by Cost Element, Order Planning by Cost Element , Project Planning by Cost Element , and Project Planning Overall (transaction codes are all no longer in menu but can be reactivated for use in SAP S/4 HANA)

SAP Business Planning and Consolidation for Netweaver

SAP Business Planning and Consolidation for Netweaver (BPC_NW) is a mature, fully-functional planning and consolidation application utilized by thousands of customers. It continues to be supported and maintained so customer’s investments are protected. SAP BPC_NW 10.1 version for Netweaver will receive mainstream maintenance until at least 31-Dec-2024 – please refer to the SAP Product Availability Matrix (PAM) for support dates by specific product version.

SAP BPC_NW continues to be a key part of SAP’s Analytics portfolio, specifically for those customers requiring an on-premise stand-alone (BPC_NW is deployed within a stand-alone SAP Netweaver system) planning application.

SAP Business Planning and Consolidation for Netweaver consist of two model types: Standard and Embedded.  The Standard model was designed for with local ownership and control in mind, while the embedded models were originally evolved from SAP BW Integrated Planning functionality and is a more centralized, IT focused approach. From a technical perspective, Embedded models use a multi-key figure-based data model, while Standard models use an account-based data model. These models can be combined and used in the same license.

Reasons for requiring an on-premise application include:

• Regulatory requirements
• Corporate policy or contractual agreements
• Ability to deliver deeply integrated planning capabilities as an integral component of an on-premise SAP data warehouse
• Requirements for customization beyond the scope of a public cloud solution

SAP will deliver major new planning enhancements based upon SAP Analytics Cloud, but BPC_NW customers can leverage these enhancements as well via “hybrid” integration with Analytics Cloud ensuring an alternative path of continuous innovation.

BPC Optimized for S/4HANA

Designed to function from within a S/4HANA installation, Integrated Business Planning for Finance (IBPf) was the first dedicated S/4HANA financial planning application. IBPf was re-branded in S/4HANA release 1610 to BPC Optimized for S/4HANA.  A limited embedded BW is provisioned within S/4HANA and provides the support to host the BPC Optimized application.  Caution:  The S/4HANA embedded BW is not intended to be used as an Enterprise Data Warehouse (SAP’s recommendation for EDW scenarios is to use a dedicated BW/4HANA solution instead).

BPC Optimized for S/4HANA provides only the embedded modeling option.  “Actuals” are sourced from ACDOCA and plan data is stored in the ACDOCP table (additional data modeling variations can provide some data model flexibility on where plan data is ultimately stored).

BPC Optimized for S/4HANA (or IBPf) is not the same as IBP (Integrated Business Planning). SAP Integrated Business Planning focuses on supply chain monitoring, sales and operations planning, demand management, inventory planning, and supply planning.

The decision to use SAP BPC Optimized for S/4HANA should also consider the anticipated volume of data. The rule of thumb is to use SAP BPC Optimized for S/4HANA when approximately 80% (note that this percentage is only a guide and not a hard limit and may vary due to factors such as anticipated OLAP reporting requirements) of the data is already existing within S/4HANA. The following SAP compilation note provides additional details: 2081400 – SAP BPC Optimized for S/4HANA Finance.

SAP Business Planning and Consolidation for BW/4HANA

SAP Business Planning and Consolidation 11.x, version for SAP BW/4HANA is a new product based on SAP BW/4HANA. This product supports the HANA database and uses SAPUI5 user interface technology. The SAP UI5 user interface is based on standard HTML5, which provides all the benefits of HTML5 and supports languages such as Hebrew and Arabic that are written and read from right to left. BW/4HANA is a new, next-generation data warehouse product that is optimized for the SAP HANA platform, delivering real-time, enterprise-wide analytics that minimizes the movement of data and connecting all the data in an organization into a single logical view.

SAP Business Planning and Consolidation 11 can be deployed in two configurations:

1. In an embedded configuration, Business Planning and Consolidation is integrated with SAP HANA-optimized processing, through which you can perform SAP HANA-optimized planning.
2. In a standard configuration, you can use all the functionality that is available in the standard configuration of SAP Business Planning and Consolidation, version for SAP Netweaver.

SAP Analytics Cloud

SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC) is SAP’s strategic next-generation software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution built from the ground up that allows business users to plan, discover, predict, and collaborate all in one place.  SAC enjoys the benefits of a modern user interface that allows usage across all mobile devices.

SAC planning has deep integration with S/4HANA and the ability to deploy delivered connectors that allow the free movement of data between S/4HANA and SAC.

Data can be imported (replicated) into SAC from S/4HANA: [https://help.sap.com/viewer/00f68c2e08b941f081002fd3691d86a7/release/en-US/63140f17362947fe8bcd9c6960db23bc.html ]

Data can be accessed by SAC using a “live” connection, providing run-time access to S/4HANA data and KPIs:
[ https://help.sap.com/viewer/00f68c2e08b941f081002fd3691d86a7/release/en-US/d2a1edf7cda74315a2c5052de8a3a4eb.html ]

SAC enjoys significant predefined content that makes productive integration with S/4HANA easy and efficient.  For more details on SAC : S/4HANA available content:  https://www.sapanalytics.cloud/learning/business-content/ and  https://rapid.sap.com/bp/#/BP_OP_ENTPR .

New planning content for SAC: S/4HANA 1909:

Revenue Planning with SAP Analytics Cloud is new content for SAC: S/4HANA 1909 financial planning (see description for scope item 1YB below):

Listing of all new S/4HANA 1909 relevant SAC content:

To stay up to date on the latest new SAC-S/4HANA 1909 content, follow this link:
https://help.sap.com/doc/474a13c5e9964c849c3a14d6c04339b5/100/en-US/8880de6dbfb94ea3b0de1f26b40816dc.html?version=1909
and search for “Analytics Cloud”.

Summary of the Financial Planning Options in S/4HANA:

Summary

The right planning solution is both a technical and functional decision. It depends on where the source data is coming from, which features the customer needs and how much data is required to be consumed. The timing of the implementation should also be considered. SAP strategic development is focusing on the SCP tools, but while initially some features may have been more robust in the mature BPC products, SAC has been quickly maturing into a full function planning application.

This is an official SAP RIG (Regional Implementation Group) blog.

Source: https://blogs.sap.com/2019/10/25/financial-planning-options-in-s4hana/