Business objects PLANNING 5.2 User Manual

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BusinessObjects Planning Administrator’s Guide

BusinessObjects Planning 5.2

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Copyright © 2007 Business Objects. All rights reserved. Business Objects owns the following U.S. patents, which may cover products that are offered and licensed by Business Objects: 5,555,403; 6,247,008; 6,289,352; 6,490,593; 6,578,027; 6,768,986; 6,772,409; 6,831,668; 6,882,998; 7,139,766; 7,181,435; 7,181,440 and 7,194,465. Business Objects and the Business Objects logo, BusinessObjects, Crystal Reports, Crystal Xcelsius, Crystal Decisions, Intelligent Question, Desktop Intelligence, Crystal Enterprise, Crystal Analysis, Web Intelligence, RapidMarts, and BusinessQuery are trademarks or registered trademarks of Business Objects in the United States and/or other countries. All other names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Third-party contributors

Business Objects products in this release may contain redistributions of software licensed from third-party contributors. Some of these individual components may also be available under alternative licenses. A partial listing of third-party contributors that have requested or permitted acknowledgments, as well as required notices, can be found at:

http://www.businessobjects.com/thirdparty

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Chapter 1 Introduction 17

Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Conventions used in this guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

About BusinessObjects Planning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Related documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

About this guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Getting started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

About the Organizer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Specifying the working and application language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Chapter 2 Basic Concepts 27

Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Integrating heterogeneous data sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Integrating business rules from disparate systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Business models reflect your organization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Dimensions organize information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Rates provide flexibility to analyze changing economies . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Filters focus data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Objects are independent of business models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Reports drive data analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Scripts automate repeatable processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Selections group dimension members . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Spreadsheets are an alternative source of data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Scenarios are collections of data in the database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Favorites folders contain links to business objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

BusinessObjects Planning security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Chapter 3 Creating Business Models 45

Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

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Changing default parameters for new business models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Specifying the start of a fiscal year . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Specifying the default Counterparty dimension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Model key size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Creating an empty business model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Creating component files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

The definition file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .52

The hierarchy file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

The folder file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Importing component files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Specifying a base currency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Duplicating business models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Creating multiple models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Core/divisional model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Identifying core and divisional objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Creating divisional models from a core model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

Updating divisional models from the core model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Copying data from divisional to core models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

Universal/divisional model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Creating divisional models from a universal model . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

Chapter 4 Creating and Maintaining Scenarios 71

Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

About scenarios . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

Understanding the scenario creation process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Creating scenarios . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

Creating templates folders in the Unit hierarchy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

Creating Automatic scenarios . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

Creating Compound scenarios . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Grouping entire fiscal periods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

Grouping YTD and ROY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

Grouping individual time periods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

Creating Calculated scenarios . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

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Using Daily scenarios . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

Preparing to create Daily scenarios . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

Creating Daily scenarios . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

Setting up for rolling forecast reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

Replicating scenarios . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

Replicating Actual scenarios . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

Replicating Plan or Forecast scenarios . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

Replicating Compound scenarios . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

Loading data into scenarios . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

Maintaining scenarios . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

Creating a rights template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

Transferring ownership of scenarios . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

Consolidating data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

Distributed consolidations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

Updating Automatic scenario types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

Clearing scenario data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

Deleting scenarios from the view . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

Deleting many scenarios at once . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Recovering scenarios that were deleted from the view . . . . . . . . 101

Purging scenarios from the database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

Using scenario database caching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

Setting up scenarios for planning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

Copying data between scenarios . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

Copying data and annotations from one time period to another . 105

Copying data from one periodicity to another . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

Copying data and annotations for specific members . . . . . . . . . 108

Allocating data into scenarios . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

Tracking scenario changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

Chapter 5 Working with External Data Sources 117

Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

Importing and exporting data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

Importing data from ASCII files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

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Choosing data load types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

Creating the data file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

Arranging the data file to BusinessObjects Planning specifications . . 122

Loading data from ASCII files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

Exporting data into ASCII files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

Importing and exporting spreadsheet data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

Creating import and export command statements . . . . . . . . . . . . 130

Loading data to and from spreadsheets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

Importing and exporting data using scripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

Importing source system data using scripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

LoadData .ini parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136

Exporting data to ASCII files using scripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

Importing and exporting spreadsheet data using scripts . . . . . . . 137

Accessing the script editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138

Creating external data views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

Preparing the external database view . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140

Creating the scenario data view . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140

Creating the scenario Timestamp Data view . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

Linking the external data view to BusinessObjects Planning . . . . . . . 141

Linking the external data view with a BusinessObjects Planning scenario 144

Chapter 6 Maintaining Business Models 147

Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148

Editing business model properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148

Business models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148

Locating business models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

Checking out business models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

Loading business models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

Saving business models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

Checking in business models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

Activating business models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150

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Updating the time period for business models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150

Activating the Elimination feature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

Transferring ownership of business models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

Deleting business models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154

Creating folders for business models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154

Creating archives of business models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

Dimensions and members . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156

Changing dimension names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156

Setting custom properties for dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157

Copying dimension hierarchies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158

Copying rate folders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159

Copying members between business models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160

Moving members between levels of a hierarchy . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160

Specifying the sorting order of members . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

Reordering members in the same hierarchy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

Searching for specific members . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162

Specifying default members for report viewing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

Specifying default members for report editing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164

Deleting members . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

Formulas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

Editing formulas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167

Viewing formulas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168

Restricting formulas to specific members . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168

Understanding the effects of the include and exclude settings . . 170

Solving descendent hierarchy conflict . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

Calculating formulas with Include and Exclude rules in reports . 174

Viewing the effects of restrictions to formulas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177

Editing dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179

Editing the Unit dimension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179

Adding units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180

Adding elimination units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181

Changing unit properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183

Editing the Line dimension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184

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Adding Heading lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185

Adding Input lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186

Adding Formula lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188

Adding Auto-total lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190

Adding Consolidated lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192

Adding Out-of-balance lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193

Allowing users to override formula results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196

Allowing users to edit formula lines for specific versions or units . 196

Changing how lines are calculated across time periods . . . . . . . 198

Restricting lines to specific display currencies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199

Restricting lines to specific input currencies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200

Editing the Currency dimension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201

Adding pure currencies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201

Adding derived currencies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204

Editing the Balance Type dimension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205

Adding Input balance types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206

Adding Group balance types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207

Adding Generated balance types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208

Adding Adjustment (Input) balance types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210

Adding Adjustment (Rollup) balance types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211

Adding Adjustment (External) balance types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212

Adding Allocation balance types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213

Editing the Fiscal Period dimension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215

Adding fiscal periods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215

Editing rates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217

Using rates in BusinessObjects Planning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218

Adding rates to the Rates folder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219

Creating rates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221

Adding RateYearVersions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222

Adding spot and aggregate rates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224

Specifying user-defined rate versions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225

Searching for missing rate values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226

Time aggregation in rates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228

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Dimension-specific rates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229

Rate inheritance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231

Using rate inheritance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232

Example 1: Dimension-specific rates in a single dimension . . . . 233

Example 2: Multiple parents with different rates . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233

Example 3: Dimension-specific rates on multiple dimensions . . 238

Making dimension-specific rates available to report users . . . . . . . . 240

Adding rates to the Base Rates folder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240

Using dimension-specific rates in line formulas . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241

Adding dimension-specific rates to row and column templates . 242

Searching for currency exchange rates and base rates . . . . . . . . . . 245

Retrieving values as rates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246

Creating and using selections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246

Creating selections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247

Specifying a name and dimension for the selection . . . . . . . . . . 247

Choosing a source for the selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248

Picking members to be included in the selection . . . . . . . . . . . . 249

Organizing and saving the selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254

Using selections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257

Calculating yields for assets and liabilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257

Specifying related lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257

Example of adding related lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258

Adding an asset line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258

Adding an interest earned line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260

Adding an interest cost line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262

Adding a margin line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264

Viewing related lines in reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266

Calculating annualized rates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267

Using Weighted Average annualization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268

Changing annualization settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270

Example of a report using product annualization . . . . . . . . . . . . 271

Simplifying related line calculations with rates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273

Calculating run off using cash flow reporting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273

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Choosing a run off method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274

Amortization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274

Annuity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275

Lump Sum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275

Indeterminate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275

Calculating run off for new business . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275

Setting up run off properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276

Linking scenarios . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277

Associating a Run Off or Payment line to a New Business line . . 278

Exporting models to component files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279

Pruning and filtering models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279

Exporting component files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281

Exporting a portion of a hierarchy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284

Updating component hierarchies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286

Business model import . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286

Import settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287

Import GOID . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287

Import sibling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287

Ignore errors during import . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288

Delete hierarchies prior to import . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288

Update from core model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288

Source to synchronize with . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288

Updating business models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289

Chapter 7 Scheduling Jobs 293

Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294

Registering a script server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294

Starting BusinessObjects Planning Scheduler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295

Running and stopping BusinessObjects Planning Scheduler . . . . . . . . . . 295

Restoring the BusinessObjects Planning Scheduler window . . . . . . . . . . 296

Scheduling a job . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296

Verifying that BusinessObjects Planning Scheduler is running on a remote

script server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299

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Managing scheduled jobs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300

Tracking scheduled jobs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300

Rescheduling jobs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301

Deleting jobs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301

Hiding old job logs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301

Viewing scheduling logs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302

Chapter 8 Setting Up Users and Groups 305

Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306

Before you begin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306

How BusinessObjects Planning security works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306

Who can create users and groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307

Determining if users can be registered . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307

How BusinessObjects Planning users are organized . . . . . . . . . . . . 308

What happens to newly registered users . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309

How to set up users to create objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310

How to set up users to share objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310

Impersonation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312

User communities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312

Creating users . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313

Creating groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313

Populating groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315

Sorting users and groups by name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316

Granting the right to create objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316

Delegating Creation rights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318

Assigning scenario quotas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319

Creating large numbers of users and groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321

Chapter 9 Granting Rights 323

Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324

Sharing BusinessObjects Planning objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324

Granting rights to folders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325

Granting rights to business models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327

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Granting rights to units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330

Granting rights to scenarios . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332

Granting rights to reports and scripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334

Granting rights to sites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336

Granting rights to maintain users and groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337

Setting up user rights separately from group rights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338

Delegating rights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339

Granting other users the right to impersonate you . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341

Granting site administrators the right to impersonate all other users . . . . 341

Viewing a summary of rights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342

Printing granted rights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343

Revoking rights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344

Forcing distribution to Site Administrators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344

Case study: Setting up users and groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345

Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346

Project Goals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347

Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347

Step 1: Determining the user and group requirements . . . . . . . . 347

Step 2: Visually mapping the group hierarchy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348

Step 3: Implementing the user and group system . . . . . . . . . . . . 356

Next Steps: Granting Rights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357

Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359

User-defined groups and rights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360

Chapter 10 Setting Up BusinessObjects Planning for Users 363

Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364

Setting up scripts to run from within reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364

Setting up Favorites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365

Creating Favorites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366

Adding reports to Favorites folders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366

Adding hierarchy Favorites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367

Maintaining Favorites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368

Creating group Favorites folders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368

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Creating sub folders in Favorites folders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369

Creating Startup folders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369

Copying Favorites to Startup folders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369

Opening a report in BusinessObjects Planning Analyst on startup . . . . . 370

Specifying attributes when opening a report on startup . . . . . . . . . . . 371

Hiding components of BusinessObjects Planning Analyst on startup 373

Configuring a preferred site for BusinessObjects Planning Analyst . . . . . 374

Limiting uploads and downloads to Excel Analyst clients . . . . . . . . . . . . 374

Customizing the color-coding scheme for visual cues in reports . . . . . . . 375

Setting up DataDrill scripts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376

Making images available for printed reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376

Chapter 11 Integrating Planning with Finance 379

Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380

About integration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380

Building integrated business models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381

Creating a connection to a Finance site . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382

Mapping dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 384

Customizing dimension hierarchies for import . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387

Mapping dimension member properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389

Importing dimension hierarchies and members from Finance . . . . . . 390

Maintaining integrated business models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 392

Setting up access to Finance data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393

Linking scenarios to Finance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 394

Making Finance data editable within Planning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 396

Exporting Planning data to Finance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 396

Chapter 12 Appendix A: Definition File Formats 399

Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400

Balance type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 401

General rate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403

RateYearVersion (General rates) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 404

Currency exchange rate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409

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RateYearVersion (exchange rates) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410

Currency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415

Unit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 418

Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 420

Product . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 428

Fiscal Period . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 432

Other definition files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 433

Chapter 13 Appendix B: Custom Properties 435

Chapter 14 Appendix C: System-Generated Users and Groups 441

Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 442

System-generated users . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 442

Setting up a dedicated Core user . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 442

Changing the Core user . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 443

LocalPublishers groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 444

Publishers groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 445

Additional system-generated groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 447

Chapter 15 Appendix D: LoadData Parameters 453

Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 454

Syntax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 454

Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 455

LoadData load types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463

Chapter 16 Appendix E: INEAImport & INEAExport Parameters 465

Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 466

Syntax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 466

INEAIMPORT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 466

INEAEXPORT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 466

Chapter 17 Appendix F: External Data Views 475

Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 476

Preparing the database view . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 476

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Creating the scenario data view . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 476

Creating the scenario timestamp Data view . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 478

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Introduction

chapter

Page 18

Introduction

Overview

This guide contains information about administering BusinessObjects Planning® across a client enterprise. It assumes that you know how to use the Microsoft® Windows® operating system. You must have organizational rights to set up new software and new users; these rights are domain administered.

This chapter discusses the following topics:

• “Conventions used in this guide” on page 18

• “About BusinessObjects Planning” on page 18

• “Related documentation” on page 20

• “About this guide” on page 22

• “Getting started” on page 24

Conventions used in this guide

The following table describes the conventions used in this guide.

When you see… It indicates…

Bold text A name of a user interface item that you should select.

For example, “Right-click a report and select Properties.”

Courier text

OLD SMALL CAPS Specific keys you need to press. For example, when

Information you need to type into a data entry field. For example, when you see “Type

AuthorizationServers”, you should type each

individual letter key to make up the word

AuthorizationServers.

you see “Press E key on your keyboard.

NTER”, you should press the ENTER

About BusinessObjects Planning

The BusinessObjects Planning product suite provides Web-enabled enterprise analytics software that helps companies measure, analyze, and predict business performance and profitability. Organizations leverage the suite for real-time business planning and forecasting, accelerating mergers

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Introduction

About BusinessObjects Planning

and acquisitions, understanding business performance by customer segment, product, channel and business line, and delivering performance management information across the enterprise.

BusinessObjects Planning is the only suite that is selectively packaged into a series of applications, each one tailored to support a different segment of the user community. Moreover, every user leverages a common information infrastructure. All user applications are driven by the same set of data, business rules, user rights, and report templates, and any changes are automatically synchronized across the enterprise.

The product suite includes the following applications:

BusinessObjects Planning Administrator

BusinessObjects Planning Administrator allows nontechnical users to rapidly and easily configure, deploy, and administer BusinessObjects Planning applications across multiple sites. From a central site—and leveraging intuitive graphical interface, drag-and-drop function, and advanced automation capabilities—users can install and synchronize geographically dispersed sites, assign user access rights, and build and manage multiple business models.

BusinessObjects Planning Analyst Pro

BusinessObjects Planning Analyst Pro is designed for nontechnical users who have sophisticated information requirements. A comprehensive range of formatting features, and drag-and-drop functions allow users to easily create and maintain reports. In addition, users can quickly build, manage, and execute scripts that automate complex tasks such as scheduled report production and distribution.

BusinessObjects Planning Analyst

BusinessObjects Planning Analyst provides secure remote access to realtime report information anywhere, anytime, through a Web browser. Intelligent graphic indicators, drill-down toolbars, built-in annotation capabilities, forecasting tools, and a sophisticated charting interface allow users to easily view, enter, and edit report data.

BusinessObjects Planning Excel Analyst

The Excel Analyst allows users to leverage advanced analytics, superior performance, and automated information synchronization and distribution capabilities, all from within a familiar Microsoft® Excel environment.

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Introduction

About this guide

This guide is for persons responsible for configuring, customizing, and maintaining BusinessObjects Planning on behalf of other users. It includes conceptual and background information on the features and functions of the applications and gives examples of how to use this product and how to apply it to the work you do. As a BusinessObjects Planning administrator, you can use BusinessObjects Planning Administrator or Analyst Pro to perform your tasks.

The order of the chapters is not necessarily indicative of the order in which you will perform the tasks. For example, you may set up some users immediately after installation, but that information does not appear until “Setting Up Users and Groups".

The chapters in this guide include:

Basic Concepts

Provides a high-level overview of concepts you should be familiar with before administering BusinessObjects Planning.

Creating Business Models

Describes the process of creating a business model using information from your source systems. This chapter includes a description of the component files that you are responsible for creating and provides step-by-step instructions for importing these files into an empty business model.

Creating and Maintaining Scenarios

Describes the six types of scenarios supported by BusinessObjects Planning. This chapter also describes the purpose and benefits of each scenario type and provides step-by-step instructions for creating and maintaining scenarios.

Working with External Data Sources

Describes the methods of exchanging data with a database. This chapter distinguishes between importing from source systems and from spreadsheets. It also provides a detailed description and step-by-step instructions for each method and describes the use of spreadsheet Import and Export wizards.

Maintaining Business Models

Describes how to maintain business models, either by manually updating components using BusinessObjects Planning Administrator or Analyst Pro, or by importing components from your source systems.

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Introduction

About this guide

Scheduling Jobs

Describes how to run a script or a series of scripts at a particular time. This chapter also provides step-by-step instructions on how to manage scheduled jobs by tracking, rescheduling, and deleting them.

Setting Up Users and Groups

Describes how to create user IDs automatically or manually. This chapter also describes how to create groups and how to add user IDs to groups.

Granting Rights

Describes how to grant user, group, folder, and object rights. This chapter distinguishes between the different types of rights and provides examples of how and when to grant them.

Setting Up BusinessObjects Planning for Users

Describes how to set up and customize BusinessObjects Planning Administrator and BusinessObjects Planning Analyst Pro for individual users and groups. This chapter provides step-by-step instructions on how to set up favorites folders, add objects to favorites folders, set up Startup folders, add objects to Startup folders, and enable annotations.

Integrating Planning with Finance

Describes how to integrate BusinessObjects Planning with BusinessObjects Finance so that users in an organization can take advantage of single sources of data and business values, which can be shared between the two applications.

Appendix A: Definition File Formats

Provides additional information about component definition files. Use this appendix with Chapter 3: Creating Business Models to create a business model.

Appendix B: Custom Properties

Describes how to enable business models with user-defined attributes.

Appendix C: System-Generated Users and Groups

Provides additional information about users and groups. Use this appendix with Chapter 8: Setting Up Users and Groups to identify system-generated users and groups and their associated rights.

Appendix D: LoadData Parameters

Provides detailed information about the LoadData parameters. Use this appendix and “Working with External Data Sources” on page 117 to write a LoadData statement to import data to a database.

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Getting started

Appendix E: INEAImport & INEAExport Parameters

Provides detailed information about the parameters you can specify in an ImportFromExcel script. Use this appendix and “Working with External Data

Sources” on page 117 to write an ImportFromExcel script to import data.

Appendix F: External Data Views

Provides detailed information about the parameters you can specify in an INEAImport command statement. Use this appendix and “Working with

External Data Sources” on page 117 to write an INEAImport statement to

import data.

Getting started

When you install BusinessObjects Planning, it creates a folder named BusinessObjects Planning on your desktop. Double-click this folder to view its contents. The folder opens, as shown in the following figure.

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Getting started

The following table explains the shortcuts in the BusinessObjects Planning folder.

Icon Application Explanation

BusinessObjects Planning Administrator

BusinessObjects Planning Analyst Pro

BusinessObjects Planning Scheduler

BusinessObjects Planning Online Help

To open BusinessObjects Planning Administrator, double-click this icon.

To open BusinessObjects Planning Analyst Pro, double-click this icon.

BusinessObjects Planning Scheduler is an application that assists site administrators in automatically running scripts at different times and dates. To open BusinessObjects Planning Scheduler, double-click this icon.

BusinessObjects Planning comes with detailed online help. To open the help, double-click this icon. To access online help from within the application, select Help from the Help menu on the Organizer toolbar or press F1.

About the Organizer

BusinessObjects Planning Administrator and BusinessObjects Planning Analyst Pro open to the Organizer, the user interface where you administer your models. The Organizer’s three main folders are shown in the following figure.

The Administration folder stores the IDs of your user community and its members’ security access rights. The folder also reflects the technical architecture that comprises your enterprise, such as sites and servers connecting your enterprise. In this folder, you can set and view your user rights, which define what you can do using the product, including the types of objects you can create and the users you can impersonate.

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Introduction

Getting started

The Business Views folder reflects the structure of your corporation at a given point in time, taking into account the concrete, measurable items. The rules govern calculations and define valid currencies, valid time periods, and other information you want to view using reports.

The Favorites folder stores links to hierarchical views and frequently used business objects, such as reports, templates, units, scenarios, and scripts.

Specifying the working and application language

BusinessObjects Planning content, such as editable fields in the application, report headings and titles, and metadata, appear in the working language of Administrator and Analyst Pro. User interface elements, such as menu items and dialog box text, appear in the application language of Administrator and Analyst Pro. You can specify which working and application language you want to use for your Administrator and Analyst Pro sessions.

Note: The icon beside an editable field in the application allows you to

enter translations of the field’s contents in all the working languages that are configured for your site. This icon accompanies fields that contain metadata, such as object names and descriptions, report titles and headers, and notes.

To specify your working or application language, in the Organizer, from the View menu, select Working Language or Application Language, then select the language of your choice.

Note: When you change the application language, you must restart

Administrator or Analyst Pro for your changes to take effect.

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Basic Concepts

chapter

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Basic Concepts

Overview

This chapter describes concepts used throughout this guide. You should understand these concepts before using BusinessObjects Planning.

This chapter discusses the following topics:

• “Integrating heterogeneous data sources” on page 28

• “Integrating business rules from disparate systems” on page 29

• “Business models reflect your organization” on page 30

• “Objects are independent of business models” on page 35

• “Favorites folders contain links to business objects” on page 42

• “BusinessObjects Planning security” on page 43

Integrating heterogeneous data sources

BusinessObjects Planning integrates financial and non-financial data from a broad range of systems, including general ledgers, legacy systems, operational data stores, data warehouses, costing and funds transfer pricing engines, third-party applications, and spreadsheets.

Data is extracted from these systems into text (ASCII) files. Then, leveraging standard extraction, transformation, and loading (ETL) tools, such as Microsoft DTS, the files are transformed into comma-delimited files. These product-friendly files (similar to the figure below) are imported into the database. This activity is performed as a scheduled or event-driven batch process.

The following figure shows a typical data file that is ready to be imported.

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Integrating business rules from disparate systems

Basic Concepts

BusinessObjects Planning also integrates business rules from a broad range of systems. These business rules include organizational hierarchies, valid currencies, formulas, economic rates, and charts of accounts.

These rules are extracted from your source systems into comma-delimited files. Using a similar process as with data, the rules are transformed into a product-friendly format, then imported into a business model.

The following figure shows an organizational hierarchy that is ready to be imported.

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Business models reflect your organization

A business model presents a hierarchical structure of the business rules that define how core sets of measures for performance and profitability are calculated across your enterprise, at any given time. Dimensions, rates, and filters define the business rules in a business model.

The Business Views folder contains all your business models. For each business model in this folder, you will have a Production and a Pending version. However, the Production and the Pending models are not necessarily identical.

The Production model is in common use throughout your organization. This model is the “official” version that is available to all your users so that they can do their work and view their reports. Because this model is the official version and users access it, you cannot make changes to its business rules. To make changes to the business rules, use the Pending model.

The Pending model starts out as a copy of the Production model. Use the Pending model as your working copy to modify the business rules and to validate your modifications before releasing them to other users.

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Because various users within your organization may want to make changes to the Pending model, it has to be checked out first. This procedure ensures that one user’s changes do not overwrite another’s. Once you make your changes, check the model back in.

The following figure shows how Production, Pending, and checked-out models appear in the Business Views hierarchy. The Production model is not identified; it appears above the Pending model.

Dimensions organize information

One of the most powerful features in BusinessObjects Planning is the ability to store information using a number of different dimensions. A dimension is an overall category of information.

To understand dimensions, think of time. Time is broken down into years, months, days, hours, minutes, and seconds. Without these subcategories, time has no meaning. Nonetheless, time provides a way of understanding all the subcategories at once, as one entity.

There are ten different dimensions, although most large organizations only take advantage of the ones that are most relevant to their understanding of their organization, such as Unit, Line, and Currency. Each dimension is equipped with intelligent capabilities to facilitate consolidation, report construction, and analysis. There are no limitations within any dimension in the size, number, or depth of hierarchies.

Each dimension is sub-divided into members. A member is an individual component within a dimension. A member that is one level up in a hierarchy from another member is the parent. One or more members (children) can belong to a parent; siblings are members with the same parent. As well, children can be parents to other members (often called intermediate members). The parent value is usually the sum of the values of its children.

Basic Concepts

Business models reflect your organization

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Business models reflect your organization

The following table briefly describes each dimension:

Dimension Description

Unit Organizes information by line of business, subsidiary,

Line Quantifies how well your organization is doing by allowing

Currency Organizes currencies as either pure or derived. A pure

Balance type Organizes data by booked numbers and adjustments that

Fiscal period Describes how you want to store data for each time-

Customer Organizes data by customer segment.

Product Organizes data by product such as credit cards, business

Channel Organizes data by channel such as ABMs, telephone

Project Tracks expenditures and revenues generated by business

Transaction Calculates, drills down, and analyzes costs by activity or

geography, or business activity. Units are planning or reporting components that you assign costs and revenues to.

you to measure financial performance such as riskweighted return on capital. Lines also allow you to measure non-financial performance such as customer retention, channel usage, and transaction counts or volumes.

currency is the money in circulation. Each pure currency references a rate table, which defines the exchange rate for the currency at a particular point in time. A derived currency is a predefined grouping of currencies that is calculated based on pure currencies.

modify those booked numbers. Multiple revisions to the numbers are dictated by changes that occur in your enterprise over time.

period. You define fiscal periods by version (plan, forecast, or actual) and periodicity (daily, monthly, quarterly, half yearly, and annually).

loans, or mortgages.

banking, and internet banking.

initiatives such as sales campaigns, promotions, and branch renovations.

transaction.

The following figure shows the location of the Dimensions folder.

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Business models reflect your organization

Rates provide flexibility to analyze changing economies

All business models can have rates defined for them. You import rates into a business model using the comma-delimited text files that you extract from external sources.

There are two types of rates: exchange rates for each country that you do business in and general rates such as prime rate, inflation, tax, cost of capital, allocations, and risk weightings.

You can define unique rates for varying data sets called scenarios. Rates link to scenarios by fiscal period, frequency (yearly, half yearly, quarterly, monthly, or daily), and version (actual, forecast, or plan).

The following figure shows the location of the Rates folder.

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Business models reflect your organization

Filters focus data

You use filters to focus on information of particular interest. Filtering narrows the report by displaying only the data related to specific lines in the report’s row template. For example, if your source systems aggregate corporate and retail data, you could filter the data to separate out the retail data. You could then perform profitability analysis on corporate data only.

Filters are stored by business model under the Business Rules folder. You can store filters in the Private or Public folder. The filters you store in the Private folder are not available to other users. Those stored in the Public folder are available to users who have the appropriate rights. When you store filters in your Private folder, they are stored on your local hard drive in the following location: \\<shared_folder>\[name of model]\Private\Filters. If you log on to another computer to work, you will not have access to the filters in your Private folder. Consider whether to place your filter in the Public or Private folder.

The following figure shows the location of the Filters folder.

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Basic Concepts

Objects are independent of business models

Business models appear to contain reports, scripts, selections, spreadsheets, and scenarios; however, these objects are actually independent of models. For example, if you create a report in one business model, it is accessible in all business models.

Since business models have different rules, when you run an object in one model it will have a different effect than when you run it under another model. For example, different models contain alternate hierarchies for dimensions like Line, Customer, or Transaction. Depending on the business model that you open the report in, a different view of the data is displayed.

To eliminate confusion around which business model a particular object is running under, these objects are attached to the model logically.

The following illustration shows how BusinessObjects Planning objects are independent of business models.

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Objects are independent of business models

Reports drive data analysis

Reports are the primary vehicle for interacting with the information contained in the system. Analysts can manipulate the data in reports, create calculations, and use powerful reporting features to extract relevant information from the reporting data. Managers and decision makers can view reports, looking for trends and anomalies in the data that help them drive their business. For information on how to create and use reports, see the BusinessObjects Planning Reporting Guide.

Like filters, you can store reports in the Private or Public folder. The reports you store in the Private folder are not available to other users. Those stored in the Public folder are available to users who have the appropriate rights. When you store reports in your Private folder, they are stored on your local hard drive in the following location: \\<shared_folder>\[name of model]\Private\Reports. If you log on to another computer to work, you will not have access to the reports in your Private folder. Consider whether to place your reports in the Public or Private folder.

The following figure shows the location of reports that are stored in the Public folder.

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Objects are independent of business models

You can also set up the business model to display reports by unit. The Public folder contains a subfolder called All Units. When you add a report to this folder, it appears in the Reports section of every unit in the hierarchy. When report users open a report from the Reports section of a particular unit, the data in the report is specific to that unit. If the report user opens the same report for a different unit, the data in the report will likely be different.

The following figure shows reports stored by unit in the All Units folder.

The following figure shows the Reports section of a unit, displaying the reports in the All Units folder.

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Objects are independent of business models

Scripts automate repeatable processes

Using the BusinessObjects Planning scripting language, you can write scripts to perform repeatable tasks on objects. Scripts can perform simple tasks such as copying data, or they can perform complex tasks such as running consolidations, printing specific reports, and exporting data to an Excel spreadsheet.

Scripts are stored by business model in the Tasks folder. Like filters and reports, you can store scripts in the Private or Public folder. The scripts you store in the Private folder are not available to other users. Those stored in the Public folder are available to users who have the appropriate rights. When you store scripts in your Private folder, they are stored on your local hard drive in the following location: \\<shared_folder>\[name of model]\Private\Tasks. If you log on to another computer to work, you will not have access to the scripts in your Private folder. Consider whether to place your scripts in the Public or Private folder.

The following figure shows the location of the Tasks folder.

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Selections group dimension members

A selection is an ordered grouping of members from a particular dimension. Using selections, you can group dimension members based on a common element, then use the grouping in column templates, row templates, business model formulas, and reports that prompt for missing dimensions. Selections save time and repetition because you only have to organize and group dimension members once, and, after a selection is created, only the selection needs to be referenced in templates and formulas. Selections are also dynamic in that they are automatically updated whenever changes are made to the metadata of a business model.

The following figure shows the location of the Selections folder.

Basic Concepts

Objects are independent of business models

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Objects are independent of business models

Spreadsheets are an alternative source of data

Spreadsheets contain data that you want to import into the database or data that you have exported from the database to share with people who do not have access to BusinessObjects Planning.

Spreadsheets are stored by business model in the Spreadsheets folder. Like filters, reports, and scripts you can store spreadsheets in the Private or Public folder. The spreadsheets you store in the Private folder are not available to other users. Those stored in the Public folder are available to users who have the appropriate rights. When you store spreadsheets in your Private folder, they are stored on your local hard drive in the following location: \\<shared_folder>\[name of model]\Private\Spreadsheets. If you log on to another computer to work, you will not have access to the spreadsheets in your Private folder. Consider whether to place your spreadsheets in the Public or Private folder.

The following figure shows the location of the Spreadsheets folder.

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Objects are independent of business models

Scenarios are collections of data in the database

A scenario is a collection of data that is stored in the database. Each scenario contains data for an entire fiscal year that can be displayed as daily, monthly, quarterly, half-year, or full-year periods. A scenario comprises actual, plan, or forecast data, depending on the purpose of the scenario. You can store an unlimited number of scenarios for use within your organization (unless you are given a maximum quota).

You create scenarios in the Scenarios folder, which is a replica of the portions of the Unit hierarchy that you have rights to. By associating scenarios with the Unit hierarchy, you can view, analyze, and track data by line of business or geography. For information on the different types of scenarios and how to create and maintain them, see “Creating and Maintaining Scenarios” on

page 71.

The following figure shows the location of scenarios within the Organizer.

Basic Concepts

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Favorites folders contain links to business objects

All users have a Favorites folder. This folder provides an easy way to access important business objects. You can store links to hierarchical views and frequently used business objects such as reports and scripts in this folder. For more information on the Favorites folder, see “Setting Up BusinessObjects

Planning for Users” on page 363.

BusinessObjects Planning Administrator and BusinessObjects Planning Analyst Pro users:

• Have access to all objects in their favorites folders

• Can store links to objects they create in their favorites folder

BusinessObjects Planning Analyst and BusinessObjects Planning Excel Analyst users:

• Have access only to the reports and scripts in their favorites folders

• Must have an administrator store objects in their favorites folder

The following figure shows the Favorites folder.

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BusinessObjects Planning security

BusinessObjects Planning security governs access to business models and objects. You can create objects such as users, groups, business models, reports, scenarios, scripts, and spreadsheets. Once created, you grant rights to these objects.

You create and maintain users and groups in the appropriate folder under the Administration folder. For more information on users and groups, see “Setting

Up Users and Groups” on page 305.

The following figure shows the location of the Users and Groups folders.

Basic Concepts

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BusinessObjects Planning security

Each object has a Rights page associated with it. The user who creates the object can grant rights to it using this page. For more information on rights, see “Granting Rights” on page 323.

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Creating Business Models

chapter

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Creating Business Models

Overview

There are many steps to creating a business model. First, using BusinessObjects Planning Administrator or BusinessObjects Planning Analyst Pro, you must create an empty business model. Once created, you can populate it with business rules from your source systems or from existing business models. For information on creating empty business models, see

“Creating an empty business model” on page 49.

Note: Business rules include dimensions and rates, such as organizational

hierarchies, valid currencies, formulas, exchange rates, general rates, and charts of accounts.

If you decide to populate a business model with rules from your source system, first export the information from your source system into text files. If these initial files are in a format specific to your source system, they may not be usable directly. In this case, use a standard extraction, transformation, and loading tool, such as Microsoft DTS, to map the information from these initial files into a second set of text files that are formatted according to the BusinessObjects Planning formats. You then import these files into a business model. For information on creating text files, see “Creating

component files” on page 50. For information on how to import these files,

see “Importing component files” on page 56.

Once the business model is created and the components are imported, you can import data into a database. For information on importing data, see

“Working with External Data Sources” on page 117.

This section discusses the following topics:

• “Changing default parameters for new business models” on page 46

• “Creating an empty business model” on page 49

• “Creating component files” on page 50

• “Importing component files” on page 56

• “Specifying a base currency” on page 59

• “Duplicating business models” on page 60

• “Creating multiple models” on page 62

Changing default parameters for new business models

Before you create a new business model, you must change two .ini file parameters or the defaults will be used. The parameters are:

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Changing default parameters for new business models

• StartofFiscalYear

• DefaultCounterPartyDimension

Specifying the start of a fiscal year

Before creating business models, you must specify the start of your organization’s fiscal year. This step ensures that the application can derive time periods correctly and display financial data accurately in reports. As an administrator, you specify the start of a fiscal year in the shared .ini file. You cannot modify the fiscal year once it is set. If you modify the Calendar parameter in the .ini file, the application assumes that a new model is being created and will not apply the change to any existing models. If you do not specify the start of your fiscal year, the default value is applied, which is November as month 1.

To specify your fiscal year start date:



1. In Windows Explorer, locate the shared folder. (The shared folder is set

during installation.)

2. Select the Config folder, and double-click the Planning.ini file to open it.

3. Scroll to the bottom of the file and type

4. Press E

5. Typ e

represents the month you want as the start of your fiscal year, where January = 1. (For example, to start the fiscal year in May, type

StartofFiscalYear=5.) The default start of the fiscal year is

November.

6. Save and close the file.

NTER.

StartofFiscalYear=. After the (=) sign type the number that

Creating Business Models

[Calendar] on a new line.

Specifying the default Counterparty dimension

Before you create a new business model, decide whether you will be using the Eliminations function (see “Activating the Elimination feature” on

page 151). If you plan to use it, you may want to change the default

Counterparty dimension, because you cannot make this change once the model is created. Normally, the Project dimension becomes the counterparty dimension unless you change the INI parameter value.

You may use any dimension that your model would not normally use, except:

• Unit

• Line

• Balance Type

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• Currency

Note: Once you have created your business model, you may want to change

the name of the dimension you chose as your counterparty dimension to something more meaningful such as “Eliminations”.

To specify the Counterparty dimension:



1. In Windows Explorer, locate the shared folder. (The shared folder is set

during installation.)

2. Select the Config folder and double-click the Planning.ini file to open it.

3. Scroll to the [BusinessModel] section and add a new line.

4. On the new line, type

sign, type the name of the dimension that you want to use as the Counterparty dimension.

5. Save and close the file.

Model key size

BusinessObjects Planning has a limit on the number of bits that can be used for the model key (the combination of all dimensions in a hypercube). The hypercube comprises all dimensions except Unit and Time Period. This limit is 62 bits.

Models that use many fairly large dimensions or have a few extremely large dimensions can exceed this limit. If your model exceeds the maximum number of bits for a model key, you may have to consider dividing your model into several smaller models.

The number of bits used by a dimension is the power of two that is greater than or equal to the number of members in the dimension plus one. For example, if you have 500 members in a dimension then the number of bits is

500 + 1 = 501

log2(501) = 8.99 -> 9

The number of bits used by a model is the sum of the bits used by each hypercube dimension.

By building a spreadsheet with each of the hypercube dimensions, the number of members, and the bit calculation, you can experiment with different model designs to see how they affect the number of bits used in the model key.

DefaultCounterPartyDimension=. After the (=)

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Creating an empty business model

Before you can build a business model, either manually or more commonly using component files, you must create an empty business model. This empty business model is the framework that all the other objects build on. This chapter assumes that you will probably build your model using component text files rather than manually. Therefore, this section will discuss only the minimal tasks you must perform to build the empty business model.

You must have business model Create rights to create a business model. If you do not have Create rights, the Core user for your site can grant them to you. For information on rights, see “Granting Rights” on page 323.

If you want to allow users to specify attributes, you must enable this feature before creating business models. Users can specify user-defined attributes to convey reference information about dimensions. For example, you can attach a user’s e-mail address to a particular branch in the Unit dimension so that users know how to contact the person responsible for that branch. For more information on enabling this feature, see “Appendix B: Custom Properties” on

page 435.

Once you create a new business model, it appears in alphabetical order in the Organizer.

Creating Business Models

To create an empty business model:



1. In the Organizer, select the Business Views folder.

2. Right-click the white space in the right pane, select New, and select

Model from the menu.

3. In the New Model dialog box, type a name for the model, and click OK.

4. Create text files that contain the business rules from your source systems

and import these files into the business model, or copy business rules from existing business models. For information on creating text files, see

“Creating component files” on page 50 and see “Appendix A: Definition File Formats” on page 399. For information on copying dimensions from

existing business models, see “Maintaining Business Models” on

page 147.

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Creating component files

To populate business models, create files that contain components from your source system and then import these files into the model. Creating these component files speeds up the process of creating the members that you want to use in the model. Instead of creating members one at a time using BusinessObjects Planning Administrator or BusinessObjects Planning Analyst Pro, you create and import these files and populate a business model with an unlimited number of members simultaneously.

Note: A component is a dimension or rate. For example, the unit dimension

is a component of a business model, as are general rates.

You must create the following three comma-delimited files for each component that you want to import into a business model:

• Definition file – *.df? (For information on definition files, see “The

definition file” on page 52.)

• Hierarchy file – *.tf? (For information on hierarchy files, see “The

hierarchy file” on page 53.)

• Folder file – *.ff? (For information on folder files, see “The folder file” on

page 55.)

The last letter of the file extension changes, depending on the component. For example, a Unit definition file has a *.dfU extension whereas a Line definition file has a *.dfL extension.

The following table shows the file extensions for each component.

Component Definition

Balance types dfB tfB ffB

General rates dfR tfR ffR

R.Y.V. for general rates dfI tfI ffI

Currency exchange rates dfX tfX ffX

R.Y.V. for currency exchange rates dfE tfE ffE

Currencies dfC tfC ffC

Units dfU tfU ffU

Lines dfL tfL ffL

Projects dfJ tfJ ffJ

Products dfP tfP ffP

Channels dfN tfN ffN

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(*.df?)

Hierarchy (*.tf?)

Folder (*.ff?)

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Creating component files

Component Definition

(*.df?)

Customers dfS tfS ffS

Transactions dfT tfT ffT

Fiscal Periods dfD tfD ffD

You can view the definition, hierarchy, and folder files using either a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet or in a standard text editor, such as Notepad. The benefit of viewing them using a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet is that the columns of information are easier to read.

The following figure shows a definition file in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet and a standard text editor format.

Hierarchy (*.tf?)

Folder (*.ff?)

The following are some suggestions that may assist you when creating files.

• When you create any definition file, you must account for all fields. If a

field is optional, and you choose not to use it, enter two commas (,,) in the field’s relative position.

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Creating component files

The definition file

• All object identifiers should use only the following characters: A-Z (upper

and lower case), 0-9, underscore (_), percent sign (%), and dollar sign ($). Although BusinessObjects Planning accepts identifiers in either upper or lower case, lower case characters are automatically converted to upper case and are always displayed in upper case only.

• All object identifiers should be no longer than 64 characters, except for

Currency, whose maximum length is 3 characters, and Fiscal Period, whose maximum length is 8 characters.

• Data should not contain a comma (,) unless the field is enclosed within

double quotations (" ").

The definition file (*.df?) contains values for each member in a business model component. BusinessObjects Planning uses the values in the definition file in the same way it uses the values that users type into the fields on the pages in the component’s Properties dialog box. In both cases, the values define the properties of a member. For information on the fields and values that make up each component’s definition file, see “Appendix A: Definition

File Formats” on page 399.

The following figure shows a definition file (for Units) and its corresponding Properties dialog box.

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Note: Occasionally, fields in the definition file may not appear in the

corresponding Properties dialog box. For example, the Affected by Posting Rules check box does not have a corresponding value in the Unit definition file because it is determined by the application, depending on Line formulas.

The hierarchy file

Creating Business Models

Creating component files

The hierarchy file (*.tf?) defines the order that members appear in a component’s hierarchy. The hierarchy file has the same format for each component that you want to import. Each member that you specify in a hierarchy file must also exist in the definition file. If a member that exists in the definition file does not appear in the hierarchy file, that member is included in the business model hierarchy in the Unattached Objects folder. The unattached members are also stored in an unattached object (*.uo?) file.

Note: During the life of a business model, you may remove some members

from a hierarchy and save them for later use. Even though these members no longer belong to a hierarchy, they are still recognized as valid members, and therefore, they appear in a definition file even though they do not appear in a hierarchy file.

The following table describes the fields that are part of a hierarchy file.

Field Data type Required/Default values

ParentId String Required

ChildId String Required

SiblingId String Required

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The following figures show a Unit hierarchy file (in Excel) and the resulting hierarchy as it appears in BusinessObjects Planning Administrator or BusinessObjects Planning Analyst Pro.

The SiblingId column is used to help you arrange the order of the children for a given parent. The child member being imported is placed to the right of the member specified in the SiblingId column. If the ordering of the children is not necessary, type attached to a parent, then its SiblingId is also null (since there is no child that it can be a sibling for).

In a hierarchy file, root indicates that the member appears in the root of the hierarchy and does not have a parent, and null indicates that the member does not have a previous sibling in the hierarchy.

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Creating component files

In the above image, the parent unit “State” has five child units (SP00, IB00, SPCL01, CM00, and PC00), listed in the order that they appear in the resulting hierarchy. Because the order of the child units is important in this example, a third column is added to the hierarchy file that lists the identifier for each unit’s preceding child unit (also known as its sibling). In this example, SP00 does not have a preceding sibling and so “null” is used, PC00’s preceding sibling is CM00, which appears in the SiblingID column for PC00, and so on.

If you want the child members in a hierarchy to appear in a specific order, implicitly define the sibling relationship by listing the members in the order you want them to appear. You should also explicitly define the sibling relationship by supplying the SiblingID. This step minimizes potential import errors.

The folder file

The folder file (*.ff?) defines the folders within a component hierarchy. It contains the identifier and the name of each folder in the hierarchy. You can leave this file empty; however, if you add a folder to this file, you have to add it to the hierarchy file (*.tf?) as well.

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The following table shows the fields that are part of a folder file.

Field Data type Required/Default values

FolderId String Required

FolderName String Required

The following figure shows a Currency folder file.

Importing component files

Once you have created the three comma-delimited files for each component, you can begin to create the business model by importing the files. You can import component files in various ways. If you choose to import all component files at the same time, the following order is used:

• Balance Types

• Rates

• Exchange Rates

• Currencies

• Units

• Customers

• Lines

• Projects

• Products

• Channels

• Transactions

• Fiscal Periods

• Exchange R.Y.V.

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Importing component files

• R.Y.V.

However, to create a business model you do not have to import all dimensions. The following is a list of the minimum dimensions and the order in which they must be imported.

• Balance Types

• Rates

• Currencies

• Units

• Lines

Note: If you are using the Import business model dialog box to import

multiple dimensions at once, the application imports the dimensions in the correct order.

Beyond these four dimensions, there is no recommended order for importing; additional component files can be imported in any order.

The following instructions assume that you are importing only a few components.

To import component files:



1. In the Organizer, locate the business model that you want to import

component files to.

2. Check out the Pending version of the model.

3. Right-click the checked-out version of the business model, and select

Import from the menu.

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Creating Business Models

Importing component files

4. In the Import business model dialog box, select the check boxes for the

components that you are importing. (For example, select the Rates check box.)

5. In the File name no extension text box, specify the file name of the

component files. Specify only the name, not the file extension. For example, type

6. In the Folder text box, specify the location of the source files.

7. If you want to import GOIDs (Global Object Identifiers), select Import

GOID.

8. If you specified values for the SiblingID column in the hierarchy file, select

Import sibling. The values in the SiblingID column specify the order of

child members in the component hierarchy.

9. If you want the import to continue despite any errors, select Ignore

errors during import. The program writes error messages to an error

log. You can go back and correct these errors later.

10. If the objects being imported are also part of a divisional hierarchy, select

Update from core model to ensure that common objects are merged

with the divisional hierarchy, and that the attributes that apply to objects

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lower in the divisional hierarchy are not lost. If you select this item, you should enter a Source to synchronize with or you will receive a warning message.

11. If you want the existing hierarchies of the components to be deleted

before importing, select Delete hierarchies prior to import.

12. You now have three options:

To run the import immediately, click OK. (You will be asked to save your settings to an .ini file.)

To save the import settings to a script file for later use only, select Generate script only, type name for the file, then click OK.

To save the import settings to an .ini file for re-use only, click Save and save the file.

13. When you are finished importing components, verify that the business

model is correct, then activate the Pending version.

Specifying a base currency

Creating Business Models

Specifying a base currency

You must specify a base currency for each business model that you create. BusinessObjects Planning uses this currency as the base for all exchange rates. For example, if you set the base currency to CAD, all other exchange rates are in reference to the Canadian dollar.

To specify a business model’s base currency:



1. In the Organizer, locate and check out the business model that you want

to specify a base currency for.

2. Right-click the checked-out version of the business model and select

Properties from the menu.

3. In the Properties dialog box, click the General Details tab.

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Duplicating business models

4. On the General Details page, select a currency from the Base Currency

list. (This list consists of all pure currencies that are available within the selected business model.)

5. Click Apply.

Duplicating business models

You can create a new business model by duplicating an existing model. For example, if you need to build a Planning model based on the business rules of an existing model, you can easily duplicate the Production version of the existing model. In the duplicate copy, you can make changes to the business rules to build a new business model for planning. Using this method to create a new business model requires that you re-establish any favorites you want to maintain.

You can only duplicate the Production model, not the Pending model. When you duplicate the original Production model, it is copied and a second Production model is created. That second Production model is then copied again to create a new Pending model. This means that the original Pending model and the new Pending model may not be identical.

The following diagram outlines the duplication process.

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Duplicating business models

Business

Model 1

Production

Model

Pending

Model

If the original Pending model has elements in it that you want in the new copy of the model, you should activate it before duplicating. However, remember that this action changes the original Production model that all users have access to. For information on how to activate a business model, see

“Activating business models” on page 150.

To duplicate a business model:



1. In the Organizer, right-click a business model and select Duplicate from

the menu.

2. In the Duplicate Model dialog box, type a unique name for the business

model and click OK. If you do not type a unique name, a prefix of “Duplicate of” is added to the name of the original, which prevents it from being overwritten.

duplicate

Business

Model 2

New

Production

Model

copy

New

Pending

Model

When you duplicate a business model for archiving, continue using the original model as your working model and the duplicate as the copy you archive. You do not want to archive the original model because the favorites are linked to the original and will not work in the duplicated model.

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Creating Business Models

Creating multiple models

You can use BusinessObjects Planning to divide your high-level (or universal) business model into subsets of hierarchies, each potentially containing different information. Dividing a model into subsets can create, for example, a core model that can be used at the corporate level to satisfy company-wide requirements, and one or more divisional models that can be maintained at the divisional level and that contain both common and division-specific business rules.

The corporate group that is responsible for enterprise-wide reporting, planning, and forecasting can use the core model to impose consistency across the organization’s data and its structural hierarchies. At the same time, divisions that supply senior corporate management with information can use their divisional models to add further depth to the hierarchies to collect additional data or use different calculation methods.

Divisional models improve performance and manageability by providing users with access to only the information they need. Changes to the structure or object properties of the core model can be updated in the divisional model, and changes to scenario or report data in the divisional model can be updated to the core model. This kind of flexibility ensures that each business model contains accurate and current information.

You can create a core model and one or more divisional models within the universal model of your organization or you can create one or more divisional models directly from the universal model. Depending on how your organization manages its data, you can structure divisional models in many different ways. The objects you export to divisional models still exist in the core or universal model; they are only duplicated in the divisional model. You can add objects to the divisional model that are specific to that division or you can leave the divisional model as is.

How you maintain divisional models may differ depending on their structure. This section describes two common ways of arranging and maintaining data: the core/divisional model and the universal/divisional model.

Core/divisional model

You can create divisional models that contain subsets of the core model but that also contain division-specific objects that are not included in the core model.

In this structure, the core model, which is typically used by Headquarters or Group Finance, contains all core objects but no division-specific objects. When the divisional model is created, you export core objects that contain

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data relating to the division, then add divisional objects to the divisional model. The core objects that link to the division-specific objects in the divisional model are referred to as common objects. To ensure compatibility within both the core and divisional models, the properties of common objects may differ depending on whether they are part of the core or divisional model.

Core model

This type of model provides divisional flexibility by allowing divisions to organize their own information and consolidate data while ensuring data integrity and communication with the core model.

Identifying core and divisional objects

When creating divisional models, each object in the core and divisional hierarchies should be properly labeled as belonging to the core or a division. The Source text box in the Properties page of an object indicates the source of the object. For example, if you want to create two divisional models from one core model, you should identify the source of each core object as Core. You can then specify all objects belonging to the first division by their own source, such as Division1, and those objects belonging to the second division as Division2. By specifying the source of objects as either Core or Division, you can more easily identify the objects that belong to each model.

Core object

Divisional model

Divisional object

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Identify objects as belonging to the core or a specific division also enables you to export only the objects belonging to the divisional model that you want to create or update. Because your divisional models contain objects that belong to the core hierarchy, identifying these object allows you to (if desired) regulate who can modify these objects.

For more information about sources, see the online help.

Creating divisional models from a core model

You can create divisional models using the BusinessObjects Planning export and import features or using the corresponding scripts. It is recommended that you create a divisional model using the export and import features and save the export .ini and import .ini files to use later in a script when updating your model.

Note: Before you create a divisional model, ensure that you have a core

model with the source of each object identified as Core. For information about identifying the source, see “Identifying core and divisional objects” on

page 63.

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Creating multiple models



To create a divisional model:

1. Export objects that are relevant to the division from the core model to

their component files.

Exporting components from an existing model involves the following steps:

• Select the dimensions to export (these will make up the new model).

• Prune and filter the members of the selected dimensions that you

want to export. This step is recommended if you want to export only a portion of the hierarchy selected.

For information on exporting objects, see “Exporting models to

component files” on page 279.

For information on pruning and filtering, see “Exporting a portion of a

hierarchy” on page 284.

2. Create an empty business model.

For information, see “Creating an empty business model” on page 49.

3. Import the objects you exported from the core model into the empty

business model.

For information, see “Updating component hierarchies” on page 286.

4. Add divisional objects to the new model, ensuring that the source of each

object is properly identified.

For information about specifying the source, see “Identifying core and

divisional objects” on page 63.

Updating divisional models from the core model

You can use divisional models to consolidate data and to create different versions of plans. To ensure that the divisional model is accurate and up-todate, you should update it when the structure or object properties of the core model change.

To update divisional models:



1. Export objects from the core model that are relevant to the division to

their component files.

Exporting components from an existing model involves the following steps:

• Select the dimensions to export (these will make up the new model).

• Prune and filter the members of the selected dimensions that you

want to export. This step is recommended if you want to export only a portion of the dimension hierarchy selected.

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For information on exporting objects, see “Exporting models to

component files” on page 279.

For information on pruning and filtering, see “Exporting a portion of a

hierarchy” on page 284.

2. Import the objects you exported from the core model into the divisional

model.

Note: To ensure that divisional objects are not deleted and that common

objects retain their properties, when updating divisional models select only the Source to synchronize and Update from core model import settings.

For information, see “Updating component hierarchies” on page 286.

Copying data from divisional to core models

If scenario or report data changes in the divisional model, you should update the changes to the core model to ensure data integrity. Use the InterModelScenarioCopy script function to copy scenario data from the divisional model to the core model.

To create and run the InterModelScenarioCopy script:



1. In the Organizer, expand the Business Views folder.

2. Locate and expand the master business model to the Tasks folder.

3. Expand the Tasks folder to either the Private or Public folder. (If you want

to create a script in a subfolder, expand the Private or Public folder further to the subfolder.)

4. Right-click the folder, then select New and Script from the menu.

5. In the New script dialog box, specify an appropriate name for your new

script (for example, DivisionalModels).

6. Click OK. The Script Editor opens automatically and the new script is

checked out.

7. Select the left tab that has the name of your script. This is the Script tab.

8. On the Script page, create the script. The syntax for the function is:

InterModelScenarioCopy "FromUnit", "FromScenario", "FromModel", "ToScenario"{, "{<scope>}ToUnit", "ToModel"}

Example:

Sub Main

InterModelScenarioCopy "STATE", "2000QA", "PRODMODEL", "2000QA", "STATE", "TESTMODEL"

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End Sub

Note: For a detailed explanation of the syntax of the

InterModelScenarioCopy function, see the online help.

9. To save and check in the script, click the Save icon in the Script Editor

toolbar and select Save and make changes official.

10. Click OK.

11. Close the window. The script appears in the folder you selected.

12. Grant appropriate users the rights to the new script.

13. Run the script.

Universal/divisional model

You can create divisional models that are subsets of the universal model. In this structure, the universal model contains all divisional objects. The structure differs from the core/divisional model because, in the universal/ divisional model you do not add additional objects not contained in the core model to the divisional model. When you create divisional models, you export all objects that contain data of interest to the division. Users viewing the divisional model have access to all relevant data.

Creating Business Models

Creating multiple models

Universal model

Universal object

This way of structuring your model is useful if you want to have one centralized hierarchy containing all information. Such a model can be very large, and divisional models provide a way to divide the information into smaller sub-hierarchies that can be sustained at the divisional level. This

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Divisional model

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Creating multiple models

structure allows users to view only the information that is relevant to them and consolidate report data, thereby improving model performance and manageability.

Creating divisional models from a universal model

You can use a script to create a divisional model from a universal model. The script function exports selected objects from the universal model and imports them into an empty model. The script uses the DivModelCopy function, which allows you to create a divisional model by pruning and filtering the universal model based on the filter options you specify and by importing the exported objects into an empty business model. When the universal model changes, you can run the script again to update the changes to the divisional model.

To create and run the DivModelCopy script:



1. In the Organizer, expand the Business Views folder.

2. Locate and expand the universal business model to the Tasks folder.

3. Expand the Tasks folder to either the Private or Public folder. (If you want

to create a script in a subfolder, expand the Private or Public folder further to the subfolder.)

4. Right-click the folder, then select New and Script from the menu.

5. In the New script dialog box, specify an appropriate name for your new

script (for example, DivisionalModels).

6. Click OK. The Script Editor opens automatically and the new script is

checked out.

7. Select the left tab that has the name of your script. This is the Script tab.

8. On the Script page, create the script. The syntax for the function that

creates the divisional model is:

DivModelCopy “universal model identifier”, “export_from_universal.ini file”, “divisional model identifier”, “import_to_divisional.ini file”

Note: The universal model identifier can be the file name, identifier, or

complete path of the business model. For information, see the online help.

Example:

Sub Main

C:\Program Files\Business Objects\Planning Extended

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DivModelCopy “-Model:01jz002x”, “C:\Program Files\BusinessObjects\Planning Extended\Private\DivModelExp.ini”,

“-Model:01ck003x”, “C:\Program Files\BusinessObjects\Planning Extended\Private\DivModelImp.ini”

End Sub

Note: For a detailed explanation of the syntax of the DivModelCopy

function, see the online help.

9. To save and check in the script, click the Save icon in the Script Editor

toolbar and select Save and make changes official.

10. Click OK.

11. Close the window. The script appears in the folder you selected.

12. Grant appropriate users the rights to the new script.

13. Run the script.

Note: Any time that changes are made to the universal model, run the

script again to update your divisional model. To ensure that the structure of the divisional model remains the same as the universal model, when updating divisional models, ensure that the Delete hierarchy prior to import setting is specified.

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Creating and Maintaining Scenarios

chapter

Page 72

Creating and Maintaining Scenarios

Overview

This chapter provides an overview of scenarios and describes each type of scenario in detail. After reading this chapter, you will have a high-level understanding of scenarios.

The chapter contains the following topics:

• “About scenarios” on page 72

• “Creating scenarios” on page 74

• “Using Daily scenarios” on page 84

• “Replicating scenarios” on page 88

• “Loading data into scenarios” on page 93

• “Maintaining scenarios” on page 93

• “Setting up scenarios for planning” on page 103

About scenarios

A scenario is a collection of data that is stored in the database. Each scenario may contain data for an entire fiscal year and that data can be divided into daily, monthly, quarterly, half-year, or full-year periods. A scenario comprises actual, plan, or forecast data, depending on the purpose of the scenario. You can store an unlimited number of scenarios for use within your organization.

You create scenarios in the Scenarios folder, which is a replica of the portions of the Unit hierarchy to which you have rights. By associating scenarios with the Unit hierarchy, you can view, analyze, and track data by line of business or geography. The following figure shows the location of scenarios within the BusinessObjects Planning interface.

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Creating and Maintaining Scenarios

Understanding the scenario creation process

Users interact with data through reports. You (the administrator) must complete a process to make the data available to them. This process includes creating a scenario, replicating it through the Unit hierarchy, loading data into entry level scenarios, then consolidating the data so that scenarios higher up in the Unit hierarchy are populated with data.

About scenarios

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Creating scenarios

The following table describes the types of scenarios that you can create:

Scenario type Description

Editable Editable scenarios load, enter, or modify data in the

Rollup Rollup scenarios consolidate data already entered in

Automatic

Compound Compound scenarios group multiple collections of

Calculated Calculated scenarios perform mathematical

database.

the database. When you consolidate data, a simple sum is performed and the Rollup scenarios are populated. Generally, you cannot edit data in Rollup scenarios; however, you can use certain balance types to modify data at intermediary levels in your Unit hierarchy.

Automatic scenarios intelligently populate the Unit hierarchy with Editable and Rollup scenarios. When you replicate an Automatic scenario, entry-level units are populated with Editable scenarios and intermediary units with Rollup scenarios.

data. You can group collections of data that have different fiscal years, periods (quarters, months, half year, or entire year), and types (actual, forecast, or plan).

operations on existing scenarios within the database.

Creating templates folders in the Unit hierarchy

You should create and store scenarios in a Templates folder. By doing so, you make the general maintenance of scenarios easier because you always know where to find the original scenario. For example, you may need to know the location of the original scenario to complete such tasks as replicating scenarios and applying rights templates.

You must create the Templates folder manually.

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Creating scenarios



To create a Templates folder in the Unit hierarchy:

1. In the Organizer, locate and check out the business model that you want

to add the Templates folder to.

2. In the checked-out version of the business model, expand the Business

Rules folder.

3. Expand the Dimensions folder.

4. Expand the Units folder.

5. In the Unit hierarchy, select Primary Unit Hierarchy.

6. In the right pane of the Organizer, right-click the white space and select

New from the menu.

7. On the Unit page, type

8. In the Name text box, type

9. From the Default reporting currency list, select the currency that you

typically use for reporting.

Template in the Unit text box.

Templates.

10. Click Apply.

Creating Automatic scenarios

When you create an Automatic scenario and replicate it throughout a Unit hierarchy, entry-level units are populated with Editable scenarios and intermediary units with Rollup scenarios. You can achieve the same result by creating an Editable scenario and replicating it to entry level units, and by

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Creating scenarios

creating a Rollup scenario and replicating it to intermediary units; however, Automatic scenarios simplify this process. You should create them rather than Editable and Rollup scenarios.

You want Editable scenarios at entry-level units because you want to be able to load, enter, and modify data at those levels. How you define an entry-level unit depends on what type of data you are working with. For actual data, entry level is typically the lowest level unit (those that do not have children) in the Unit hierarchy. Whereas, if you are working with plan or forecast data, the entry level can appear higher in the Unit hierarchy because you typically want to plan summarized numbers rather than plan at the transit level. For plan and forecast data, the entry-level unit may have child units but those units do not have scenarios that relate to the plan or forecast. You define entry-level units while replicating scenarios.

You want Rollup scenarios in intermediary units (those that have children) because Rollup scenarios contain data summed from child units. When you define the entry-level units during replication, that information determines which units require Rollup scenarios. The rule is that all parent level units get a Rollup scenario.



1. In the Organizer, expand the Scenarios folder.

2. Locate and select the Tem plate s folder under the Primary Unit Hierarchy.

3. Right-click the white space in the right pane of the Organizer and select

4. On the General page of the Properties dialog box, type an identifier and a

To create an Automatic scenario:

(If your organization does not have a Templates folder, drill to the unit that you want as the highest level for your scenario and select it.)

New from the menu.

name for the scenario. (The identifier must be unique.)

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5. From the Scenario type list box, select Automatic.

Creating scenarios

6. Click the Fiscal Periods tab. (If you are creating a Daily scenario, see

“Creating Daily scenarios” on page 85.)

7. On the Fiscal Periods page, select a fiscal period. (For Automatic

scenarios, select one fiscal period only.)

8. Click OK.

9. Replicate the scenario. For more information, see “Replicating scenarios”

on page 88.

10. Load the data into the scenario. For more information on loading data into

scenarios, see “Loading data into scenarios” on page 93.

Creating Compound scenarios

You create Compound scenarios to group multiple collections of data. You create these scenarios to group data from multiple fiscal periods or to create full year forecasts, where you can group the data into Year-to-date/Rest-ofyear or into individual time periods.

The data that you calculate in a Compound scenario is not saved to the database. Instead, Compound scenarios are calculated each time the business model is loaded, based on the underlying attributes of the scenario. This feature ensures that the scenario is always based on current data.

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Creating scenarios

The following table describes the types of Compound scenarios you can create:

Compound Scenario Type

Entire Fiscal period

Split YTD (Year to Date) and ROY (Rest of Year)

Individual time periods

Note: Compound scenarios can be created using any fiscal period except

daily.

To create a Compound scenario:



1. In the Organizer, expand the Scenarios folder.

2. Locate and select the Tem plate s folder under the Primary Unit Hierarchy.

(If your organization does not have a Templates folder, drill to the unit that you want as the highest level for your scenario, and select it.)

3. Right-click the white space in the right side of the Organizer and select

New from the menu.

4. On the General page of the Properties dialog box, type an identifier and a

name for the scenario. (The identifier must be unique.)

5. From the Scenario type list box, select Compound.

6. Click the Fiscal Periods tab.

7. On the Fiscal Periods page, select a fiscal period. (Typically, if you are

grouping entire fiscal periods, you will choose multiple fiscal periods, if you are grouping YTD/ROY or individual time periods, you may only want to choose one fiscal period.)

8. Click the Formula (Compound) tab.

Description

Groups monthly, quarterly, half-yearly, or yearly data for an entire fiscal period. This option gives you the ability to create Compound scenarios that span multiple fiscal periods.

Groups half year, quarterly, and monthly data for one fiscal period, and displays the comparison in half years, quarters or months that have already passed (YTD) and those that have not (ROY), based on the half year, quarter, or month of the business model.

Groups half year, quarterly, or monthly data for one fiscal period and displays the comparison in individual half years, quarters, or months.

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9. On the Formula (Compound) page, specify how you want the fiscal

periods grouped. For more information, see “Grouping entire fiscal

periods” on page 79, “Grouping YTD and ROY” on page 80, and “Grouping individual time periods” on page 81.

10. Click OK.

Grouping entire fiscal periods

This option allows you to group data for multiple fiscal periods. For example, if you want to group quarterly actual results from 2002 with quarterly forecast results from 2002, you can create a Compound scenario that references the 2002 Quarterly Actual scenario and the 2002 Quarterly Forecast scenario. You can then reference this Compound scenario in all column templates used for quarterly reporting. As the year progresses, Actual data replaces the Forecast data automatically.

If you are comparing yearly data, this is the only option available to you because yearly data cannot be broken down as described in the following sections.

To group entire fiscal periods:



1. On the Formula (Compound) page, under Breakdown, select Entire

Fiscal Period for the first fiscal period.

2. Under Scenario’s name and identifier, select one scenario to which you

want the Compound scenario to point.

3. Under Fiscal Period, select the next fiscal period listed.

Creating and Maintaining Scenarios

Creating scenarios

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Creating scenarios

4. Repeat steps 1 and 2 for each remaining fiscal period.

5. Click OK.

Grouping YTD and ROY

This option gives you the ability to group data so that report creators can build a full year forecast comprising year-to-date (Actual) and rest-of-year (Forecast) data. For example, if you want to give report creators the ability to create a full-year fiscal 2000 forecast, you can create a Compound scenario that references the 2000 Quarterly Actuals scenario for YTD data and the 2000 Quarterly Forecast scenario for ROY data. This Compound scenario can then be referenced in all column templates that are used for quarterly reporting. This process replaces forecast data with actual data automatically.

To group YTD and ROY:



1. On the Formula (Compound) page, under Breakdown, choose Split YTD

and ROY.

2. Under Scenario’s name and identifier, select the scenario to which you

want the Compound scenario to point for YTD data.

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Creating scenarios

3. Choose the scenario to which you want the Compound scenario to point

for ROY data.

4. Click OK.

Grouping individual time periods

This option gives you the ability to group data so that report creators can build a full-year forecast using data from different underlying scenarios for each time period in the year. This option gives you the flexibility of merging data from any number of scenarios. For example, for Q1, you can use the 2002 official quarterly actuals scenario, for Q2 and Q3 you can use the 2002 working quarterly actuals scenario, and for Q4 you can use the 2002 quarterly forecast scenario. This Compound scenario can then be referenced in all column templates that are used for quarterly reporting. Forecast data is replaced with actual data automatically.

To group individual time periods:



1. On the Formula (Compound) page, under Breakdown, select Individual

time periods.

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Creating scenarios

2. Under Scenario's name and identifier, choose the scenario to which you

want the Compound scenario to point for each time period.

3. Click OK.

Creating Calculated scenarios

A Calculated scenario performs mathematical operations on existing scenarios. The data that results from the calculation is not saved to the database. Instead, Calculated scenarios are computed each time the business model is loaded. This feature ensures that the calculated data is always based on current data.

You can create a Calculated scenario that links to one existing scenario. For example, you may have created a scenario that points to your recommended plan (2000PR), but you may decide to create an alternative plan using a Calculated scenario (2000PA) so that you can see the results of a 13% increase. (For more information about working with Daily scenarios, see the BusinessObjects Planning Reporting Guide.)

The formula for 2000PA is:

SCENARIO (2000PR) * 1.13

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Creating scenarios

Alternatively, you can create a Calculated scenario that links to one or more existing scenarios. For example, you could create a gap scenario that shows the difference between your projections and your actual data. You could take your Control Totals for 1999 (1999CT) and compare them to your Actual Totals (1999YA).

Since the resulting scenario is comparing totals, you create gap scenarios at summary levels in your hierarchy.

The formula for the gap scenario is:

SCENARIO(1999CT)-SCENARIO(1999YA)

To create a Calculated scenario:



1. In the Organizer, expand the Scenarios folder.

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Using Daily scenarios

2. Locate and select the Tem plate s folder under the Primary Unit Hierarchy.

(If your organization does not have a Templates folder, drill to the unit that you want as the highest level for your scenario and select it.)

3. Right-click the white space in the right side of the Organizer and select

New from the menu.

4. On the General page of the Properties dialog box, type an identifier and a

name for the scenario. (The identifier must be unique.)

5. From the Scenario type list box select Calculated.

6. Click the Fiscal Periods tab. (If you are creating a Daily scenario, see

“Creating Daily scenarios” on page 85.)

7. On the Fiscal Periods page, select a fiscal period. (For Calculated

scenarios, you only select one fiscal period.)

8. Click the Formula tab.

9. On the Formula page, type an expression in the Scenario formula text

box.

10. Click OK.

Using Daily scenarios

A Daily scenario is similar to other scenarios, except that the time period is measured in days rather that months, quarters, half years, or years. Daily scenarios are used to follow your metrics on a daily basis.

You can create a Daily scenario for the following scenario types: Automatic, Editable, Rollup, and Calculated. You cannot create a Daily scenario for a Compound type scenario. (For more information about working with Daily scenarios, see the BusinessObjects Planning Reporting Guide.)

One scenario can include up to 365 days (366 for a leap year). One scenario cannot span multiple fiscal periods. For example, if your fiscal year starts on February 1, a Daily fiscal period can span from February 1 through January 31, but it cannot span from January 1 through December 31. The StartOfFiscalYear parameter, in the shared .ini file, governs the allowable range of days for one Daily scenario. (For more information on the StartOfFiscalYear .ini parameter, see “Specifying the start of a fiscal year” on

page 47.)

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Preparing to create Daily scenarios

If you plan to use Daily scenarios, you may want to incorporate the following .ini parameters in the shared .ini file.

Parameter Section Valu es Default Description

AllowOpeningDailyScenario

DefaultDailyDataStorageType

JulianDailyTimeP eriod

LoadDailyScript [GL] <path> The full path to the file

[Planning] 0/1 1 Restricts access to

[CalcEngine] Decum

[Calendar] 0/1 0 0 = Specifies that

, YTD, QTD, MTD

Creating and Maintaining Scenarios

Using Daily scenarios

daily data by reports only.

Decum Specifies how the

data is stored in the database: Decumulated, Yearto-date, Quarter-todate, or Month-todate.

column and row headers display the calendar date (for example, June 10).

1 = Specifies that column and row headers display the Julian date (for example, Day 100.)

containing the SQL statement that selects the daily data for the scenario.

Only used if the daily data is stored in an external database.

Creating Daily scenarios

A Daily scenario can be one of any of the previously described scenario types except Compound. Daily scenarios are created in the same manner except that daily sub-periods are defined on the Time Periods page and options must be selected on the Calculations Rules page.

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Creating and Maintaining Scenarios

Using Daily scenarios



1. In the Organizer, expand the Scenarios folder.

2. Locate and select the Tem plate s folder under the Primary Unit Hierarchy.

3. Right-click the white space in the right side of the Organizer and select

4. On the General page of the Properties dialog box, type an identifier and

5. Select a scenario type from the Scenario type list.

6. Click the Fiscal Periods tab.

7. Select the daily periods that you want from the Fiscal periods selected for

8. Select the months that you want to include daily data for.

To create a Daily scenario:

(If your organization does not have a Templates folder, drill to the unit that you want as the highest level for your scenario, and select it).

New from the menu.

name for the scenario. (The identifier must be unique.)

this scenario column. When you do so, the Daily subperiods column becomes available.

9. Click the Calculation Rules tab.

10. On the Calculation Rules page, select the Currency Exchange Rate to be

used from the Currency list and select the year for that Currency Exchange Rate.

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Creating and Maintaining Scenarios

Using Daily scenarios

11. Specify all other rates to be used and select the year for the other rates.

(Other rates include all rates except the Currency Exchange Rates.)

12. In the Re-calculate these lines in this scenario list, select the type of

calculation you want to apply.

13. In the Data type list, select the type of data that is stored in the scenario.

14. Click OK.

Setting up for rolling forecast reports

If you are planning to perform rolling forecasts (see the BusinessObjects Planning Reporting Guide), your scenario must have the ability to determine the most recent Week-Ending date. This date is based on two settings in the shared .ini file.

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Creating and Maintaining Scenarios

Replicating scenarios

Based on these two .ini settings and the Current Day (either Global as specified in the model or Local as determined in the database), the application can determine the most recently completed week.

Parameter Section Values Default Description

EndOfWeekDay [Calendar] Monday

BackdateNumberOf Days

Wed The last day of the through Sunday

[Calendar] 1-7 2 The number of

weekly time period.

days past the end of the weekly time period before the weekly data is considered finalized.

For example, if EndOfWeekDay is Wednesday, the BackdateNumberO fDays is 2, and the Current Day is Thursday, August 15, the WeekEnding is still the previous Wednesday (August 7), since 2 days of backdates have not been processed (and the results of the week ending August 14 cannot be guaranteed to be finalized).

Replicating scenarios

Once you have created the template of a scenario, the next step is to replicate that template to the levels in the Unit hierarchy for which there is, or will be, data in the scenario.

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Replicating Actual scenarios

You want to track actual data for every unit in the Unit hierarchy, which means that you want to replicate those scenarios throughout the Unit hierarchy to all intermediary and leaf units.

To replicate Actual scenarios:



1. In the Organizer, expand the Scenarios folder.

2. Select the unit at the top of the hierarchy that you want to replicate the

scenario from.

3. Right-click the white space in the right pane of the Organizer, and select

Replicate from the menu.

4. In the Scenario Template dialog box, select the unit that contains the

scenario you want to replicate from the Unit list. Typically, you will select

Templ ates.

5. From the Scenario list, select the scenario you want to replicate.

6. Click Apply.

7. In the Scope of Operation dialog box, select the target units:

• Current unit – perform a task only on the scenario in the unit you

select

• All intermediary child units – perform a task on all scenarios that

appear in the intermediary units of the unit you select

• All bottom level child units (Leaf units) – perform a task on all

bottom-level units under the unit you select

Creating and Maintaining Scenarios

Replicating scenarios

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Replicating scenarios

8. Click OK.

Replicating Plan or Forecast scenarios

When working with plan or forecast data, you typically do not want to replicate scenarios throughout the Unit hierarchy; instead, you want your plan and forecast scenarios to appear higher in the hierarchy so that you can plan summarized numbers rather than plan at the transit level.

To replicate Plan or Forecast scenarios:



1. In the Organizer, expand the Scenarios folder.

2. In the left pane of the Organizer, expand the Unit hierarchy to display the

units that you want to replicate the scenario in and then select the unit at the top of the hierarchy. (This is the only way to replicate to some intermediary units and not others.)

3. Right-click the white space in the right pane of the Organizer and select

Replicate from the menu.

4. In the Scenario Template dialog box, select the unit that contains the

scenario you want to replicate from the Unit list. Typically, you will select

Temp lates.

5. From the Scenario list, select the scenario you want to replicate.

6. Click Apply.

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Replicating scenarios

7. In the Scope of Operation dialog box, select the target units:

• Current unit – perform a task only on the scenario in the unit you

select

• All intermediary child units – perform a task on all scenarios that

appear in the intermediary units of the unit you select

• All bottom level child units (Leaf units) – perform a task on all

bottom-level units under the unit you select

8. Select Perform this operation only on units which are currently

expanded.

9. Click OK.

Replicating Compound scenarios

It is typical for a Compound scenario to point to an Actual scenario and a Forecast scenario, and it is typical for these base scenarios to appear at different levels in the Unit hierarchy. Before replicating a Compound scenario, you must decide whether you want it to view actual or forecast data and then replicate to the appropriate level in the Unit hierarchy. For example, if you are interested in looking at forecast data, replicate to the part of the hierarchy that contains the base Forecast scenario.

To replicate Compound scenarios:



1. In the Organizer, expand the Scenarios folder.

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Replicating scenarios

2. In the left pane of the Organizer, expand the Unit hierarchy to display the

3. Right-click the white space in the right pane of the Organizer and select

4. In the Scenario Template dialog box, select the unit that contains the

5. From the Scenario list, select the scenario you want to replicate.

6. Click Apply.

7. In the Scope of Operation dialog box, select the target units:

8. Select Perform this operation only on units that are currently

9. Click OK.

units that you want to replicate the scenario in and then select the unit at the top of the hierarchy. (This is the only way to replicate to some intermediary units and not others.)

Replicate from the menu.

scenario you want to replicate from the Unit list. Typically, you will select Temp lates.

• Current unit – perform a task only on the scenario in the unit you

select

• All intermediary child units – perform a task on all scenarios that

appear in the intermediary units of the unit you select

• All bottom level child units (Leaf units) – perform a task on all

bottom-level units under the unit you select

expanded.

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Loading data into scenarios

Once you have created a scenario, you have a number of ways in which you can load data. The following table describes your options:

Creating and Maintaining Scenarios

Loading data into scenarios

Data Load Option

LoadData wizard The LoadData wizard provides the user with a

LoadData script Use the LoadData script to copy bulk data and to

Spreadsheet Use this option to import business plans and forecast

Report Use this option to create plans and forecasts or to

Description

graphical interface to assist with the creation of a LoadData script. It is found in the Wizards folder in the Organizer.

perform repetitive data downloads to the database. Use this option to load the data you supply from your client database. (For information on how to load data using the LoadData script, see “Working with

External Data Sources” on page 117.)

or actual data from a spreadsheet. It allows you to incorporate data from users not using BusinessObjects Planning. You can import from Lotus® 5, Lotus 97, or from any version of Microsoft Excel. (For information on how to load data from spreadsheets, see “Working with External Data

Sources” on page 117.)

restate actual data. You can enter data in reports linked to Editable scenarios and when you save these reports, the data you entered is saved to the database. If you want to base your plans, forecasts, and restatement of actual data on existing data, you first have to make a copy of that data in the database.

Maintaining scenarios

This section provides information about maintaining existing scenarios. Topics include:

• Creating a rights template

• Transferring ownership of scenarios

• Consolidating data

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Creating and Maintaining Scenarios

Maintaining scenarios

• Updating Automatic scenario types

• Clearing scenario data

• Deleting scenarios from the view

• Using scenario database caching

Creating a rights template

You may want to apply the rights that one scenario has to other scenarios. You can accomplish this task by linking scenarios. Once you make the link, the source scenario (the one with the original set of rights) acts as the rights template for the other scenarios. Any changes you make to the rights for the source scenario automatically apply to the scenarios that are linked to it.

If the source scenario is based on a rights template, you have to break its link before using it as the source template for another scenario. To determine whether a scenario is based on a rights template, right-click it and select

Properties from the menu. In the Properties dialog box, click the Scenario Links tab. If the scenario is based on a rights template, the name of the

source scenario appears in the Rights based on template text box. To break the link, right-click the scenario, then select Select Rights Template from the menu. In the Rights Template dialog box, select the Break rights template

link option and click Apply.

To create a rights template:



1. Right-click the scenario to which you want to copy rights and select

Select Rights Template from the menu.

2. In the Rights Template dialog box, select the unit that contains the source

scenario from the Unit list.

3. Select the source scenario from the Scenario list.

4. Click Apply.

5. In the Scope of Operation dialog box, select the units to which you want

to copy rights:

• Current unit – perform a task only on the scenario in the unit you

select

• All intermediary child units – perform a task on all scenarios that

appear in the intermediary units of the unit you select

• All bottom level child units (leaf units) – perform a task on all

bottom-level units under the unit you select

6. Click OK.

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Transferring ownership of scenarios

You can transfer scenario ownership from one user to another. For example, if a user moves to a different department or is promoted to a different position, you can transfer the ownership of their scenarios to another employee. As the new owner of the business object, the user inherits the default rights granted to the creator of the object automatically.

If you have control and delegate rights for the scenario, you can transfer its ownership. If you have control and delegate rights for the same site only, you can transfer ownership of the scenario to a user at the same site only. If you have control and delegate rights for all sites, you can transfer ownership of the scenario to a user at any site. (For information about rights, see “Granting

Rights” on page 323.) Transferring a scenario is not like transferring the

ownership of other business objects because scenarios are replicated. The same scenario often exists for many different units. You must specify the full scope of scenarios that you want to transfer.

To transfer ownership of a group of scenarios:



1. In the Organizer, expand the Scenarios folder.

2. Right-click the scenario for transfer and select Transfer Ownership from

the menu.

3. In the Scope of Operation dialog box, specify the units that contain the

scenarios you want to transfer:

• Current unit – perform a task only on the scenario in the unit you

select

• All intermediary child units – perform a task on all scenarios that

appear in the intermediary units of the unit you select

• All bottom level child units (leaf units) – perform a task on all

bottom-level units under the unit you select

4. Click OK.

Creating and Maintaining Scenarios

Maintaining scenarios

Consolidating data

When you change data in intermediary or leaf units, the data for the units above them does not update automatically. You have to consolidate the data for higher-level units before they include the changes made to data in lower levels. When you consolidate, the data for lower level units (starting at the leaf unit) sums to provide summary level data for higher levels. For example, if you make changes to the data in a report, those changes are not reflected in the higher-level units until you consolidate the data at those levels.

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Maintaining scenarios

You can optimize consolidations by updating only the parent units of leaf units in which data has been changed. Consolidating only the units in which changes have been made saves time and is beneficial when making few changes to a scenario.

Note: When consolidating data for compound scenarios, the Scope of

Operation dialog box includes an additional page called Tied consolidation. Selecting the Ignore units that are incomplete check box limits the consolidation to only the units that have all the different scenarios used in the compound.



1. In the Organizer, expand the Scenarios folder.

2. Right-click a scenario at the level in the unit hierarchy to which you want

3. In the Scope of Operation dialog box, select the target units:

4. To optimize consolidations, select the Allow BusinessObjects Planning

5. Click OK.

To consolidate data:

the data totaled, and select Consolidate from the menu. (For example, if you want changes you made to a leaf level unit reflected in the data for all levels above it, select the highest-level unit for that hierarchy.)

• Current unit – perform a task only on the scenario in the unit you

select

• All intermediary child units – perform a task on all scenarios that

appear in the intermediary units of the unit you select

• All bottom level child units (Leaf units) – perform a task on all

bottom-level units under the unit you select

to optimize this operation by acting only if necessary check box.

Distributed consolidations

Consolidation may be a lengthy process. By distributing the consolidation between a number of servers in a multi-server environment, the time for consolidation can be reduced significantly. Consolidations are divided into sub-tasks that are run simultaneously in parallel instead of waiting for each CPU to finish in order to run sequentially.

Distributed consolidations are performed using BusinessObjects Planning script functions. You can use either ScenarioConsolidate or ScenarioConsolidateEx. For further information about using these script functions, see the Scripting online Help.

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Updating Automatic scenario types

You can refresh Automatic scenarios to accommodate changes to the Unit hierarchy.

When you replicate an Automatic scenario, Rollup scenarios are created for intermediary units and Editable scenarios are created for leaf units. If you then change a leaf unit into an intermediary by adding units below it, or you change an intermediary unit into a leaf by removing all leaf units below it, you need an easy way to reassign the type of Automatic scenario that is associated with the unit. For example, a leaf unit that becomes an intermediary requires a Rollup scenario but will initially have an Editable scenario associated with it.

Note: If you change an Editable scenario to a Rollup scenario then re-

consolidate, all data will reflect the values from the children.

To update an Automatic scenario:



1. After making changes to the Unit hierarchy (for example, changing leaf

units into intermediary units), check in the business model.

2. In the Pending version of the model, expand the Scenarios folder.

Creating and Maintaining Scenarios

Maintaining scenarios

3. Expand the hierarchy and select the unit (represented by the icon)

that contains the original Automatic scenario.

4. Right-click the scenario and select Replicate from the menu.

5. In the Scope of Operation dialog box, select the target units:

• Current unit – perform a task only on the scenario in the unit you

select

• All intermediary child units – perform a task on all scenarios that

appear in the intermediary units of the unit you select

• All bottom level child units (Leaf units) – perform a task on all

bottom-level units under the unit you select

6. Click OK.

Clearing scenario data

You may want to clear scenario data without deleting the scenario. For example, you may be working on a plan and want to start over again without having to create a new scenario.

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Maintaining scenarios

Alternatively, you may decide to clear the data in your intermediary units, leaving the data in the child units. After clearing the data, you can reconsolidate and in this way ensure that the data in the intermediary units is correct. For example, if you change the rollup adjustment in a Rollup scenario, consolidating will not replace this data because it has been manually edited. If you want to replace manually edited data, you should first clear it, then reconsolidate.

Clearing sets the data to zero in the database.



1. In the Organizer, expand the Scenarios folder.

2. Right-click a scenario at the highest level it appears in the Unit hierarchy.

3. Select Clear Scenario Data from the menu.

4. In the Scope of Operation dialog box, specify the units for which you want

5. Click OK.

To clear data:

To clear data for a specific unit, right-click the scenario on the right side of the Organizer.

to clear the data:

• Current unit – perform a task only on the scenario in the unit you

select

• All intermediary child units – perform a task on all scenarios that

appear in the intermediary units of the unit you select

• All bottom level child units (Leaf units) – perform a task on all

bottom-level units under the unit you select

Deleting scenarios from the view

Over time, you or your group may create many scenarios for a variety of reasons. Often, when these scenarios are no longer needed, they remain in the database consuming valuable resources. You can free up these resources by deleting scenarios that you no longer use. You can delete a scenario from the current unit or, if a scenario was replicated through the hierarchy, you can delete it from all intermediary and child units.

When you delete a scenario, it is deleted from the view but it remains in the database. To remove the scenario from the database, you must first delete it from the view and then purge it from the database. For information on how to purge a scenario, see “Purging scenarios from the database” on page 102.

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Creating and Maintaining Scenarios

Maintaining scenarios

Note: You can view and delete scenarios only if you have the appropriate

rights.

To delete a scenario from the view:



1. To delete a scenario that has been replicated down the hierarchy, right-

click the scenario at the highest level it appears in the hierarchy.

To delete a scenario for a specific unit, right-click the scenario in the unit.

2. Select Delete from the menu. (If the selected scenario is at the leaf level

in the Unit hierarchy, skip to Step 5.)

3. In the Scope of Operation dialog box, specify the units for which you want

to delete the data:

• Current unit – delete the scenario from the unit you selected

• All intermediary child units – delete all replicated scenarios that

appear in the intermediary units of the unit you selected

• All bottom level child units (Leaf units) – delete all replicated

scenarios from the bottom-level units under the unit you selected

4. If you want to delete scenarios only from units in the hierarchy that are

expanded, click the Perform this operation only on units which are currently expanded in the left hand tree check box.

5. If you want to delete all scenarios that fall within your selected scope of

operations, except templates or scenarios with other dependencies, click the Advanced tab and select Delete matching scenarios, except

those on which other scenarios are dependent.

6. Click OK.

7. In the Confirmation dialog box, click Yes.

Deleting many scenarios at once

Instead of deleting scenarios individually, you can delete many scenarios at once. These scenarios can be from different units or business models, and you can filter scenarios based on their identifiers, last modified date, or last accessed date. Deleting many scenarios at once is beneficial if the scenario spans many units or business models or if you have many scenarios you want to delete.

When you delete a scenario, it disappears from the view but it remains in the database. To physically remove the scenario from the database, you must first delete it from the view and then purge it from the database. For information on how to purge deleted scenarios, see “Purging scenarios from

the database” on page 102.

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Creating and Maintaining Scenarios

Maintaining scenarios



1. Right-click the white space in the right pane of the Organizer and select

2. If you want to sort your scenarios before choosing those for deletion,

3. Using the standard Windows selection methods, select those scenarios

To delete many scenarios at once:

Bulk Scenario Delete from the menu.

select the filter criteria at the top of the dialog box and click Show Scenarios. (Only scenarios matching your criteria are shown.)

that you want to delete.

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Business objects PLANNING 5.2 User Manual

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual

Contents

Introduction

Overview

Conventions used in this guide

About BusinessObjects Planning

Related documentation

About this guide

Getting started

About the Organizer

Specifying the working and application language

Basic Concepts

Overview

Integrating heterogeneous data sources

Integrating business rules from disparate systems

Business models reflect your organization

Dimensions organize information

Rates provide flexibility to analyze changing economies

Filters focus data

Objects are independent of business models

Reports drive data analysis

Scripts automate repeatable processes

Selections group dimension members

Spreadsheets are an alternative source of data

Scenarios are collections of data in the database

Favorites folders contain links to business objects

BusinessObjects Planning security

Creating Business Models

Overview

Changing default parameters for new business models

Specifying the start of a fiscal year

Specifying the default Counterparty dimension

Model key size

Creating an empty business model

Creating component files

The definition file

The hierarchy file

The folder file

Importing component files

Specifying a base currency

Duplicating business models

Creating multiple models

Core/divisional model

Identifying core and divisional objects

Creating divisional models from a core model

Updating divisional models from the core model

Copying data from divisional to core models

Universal/divisional model

Creating divisional models from a universal model

Creating and Maintaining Scenarios

Overview

About scenarios

Understanding the scenario creation process

Creating scenarios

Creating templates folders in the Unit hierarchy

Creating Automatic scenarios

Creating Compound scenarios

Grouping entire fiscal periods

Grouping YTD and ROY

Grouping individual time periods

Creating Calculated scenarios

Using Daily scenarios

Preparing to create Daily scenarios

Creating Daily scenarios

Setting up for rolling forecast reports

Replicating scenarios

Replicating Actual scenarios

Replicating Plan or Forecast scenarios

Replicating Compound scenarios

Loading data into scenarios

Maintaining scenarios

Creating a rights template

Transferring ownership of scenarios

Consolidating data

Distributed consolidations

Updating Automatic scenario types

Clearing scenario data