Troubleshooting KPIs in SAP Sales / Service Cloud

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This blog post looks at potential issues and troubleshooting with KPIs in your SAP Sales Cloud / SAP Service Cloud system. If you would like further details on how to set up KPIs, you can check out this blog post here.

Let us look at the most common issues you may face while setting up KPIs and how to solve them.

You have created a KPI but when adapting the home page, it is not listed to be made Available / Visible

There are 2 possible causes for this:

1. The involved reports are not assigned at all or not assigned to the respective business role. All reports that are used in the KPI (context report, report for the current value/ target value etc) have to be assigned to work centers and, if you have enabled the assignment of reports to business roles, to business roles as well.


2. If this happens for the business user, ensure that you, as an administrator, have assigned the KPI to the respective role first. Only then will the business user see the KPI.

Check out the Knowledge Base Article (KBA) "2585268 - Custom KPI or Report Missing When Adapting/ Personalizing the Home Page" for further information.

Link: https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/2585268

The KPI value shows 0 or another wrong value

Once again there could be many reasons for this behavior. A good way to check the expected KPI value is to run the report which provides the Current Value with the respective selection. Then, remove all characteristics from the view - this is the value that the KPI should show, it will not consider any particular view.

1. The key figure or the characteristic part of the selection which the KPI is using were added to the report via Add Fields (not via the report wizard). When added this way, the key figure or selection variable are technically not part of the report definition and the KPI cannot retrieve the key figure value. To solve this, you would need to open your report, go to Add Fields and remove the key figure or characteristic. Then, edit the report with the report wizard. In step 2, ensure you add the key figure you need to use. In step 3, select the required characteristic and in step 4, set it up as a variable.


2. If you are working with a custom key figure, check that you have set a result setting. This is relevant since the KPI shows the key figure value without any characteristics in the view, i.e. it is aggregated. You can find the setting in step 3 of the key figure wizard, under "Calculate Result As".


3. The report on which the KPI is based is assigned to a specific work center view, for example ABC. The user viewing the KPI has unrestricted read access to the work center view ABC. This causes a conflict in access restrictions which does not allow any data to be returned. Please ensure that the business users are assigned to the report and also that there is an access restriction set on the respective work center views, so that the report access context can be applied.


4. You may face this behavior in the target value only, while the current value is shown correctly. The Current and Target values can only be compared when the value type of both is the same. In this case, the value types differ, for example the actual value is of type Integer while the target value is of type Quantity. The system thus omits the target value and displays it as 0.


5. Another scenario where you might notice this is with custom key figures which show currency values. As mentioned, the KPI value is an aggregated value. If the key figure shows values in different currencies, it is not possible to aggregate them. To resolve this, you would need to set up a currency conversion for your key figure. This is done in step 3 of the key figure wizard - select "Currency Conversion" as the conversion type. This setting creates an additional variable in your report, where you can set the currency which is to be displayed. Hence, once you have edited the key figure, you will need to open the report and set a currency in the selection. Save this in the selection you are using in the KPI.

Reference KBA: "2744418 - KPI Shows 0 or Wrong Value - Possible Causes"

Link: https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/2744418

 

Error message when creating a KPI:  Report XYZ (XYZ stands for the report that your KPI is based on) cannot be used (based on key figure grid)

The report you selected contains a key figure grid (key figure group). The purpose of a key figure grid is to report key figure structures and characteristics structures in 2 axis. In a KPI however, it is not possible to use 2 axis and hence such reports cannot be supported for the creation of KPIs.

To resolve this, you can create a report copy (or edit it if it's a custom report already), remove the key figure grid and select the key figures to be used separately.

 

Error message when editing an existing KPI: Component XYZ (MKFC @PS/ABC) does not exist

This can happen if the KPI setup is inconsistent. For example, you may have created a KPI with all settings in place correctly, but then one of the reports or key figures that were used were edited or deleted. To correct the KPI, please edit it and make sure that all mandatory values are filled, such as:

• Report for the current value


• Key figure for the current value


• If you are using a context report, make sure a key figure and a selection are selected


• If you are using target or reference values, make sure key figures and selections are selected

In summary, you are now aware of the most common errors that come up in KPIs and how to troubleshoot and solve them.

If you have any feedback or questions, please feel free to leave a comment. Alternatively, you can also check out the community and ask questions here.