Using a new Semantic Tag as a measure in a report

[former_member94298]

The addition of new semantic tags, and forming relationships between these and Financial Statement items is simple enough.

However, the piece of the puzzle that I am missing is how you can get the new Tagged item to appear as a measure in a report.

I know how to do this part in the On Prem world (though extending a CDS view) - but how do I do this in the Cloud?  Do I need to do a data source extension using the Custom Fields & Extensibility app.  Grateful for any guidance on this - as the documentation I can find readily available could best be described as poor (not to mention that I am fro, a functional rather than analytics background)!

Thanks!!

[Feras_Al-Basha · Accepted solution]

Hello ccsmith ,

Thank you raising the point on an interesting subject and sharing your puzzle.

The formation of the relationship between the semantic tag and financial statement item is essentially the main prerequisite to what you are looking to accomplish as far as I understand.

Extending the data source in the app 'custom fields and logic' will simply expose more fields & measures that are part of the out-of-the-box data source for a given analytical query.

However, if you have created your own custom analytical query, then you may add your unique measure. In addition if you have the fields GL account and semantic tag along with an input on the financial statement version available in the custom query, then the ingredients to consume the measure based on the relationship established priori should do the job.

Hope this information helps,

Thank you,

Feras

[Feras_Al-Basha]

Hello Clare,

That is a fair question. Let me take a step back and share my understanding of the overall use of semantic tags in the context of reporting.

Typical challenges associated in the absence of semantic tags may be the occurrence of double or even triple maintenance of account groups and financial statement versions (FSV) for reporting. Which may also lead to inconsistency during GL account additions or deletions. In response, semantic tags are intended to enable key finance users to lead the change process.

Essentially, finance users’ setup a central list of tags to their key figures as well assigning FS items to tags. A key advantage of this mechanism is stability in report definitions as more accounts are added since new assignments of items to tags will be automatically inherited in reports and KPIs. Hence, to your point if the CoA is stable then this mechanism may not add as much value.

Now, with regards to the initial trigger to this thread. In your case, you have created a restricted measure i.e. add logic to the way that a measure amount is displayed. Or you could have alternatively defined a KPI based on some condition and threshold. Essentially addition of ‘code’ to how amounts are summed – the value that semantic tags may bring to you is as stated above – make changes easy for the current report and allow for more consistent reporting definition for future reports.

That said, semantic tags could be automatically adopted/extended in standard reports like project profitability, cash flow, product profitability, contribution margin and etc (although no ‘restriction’ logic are added to the standard reports’ measures, rather changing the underlying FS items being reported on).

Lastly, I would like to add the below OSS note for your reference.

https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/2538634

I hope this information helps to answer your question and encourage this discussion!

Thank you,

Feras

[former_member94298]

Thanks ferasbasha3 - that's what I had figured.

I had created a custom query - and then used restricted analytical measures to add my new fields. I guess I had just sort of hoped that by creating a semantic tag, the tag might then ripple through into the underlying CDS view (a bit like when you add a custom field, you can get it to do likewise). Wishful thinking, I guess?!

[Feras_Al-Basha]

Hi ccsmith ,

Thank you for clarifying your train of thought.

Is it wishful or rational thinking? It is hard to draw the line!

Will do some digging and get back to you in case of news.

Thank you,

Feras

[former_member94298]

Been thinking a bit further here - and taking a slightly lateral approach...

If a company has a fairly static CoA structure, then if you have to create custom queries etc anyway for this - and go to the extent of defining restricted measures to pick up the semantic tags - then is there actually any advantage to using the semantic tagging in the first place - as presumably, I could use calculated measures in the query to work them out anyway?