SAP IBP, add-in for Microsoft Excel: Did you know?

[PatrickWeber25]

You are overwhelmed with information? I guess you are not alone. I’m the product manager for the SAP IBP, add-in for Microsoft Excel and I want to provide you with some helpful information or tips. I’ll update this blog post on a regular basis, so stay tuned.

#1 Did you know that you can highlight the current period by using the SAP IBP Formatting Sheet?

Procedure

1. Open the SAP IBP Formatting Sheet.
2. Select “Add Member/Property” in the “Column” section.
3. Select “Add Condition”.
4. Select the “Properties” tab, search for “Month” and subsequently select “Month”.
5. Choose in the “Property” drop down “RELATIVE, set the “Operator” to “Is Equal To (=)” and set the “Value” to “0”.
6. Repeat step 3 to 5 for every time level you have configured in your planning area. All conditions should be combined using the “OR” operator.
7. Format the “Data” and “Header” cell for your new rule according to your needs.
8. Navigate to your planning view and refresh it to see the result.

Result

You can see in the screenshot below that the current period (in this case CW48 M11 2023) has a underline. You can use any other formatting according to your needs.

#2 Did you know that you can apply the cascading filter automatically?

Procedure

Imagine you filtered for a Product Group, e.g. "Headphones" and subsequently want to filter for specific Product IDs. Once you activate the named feature, you don't need to apply the cascading filter manually.

1. Open "User Settings" (available in the "About" section).
2. Choose "Apply Cascading Filter Automatically".
3. Close the dialog by choosing "OK".
4. Apply a filter, e.g. in the workbook filter and subsequently define a more granular filter using the value help.

Result

Already defined filters will be applied automatically as cascading filter.

#3 Did you know that the connections are stored in a local file, which can be distributed across your organization?

The connections file can be found here: %LOCALAPPDATA%\SAP_IBP_AddIn\Connections.xml. You can copy / exchange the file and prepare all the connections the user need. Afterwards you can distribute the file as part of your software distribution. Please make sure that the connections file is just placed once, afterwards you would overrule the connections created by the user. You can also copy the file to your new computer, so your connections never get lost.

Further details can be found here: https://me.sap.com/notes/2114654

#4 Did you know that you can change your settings per connection (system and planning area) and that the default values can be changed by your administrator?

Your administrator can make settings that are applied to all users as default in the About group of the SAP IBP ribbon, under Settings > Default User Settings. You can change the settings your administrator made to ones you wish to use in User Settings.

The default values are not just important for a user experience perspective, but also from a performance point of view. If the file path to store the template or favorites refers to a folder on a network drive or a shared drive, it can have a negative impact on performance when opening a workbook, compared to using a file path that refers to a local folder.

Further details can be found here:
Default User Settings

Setting Up File Paths for Workbooks

User Settings

 #5 Did you know that you can educate your users about the purpose of a key figure by maintaining a short sentence inside the key figure description?

Once you have updated the key figure descriptions, user can consume the description inside the edit planning dialog and directly inside the planning view.  
 
 

#6 Did you know that you can assign key figures to key figure groups?

Most likely your users are confronted with a bunch of key figures. To get a better overview you can assign key figures to key figure groups by using the Key Figure Groups app. The key figure groups show up in the edit planning view dialog.

#7 Did you know that is quite important to follow the proposals mentioned below to achieve a better performance when opening a template or favorite?

- Removing empty rows and/ or columns that contain formatting, below and on the right of the planning view data area​.

- Reducing the size of images (e.g. company logos) that are included in the planning view.

#8 Did you know that the picture displayed in the Log On to SAP IBP screen changes from time to time?

The picture changes as SAP IBP supports various industries and markets. That's why we didn't want to show just one picture. 

#9 Did you know that you can adjust the planning view by using actions visible inside the context menu?

Consequently, you don't need to open the edit planning view dialog all the time. 

#10 Did you know that you achieve quite a lot by implementing your own VBA coding? 

And the good thing is that you don't even need to start at square one. Various examples are already available here: integrated-business-planning-excel-addin-vba-samples/VBA samples at main · SAP-samples/integrated-bu...

#10 Did you know that there's a last used logic in place for the attribute linkage? 

Let's say you decide to display the ID instead of the description for the attribute "Product ID" inside the filter dialog. If you afterwards load the planning view the attribute will be displayed as ID as well inside the planning view. 

You can find more information regarding the Excel add-in in the official documentation.

SAP Help Portal: Planning with Microsoft Excel