Let’s state the obvious – the problem with large workbooks is, well – they are large. In situations where business cries foul when they want the data – all of it – some of these refresh times are long and frustrating. Say what? 3 minutes? Oh, you say what? 30? No way! An easy work-around is to group your data in such a way business can…

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Just for fun! If online dating was for technology, Master Data meet Reporting. Organizational data usually consists of Company Code, Segment, and Business Area. Report asks Master Data – what say you?

• Company Code says – I represent the independent legal entity.
• Segment says – I am a division of a company, you need me to comply with IFRS…

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The CRISP-DM flow chart reflects a typical project process flow. Noticing MONITORING, this is an iterative phase often overlooked by users after go-live. Monitoring is ensuring the program is accurate and reliable over time. Is there a plan in place should business or economic conditions (or environments) change? Monitoring…

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One of the greatest threats to successful model development is building very good models that answer the wrong question…. your reaction is?

Bias is how far the expected value of the estimate is. Each month we may update our predictions, but is it working? How are your numbers input? Subject to user experience or…? Is there a way to strip bias out of forecasting?

Not so fast. SAC Dashboards consists of data, which usually contains charts. Business uses this information to make decisions, so our basic design strategy is to deliver informative visuals and data to help them be successful But wait. One of the greatest threats to accomplishing this goal is that our data and charts look fantastic and…

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What are some of the steps you do before using data? Is your data misbehaving? We are interesting in learning more about issues you might be having… in the meantime the general process for preparing data:

• Load data set – perform basic cleaning tasks
• Explore and understand your data – what does each column represent? Assess format,…

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Hey – drop your questions here! Our EPM Formatting gurus will get right back to you!

What is your take on Test Data? How do you and your organization go about test data for testing reports and templates (data manager packages etc..) before moving items from test environment to prod? Are you forced to test in production? How do you go about this?

During development it is critical to test objects before they are promoted…

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Using Char/Code text functions is an oldie but a goodie. Need the ability to have multi-line headers in one cell WHERE YOU WANT THEM?

General steps:

• Turn on “wrap text” alignment
• Use CHAR(10) formula for “carriage return’
• Example: =”(1)”&CHAR(10)”&”Capital” the results are shown in the next snapshot.

Record counts!  We always need this information … now you have one-stop place to get it. There are several examples of golden code to use below.

1. Open SQL Server Management studio
2. Connect to your server
3. Expand Databases -> Select your database
4. Click on tables (no need to expand).  If you do expand you will see fact tables and dimension…

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There may be a case where you are trying to save but the Excel filter is active? The fix…

Function BEFORE_SAVE() 
    Dim noOfLists As Integer 
    noOfLists = Application.CustomListCount 
    Application.DeleteCustomList listNum:=noOfLists 
    ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets("MySheetName").Sort.SortFields.Clear 
... end snip

Just want to get the last value in a column after a report refreshes? This method is quick and reliable. Example below is assigning NEXT_NEW member of a list after refresh.

Set context parent during run-time. Sample code:

Sub SetContextParent()
‘ Sample Code – iuse SetContextParent() and SetContextBase()
On Error Resume Next
Set api = Application.COMAddIns(“SapExcelAddIn”).Object
If Not api Is Nothing Then
Set z = api.GetPlugin(“com.sap.epm.FPMXLClient”)
Else
Set z…

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Set named ranges during run-time. Sample code:

Sub Z_NAME_RANGES()
Dim strRangeName As String
Dim strCellName As String
Dim rng As Range
strRangeName = “JOpen_TopRow”
strCellName = “A10”
Set rng = Worksheets(“JOpen”).Range(strCellName)
ThisWorkbook.Names.Add Name:=strRangeName, RefersTo:=rng
End Sub

The fun of being a consultant is we get to see how other people write VBA logic. I once came across a statement with so many If..Then..Else statements I never thought I would reach the end! Since I was refining the code anyways, I couldn’t help myself and revised the If..Then..Else to use Select Case..Case else framework. Not only is the…

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File: C:Program FilesSAP BusinessObjectsEPM Add-InFPMXLClient.dll.config
Fix for a blank Member Selector or to restore corrupt/missing:
<add key=”UseWpfMemberSelector” value=”false”/>

File: C:Program FilesSAP BusinessObjectsEPM Add-InFPMXLClient.dll.config

Improve performance by Changing 800 to 1600)

<add key=”CheckApplicationAboveMemoryLimit” value=”800″/>

After expanding a report, the print range does not automatically update with it. Avoid manual effort every time a print is required through VBA to set the print range. The VBA requires a named cell in the top left of the report and the print range is set from this cell to the furthest used row and column. I triggered the code by using a Call in…

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Programmatically change options as needed based on specific custom scenarios. Typically for input schedules the suppression is off, whereas for a report the suppression is on. In this code you can control which report within the one tab is suppressed or not. You can also create a drop down for option to set empty rows (keep or not to keep)…

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If you need to filter your selection box separate each property by a semicolon.

=EPMSelectMember($C$4,”[CATEGORY].[PARENTH1].[ACTUAL]”,”TYPE=A;TYPE=B;TYPE=P”,”CATEGORY”,FALSE)

another example

=@EPMSelectMember(“ProRev”,”[DEPT_FUND].[H2].[No_Dept_Fund]”,”INACTIVE_FUNDS<>Y;CALC=N;FUND_TYPE=PRO;DIV_MAP=PRO_DIVISION”,”Dept_Fund”,FALSE)

Not so fast …Web -based are built through the web client. They are usually super fast, light, simple, and can be shared or stored for user’s private use. Normally used for ad-hoc report or input, they are popular for use with Business Process Flows because all users have access to the same report with access to information based on security.…

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This feature is not available when using the embedded Administration screen. When using BPFs and Web Reports the initial view / default context is set through Model and Dimension Defaults. This information is also leveraged by EPM during the login process. In the example below all reports are top of the house and all input reports are…

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Data Manager packages are used for a variety of tasks related to loading and manipulating data in BPC . I rarely see Automation tool used! With this tool user’s can build their own macro and reduce the number of steps to a frequently used Data Manager package. Have you ever tried this? If not do try – it’s an incredible time-saver!

1. Click run…

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Check out our latest Webinar ‘BPC Microsoft End of Mainstream Maintenance- What are my options?‘

Thank you @manus, @steve and @hmoore for your contribution and insights!

Want more? Head to our Video Library for more related content!

The Darwin Employee Planning module facilitates planning at a granular level of detail, but with the advantage of planning by exception, taking advantage of current Roster information in your source HR system and applying planned changes in headcount, compensation, transfers, etc.

Capabilities include, but are not limited…

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Check out our latest Webinar -> ‘Improve Performance of your SAP BPC Solution by 80% or More!’

A special thanks to our speakers for their contribution and insights!

We know every
customer is unique in terms of their requirements, so we want to know:

What
are the challenges that you are having around calculations and data loads? Leave us…

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AVG_FTE is in effect a mandatory field because without it nothing calculates. For the way we use DARWIN it is always = 1 because we load FTE in the time field. Could there be a waring to alert the user when it is blank? Or better for us would be some code which would set it to 1 if left accidentally blank?

Hello, I have a user who manages hundred of cost center E base members.

We pre-load payroll actuals Headcount in the darwin version of a plan, but for many reasons, over so many Cost Centers, he has to spend a long time reviewing and often changing the FTE Headcount for the months. He knows what FTE he wants to have by grade. He was wondering…

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<div> When EPM showed up we all had to change how we protected cells, worksheets, and workbooks. If you think you can use the standard Excel protection with EPM Add-In this thread is for you. Let’s get started …
</div><div>Protection options </div>

• Workbook
• Worksheet
• Cell

Protection types

• Data Validation
• EPMFormatting USE column contains…

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Discussion about EPM’s functons – a starter using SAPs documentation. Need more info or assistance? Reply here …

• Reference for this section SAP documentation
• EPMInsertCellBeforeAfterBlock and EPMCopyRange – big impact on the writing time.
• Use EPMDimensionOverride instead of manually changing the EPMOlapMemberO function for very large EPM…

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SAPs Best Practices – feel free to discuss any of these items … we have many of our own C5 practices that help clients improve workbook performance.

• Parallelization is activated by default with the Axis Sharing feature, and on the same data source/connection. Axis Sharing feature will impact performance.
• If different member ID’s have the same…

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Volatile functions cause calculation to work harder and will slow down your workbook performance. Every time the workbook calculates volatile functions will calculate even if nothing has changed:

• EPMRetrieveData()
• OFFSET(), INDIRECT(), SUMIF()
• IF() function executes once but using AND / OR executes all choices

Non-Volatile alternatives

• INDEX()…

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What is a tuple? In a relational database a tuple is one row representing a piece of structured data. BPC, a tuple can be visualized as something used to store multiple items into one. There is an SAP article on this #2748824 for more information. In this article SAP writes “The solution is to disable the EMP Add-in user option…

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I thought I’d take the time to step through a worked example of a DarCE calculation within DarCE EVO. And what better use-case than some currency conversion logic from Local Currency values to Group Currency – a process that any international company will be familiar with.

Fair warning, the attached document goes into full detail so you’ll…

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Darwin Expense Planning for BPC offers an intuitive interface with flexible filtering to customize views, which simplifies data entry and boosts performance. A couple of examples:

– IT expenses across multiple
Cost Centers

– Non-payroll expenses for all
Cost Centers in a selected Country or Region.

In addition to direct data…

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There is no easy answer to this question, and I’ve found that the answer varies a lot based on individual client preferences.

Whilst it’s hard to argue against some of the benefits that VBA can provide in reporting, especially for automation of simple tasks before or after you refresh a report (e.g. dynamically hiding or formatting certain…

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More than one EPM report can be created in a worksheet. These reports can share one or two axis. However, there are restrictions that need to be noted when the reports share axis in a worksheet.

>> Hide empty rows/column feature is inactivated: This feature gets disabled and the options to use it become unavailable for selection. For example,…

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At what level do you perform you Revenue planning? Product x Region x Channel, or down to Customer-level?

We have a client that has been using the default comment “…” sending thousands of records for no good reason for years. Why? he asks. YOu’re creating millions of pointless records in your comments table I said , as well as adding overhead to your templates every time you click SUBMIT- Why? I ask.

Sometimes we do things because ‘it’s the way…

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Let me start by saying I have read https://darwinepm.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360000688126-Prepare-Plan

I think I am option 3 where I have for instance a plan that was built and now I want to update it with more recent actuals.

I am not entirely convinced that I am doing selection the correct options in prepare plan

Also if I have a…

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