SAP BPC MS Comments

SAP BPC MS Comments:
Business users are comfortable with flexibility and features available with excel to work on their different business plans. BPC is a tool which provides best features of Excel in an integrated planning tool with enhanced planning features like trends, spread, drilldown, commenting etc.

Business users in general add comments for various needs like, to share their view points on the plan data, to specify any reasons for data fluctuations etc.

The comment functions
Comment Manager Interface makes it easy to search and report on comments Create ad-hoc reports and extract to Excel through Reporting Services.
Can be assigned priority and keywords for setting search criteria Flexible for either partial or fully – qualified metadata Reports contain full history of comment Secured by member access
Define cell-based formulas in Excel to retrieve and send (EvCOM)

Posting any Comment in BPC is possible via three interfaces,
1. Via Action Pane
2. Cells of Excel – EVCOM
3. Excel Pop Up – EVCOM

The procedure for adding comments from Action Pane and via cells of excel sheet using EVCOM function

Steps to add a comment:

1. Within BPC for Excel, open the report or input schedule to which a comment needs to be added.

2. After the report or input schedule has opened, click on the “Add new comment” task from the Report State Action Pane.

3. This will bring the user to the “Enter a New Comment” Action Pane, where the user is required to select the context of the comment from a choice of the three following options:
a. The active report or schedule – This option is only available when a live report or input schedule is open. The comment will get applied to the data region associated cell.
b. The active current view – This option applies the comment to the current view shown in the action pane.
c. Custom current view – Option allows the user to specify specific current view associated with the comment. If this option is selected the “Comment for these CV Values:” area of the action pane becomes available for use. The user selects the Application, as well as each dimension and member id for each dimension selected, to which they need the comment applied to. If a dimension is left unselected, the member ids for that dimension will be ignored for this comment.

4. Click the button which takes the user to Step 2 of “Enter a New Comment”.

5. Select the priority of the comment from the drop down menu, in the “What is the
priority of the comment?” section of the action pane. The priority choices are:
Critical, High, Medium, Low, and No Priority. Note: When reporting on comments, they are shown in priority level order.

6. The next section is “What keyword do you want to associate with this comment?”
This should be a meaningful word (up to 30 characters) that helps the user organize and search the comments as the database grows.

7. The final step is to add the comment’s content which can be up to 256 characters long.

8. Click the button, a dialog box will appear stating the comment has been stored in the database.




How to configure comment by Excel Pop Up Follow the Steps,
1. Create any Input Schedule or Report in BPC Excel Client.

2. Set the value for Workbook Options a Read Option for Comment to “As Excel Popup”.

3. Set EVCOM function for various fields in the report and refresh the sheet.
a. Select the cell where the function is to be written.
b. Fill it with “=evcom()”
c. Select insert function and define the cell value for different parameters of the function.
4. Select the cell for which the comment needs to be added then go to Review Tab and select New comment,

5. Enter the required comment for the cell selected in the pop up screen and move back to Add Ins Tab,

6. Click on the button to save comment to the system,

7. The comment is saved successfully to the system and you have the comment in the Popup Screen as and when you move the mouse over the cell.


Advantages of having comment as Excel Popup are,
• Business have the feel of using the same Excel functionality for adding comments with data saved in system
• Can be used to comment any data cell in a Report or Input Sheet having dynamic expansion.
• No need for allocating any area for commenting in the IS/Reports.
• User Interface looks good having only the required set of data without explicitly displaying the comment entered for it.
Note: The Comments included via Excel Pop Up can also be viewed using EVCOM function in cells of different BPC reports or Input Sheet and can also be reported via standard system reports for Comment.

The Table below clearly states what type of comment can be used in different business scenarios,

Business Need

CASE1:
1.Report or Input sheet dynamic
2.Huge volume of data and commenting across any individual cell of the data.

Best Option : Excel Pop Up

CASE2:

1.Report or Input sheet is static
2.All Relevant comments to be displayed simultaneously.
3.Sheet where comments are entered without any data

Best Option : Within Cell


Business Need

case3:
1.For any business user who maintains only comments and doesn’t need any access to see any plan or consolidation data.


Best Option :

Action Pane(Provide Access only to Commenting in Task Profile of that business user).


Thus comments can be added using Excel Popup function and the business users can be provided with the feel of their excel functionality for indenting Business.

The Comments for the Selected Data Region table has 5 different options in its table Header. They are:


Option Description

1.Comment Displays the entire comment. If you are the originator of
the comment, or have administrator rights, you have ability
to modify the comment directly in the cell. Note: Be sure to
select “Update Comments” in the action pane when completed.

2.Priority Displays priority of the comment. If you are the originator of
the comment, or have administrator rights, you have the
ability to change priority from the drop down list. Note: Be
sure to select “Update Comments” in the action pane when completed.

3.Keyword Displays keyword associated with the comment. If you are
the originator of the comment, or have administrator rights,
you can modify the key word by typing directly into this cell.
Note: Be sure to select “Update comments” in the action pane when
completed.

4.Originator Displays the comments originator.

5.Date Displays the date the comment was saved to the database.
If comment has been updated, then updated date appears.

Other Options on the Comments Summary Page
• View Comment Options action pane
• Add a new comment
• Report on comments
• Delete selected comments
• Update comments
• Changing the Display criteria(Severity , Priority )