Top 15 BW transactions useful for BPC NW

PurposeIdentify the most commonly used BW transactions for Planning and Consolidation for Netweaver (BPC NW) 7.5 and 10, and a brief explanation of their usage.  It is aimed at BPC users that may be new to BW administration.

OverviewBW transction codes are technical names, with a commonly ambiguous combination of letters.  When the transaction is opened, a menu item or ABAP program is initiated.  This list contains the most useful BW transactions, when using and supporting BPC NW.  The list expands on the note in the 'related content', by providing a description and screenshot (please click the thumbnail to enlarge) of each transaction.  The reader will require a basic understanding of how to operate BW.  Many steps do not include full step-by-step instructions, and some interpretation of the options presented may be necessary.

TransactionsEach transaction is run by inputting the transaction code (t-code) in the input box at the top-left corner of SAP GUI. 

 If this box is not visible, it is compressed.  It can be expanded by clicking the <| icon to the left of the save button.  If you are currently in a transaction, you must put /n in front of a new transaction to open it in the same window.  This will replace the current transaction, eg. /nSNOTE will open transaction SNOTE.

Installation and upgrade:

SPAM : Support Package Manager.

Used to install new Support Packages, in order to upgrade the version of BPC for Netweaver installed.

 You must be logged into client 000 to access the full features of SPAM.  The following are the typical steps to upgrade a Support Package:

1. Load the package: Support package -> Load packages -> From Front End -> Select the package (available from the Service Marketplace

2. Support package -> Import SPAM/SAINT Update3. Display/Define -> All components -> Calculate queue4. Support package -> Import queue

SNOTE : used to implement SAP Notes

Used to apply a note for a specific ABAP fix. Must know the number of the SAP note to apply.

   The following are the typical steps to apply an SAP note:

1. Download SAP note (Ctrl + F8)2. It will be listed as a new note, as per the screenshot above. Double-click the note to open it.3. The 'Implementation status' should be 'Can be implemented'.4. Implement SAP note (Ctrl + F1)5. At the 'Prompt for Transportable Workbench Request', Create Request (F8)6. Confirm changes

Administration and logs

RSA1 : overview of InfoProviders and InfoObjects

This is the primary tool for data warehousing processing tasks.  It is used to provide data modeling, control, monitoring and maintenance functions of all SAP BW processes.  In the screenshot below, 'Modelling' is the current function area open in the navigation window.

   

InfoProvider: Presents a breakdown of all BPC Appsets/Environments in BW.

ST22 : to find ABAP runtime errors (ABAP dumps)

 The ABAP dump analysis lists the ABAP runtime errors that have occurred, which conform to the selection criteria inputted.

   Above: An example of an ST22 dump.

SLG1 : Display application log

Given a specific criteria, the application log will collect messages, and display them as logs.  For BPC NW, look for UJ* in the object field.  It is possible to view more information on each log entry, including the return code. SLG1 is a useful tool to easily and quickly find the time and reason for a job failing.

 

SM21 : Display system log

This log contains all system errors, warnings, user locks and process messages of the BW server.

 

SU01 : User Maintenance

This transaction is useful for the following:

1. Managing Users, Groups, and Roles

2. Assigning Principals to Roles or Groups

3. Locking or Unlocking Users

4. Password Management

  The screenshot above shows the roles assigned to a particular user. For more information: http://wiki.sdn.sap.com/wiki/x/280

Tracing and jobs:

ST01 : System trace

The most useful functionality of the system trace is 'Authorization check'.  Checking all authorization objects, it will provide detailed descriptions of any missing authorisations that occur during the tracing period.

  Follow the steps below to perform an authorization trace:

1. Tick the 'authorization check' box2. Click 'Trace on' and perform the activity that you wish to monitor3. Click 'Trace off', and 'Analysis'4. Next screen set the restrictions, and click 'Execute'. The failed authorizations should be marked

in red.

RSTT: MDX trace

MDX statements are not recorded in SLG1.  MDX is the language used that allows BPC for Netweaver to interact with BW.  It is possible to view these statements in RSTT.

 Follow the steps below to perform an MDX trace:

1. Provide the system administrator user ID to 'Trace User' field. 2. Click 'Activate' and perform the traceable steps in the BPC client.3. 'Deactivate' the trace, and select 'Trace Collection' from the left pane.4. To view the log, note the log ID, and run program RSR_MDX_RSTT_TRACE_EXTRACT

SM37 : Overview of jobs running on the instance

 This transaction allows your to check all background jobs, and their current status.  It is possible to release processing jobs.

 

Programs and tables :

UJFS : File service

This transaction is an interface to access BPC NW web and file folders.  Upon selecting an environment, users who are familiar with traditional file navigation structures will be able to rename, copy, lock, unlock, delete and download documents.

SE38 : Run ABAP programs

In the screenshot below, UJA_DATA_CHECKER can be seen input in the 'Program' field.  It is possible to run, or view the source code for this program.  If another program name is known, it can indeed be entered here. To find default ABAP programs for BPC NW, you can perform a search for UJ*.  Run the program, press 'Execute' - and the interface will present you with any further inputs that program requires.

SE16 : Database tables browser

The table browser requires that the user already knows the name of the table.  Most conveniently, the table names can be copied from the particular InfoCube in t-code RSA1. Enter the table name of the table, and select the button at the top left of the screen.  The interface will present a selection screen, as an opportunity to select which fields in the table are viewed.

The data loading from ECC to BW is out of scope for the BPC tool. So, I would get into that area in this particular forum.

Coming to BPC, the loading of transactional data and master data from BW to BPC is handled in a bit different way (you dont require any DTPs for this). BPC comes with some standard DM packages for these purposes.

 

Please take a look at the below links from help.sap:

 

1. For loading master data:

http://help.sap.com/saphelp_bpc75_nw/helpdata/en/46/fcc2ef34ee439aaa56a4f6ba001e4d/content.htm

http://help.sap.com/saphelp_bpc75_nw/helpdata/en/e0/532af2d0804218a59157136bb63a98/content.htm

http://help.sap.com/saphelp_bpc75_nw/helpdata/en/73/0f917879fd416099d04fb4c49889e0/content.htm

http://help.sap.com/saphelp_bpc75_nw/helpdata/en/88/e16046853041b391314a91bfe3618b/content.htm

 

2. For loading hierarchies:

http://help.sap.com/saphelp_bpc75_nw/helpdata/en/69/3fa8fec0504cdab61f3247edb8c3b0/content.htm

http://help.sap.com/saphelp_bpc75_nw/helpdata/en/b8/2eb5a519fc447f99b222d24cc2b914/content.htm

http://help.sap.com/saphelp_bpc75_nw/helpdata/en/87/e0cb512dca414e849d681e76e38d08/content.htm

http://help.sap.com/saphelp_bpc75_nw/helpdata/en/d2/0eebe57b164cc0925919997616945c/content.htm

 

3. For loading transactional data:

http://help.sap.com/saphelp_bpc75_nw/helpdata/en/3f/72bb857f8f4012a5b1eaa5ac64bdf8/content.htm

Required Properties for Account Dimensions

 

The Account dimension defines the chart of accounts for your application, and how those accounts are calculated and aggregated. Any dimension that is assigned the type A is considered an Account dimension. Each application can have only one Account-type dimension.

Features

An Account dimension has the following required properties:

Property Name Description

ACCTYPEAccount type. Can be INC for Income, EXP for Expense, AST for Asset, LEQ for Liabilities & Equity.

CALCA system-generated property. It indicates whether the account is calculated by means of a formula or is at a parent level. The property values can be viewed in the Member Lookup in BPC for Excel.

EVDESCRIPTION A user-defined description for the member.HIR Stores the hierarchy names associated with the member

HLEVEL

Parent, Hierarchy 1. PARENTH1 is only required if you want to define a hierarchy. You can add additional PARENT properties to define parents for additional hierarchies, such as PARENTH2, PARENTH3, etc. We recommend that you use hierarchies rather than formulas to define subaccounts.

RATETYPE Used by the currency conversion business rules. Value is optional.

SCALINGScaling options are Y or N. Used by EvDRE and Live Reporting. Value is optional, but if a value is not defined, scaling is unavailable for the associated member ID.

STORED_CALC A user-defined identifier for denoting whether the account is calculated by

Property Name Descriptionmeans of a formula or is at a parent level. Valid entries are Y or N (or blank).

Required Properties for Category Dimensions

 

The Category dimension defines the groupings in which you store information in your application. Typical categories would be Budget, Actual, Forecast, and so on. Any dimension that is assigned the type C is a Category dimension. Each application can have only one Category-type dimension.

Features

A Category dimension has the following required properties:

Property Name Description

CALCA system-generated property. It indicates whether the account is calculated by means of a formula or is at a parent level. The property values can be viewed in the Member Lookup in BPC for Excel.

EVDESCRIPTION A user-defined description for the member.HIR Stores the hierarchy names associated with the member

HLEVELA system-generated property. It denotes the hierarchical level of the member. The property values can be viewed in the Member Lookup in BPC for Excel.

STORED_CALCA user-defined identifier for denoting whether the account is calculated by means of a formula or is at a parent level. Valid entries are Y or N (or blank).

YEARUsed to assign a YEAR to the category, to be used with the EVGET and EVTIM functions in reporting. For more information, see BPC for Office.

Required Properties for Currency Dimensions

 

The Currency dimension is required if your company reports on local currency and translated values. These dimensions store the reporting and input currencies for your organization. Any dimension that is assigned the type R is a Currency-type dimension.

Features

The following table describes the required properties for a Currency dimension. If you are utilizing the legal consolidation functionality of BPC, the Currency-type dimension requires additional properties.

Property Name Description

CALCA system-generated property. It indicates whether the account is calculated by means of a formula or is at a parent level. The property values can be viewed in the Member Lookup in BPC for Excel.

ENTITY

A 20 character field that can either be left blank or contain a valid member name of the Entity dimension associated to the current application. The ENTITY property is validated against the Entity dimension, and blank fields are allowed.

EVDESCRIPTION A user-defined description for the member.HIR Stores the hierarchy names associated with the member

HLEVEL

Parent, Hierarchy 1. PARENTH1 is only required if you want to define a hierarchy. You can add additional PARENT properties to define parents for additional hierarchies, such as PARENTH2, PARENTH3, etc. We recommend that you use hierarchies rather than formulas to define subaccounts.

REPORTINGThis property is used to specify your reporting currencies. If Y, this member is used for reporting purposes.

STORED_CALCA user-defined identifier for denoting whether the account is calculated by means of a formula or is at a parent level. Valid entries are Y or N (or blank).

Required Properties for Entity Dimensions

 

The Entity dimension defines the organizational structure of the business units for your application and how the units aggregate. Any dimension that is assigned the type E is an Entity dimension. Each application can have only one Entity-type dimension.

Features

An Entity dimension has the following required properties:

Property Name Description

CALCA system-generated property. It indicates whether the account is calculated by means of a formula or is at a parent level. You can view the property values in the Member Lookup in BPC for Excel.

CURRENCY The currency used by the entity.EVDESCRIPTION A user-defined description for the member.HIR Stores the hierarchy names associated with the member.

HLEVELA system-generated property. It denotes the hierarchical level of the member. You can view the property values in the Member Lookup in BPC for Excel.

STORED_CALCA user-defined identifier for denoting whether the account is calculated by means of a formula or is at a parent level. Valid entries are Y or N (or blank).

Required Properties for Intercompany Dimensions

 

The Intercompany dimension defines the base members associated with the level at which intercompany balances are tracked in order to perform intercompany eliminations.

Features

An Intercompany dimension has the following required properties:

Property Name Description

CALCA system-generated property. It indicates whether the account is calculated by means of a formula or is at a parent level. The property values can be viewed in the Member Lookup in BPC for Excel.

ENTITY

A 20 character field that can either be left blank or contain a valid member name of the Entity dimension associated to the current application. The ENTITY property is validated against the Entity dimension, and blank fields are allowed.

EVDESCRIPTION A user-defined description for the member.HIR Stores the hierarchy names associated with the memberHLEVEL A system-generated property. It denotes the hierarchical level of the

Property Name Descriptionmember. The property values can be viewed in the Member Lookup in BPC for Excel.

SCALING Scaling options are Y or N. Used by EvDRE and Live Reporting. Value is optional, but if a value is not defined, scaling is unavailable for the associated member ID.

STORED_CALC A user-defined identifier for denoting whether the account is calculated by means of a formula or is at a parent level. Valid entries are Y or N (or blank).

Required Properties for Intercompany Dimensions

 

The Intercompany dimension defines the base members associated with the level at which intercompany balances are tracked in order to perform intercompany eliminations.

Features

An Intercompany dimension has the following required properties:

Property Name Description

CALCA system-generated property. It indicates whether the account is calculated by means of a formula or is at a parent level. The property values can be viewed in the Member Lookup in BPC for Excel.

ENTITY

A 20 character field that can either be left blank or contain a valid member name of the Entity dimension associated to the current application. The ENTITY property is validated against the Entity dimension, and blank fields are allowed.

EVDESCRIPTION A user-defined description for the member.HIR Stores the hierarchy names associated with the member

HLEVELA system-generated property. It denotes the hierarchical level of the member. The property values can be viewed in the Member Lookup in BPC for Excel.

SCALINGScaling options are Y or N. Used by EvDRE and Live Reporting. Value is optional, but if a value is not defined, scaling is unavailable for the associated member ID.

STORED_CALCA user-defined identifier for denoting whether the account is calculated by means of a formula or is at a parent level. Valid entries are Y or N (or blank).

Required Properties for Time Dimensions

 

The Time dimension defines the units of time for your application and how those units aggregate. Any dimension that is assigned the type T is a Time dimension. Each application can have only one Time dimension.

Features

A Time dimension has the following required properties:

Property Name

Description

CALCA system-generated property. It indicates whether the account is calculated by means of a formula or is at a parent level. The property values can be viewed in the Member Lookup in BPC for Excel.

HIR Stores the hierarchy names associated with the memberEVDESCRIPTION

A user-defined description for the member.

HLEVELA system-generated property. It denotes the hierarchical level of the member. The property values can be viewed in the Member Lookup in BPC for Excel.

LEVEL

Time can be a year, quarter, month, week, or day. The LEVEL property is important in defining your time periods. You must have the correct level for each member. You must follow the chronological format throughout the Time dimension. The correct format is:

YEAR QUARTER MONTH WEEK DAY

PERIOD The PERIOD property allows you to filter, sort, and report based on the period.STORED_CALC

A user-defined identifier for denoting whether the account is calculated by means of a formula or is at a parent level. Valid entries are Y or N (or blank).

YEAR The YEAR property allows you to filter, sort, and report based on the year. You should place the YEAR properties in chronological order in the file, in order for the EVTIM function in BPC for Excel to give offsets correctly.

Required Properties for User-Defined Dimensions

Property Name

Description

 

A user-defined dimension is any dimension that is not one of the standard BPC dimensions.

Features

A user-defined dimension has the following required properties:

Property NameDescription

CALC

A system-generated property. It indicates whether the account is calculated by means of a formula or is at a parent level. The property values can be viewed in the Member Lookup in BPC for Excel.

EVDESCRIPTION A user-defined description for the member.HIR Stores the hierarchy names associated with the member

HLEVELA system-generated property. It denotes the hierarchical level of the member. The property values can be viewed in the Member Lookup in BPC for Excel.

SCALINGScaling options are Y or N. Used by EvDRE and Live Reporting. Value is optional, but if a value is not defined, scaling is unavailable for the associated member ID.

STORED_CALCA user-defined identifier for denoting whether the account is calculated by means of a formula or is at a parent level. Valid entries are Y or N (or blank).

Required Properties for Datasrc Dimensions

 

Property Name

Description

The Datasrc dimension is user-defined, and tracks the source of input data.

Features

A Datasrc dimension has the following required properties:

Property NameDescription

CALC

A system-generated property. It indicates whether the account is calculated by means of a formula or is at a parent level. The property values can be viewed in the Member Lookup in BPC for Excel.

EVDESCRIPTION A user-defined description for the member.HIR Stores the hierarchy names associated with the member

HLEVELA system-generated property. It denotes the hierarchical level of the member. The property values can be viewed in the Member Lookup in BPC for Excel.

SCALINGScaling options are Y or N. Used by EvDRE and Live Reporting. Value is optional, but if a value is not defined, scaling is unavailable for the associated member ID.

STORED_CALCA user-defined identifier for denoting whether the account is calculated by means of a formula or is at a parent level. Valid entries are Y or N (or blank).

Required Properties for Subtables Dimensions

 

Subtables dimensions break down account activity or flow. For example, some accounts, like Fixed Assets, have a Subtable dimension containing Opening, Additions, Deletions, Transfers and Ending Balances. The Subtable type dimension is important for writing business rules that require currency translation amounts to be calculated by account. Since the Subtable information can be used for multiple accounts, it requires its own dimension.

Features

Property Name

Description

A Subtables dimension has the following required properties:

Property NameDescription

CALC

A system-generated property. It indicates whether the account is calculated by means of a formula or is at a parent level. The property values can be viewed in the Member Lookup in BPC for Excel.

EVDESCRIPTION A user-defined description for the member.FLOW_TYPE Defines the type of flow of the dimension.HIR Stores the hierarchy names associated with the member

HLEVELA system-generated property. It denotes the hierarchical level of the member. The property values can be viewed in the Member Lookup in BPC for Excel.

SCALINGScaling options are Y or N. Used by EvDRE and Live Reporting. Value is optional, but if a value is not defined, scaling is unavailable for the associated member ID.

STORED_CALCA user-defined identifier for denoting whether the account is calculated by means of a formula or is at a parent level. Valid entries are Y or N (or blank).

http://help.sap.com/saphelp_bpc70/helpdata/en/79/3643be0cec44cc819cf3c7e697b2b7/content.htm

http://help.sap.com/saphelp_bpc75_nw/helpdata/en/1f/72faaae4d64f2589c288f88d39775c/frameset.htm

Dimension Management

 

A dimension is a category, such as Account, Entity, or Time, that usually contains a hierarchy of related members, creating parent, child, and sibling relationships among the members. Managing dimensions involves tasks such as creating new dimensions, defining members, and assigning properties. You manage dimensions in an application set using the Dimension Library. The dimensions in an application set's Dimension Library can be added to one or more applications in the application set.

Features

Creating dimensions

You add dimensions to the Dimension Library of an application set to make them available for your applications. You can create a new dimension as well as copy an existing dimension.

You can create a new dimension by clicking Add a new dimension from the Dimensions Tasks action pane, then entering the required data. Dimension names are not case sensitive and display in the case you typed; dimension names must be unique regardless of case.

Reference dimensions

When adding a new dimension, you can specify a reference dimension to validate a property of your dimension with the dimension member IDs of a different dimension. When you process the dimension, BPC checks the values of the reference dimension property (see Dimension Processing). Validation does not complete if they do not pass validation. The following table shows the dimension validation rules:

Dimension Type Reference Type Property Name Reference Attribute NameA — ACCOUNT A — ACCOUNT RATETYPE IDC — CATEGORY T — TIME YEAR YEARE — ENTITY R — CURRENCY CURRENCY IDI — INTERCOMPANY E — ENTITY ENTITY ID

Time dependency

When you create a member, you can indicate whether it is time-dependent. Time dependency stores a validity date for master data. Properties with lengths less than 60 characters can be time dependent. You cannot delete time dependent master data. Within time dependent dimensions, you can delete a member only on the same day you create it. You should model a property called “INACTIVE” to flag a property as inactive or to end date the property. For time dependent hierarchies, you should create a node called “INACTIVE” and move members to this node to end date them. You can manually exclude this node in your reporting.

Copying dimensions

You can copy an existing dimension within the Dimension Library of an application set by selecting a dimension, choosing Copy a dimension from the Dimension tasks action pane,

selecting an existing dimension, entering a new name and description, then modifying its members or properties if needed.

You can use any name you want for a dimension as long as you follow these guidelines:

Dimension names can be up to 16 characters and cannot contain single quotation marks ('), double quotation marks ("), backslashes (\), or ampersands (&). Dimension IDs cannot contain a dash (-), but can support an underscore (_).

You cannot use these reserved names: App, AppAccess, AvlObject, CategoryAccess, CollabDoc, CollabIcons, CollabRecipient, CollabSupport, CollabType, DBVERSION, Defaults, DesktopStyleDef, Dimension, DrillDef, DTIParam, Function, Formula, Group, InvestParam, MemberAccess, MessageLog, Packages, PageDef, Permission, PublishedBooks, Rate, ReportParam, SectionDef, Status, StatusCode, TaskAccess, User, UserGroup, UserPackages, UserPovDef, WebContents, SOURCE, SIGNEDDATA

Dimension descriptions can be up to 50 characters and cannot contain double quotation marks (").

You have the ability to control the length of the user-defined properties to meet your needs. For more information on changing the length of a property, see Member Behavior using Dimension Properties.

You can add new properties to a dimension through Maintain dimension property, if needed.

Deleting dimensions

You can delete dimensions from an application set by selecting Dimension Library from the Admin Console, then selecting Delete dimension from the Manage Dimensions action pane. Select one or more dimensions, then choose Delete Selected Dimensions.

You cannot delete a dimension when it is being used by an application.

https:/service.sap.com/rds-bpcplanningecc