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2014

Best Practices For Reporting Against SAP Busine... | SCN

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Best Practices For Reporting Against SAP

Business Planning and Consolidation
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created by Patrick Favre on Nov 26, 2013 2:09 PM, last modified by Patrick Favre on Jul 17, 2014 9:42 AM
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Welcome to this blog mentionning some key concepts/best practices to have in mind when designing a report/input
schedule utilizing the EPM Add-in for Excel on the top of SAP Business Planning and Consolidation 10.0 (powered by
SAP HANA). This document will be updated as soon as some new concepts are coming from implemention teams.
But before jumping directly to best practices, here's first a quick introduction on this front-end tool.
EPM ADD-IN VERSIONS
EPM Add-in dotnet 3.5:
Supports only Office 32 bits
Not limited to certain function
Performance hit when querying via ODBO connection
Run with .NET 3.5 framework (has 1.2 GB RAM limitation)
Can be updated with *.msp file (no need to uninstall/re-install)
Master Data downloaded to client (No support of BIG VOLUME mode)
EPM Add-in dotnet 4.0:
Supports Office 32 bits or Office 64 bits
Possibility to enable the BIG VOLUME mode on BW data sources (odbo connections only). Standard mode or
Big Volume mode are supported.
In Standard mode, it runs the same features as the 3.5 version.
Better performance via ODBO connection
Can be updated with *.msp file (have to uninstall/re-install)
Supports Office 2010 64 bits to get the most out of client-side performance (no RAM limitation)
Supports SAP BW (INA provider) connections (for BPC 10.1 embedded model).
Big Volume (ODBO connection)
With the Big Volume mode enabled, you cannot write data back to the database, you can only render data.
Additionnaly, certain specific BPC functions are not available (EPMMemberProperty/EVPRO, etc), as well as
some EPM add-in functionnalities (Freeze data refresh, Member Selector dimension/member properties and
Data Ranking/Sorting).
The Big Volume mode changes the interface for member selection so that dimension members are displayed
in pages instead of the default tree view (SP 07). This improves performance for dimensions with large
numbers of members.The BV mode only loads metadata asked for, or required, not all of it.
CONNECTIONS
The EPM Add-in is an add-in to Microsoft Office Excel, Microsoft Word, and Microsoft Office PowerPoint and is used to
analyze data in the following applications:
SAP BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation
SAP BusinessObjects Planning and Consolidations, version for SAP NetWeaver **
SAP BusinessObjects Planning and Consolidations, version for SAP Microsoft **
SAP BusinessObjects Profitability and Cost Management
SAP NetWeaver BW InfoProviders (different ODBO connector for BPC MS and BPC NW version).
** Allows write b ack of data via BPC Web Service connection
Local
This connection type is for ODBO connections, (FC SSAS cubes, FC BW cubes, SSAS standard cubes, BW standard
cubes, PCM ODBO provider, SSM ODBO provider, BPC MS ODBO provider and SAP BW OLE DB provider. An ODBO
connection doesnt allow data input, and is only used for data retrieval. Data Manager features are also not reachable
with an ODBO connection. However, the usage of custom members (to build some complex MDX calculated
members) can only be performed with an ODBO connection.
Planning & Consolidation
This type is for Web Service connections, on the top of BPC 10 MS and BPC 10 NW. A Web service connection allows

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data input, and the use of the Data Manager ribbon, but does not support the creation of custom members (only local
members).
FUNCTIONS & FORMULAS
EPMInsertCellBeforeAfterBlock and EPMCopyRange big impact on the writing time.
Use EPMDimensionOverride instead of manually changing the EPMOlapMemberO function for very large EPM
reports.
Try to avoid mixing EPM Report, EPMRetrieveData, and EPMCommentFull/Partial since the EPM Add-in does a
separate call to the database for each type of function (EPMOlapMemberO, EPMRetrieveData,
EPMCommentFull/Partial). And all those queries are not parallelized.
Functions DimensionOverride and AxisOverride are costly on loading, especially when a report is huge and
have lots of formulas to evaluate.
Enter the connection name in all EPM formulas (EPMModelCubeID or a static text cell can be used as reference
somwhere in a hidden place of your report).
Avoid volatile Excel functions like Row(), Column(), and Offset(), as well as cascade references between cells.
REPORT OPTIONS
Create EPM Reports instead of using EPMRetrieveData function.
Parallelization is activated by default with the Axis Sharing feature, and on the same data source/connection.
Caution: the Axis Sharing feature is a bit heavy in terms of performance.
Try not to use custom Measures such as MTD or WTD (process not optimized).
EPM reports will outperform EVDRE reports. EVDRE does have some performance optimization but EPM10
report have 2-3 times better performance for the same layout/behavior.
If different member IDs have the same descriptions, ensure Use EPMMemberID in EPM formulas is checked
in User Options. Caution: It also has an impact on performance as the EPMemberID formula is automatically
inserted for each dimension member. A better option would be to manually create a local member mentionning
the EPMMemberID function only where it is necessary (without checking the User Option).
In case of input, consider using Calculate Parents in Hierarchies (Sheet Options) for on-the-fly calculation on
Parent Node members. But be aware that, even it's a very useful feature, the rendering time is bigger as the
EPM Add-in has to insert the SUM function based on the hierarchy definition.
Multi selection in Page Axis: the SUM is performed on the client side. Cartesian product is returned from the
server and summed up on the front-end.
Exclude functionality changes your report from symmetric mode to asymmetric mode. But depending the
number of tuples you decide to exclude, performance could be worse.
Avoid using complex formulas mixing EPM and Microsoft Excel functions, such as functions that create a
dependence (a formula references another formula; a formula creates a dependence between two reports), or
functions that include a condition (IF).
By default, the EPM Add-in uses the "Insert Method" to write reports. To get around this, enable "Keep Formulas
Static that Reference Report Cells" option in the Sheet Options to clear the entire report and re-write it entirely on
a refresh.
In case of drill-down, check option to "Refresh only Expanded and Inserted Members" in the User Options
instead of refreshing the entire report.
In case of using the "Collapse" feature, there is a new tag in the FPMClient config file in EPM add-in SP15:
"Collapsewithoutqueryingserver". Its default value is set to "FALSE", but it can be turned to "TRUE" for better
performance.
FORMATTING
Limit the number of formatting rules and make sure those rules dont overlap each other.
Avoid using Microsoft Excel conditional formatting within an EPM add-in dynamic formatting sheet due to the
evaluation of each cell.
Avoid overriding rules because the Add-in is formatting the cell multiple times (Pattern for example).
Avoid using the CONTENT override because the EPM Add-in is retrieving data twice (writing + calculation).
Create several EPM add-in dynamic formatting sheets instead of only one, if possible. For example, Report 1
displays only properties A and B, and Report 2 displays only properties C and D, you should create two different
dynamic formatting sheets for better performance.
LOCAL vs CUSTOM MEMBERS
Local Members
Created for the purpose of containing a dynamic formula. An editor screen assists with the creation of the Excelbased formula
A local member is specific to a single report
Local Members can be made context-sensitive. This is in the options for Local Members
Custom Member
Custom members are created for the purpose of containing an MDX formula
An editor screen is presented to help create the formula
Customer members can be used throughout a worksheet
Only available for ODBO type connections
General note: When data is existing on the spread sheet, choose Local Members. Local Members is native
Excel functionality and will always perform better.

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VBA
Look for existing API before creating custom code
Avoid Loop (Do, While...)
VBA Best practice acceleration function: the initial variables (screen updating, calculations, events) must
be deactivated and then reactivated to their initial status in the exit of the macro.
ANALYZING & DEBUGGING
Review the How to Debug the EPM Add-in document (https://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-38755)
Determine the source of the issue (client vs. server)
Fiddler (3rd party software) measures the network traffic
EPM Add-in logs to measure the client traffic
ST12 (NetWeaver) Single Transaction Trace to measure the server traffic.UJSTAT can also be used for
analyzing queries on the server.
Not sure where an issue occurs?
The Development Team may ask for a trace from the customer. To obtain one, here is the recommended process
using Fiddler:
In Excel, click More Clear Metadata Cache from the EPM toolbar.
Log off from the EPM Add-In.
Add the TRACE flag to the FPMXLClient.dll-ExcelLogConfig.xml file against the Trace logger.
Start the Fiddler tool running to capture web events (Capture Events [F12]).
Log into the EPM Add-In opening the necessary Connection and Model.
Recreate the issue or refresh the report.
Stop the capture and save the resulting trace log that it has produced (.SAZ file) and send it to development.
Doing this gives Development all of the data and metadata needed to reproduce an issue without the actual data and
metadata files from the customer.
USEFUL LINKS
EPM Add-in Academy (http://wiki.scn.sap.com/wiki/display/CPM/EPM+Add-in+Academy)
Videos and solutions of EPM Add-in functionality (Comments, Formatting, Macros, Local Members, Miscellaneous
Reporting, etc.)

4380 View s
Topics: enterprise_performance_management Tags: excel, epm, bpcnw 10, best_practices, bpc_on_hana,
sap_business_planning_and_consolidation_sap_runs_sap

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8 Comments
Jef Baeyens Nov 27, 2013 12:40 AM

Hi Patrick,
Thank you for this great Best Practice list.
I have a few additional questions, some of them easy, some of them gets me headaches.
1. Is it best practice to add every not-used dimension to page axis, including MEASURES
dimension. Or to use a locked context instead?
2. How do you best distinguish between fixed single members, and variable single members in
the Page Axis that user would change a lot. Preferably with a filter that he doesn't see the whole
member list, but only relevant choices and preferably also keeping the hierarchy while doing
so.
3. What is the best practice way to create same Asymmetric Row Axis expansions across multiple
input schedules?
Properties do not always help here and suppression on transaction data is not nice in the
cube. Excluding functionality only works fast for small number of members, as you mentioned.
4. Where can we find nice Best-practice EPMFormattingSheets having +12 hierarchical
dimensions formatting and where reports do not seem like a colorbook.
5. What is the best practice way to apply a change in EPMFormattingSheet to +100 reports?
6. What is the best practice for creating Books out of several reports: By creating multiple
workbooks, or multiple sheets?
7. Is it best practice to display the Work Status in each input schedule? (For example in a 5Y
planning application, the time dimension requires 60 members in columns, while work status
is only really relevant per category. It's a pity the work status doesn't aggregate.)
Like (0)

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Miguel Gonzalez Nov 27, 2013 10:16 AM

Essential reading for EPM users and content creators! Very well done Patrick!
Like (0)

SREERAJ SUKUMARAN Dec 18, 2013 4:09 PM

1. use locked content for MEASURES and not used dimension, because if you lock them then
they affect your reports and nobody will change them by mistake.
2. Hide the real page axis and use EPMSELECTMEMBER or EPMCONTEXTMEMBER for user to
select the variable page axis.
Like (0)

Vadim Kalinin Dec 18, 2013 4:49 PM

Hi Patrick,
All the mentioned points mean only one thing - general finance user is unable to create more or less
efficient EPM report
Like (0)

Arnold Warhonow icz Jul 17, 2014 5:04 PM

Hi Partick,
great document, I have one question though. You write
Enter the connection name in all EPM formulas (EPMModelCubeID or a static text cell can be
used as reference somwhere in a hidden place of your report).
How do you deal with users creating their own connections? What happens when the report, written
by an admin, uses a connection called MODEL - ENVIRONMENT but the user who runs the report
has connections called ENVIRONMENT - MODELL?
Like (0)

Jef Baeyens Jul 18, 2014 9:30 AM (in response to Arnold Warhonow icz)

I would never use the connection name. Just the BPC Model name works as well.
Like (0)

Patrick Favre Jul 18, 2014 9:41 AM (in response to Arnold Warhonow icz)

Hi Arnold,
Jef is right... you should NOT use the customized connection name created by a user...
When designing the report, the .best would be to enter the model name ("Finance" or
"Consolidation" for example) in a hidden cell of your report, and reference that cell in the
connection parameter of your formula.
You can either enter is static (see above) or use the "=EPMModelCubeID()" formula, in
order to be a bit more dynamic.
Hope it helps.
Cheers,
Patrick
Like (0)

Jef Baeyens Jul 18, 2014 10:04 AM (in response to Patrick Favre)

Hi Patrick,
The EPMModelCubeID is using the "Active Connection" right? What's the
difference with using an empty parameter, because I think it behaves the same?
In my experience, relying on the Active Connection is not nice when you are
jumping a lot between reports that are connecting to different models.
A static "Finance" or "Consolidation", (or referring to this text in a common excel
cell), is definetely my preference.
Like (0)

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