New Budget Loader templates can be added to an existing workbook or you can open a new one if you wish.
1. From the Excel menu bar select ‘Budget ->
Utilities -> Initialize’
2. If you are not already logged into an SAP system you will be required to do so. Log into the SAP system where the new template will be used.
Select a Planning Function:
3. On the ‘Choose a Planning Function’ dialog select the Planning transaction for the template.
Use the + - signs or simply double click the nodes to show or hide the available planning functions.
Planning transactions that have not been licensed by your company are grayed out.
See More on Planning Functions in the appendix for more details.
Select ‘OK’
Set Default Labels:
4. If this is a new Budget Loader workbook you will receive the message “Default labels have not been created for this workbook. Click ‘OK’ on the ‘Set Default Labels’ screen to accept the defaults”.
Select ‘OK’ if you get this message
If you don’t get this message it means the default labels have already been set for this workbook. Skip to ‘Choosing Fields’ steps.
5. On the ‘Set Default Labels’ dialog.
In the upper left corner of the dialog you will see the source of the Default Labels being displayed. It will display either ‘from Budget Loader File’ or ‘From Company File’. The
‘Budget Loader File’ contains the factory default values. ‘Company File’ has values specifically created for your company.
You can use the ‘Options’ at the bottom of the dialog to select another Labels file if you wish.
If you do not wish to change any of the default values you may simply select
‘Accept’ to keep the proposed default label values.
See Setting Default Labels in the Utilities section for more information about changing the Default Labels.
‘Choose Fields / Template Layout’ screen:
6. Use the drop down list to select ‘Planning’ or ‘History’
in the ‘Planning or History’ field.
The History and Planning wizards are slightly different.
Selecting ‘History’ will cause the wizard to display an extra node called ‘Selection Criteria’ in the ‘Selected Fields / Layout’
window. As the name implies, this extra node is for the selection criteria Budget Loader requires to retrieve and display historical values.
7. Use the drop down list in the ‘Save this layout to’ field to determine which sheet the new template should be created on.
You may select an existing sheet from the list or,
Select ‘New Sheet’ which will add a sheet to the workbook.
If you select ‘New Sheet’ be sure and replace the “New Sheet Name” value with a real name for the new worksheet.
Selecting Fields to display:
8. The best way to start selecting fields is to start at the top and work your way down through the nodes. The first node is the planning header.
Notice that there are no check boxes in the
‘Hide’ column. This is because all of the Planning Header fields are required.
You cannot hide them but you can change the order in which they will appear on the sheet by dragging and dropping them within the Planning Header node.
9. Continue to work your way down the nodes until you have selected, positioned or hidden each of the fields.
Your choices in one node can affect the available choices in another node. For
example - turning off ‘Activities’ in the ‘Object Header’ node causes some of the value fields in the ‘Line Items’ node to be hidden
because they are only used in conjunction with Activities.
A Check Box in the ‘Hide’ column means that the field is not required and you can hide it if you wish to.
Moving fields around:
10. Drag and drop. You can always move fields around within their nodes by dragging and dropping them.
For example – if you wanted to display the months in reverse order you could drag period 12 from its normal location at the end of the year and drop it on period 1. This will move period 1 down and replace it with period 12. Repeat this operation with period 11 then 10 etc.
Value and Period nodes can also be dragged and dropped within their parent nodes. All of the associated underlying nodes will also be moved.
11. Hide All/Unhide All
A right click on any field will display a menu which will allow you to hide or unhide all non-required fields. This is especially helpful with large lists. When inside of a list, only the current level of the list will be modified
12. Pivot Fields. Notice the ‘Z’ icons that are on some of the nodes and fields.
A field that has the ‘Z’ icon can be moved to a node that also has the ‘Z’ icon.
This feature allows you to “Pivot” the dimensions of your template.
Example: A normal planning template for cost centers will have the Cost Center as the object and cost elements (accounts) in the line items. But, if you want to plan Rent expense at a high level you can drag the
‘cost element’ field from the ‘Line Item’
node and drop it in the ‘Object Header’
node. Likewise, drag the ‘cost center’ field from the ‘Object Header’ node and drop it
in the ‘Line Items’ node. You can now plan a single account for a list of cost centers.
You can also drag the Object field from the
‘Object Header’ and place it in the ‘Line Item Header’. This kind of structure is useful for mass data entry.
NOTE: If you are displaying the associated texts for these object fields you must also manually move the text field to the appropriate position alongside the object field.
Navigating the Period and Value fields
13. If there is more than one type of value field available you have the option of toggling the period and value fields to display them the way you prefer.
The default display will have the Value Types on top.
Select ‘Grp Val Types in Prds’ to make the periods display over the value types.
Note that the label of the button changes depending on how the display is set.
14. Select the check box in the ‘Hide’ column to limit the number of periods that are available for your template.
You can easily create templates for quarterly updates by hiding all but the current quarter’s periods.
Adding Blank Columns:
15. Adding blank columns is easy. Simply select the field in the tree where the blank column should be then select the ‘Add Blank Column’ button.
You will be put into edit mode in the tree so you can enter the text that you want displayed in the header for the blank column description.
Budget Loader ignores Blank Columns so they are great for displaying subtotals.
They are also great for containing data that is to be used for allocations and input into other kinds of formulas that you might be using.
In conjunction with Skip Rows you can create sophisticated and functional