sap bpc 7.0%3a configuring validation business rules in bpc ms

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© 2010 SAP AG 1

SAP BPC 7.0: How to configure

validation business rules in BPC

MS?

Applies to:

This applies to SAP BPC 5.1 and above

Summary

This paper aims at providing a guideline to set up and utilize the validation business rules feature in BPC and explains the usage of this feature with a business case.

Author: Badrish Shriniwas

Company: Keane International

Created on: 03 February 2010

Author Bio

Badrish Shriniwas has 10 years of hands-on experience in managing and developing data models for data warehouses (BI) and EPM solutions. Badrish has managed multiple projects in different versions of SAP BPC. Badrish has a strong background in finance domain, database administration, OLAP modeling technologies, and proven success in translating complex requirements into value-add solutions.

SAP BPC 7.0: How to configure validation business rules in BPC MS?


© 2010 SAP AG 2

Table of Contents

Business Rules ................................................................................................................................................... 3

Introduction ..................................................................................................................................................... 3

Types Business Rule ...................................................................................................................................... 3

Validation Business Rule .................................................................................................................................... 4

Introduction ..................................................................................................................................................... 4

Characteristics of Validation Rules ................................................................................................................. 4

Configuring the Validation Rules ..................................................................................................................... 5 Business Case ............................................................................................................................................................. 5

Configuration Steps ..................................................................................................................................................... 5

Setting up Dimensions ................................................................................................................................................. 7

Business Rule Table(s) ................................................................................................................................................ 8

Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................................. 11

Related Content ................................................................................................................................................ 12

Disclaimer and Liability Notice .......................................................................................................................... 13



© 2010 SAP AG 3

Business Rules

Introduction

SAP Business Planning and Consolidations delivers certain pre-defined functionalities and calculations to support common accounting/financial scenarios such as currency translation and intercompany matching/elimination or validations. Business rules framework also allows the business user to configure and customize these functions to meet their specific requirements “table-based” logic is applied. Table-based logics are logic commands that are driven by the tables underlying the business rules. This instills the SAP philosophy of separating the content from the container.

Business Rule is a table based logic execution functionality which provides flexibility to the end users to customize certain pre-delivered functions, without having to fully understand BPC scripting logic. Under this framework all business rule functionalities are support by an underlying business rule table in which the business user can configure/setup rules such as what balances should be read in order to calculate an amount to be posted within the boundaries of the specific functionality.

Types Business Rule

There are six types of business rules available at the application level which can be enabled

Account Transformation: Performs a straight summarization of a group of accounts. Account

transformation reads and aggregates the values posted to specific combinations of accounts, flow

types and data sources in order to post the aggregated amount under an alternate destination

account, flow and data source combination.

Carry – Forward: Summarizes a group of activity accounts and copies the value into an opening

balance account. Facilitates populating the opening balances in the new year with the closing

balances as of the last period of the prior year and transfer current period net income to the Balance

Sheet in order to create a fully balanced Balance sheet for each period.

Currency Translation: Performs standard currency translation. The currency conversion function is

designed to convert local currency values into one or more reporting and/or group currencies.

Intercompany Eliminations: Performs intercompany eliminations and allows us to perform the

intercompany matching process.

US Eliminations: Controls where in an Entity dimension member the results of eliminations are

stored

Validation: Allows user to check integrity and correctness of entered data. This facilitates validating

the data at different stages of the data submission and enrichment process to help ensure the

completeness and accuracy of the existing data. In other words this business rule ensures that the

data is in consistent state as per the business logic.

We will be focusing on the validation business rule in the rest of the article.



© 2010 SAP AG 4

Validation Business Rule

Introduction

The data is entered via various sources in BPC; the data might be entered from input schedules (evdre), data manager packages or journals. At various stages of the data entry and work state, some user defined checks need to be performed in order to help ensure the consistency, completeness and accuracy of the data from the business aspect. Validation rules allow you to check the integrity and correctness of entered values, before signing off such data as “approved.”

The validation business rule facilitates this verification process by running a report on the various “error” accounts, it makes it possible to visualize if the data is in consistent state in the context of the application or if data is inconsistent which further follow-up. Business rule tables exist in order to allow Business Users to define which sets of records they wish to compare; this separates the content from the container.

Characteristics of Validation Rules

Below is the list of few key characteristics of the validation rules.

Validation business rule can only be configured at the application level

Validation business rule is supported by two underlying business rules tables

(clcVALIDATION_<APP> and clcVALIDATION_H_<APP>)

Validation business rule should be enabled explicitly in order to configure it at the application level

Validation rules can be configured for Financial and Legal Consolidation type application only

The validation function provides for the ability to:

o Compare the balance of one set of accounts against a second set of account or group of

accounts , using operands like =,>,<,>= and <=

o If the comparison returns a true condition then the validation is deemed to have been

successful and no entries are made in the variance (validation) account.

o If a false result is returned then the validation is deemed to have failed. In this case any

variance between the balances in the two sets of accounts will be automatically posted to an

variance (validation) account.

Validation rule supports the ability to define the records to be checked using given combination of

account and flow dimension.

Validation business rule uses the SPRUNVALID stored procedure and can be called from the script

logic with the below command

*RUN_STORED_PROCEDURE=SPRUNVALID([FINANCE], [ACTUAL], [USD],

[%SCOPETABLE%], [%LOGTABLE%] )



© 2010 SAP AG 5

Configuring the Validation Rules

Business Case

We want to ensure that the total asset is equal to total liabilities during a financial close cycle. The account for the total assets is “TotalAssets” and the account for total liability is “TotalLiabEquity”. In case of any difference is found in these account, the same should be posted in an exception account name “BSDiff”.

Configuration Steps

Modify Application Property

Step 1: Log into BPC Administration and highlight the application to which you need to add Business Rules and select “Modify Application” from the action pane

Step 2: Choose the “Change Application Type” option from the action pane.

Choose Modify Application

Choose Change Application Type



© 2010 SAP AG 6

Step 3: Ensure that the reporting type of application is “Financial” and select “Modify Application” from the action pane

Step 4: Check the “Validation Rule” check box and select “Modify Application” from the action pane

Choose Modify Application

Check Validation Rules

Click on Modify Application



© 2010 SAP AG 7

Setting up Dimensions

Flow Dimension

To use the validation business rule, a Flow dimension (a Subtable type dimension) is mandatory. The Flow dimension is not included in the ApShell appset that is standard with the software. The Flow dimension has been added to the Finance Application within ApShell for purposes of this guide.

For example, some accounts, like Fixed Assets, have a Subtable dimension which contains Opening Balances, Additions, Deletions, Transfers and Ending Balances.

For purposes of this example, the Flow dimension has been built to look like the following:

Note that the dimension is of type Subtable

Flow dimension members

ID EVDESCRIPTION PARENTH1

F_GEN Generic Flow Member F_TotalActivity

F_OpenBal Opening Balance F_TotalActivity

F_Additions Additions F_TotalActivity

F_Deletions Deletions F_TotalActivity

F_Transfer Transfer F_TotalActivity

F_EndBalance End Balance F_TotalActivity

F_TotalActivity Total Activity

After the Flow dimension has been successfully processed, add it to the application which contains

the Business Rules. In this example we have added it to the Finance Application.

Error/Validation Account

Error or validation account should be setup in the account dimension to post the difference of the validation process. For this example a new account “BFDiff” is added to the account dimension.



© 2010 SAP AG 8

Business Rule Table(s)

Two tables, “Validation Rules” table and “Validation Details” table need to be managed for setting up the validation rules.

Validation Rules Table

The following table describes the fields to define in the validation rules table (Extracts from the SAP BPC Help)

Field Name Description

Validation account The member ID of the 'error' account.

Remark A description for the rule.

Validation operand =, <, >, >=,<=

If the sign is =, the total of the left account must be equal to the total

of the right account *-1

If the sign is >, the total of the left account must be greater than the

total of the right account *-1

If the sign is <, the total of the left account must be smaller than the

total of the right account *-1

Other source dimensions Blank or a filter criterion for the original data extraction. Used to limit

the selection on one dimension.

Other destination dimensions Blank or a forced destination. Used to force a target destination’s

dimension.

Applicable periods Blank or one or more time periods.

Validation tolerance Used to determine a limitation in the Value.

All validations compare the Left part with the right part (ACCOUNT_L with ACCOUNT_R). You can have more than one account in the left or in the right. The system calculates all the accounts on the left and compares it with all the accounts on the right.

Here is our example:

TotalAssets - Total Asset = 1000

TotalLiabEquity - Total Liabilities = 990

If the validation sign is = , 10 is generated in the validation account because 1000 is not equal to 990.

If the validation sign is < , 10 is generated in the validation account because 1000 is not smaller than 990.

If the validation sign is > , nothing is generated in the validation account because 1000 is greater than 990.



© 2010 SAP AG 9

Sample Configuration

Validation

Account

Validation

Operand

Other

Source

Dimensions

Other

Destination

Dimensions

Applicable

Periods

Validation

Tolerance

BSDiff = 0

Note: After addition or change do “Save without Validation” and “Validate Validation rules rule table”, without this the

setting will not work.

Validation Rules Details Table

The validation process compares the left side intersection (ACCOUNT1 / FLOW1) with the right side

intersection (ACCOUNT2 / FLOW2).

The following table describes the fields to define in the Validation rules detail table.

Field Name Description

Validation account The member ID of the 'error' account.

Account 1 The member ID of the “left side” account.

Flow 1 Blank or the “left side” member of the FLOW dimension.

Sign 1 The operator used in the Left part of calculation ( + or - )

Account 2 The member ID of the “right side” account.

Flow 2 Blank or the “right side” member of the FLOW dimension

After changes use these options



© 2010 SAP AG 10

Sign 2 The operator used in the Right part of calculation ( + or - )

Remark A description for the rule.


Validation

Account

ACCOUNT1 FLOW1 SIGN1 ACCOUNT2 FLOW2

SIGN2

BSDiff TotalAssets F_GEN + 1 TotalLiabEquity F_GEN + 1

Note: After addition or change do “Save without Validation” and “Validate Validation rules rule table”, without this the

setting will not work.

In this example, we validate if TotalAssets (F_GEN) = TotalLiabEquity (F_GEN) and if it is not then the difference will be posted in the validation account BSDiff.

Logic for Validation

As stated above to execute the validation rule we should make use of the below logic script. Since the validation process is handled by a stored procedure called SPRUNVALID. This procedure is launched using the logic statement:

*RUN_STORED_PROCEDURE=SPRUNVALID( parameters list)


*RUN_STORED_PROCEDURE=SPRUNVALID([LEGALAPP], [ACTUAL], [USD], [%SCOPETABLE%],

[%LOGTABLE%] )



© 2010 SAP AG 11

Conclusion

At various stages of the data entry, the data consistency checks can be performed completeness and accuracy check can be performed using this feature. Validation rules allow you to check the integrity and correctness of entered values, before signing off such data as “approved”.

In this example, based on the settings done above, the validation business rule validates if TotalAssets (F_GEN) is equal to TotalLiabEquity (F_GEN). If it is not then the difference will be posted in the validation account named BSDiff. We can create an input schedule with this validation account and display/alert the user as data inconsistencies. The validation business rule makes it possible to visualize if the data is in consistent state in the context of the application or business model.



© 2010 SAP AG 12

Related Content

BPC Help documentations

How to guide Carry Forward business rule

Planning Data Validation

http://help.sap.com/content/bobj/sbu/docu_sbs_bpc_design.htm

http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/index?rid=/library/uuid/b026be43-40cf-2b10-6cae-ed8900ace7f9&overridelayout=true

http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/go/portal/prtroot/docs/library/uuid/00f36c97-da79-2c10-f285-ee0ea0eea2b1?QuickLink=index&overridelayout=true



© 2010 SAP AG 13

Disclaimer and Liability Notice

This document may discuss sample coding or other information that does not include SAP official interfaces and therefore is not supported by SAP. Changes made based on this information are not supported and can be overwritten during an upgrade.

SAP will not be held liable for any damages caused by using or misusing the information, code or methods suggested in this document, and anyone using these methods does so at his/her own risk.

SAP offers no guarantees and assumes no responsibility or liability of any type with respect to the content of this technical article or code sample, including any liability resulting from incompatibility between the content within this document and the materials and services offered by SAP. You agree that you will not hold, or seek to hold, SAP responsible or liable with respect to the content of this document.

sap bpc 7.0%3a configuring validation business rules in bpc ms

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