BW Basics

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BW Overview………………………………………..... 3

Accessing BW Reports……………………………..... 6

Entering Selection Criteria………………………….. 15

Working with Variants……………………………25

Report Workbooks…………………………………... 31

Customizing Reports………………………………… 36

Saving and Refreshing Workbooks……………….. 44

Agenda

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What is Business Warehouse (BW)?

BW is SAP's data warehousing tool for ad hoc data analysis

Why use BW?

Shorter report run times; Better analytical and strategic reporting

Better formatting; Report results are in MS Excel format

Users can focus on data to meet their unique reporting needs

Things to note about BW:

Resides on its own server• Separate User ID and password required

• Information is uploaded from SAP R/3 to BW twice a day

Mostly summary level data

The types of reports available depends on the role(s) you have been assigned

BW Overview

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Functional Users / Specialists

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Analytical (BW) Reporting

Operational (R/3)/Transactional Reporting

Strategic Decision-Makers

Tactical Decision-Makers

Super-Users / Analysts

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BW Overview

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R/3 Reports BW Reports

Highly structured layout Able to be customized

Drill down to transactional level data Mostly summary level data

Real time information Data is refreshed on a schedule

In same system and menu paths as R/3 transactions

Log on to a different system

Opens report within R/3 window (occasionally in MS Excel format but without functionality)

Opens MS Excel to view/manipulate reports

Special Ledger reports in Report Painter are difficult for users to build

All custom designed at SPE

BW Overview – BW vs. R/3 Reporting

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BEx Analyzer (BW)

Login to BW

Opening a BW Report

“SAP BEx Open” window

Using “Search for Report” features

Accessing BW Reports

Agenda

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Start > Programs > SAP Front End>Business Explorer > Analyzer(Programs menu paths may vary)

Accessing Reports - Open BEx Analyzer

Before opening BEx Analyzer, be sureMS Excel is closed.

If you don’t have Business Explorer on your PC, call the Help Desk (x42188) for installation.

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Business Explorer (BEx) Analyzer open in Microsoft Excel

BEx toolbar and menu options available

BEx Analyzer

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If you are not logged on to BW when you open workbooks, you will be prompted to log on. From the SAP Logon window:

1. Select “BW/SEM Production – BPR” system

2. Click OK; The “SAP Logon BW/SEM Production – BPR” window appears.

Login to BW

3. Verify Client field is set to “555”

4. Enter your BW user ID

5. Enter your BW password

6. Click OK

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Using the Settings button

Verify BW Login

To log on/off directly,

click “BW server connection” in the list

To verify if you are logged on to BW, click the “Settings” button

A check mark next to ‘BW server connection’ indicates you are logged on

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From the BEx Analyzer Toolbar, click on the “Open” button

Select “Workbooks” from the list to access a list of BW reports

Open a BW Report

Note: Individual users are selectively granted authorization to access data for specific areas, create queries, run queries or view workbook reports based on their business role. To request a BW ID and/or change security access visit the SAP Global Support site on mySPE and click the “SAP Security” link under the “Request Forms And Submission Process” section for the proper forms.

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Search for the desired report through any of the following:

History – reports you’ve recently used

Favorites – personally created reports

Roles – reports arranged by functional area

Open a BW Report – “SAP BEx Open…” window

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Using the Description / Technical Name field

1. Click in the Description field

2. Enter one of the following options:

• Full name of the report• Partial name• Keyword• T-Code

Examples:

• “GD13”• “Cost”• “Special Ledger Summary”

Open a BW Report – Find a BW Report

Note: No asterisk (*) is needed when using partial names to find a report in BW

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Open a BW Report – Find Function

1. Click the Find button

2. Enter one/more of the following options:

a. Search String: The name or a portion of the name of the report

b. By me: Reports created by you

c. By user/user name: Select reports created by certain user

d. Time Interval: Report created within system specified time period

e. From: Report created within user specified time period

In the BEx Open window…

Note: No asterisk (*) is needed when using partial names to find a report in BW

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What are “Selection Criteria”?

Entering Selection Criteria

Required Fields

Entering Single Values & Ranges

Entering Multiple Values

Using the Operators

Deleting Selection Criteria

Personalization Variables

Working with Variants

Entering Selection Criteria

Agenda

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What are Selection Criteria in BW?

It is how you tell BW what data you want to see

What good Selection Criteria will do for you:

Speed up report processing

Give you more targeted results

Things to note about Selection Criteria:

BW remembers the data you entered the last time you ran the report

You can save your commonly-used selection criteria as a “Variant” for future use in the same report

Selection Criteria

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Fields with an asterisk (*) are required fields. A value needs to be entered before the report will run

Example: Period/Fiscal Year, Company Code & Currency TypeIf you enter the values “001/2008” in the Fiscal Period/Year field and Currency Type “00” and run or “Execute” the report, you will view all records for April of Fiscal Year 2008 in their transactional currency

Entering Selection Criteria – Required Fields

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To view a range of records, enter a starting value in the first data entry field and an ending value in the second field

Example: Enter “001/2008” in the first field and “003/2008” in the second field to view records from April – June of 2008

To view records matching a single value, enter data in only the first field

Example: Enter “1281” in the Company Code field to view records for only “Sony Pictures Television”

Entering search values in more than one field combines the criteria

Example: Entering the above criteria will produce a report showing the total costs incurred by the all Sony Pictures Television Profit Centers from April – June of 2008

Entering Selection Criteria – Single Values & Ranges

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Entering Selection Criteria – Multiple Values

The Multiple Selection button is used to enter multiple sequential or non-sequential values or ranges to either include or exclude from the records displayed

Example: If wanted to view only the records for SPHE Australia and SPHE UK click the Multiple Selection button and enter the corresponding company codes “5094” & “5122”.

Click Execute to save the values and return to the selection criteria screen

Note: When there are multiple entries, the box below the arrow of the ‘Multiple Selection’ icon will be green

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After opening the multiple selection screen:

1. Create a .txt file with the list of variables in a column

2. Click the “Import from .txt file” icon (located at the bottom of the Multiple Selection screen)

3. Locate the .txt file you created and click “Open”

The variables in the .txt file will populate the Multiple Selection screen

Entering Selection Criteria – Uploading Values Lists

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Another way to create a range of values is to use an Operator

Entering Selection Criteria – Using Operators

1. Click the Operator menu button

2. Select an Operator from the list:

• = equal to value (default)

• <= less than or equal to value

• > greater than value

• < less than value

3. Enter a data value in the first data entry field for the selection criteria

Example: The criteria listed above will display all records from April 2008 to the current date. Another way to create this range is to enter 001/2008 in the first criteria field and current date in the second.

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To remove selection criteria…

Click in the criteria field and press the [Delete] or [Backspace] key on your keyboard.

OR

Click the trash can button at the end of the criteria row to remove ALL criteria for the field (including all multiple selection entries)

Deleting Selection Criteria

In the example above, clicking on the trash can for the Company Code criteria field would delete both values “5000” and “5999”

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If is yellow or you see the button, you have saved a personalized variable. The report will continue to run with the data values you entered and saved until you turn it off!

Do NOT use the Personalize Variables button!

Selection Criteria - Personalization Variables

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What is a Variant?

A set of often-used selection criteria saved under a single name for easy access

Things to note about Variants:

Variants are workbook specific

Other users can see and use a variant you create

Dates (Period, Fiscal Year) should generally not be included in the variant since it will change frequently

Name the variant according to the selection criteria, not the report

Working with Variants

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Step 1:

1. Enter Selection Criteria

2. Click Save button

Working with Variants – Create a Variant (1 of 2)

There are 2 steps to creating a BW Variant…

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Step 2:

1. Enter a Variant name• Limited to 30 alpha-

numeric characters• Names over 14

characters are not always supported

• Cannot include symbols (except underscore “_” ) or spaces

2. Enter a Description

• Limited to 59 alpha-numeric characters

3. Click Save button

Working with Variants – Create a Variant (2 of 2)

Note: While you can select individuals Selection Criteria fields to save in your Variant, we ask that until you are more experienced with the Save Variant screen that you leave all “Save Values” as Yes

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Executing (Run) Workbooks

BW Report Components

BW Cover Page

Report Workbooks

Agenda

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What is BW Report Workbook?

An Excel workbook connected to a BW query which pulls data from our SPE data from various InfoProviders

Do we use BW queries directly? No. The SAP Global Support Reporting team asks that you use only BW Workbooks

Things to note about BW Report Workbooks:

Workbooks are limited to 65,000 rows of records

Workbook can be saved on BW server or to your local PC/network

Some workbooks are set-up to refresh automatically when you access them. Others you may need to refresh manually to get the most-up-to-date data

Report Workbooks

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Executing Workbooks

Before you Execute (run) a report, it’s a good idea to check your Selection Criteria for errors

2. Click the Execute button

1. Click the Check button , then…

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Key Figures

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Analyzer Toolbar

Characteristics

BW Report Components

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Working with BW Characteristics

Filter a BW report

Drilldown (add Detail) in a BW report

Formatting in BW

Customizing BW Reports

Agenda

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Save a BW report to Favorites

Save a BW report to a Local PC or Network drive

Refresh a BW report

Single report workbook

Multiple report workbook

Saving and Refreshing BW Reports

Agenda

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Save as you would an Excel file:

1. Click the Save button in the Microsoft Excel toolbar; the “Save As” window appears

2. Select a location to save the workbook

3. Enter a file name

4. Click Save

Workbooks can be saved to your PC or network drive like any other Microsoft Excel file

Can be viewed and manipulated using standard Excel functions without BEx

Workbook data can be refreshed when accessed via BEx Analyzer

Save a BW Report to a Local PC or Network Drive

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Once you have your worksheets set up as desired, they can be refreshed with up-to-date data individually, or all at once as needed.

Refresh a Single Workbook Refresh All Tabs in a Workbook

Click anywhere inside the report and click:

Click anywhere outside the report and click:

Refreshing BW Workbooks

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Things to note:

When you refresh data, the position of the current highlighted cell is very important.

If you want to refresh a single worksheet, click anywhere inside the shaded area of the report you want to refresh.

If you want to refresh all worksheets in a workbook, click anywhere outside the shaded areas you want to refresh. The system will ask you to confirm that you want to refresh all the worksheets in the workbook.

Also note that some multi-tab custom reports for specific SPE processes/projects will require you to click on a cell labeled “Query Not Calculated” before refreshing. Training on those reports, such as the IMSM General Marketing Budget Package, is included with the processes/project.

Refreshing BW Workbooks

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Questions & Answers

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There are many resources available to help you with BW

1. Visit the SAP Global Support website on mySPE to find BW Quick Reference Guides, troubleshooting tools, etc.

2. Ask your Super Users (refer to the list provided to identify the Super Users in your department).

3. For technical problems accessing SAP, call the Helpdesk at 310-244-2188.

Getting BW Help