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Archive (/documents) / SAP Planning and Consolidation, version for SAP NetWeaver
(/documents/space/epm/planning-and-consolidation-for-netweaver)
https://archive.sap.com/documents/docs/DOC-49455 1/11
10/19/2017 Best Practices For Reporting Against SAP Business Planning and Consolidation (Powered by SAP HANA), utilizing the EPM Add-in for Excel
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.
With the Big Volume mode enabled, you cannot write data back to the database, you can only render
data. Additionally, certain specific BPC functions are not available (EPMMemberProperty/EVPRO,
etc), as well as some EPM add-in functionalities (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.
Latest Drill-Down performance test results showed interesting improvement when activating "Refresh only
Expanded and Inserted Members" option in the EPM User Options. It's recommended to use it as a default
setting for BPC embedded customers.
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:
https://archive.sap.com/documents/docs/DOC-49455 2/11
10/19/2017 Best Practices For Reporting Against SAP Business Planning and Consolidation (Powered by SAP HANA), utilizing the EPM Add-in for Excel
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.
REPORT OPTIONS
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10/19/2017 Best Practices For Reporting Against SAP Business Planning and Consolidation (Powered by SAP HANA), utilizing the EPM Add-in for Excel
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 Members
Created for the purpose of containing a dynamic formula. An editor screen assists with the creation of
the Excel-based 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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10/19/2017 Best Practices For Reporting Against SAP Business Planning and Consolidation (Powered by SAP HANA), utilizing the EPM Add-in for Excel
VBA
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
Videos and solutions of EPM Add-in functionality (Comments, Formatting, Macros, Local Members,
Miscellaneous Reporting, etc.)
(https://people.sap.com/patrick.favre)
https://archive.sap.com/documents/docs/DOC-49455 5/11
10/19/2017 Best Practices For Reporting Against SAP Business Planning and Consolidation (Powered by SAP HANA), utilizing the EPM Add-in for Excel
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9 replies
(https://people.sap.com/miguel.gonzalez2)
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Vadim Kalinin (https://people.sap.com/vadim.kalinin)replied
https://archive.sap.com/documents/docs/DOC-49455 6/11
10/19/2017 Best Practices For Reporting Against SAP Business Planning and Consolidation (Powered by SAP HANA), utilizing the EPM Add-in for Excel
report
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(https://people.sap.com/arnold.warhonowicz)
Hi Partick,
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?
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Jef Baeyens (https://people.sap.com/jef.baeyens)replied
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(https://people.sap.com/patrick.favre)
Hi Arnold,
https://archive.sap.com/documents/docs/DOC-49455 7/11
10/19/2017 Best Practices For Reporting Against SAP Business Planning and Consolidation (Powered by SAP HANA), utilizing the EPM Add-in for Excel
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
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Jef Baeyens (https://people.sap.com/jef.baeyens)replied
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(https://people.sap.com/jeanne.bigonnet)
I'm not able to add content to your page. Could you kindly add
the following link?
http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-69556
(http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-69556)
thanks!!
Jeanne
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John Leggio (https://people.sap.com/john.leggio)replied
done!
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https://archive.sap.com/documents/docs/DOC-49455 9/11
10/19/2017 Best Practices For Reporting Against SAP Business Planning and Consolidation (Powered by SAP HANA), utilizing the EPM Add-in for Excel
https://archive.sap.com/documents/docs/DOC-49455 10/11
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https://archive.sap.com/documents/docs/DOC-49455 11/11