SAP SEM BPS Interview Questions Strategic Enterprise Management and Business Planning With SAP SEM

SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review SAPCOOKBOOK.COM Please visit our website at www.sapcookbook.com © 2006 Equity Press all rights reserved. ISBN 1-933804-17-3 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without either the prior written permission of the publisher or a license permitting restricted copying in the United States or abroad. The programs in this book have been included for instructional value only. They have been tested with care but are not guaranteed for any particular purpose. The publisher does not offer any warranties or representations not does it accept any liabilities with respect to the programs. Trademark notices SAP, SAP SEM, SAP BPS, Netweaver, and SAP New Dimension are registered trademarks of SAP AG. 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TABLE OF CONTENTS SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BPS Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review ........................................................................... vii Question 1: Incremental Salary Formula ......................... 1 Question 2: BCS Data Collection from CO-PA (BW) ...... 3 Question 3: Trading Partner .............................................. 5 Question 4: Freezing panes in Manual planning (Excel) ............................................................. 7 Question 5: Consolidation of Income statement ............ 8 Question 6: Requirements for SEM 6.0 ............................ 9 Question 7: FOX Formula does not work ...................... 11 Question 8: Consolidation Frequency and Period Category ........................................... 14 Question 9: UCWB Transaction Short Dump ................ 15 Question 10: Freezing lead columns on the web ............ 16 Question 11: Calling a function onsave of a BSP ............ 17 Question 12: Multi-period Consolidation for Plan Versions ................................................ 18 Question 13: Additional financial data ............................. 19 Question 14: How to download a management cockpit ........................................................... 19 Question 15: Data Collection Monthly, Consolidation Quarterly ....................................................... 20 Question 16: SEM BCS-Q&ADB ........................................ 21 Question 17: FS Item and Group A/c Number ................. 22 Question 18: BPS Variables ............................................... 23 Question 19: Save Initiatives for BSC ............................... 24 Question 20: BPS cubes standard/transactional ............. 26 Question 21: Changing the graph type of the frame ....... 27 Question 22: Records on BPS Manual Planning ............. 28 Question 23: BCS Different tasks for each period within a version ............................................ 29 Question 24: SAP BCS, SAP BPS ...................................... 30 Question 25: Display variable values in cockpit ............. 31 Question 26: Historical Conversion and opening balance .......................................................... 32 Question 27: BCS conversion ............................................ 33 Question 28: SEM: BCS: Companies with monthly and quarterly data ........................................ 34 Question 29: Analysis view - trend, assessment, and score ....................................................... 36 Question 30: SEM-CPM: Attachment files ....................... 37 Question 31: Error when importing hierarchy in STS .... 38 Question 32: BSC Monitor ................................................. 39 Question 33: BW Based Consolidation ............................ 40 Question 34: Problem with Showing Hierarchy in a BSP via a variable ........................................ 43 Question 35: SEM CPM Development .............................. 44 Question 36: Time variable CPM ....................................... 45 Question 37: Variable of Replacement Type - Authorization ................................................ 46 Question 38: Problem as a result of query and cockpit management ................................... 47 Question 39: WEB versus Excel in BPS ........................... 48 Question 40: FOX code question ...................................... 49 Question 41: Web Interface, Pages ................................... 50 Question 42: RSDRI_INFOPROV_READ_RFC ............... 51 Question 43: Function Attribute Save in Planning folder ............................................................. 52 Question 44: Automatic save of the data’s ....................... 53 Question 45: Year to date calculation ............................... 55 Question 46: CPM Variable - to use in presentation ....... 56 Question 47: Define decimal places in Balanced Scorecard ...................................................... 57 Question 48: Retraction BPS to R/3 .................................. 58 Question 49: BPS Variables - Multiple Values .................. 59 Question 50: Variable in planning folder: pop-up selection via hierarchy ................................ 60 Question 51: Break-point in Fox Code ............................. 61 Question 52: Transport Strategy for Management Cockpit .......................................................... 62 Question 53: Weekly Management Cockpit ..................... 63 - iv - Question 54: Dynamic Lead column and Data column .. 64 Question 55: BPS - Distributing fix amount over few periods ................................................... 65 Question 56: BCS master data synchrnonization (Local to BW) ............................................... 67 Question 57: Dr/Cr indicator in Reported financial data ................................................ 69 Question 58: BPS WebInterface: Selection of values ..... 70 Question 59: Consolidation fiscal year change ............... 72 Question 60: BPS Variables ............................................... 73 Question 61: Automatic Inversion in SEM-BCS .............. 77 Question 62: SEM-BCS: Creating a manual JV ................ 78 Question 63: SEM-BCS Vs EC-CS ..................................... 79 Question 64: Extracting CO Transactional data into BPS ................................................ 80 Question 65: Error when accessing BCS TC UCWB & UCMON ......................................................... 82 Question 66: BPS: Problem in uploading flat file to BW-BPS ......................................................... 83 Question 67: How do I check if BCS is installed? ........... 86 Question 68: SEM-BCS: Flat file load of Elimination entries ............................................................ 87 Question 69: Downloading graphs with CPM ................. 88 Question 70: Default values in CPM variables ................ 89 Question 71: SEM-BCS: Difference between Reverse and Delete ..................................................... 90 Question 72: SEM-BCS Transaction codes & BW3.5 ...... 91 Question 73: BCS: Unrealised profit elimination of inventory ....................................................... 92 Question 74: BCS balance carry forward with sub-item specification ................................. 93 Question 75: Multi Values for character in data columns for Mannual Plan Layout ............. 94 Question 76: Sarbanes-Oxley compliance ....................... 95 Question 77: BCS implementation timings and roles ..... 96 Question 78: Creating Custom Elimination Logic + Documents .................................................... 97 Question 79: BCS master data creation ........................... 99 Question 80: SEM-BCS errors ......................................... 100 - v - Question 81: Error in query - BCS .................................. 102 Question 82: Bex Query not Matched with UCMON List of Total Records BCS ......................... 103 Question 83: Initial load prior to starting SEM-BCS .... 105 Question 84: Transaction Codes ..................................... 107 Question 85: BSC guidelines on number of matrix consolidation units .................................... 108 Question 86: Hierarchies in BCS /BW ............................ 109 Question 87: SEM-BCS implementation in India .......... 110 Question 88: Lock data acquisition with bps workflow ..................................................... 111 Question 89: CPM vs. Web Designer .............................. 112 Question 90: SEM-BCS: Tables ........................................ 114 Question 91: Corvu and SAP BW/SEM Compared ....... 115 Question 92: BPS: How to use a planning function just in one line in layout ............................ 117 Question 93: Delivered Roles for SEM ........................... 118 Question 94: Virtual Cube ................................................ 119 Question 95: Multiple single values in header ............... 120 Question 96: Hierarchies in SEM-BCS synchronisation with BW system ............. 121 Question 97: Reference Note 117253 for Knowledge Product for SEM BCS ................................ 123 Question 98: Problems with SEM ................................... 124 Question 99: SEM-BCS: Currency Translation .............. 125 Question 100: Mapping of FI document types and BCS movement types ................................ 126 Question 101: Automate creation of FS items ................ 128 Question 102: Execute SEM-BCS sonsolidation tasks via batch ............................................ 129 - vi - SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review SAPCOOKBOOK Equity Press ☞ QUESTION 1 INCREMENTAL SALARY FORMULA I have the item monthly salary (MSAL) available in the cube/ plg area. The requirement is to calculate a new monthly salary, after applying annual increment (INC). There are few groups of employees and each employee group has a different increment percentage and different periods of commencement of the increment. In FOX formula, I have chosen to apply the following: Fields to be changed: Key Figure & fiscal year/period; Fields for condition: Employees group; In the parameter group, I did the following: DATA FYPD TYPE 0FISCPER; FOREACH FYPD; MSAL = MSAL * (1+INC); ENDFOR; The system reads both MSAL and INC but does not multiply. I have checked plg level and plg package, where the data are available. This is confirmed since both data (MSAL & INC) are read by the system. I am baffled why the system is not calculating. When I hard-code the INC, it works fine. MSAL is stored as amount type with currency, while INC is stored as number with Decimal. -1- SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review -2- ✍ANSWER There are several ways you that you can resolve this. First, you can try using the fiscal year/period in “fields for condition” instead of “fields to be changed”. Or you can try it this way: DATA FYPD TYPE 0FISCPER; data temp type f; FOREACH FYPD; temp = {MSAL,FYPD}; temp = temp * (1+INC); {MSAL,FYPD} = temp; ENDFOR; SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review ☞QUESTION 2 BCS DATA COLLECTION FROM CO-PA (BW) I would like to extract data from CO-PA (Staging cube) to SEM-BCS. When I run ‘collect data from BW’, an error occurred that stated: “required breakdown is not filled”. This fixed expense item is a mandatory field for a break down category. For example, fixed expense has amount 1000 without segment. And after running the top down distribution, the record will be allocated as follows: (Before top down distribution) Segment # 1000 (After top down distribution) Segment # -1000 Segment A 300 Segment B 700 I want to copy only with the segment records which are 300 and 700. However the data stream will check all of the records including 1000 and -1000 as well. How can I solve this problem? Do I need to collapse the records/data before copying into BCS? SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 3 - ✍ANSWER Assuming you are using the Load from DataStream method to collect data, I suggest you try changing the mapping so that only non-blanks are included. To clarify the suggestion made, in the mapping, create a condition to exclude the segment values you do not want. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 4 - ☞QUESTION 3 TRADING PARTNER We are in the process of implementing SEM BCS. We would like to have IU elimination of Receivable/ Payable as one of the consolidation function. One of the prerequisite for this is having the trading partner information. We can make changes to the configuration set up and capture this information prospectively. However, what should we do for the open items which do not have the trading partner information? I am not able to make changes to this field which remains grey. I will be bringing in the data from R3 to BIW cube (info provider) and then to BCS cube. The first step would be pulling the data from R3 into BIW cube. When I am extracting the data, the receivable and payable would come with no trading partner information. How do I manage this situation? Below are options which could resolve my dilemma. I am not sure which would be more applicable and “easier” to use. Is there a way to foresee possible results of either one? 1. I do the R/3 upload through data stream with partial Trading Partner information since trading partner information will be prospective. I will make the Trading SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 5 - SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 6 - partner data as optional in the break down category. Data will flow from R/3 to BIW cube and into BCS cube. Then by flat file upload capture the entire information for the trading partner. 2. Populate the trading partner information from R/3 to BIW cube by the ‘update rule’. ✍ANSWER One suggestion is to: 1. Make the trading partner in BCS optional until the R/3 data has trading partner activated; 2. Set data collection method to periodic; 3. Use a flexible file upload with overwrite mode with the correct trading partners on the inter-company items - manually entered trading partner in file; To clarify, the R/3 data without trading partner or incomplete trading partner data can be supplemented with a separate file upload with accurate/complete trading partner information. Alternatively, if the trading partner can be derived somehow by the Company, Profit Center, Account, etc., or some combination of fields, the update rules can automatically populate the trading partner values for you I agree that populating the trading partner via update rules is much easier, as long as it can somehow be derived from the existing data values. However, this is not always the case. The other alternative mentioned is to use flexible file upload to adjust the R/3 data with the correct trading partner. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 7 - The data collection task may be configured with both methods or you can have separate tasks for the R/3 data load and the Flexible file upload. After a careful evaluation, the R3 extract with flexi upload will be a better option rather than tinkering with BIW. This will also be a one time affair since the data will be re-written with the flat file and going forward with all the receivables and payables will have trading partner information. ☞QUESTION 4 FREEZING PANES IN MANUAL PLANNING (EXCEL) We have very wide layouts and all users would like to freeze and unfreeze panes (the left hand side columns) to enable easy data entry. Is it possible to freeze panes in the manual planning data entry screen? ✍ANSWER You can use Excel as it is not possible in ALV Grid. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 8 - ☞QUESTION 5 Consolidation of Income statement Is it possible to prepare a consolidated Income statement thru SEM-BCS? ✍ANSWER BCS is meant to consolidate both Income as well as BS statements. It aggregates all the FS Items at the group levels. Map the FS items accordingly and once the data is captured in the BCS cube at FS Item consolidated IS can be generated from BEX. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 9 - ☞QUESTION 6 Requirements for SEM 6.0 We implemented SAP -ENTERPRISE 4.7 six months ago. Now we are planning to implement SEM. We checked up on the SAP Service website and the latest released version is SEM 6.0 with release date: 24 / 10 / 2005 and it is an add on to ECC 6.0 & Sap Netweaver 2004s. Do I need to upgrade to ECC6.0 first or can I implement SEM 6.0 with my current Enterprise 4.7? Is it advisable for me to implement SEM 4.0 as it is a comparatively older version but would be established by now? ✍ANSWER The most important requirement is the BI or BW version and not ECC or R/3 version. As long as you have a compatible BI or BW version, you can implement the SEM 6.0 version. If you have ECC 6.0, then you don’t need a plug-in to get into BI 7.0-SEM 6.0 version. Now that you have implemented R/3 4.7 EE version, you would need a plug-in to extract the data to BI 7.0. The Basis guys can help you to resolve this. Meanwhile, you can go ahead with SEM 6.0 version, with your R/3 4.7 version. Comments on the SEM 6.0: The BI 7.0 version (Netweaver 2004s) on which SEM 6.0 SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 10 - is based looks very cool. The implementation of SEM-BPS part seems to be easy and the looks are definitely different. Portal or web-based features are given more prominence. The configuration of planning layout somewhat resembles configuring BEX reports. Of course, the unresolved bugs are there as usual. If you have a platinum or super platinum guy with you, there is nothing like it to crack the issues. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 11 - ☞QUESTION 7 FOX FORMULA DOES NOT WORK I have the following scenario: Planning area - ZA Infocube - ZCUBE1 Planning Area - ZB Infocube - ZCUBE2 Multi Planning Area - ZC ZCUBE2 is a transaction cube. I have defined a level against ZC and a Planning function of formula and all I am doing in the planning function is using FOX to copy values from one cube to the other and while copying I want to modify the key figures with a formula. The structure of ZCUBE1 and ZCUBE2 are the same. It has the following values: 0fiscper 0fiscvarnt 0comp_code 0plant 0amount 0quantity The system is indicating that it expects the values in the following form: {0FISCPER, 0FISCVARNT, 0PLANT, 0COMP_CODE, 0AMOUNT, 0QUANTITY, PlanningArea} So I specified the following FOXCODE: DATA FISCPER LIKE 0FISCPER. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 12 - DATA FISCVARNT LIKE FISCVARNT. DATA PLANT LIKE 0PLANT. DATA COMP_CODE LIKE 0COMP_CODE. DATA AMOUNT LIKE 0AMOUNT. DATA QUANTITY LIKE 0QUANTITY. {FISCPER, FISCVARNT, PLANT, COMP_CODE, AMOUNT, QUANTITY, ZB} = {FISCPER, FISCVARNT, PLANT, COMP_CODE, AMOUNT, QUANTITY, ZA} Still it complains it does not know the planning areas ZA and ZB so I changed the code as follows: {FISCPER, FISCVARNT, PLANT, COMP_CODE, AMOUNT, QUANTITY} = {FISCPER, FISCVARNT, PLANT, COMP_CODE, AMOUNT, QUANTITY} Now it works with error. Except that when I run the function it says ‘5800 record read 0 changed’. All I want to begin with is read a record from ZA and write to ZB and then I want to change AMOUNT = AMOUNT + (AMOUNT * 0.1). FOX is not letting me do this. I then wanted to change to something like this: CONCATENATE FISCPER (4) ‘2005’ to FISCPER; I wanted to change all 2004 fiscal periods as 2005 fiscal SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 13 - periods. So more or less I want to do the same thing that I do in an update rule. Somehow it is not letting me do it. How can I read the data from one Planning area and write to the characteristics or key figures in another planning area? Can you please advise me on how to use the FOX so I can get the above to work? Please note I know how to use the copy and repost function. ✍ANSWER You can try to use the standard copy function to copy data from one cube to another. It will also enhance performance as compared to FOX. Then you can use FOX to change the KF value. To change the Fiscal year you may use repost function. Create a sequence of all the above three functions to get the result. The performance in standard function is better than FOX and one should try to use the standard function to the extent possible. You can include planning area ZB only in the level and it should work. An alternate recourse is for you to just change the data type declaration for the amount and quantity into type F. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 14 - ☞QUESTION 8 CONSOLIDATION FREQUENCY AND PERIOD CATEGORY What is the difference between consolidation frequency & period category? ✍ANSWER Period category allows you to use different methods for a different period within the same task. Consolidation frequency determines those periods for which a task appears in the monitor and is available for execution. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 15 - ☞QUESTION 9 UCWB TRANSACTION SHORT DUMP I work with the BW3.5 and SEM4.0 system. When I run UCWB transaction it goes directly to short dump. It stated: ‘UCWB000 PROGRAM error’. I cannot find any notes relevant to the short dump problem. ✍ANSWER Try an OSS Note search with “UCWB” and “dump”. There are about 30 notes that can help you resolve this. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 16 - ☞QUESTION 10 FREEZING LEAD COLUMNS ON THE WEB We have designed a layout in BPS0 and it displays all the values correctly in the web. The layout has some 15-16 columns so the user has to scroll horizontally to go to the end of the record. In doing so, he loses the sight of lead columns, and hence he doesn’t know what lead columns he is planning/changing values. There is a setting of “Unfreeze lead columns” in BPS0 which is “unchecked”. Also, when we display the layout in BPS0, the lead columns are frozen so we can go to the last column and can still see the lead column characteristics. Does anyone know how do we can do this on the web? Or is it so that this setting is available only in BPS0 and not BPS_WB? Please take note that the layout is ALV Grid and not Excel, so we cannot do the Width/Height setting in Web Builder. ✍ANSWER Unfortunately, the functionality you are after does not exist for the HTML web layouts. It does, however, exist if you use the OWC excel in instead. In BPS0, on the third screen of the layout builder, select “publish to web” (button above the layout). As you are aware, there are pros and cons to HTML versus Excel in place. You will need to decide which is more applicable or easier in your case. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 17 - ☞QUESTION 11 CALLING A FUNCTION ONSAVE OF A BSP I wish to run an ABAP function to populate a field on a planning layout. This must run when the save button is pressed or some action activity is performed. How can I implement this? ✍ANSWER You can do the following: 1. Create your ABAP and link it to a planning function of the type exit; 2. Create a second exit type planning function to save data (use API_SEMBPS_POST); 3. Create a global sequence with the 2 functions, then in the web interface create a function button linked to the glob sequence and call it “SAVE”; An alternative step would be: 1. Use JavaScript to execute both function buttons when clicking on one of them. 2. Link your function into the layout for execution whenever data changes. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 18 - ☞QUESTION 12 MULTI-PERIOD CONSOLIDATION FOR PLAN VERSIONS In BCS, we would like to load and consolidate a full year of plan data by period at one time, as opposed to loading and consolidating it separately for each period. In other words, we want to see and report on the data for each period. However, to be more efficient we would like to avoid loading and consolidating it separately for each period. Is there a way to accomplish this? ✍ANSWER The programs UCBATCH00 and UCBATCH01 may do the trick. . SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 19 - ☞QUESTION 13 ADDITIONAL FINANCIAL DATA What does additional financial data mean and how does it differ from total data? ✍ANSWER Additional Financial data is used for Consolidation of Investments and Profit in Inventory Eliminations. Both terms are separate optional components of BCS. ☞QUESTION 14 HOW TO DOWNLOAD A MANAGEMENT COCKPIT I would like to download a management cockpit I made in SAP SEM CPM. Is this possible? If so, how can it be done? ✍ANSWER Frames of MC and printed BSC can be downloaded in Balance scorecard download option menu. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 20 - ☞QUESTION 15 DATA COLLECTION MONTHLY, CONSOLIDATION QUARTERLY I have this situation where the data collection is done monthly but the consolidation is to be done quarterly? I set up two Consolidation Frequencies - monthly and quarterly. Then I set up the Data Collection tasks as monthly and the Consolidation tasks as quarterly. I want to use this setting in the same version. How this can be done? ✍ANSWER It sounds like you have done everything correctly. Just include all tasks in the task hierarchy. Then, the monthly tasks will appear each month and the quarterly tasks only appear quarterly. To see all of the tasks for each period in the monitor, make sure you are expanding the task groups completely. This should all be configured in the same version without any difficulties. You might need to need to check the consolidation frequency on the tasks for several periods and save it each time until it is recognized correctly for each period. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 21 - ☞QUESTION 16 SEM BCS- Q&A DB Is there any standard questionnaire available for SEM BCS requirement gathering? ✍ANSWER Unfortunately there is none I am aware of. Instead, you can use a combination of ECCS and BW questions from ASAP. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 22 - ☞QUESTION 17 FS ITEM AND GROUP ACCOUNT NUMBER In BCS, FS item is used more often than Group Account number. FS Items are defined under the Group chart of accounts in BCS. What is the difference between FS Item and Group account number in BCS? Can I assume that both refer to the same? ✍ANSWER There are several options with this. The most common is that the FI Group Accounts are, in BCS , defined as FS Items on a one-to-one basis. Depending on the data model it may require mapping of FI Group Account to FS Item in BW update/transfer rules or in BCS data load method. Another option in BCS is to have totals FS Items. These are like hierarchy nodes and these usually cannot be posted to for the Actual (100) version. These are similar to group accounts in FI and therefore, it depends on what you want in BCS - FI account-level detail with sub-totals at the group account level, or less detailed higher level group accounts as FS Items. They store subtotals of the individual FS Items assigned to them. Alternatively, FS Item hierarchy nodes can be only text nodes. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 23 - ☞QUESTION 18 BPS Variables What does the phrase: “Restriction By user while creating variables in BPS’ mean? ✍ANSWER This can be explained with an example. Suppose you have a variable that has only one value. This variable is used in a few functions. Now some of these functions require execution on all the char value of the variable and some require execution only on the selected value. In such a case do not tick that setting, as the user may select the variable and may not select the variable depending on the function he is executing. On the other hand if you have a case where function has to be executed with a character value only and should not be for all character values then you tick this setting. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 24 - ☞QUESTION 19 Save Initiatives for BSC When I save the initiatives in the wizard of transaction UMB_ BSC_CUST for BSC and assign the info cube (0SEM_C02) and query standard, I have already activated the info cube. I think the problem is in the program that is called, because it stated the ‘message 151’. This is the error message: Error analysis Short text of error message: Program error. Please notify the person responsible. Technical information about the message: Message class...... 00 Number.............. 151 Variable 1.......... “ “ Variable 2.......... “ “ Variable 3.......... “ “ Variable 4.......... “ “ Variable 3.......... “ “ Variable 4.......... “ “ I assigned the owner to initiatives and the error only occurred in the Direction General. I don’t know if the problem is for authorizations, because when I create an initiative in another balanced, I can save it. We have version 3.5 for BW and 4.0 for SEM. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 25 - How do I correct the error? ✍ANSWER You may able to find an interim solution to the problem in the SAP note system. If you have access to the note system yourself, use the following search criteria: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ “MESSAGE_TYPE_X” C “CL_UMB_VALUE_FIELD_INIT=======CP” or “CL_UMB_ VALUE_FIELD_INIT=======CM002” “IF_UMC_CUSTOMIZE~READ_FROM_DB” ------------------------------------------------------------------------ If you cannot solve the problem yourself and you wish to send an error message to SAP, include the following documents: 1. A printout of the problem description (short dump). To obtain this, select in the current display “System->List-> Save->Local File (unconverted)”. 2. A suitable printout of the system log. To obtain this, call the system log through transaction SM21. Limit the time interval to 10 minutes before and 5 minutes after the short dump. In the display, then select the function “System->List->Save->Local File (unconverted)”. 3. If the programs are your own programs or modified SAP programs, supply the source code. To do this, select the Editor function “Further Utilities-> SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 26 - “System->List->Save->Local File (unconverted)”. 3. If the programs are your own programs or modified SAP programs, supply the source code. To do this, select the Editor function “Further Utilities-> Upload/Download->Download”. 4. Details regarding the conditions under which the error occurred or which actions and input led to the error. At the time of creating initiative we have to give it to a responsible person and at the time of assigning these initiatives to objectives we have to assign the responsible person. You should check again for verification. ☞QUESTION 20 BPS CUBES STANDARD/TRANSACTIONAL Can we use standard business content instead of a transactional cube to develop a planning area in BPS? ✍ANSWER Yes, as long as you don’t write anything on it. An alternative would be to make a query instead. Try the transactional info cube. It has the facility of writing and creating both. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 27 - ☞QUESTION 21 Changing the graph type of the frame We have a cockpit in sem3.5. We are displaying frame in the form of tachometer. While creating a frame we have mentioned the graph type as tachometer. Can we change the graph type from there after we have displayed the cockpit frame in browser? For e.g.: right now i am displaying frame with graph type tachometer, after it gets displayed in browser i want to change the graph type from there. ✍ANSWER Unfortunately, we can’t change graph type in presentation. We have to change graph type in the customization of graph for a particular frame. . SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 28 - ☞QUESTION 22 Records on BPS Manual Planning I need to record zero values in BPS data through layouts, but when I do it, this data is assumed as null. However I need to distinguish if the record is zero or if it has no information. How can I resolve this? ✍ANSWER When you display the layout for data input, you have to write the zero values. Otherwise the system does not recognize changes in the package and does not write them into the info cube. To validate the values you read from the cube (even values) you can use another ratio as a flag. When writing into the cube, the value of the ratio is 1. This way you can ask (fox, module function) if “flag” of this record = 1, then it comes from the cube. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 29 - ☞QUESTION 23 BCS DIFFERENT TASKS FOR EACH PERIOD WITHIN A VERSION In BCS 4.0 I would like to use different tasks for each version and I am able to do so with the special versions. I realize it is also possible to have different tasks for each period within a version. However, we want to have this without creating a duplicate task simply for the sake of using a different Consolidation Frequency. An example of the tasks and versions for two periods are: 1. Version 301, period 1, Copy Data 2. Version 301, period 2, Data Collection, Reclass RE, Translation 3. Version 301, period 3, Data Collection, Reclass RE, Translation 4. Version 302, period 1, Copy Data 5. Version 302, period 2, Copy Data 6. Version 302, period 3, Data Collection, Reclass RE, Translation 7. Version 303, period 1, Copy Data 8. Version 303, period 2, Copy Data 9. Version 303, period 3, Copy Data The approach taken so far is to have task COPY1 for item 1 above, task COPY2 for item 2 above, etc., with COPY1 using Cons Frequency of Jan only, and COPY2 using Cons Frequency of Feb & beyond, etc. How can this be accomplished without all of the additional SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 30 - “duplicate” tasks? ✍ANSWER You can get it to work by creating the special versions for task hierarchies for each cons version 301 through 312. Then cons frequencies for each group of periods (Jan only, Jan - Feb, Jan - Mar, etc., and Feb - Dec, Mar-Dec, etc.). Then created separate tasks for each version with the assignment of the corresponding cons frequency. ☞QUESTION 24 Latest Version What are the latest versions of BCS and BPS? ✍ANSWER As of May 2006 The latest version of ob BPS is 4.0. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 31 - ☞QUESTION 25 Display variable values in cockpit Is there a way we can display the value of the variables input at the time of the presentation in the graphs? For example: if I choose Jan 2004 as an input for the variable 0FISCPER, I would like to dynamically show the period in each frame where I am using the input variable. ✍ANSWER You have to use Time variables (transaction UMC_TM). For example: Current Period; When you are configuring your cockpit on selection criteria take the variable and assign to it Current Period, so you will get a graphic that shows you one period (the period will depend on the period of the cockpit display). SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 32 - ☞QUESTION 26 Historical Conversion and opening balance We are going to convert historical data of the previous year. How do I capture the opening balance of the previous year? Do we have to execute balance carry forward? Is there a way to directly load 2004 to period 000? ✍ANSWER There is no way to directly post to period 000. Therefore what you can do is to populate the beginning balances in the last period of the year prior to the beginning. In your case this would be the last period of 2003 - and then execute the balance carry forward to bring the data into period 000. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 33 - ☞QUESTION 27 BCS conversion We are going to convert from the Legacy consolidation system to BCS system. We are thinking of converting post- consolidated data to posting level 00. Therefore, posting level 00 includes all elimination entries. Do you usually convert to posting level 20 and 30 for elimination entries? Is this a requirement? ✍ANSWER It is not a requirement to post the legacy eliminations as posting level 20 and 30, but it is recommended. Otherwise the reporting logic of the BCS virtual cube will not realize when to exclude those eliminations with entities outside the consolidation group. If you must use posting level 00 for eliminations it is recommended that you use separate elimination entities to segregate this data for reporting. However, in my implementations I prefer to post legacy eliminations with posting level 20. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 34 - ☞QUESTION 28 SEM BCS: COMPANIES WITH MONTHLY AND QUARTERLY DATA We have some data coming from R/3 companies (on a per period basis) and some from non-R/3 companies (once a quarter). How do I set the system up so that when doing IU eliminations the three periods for R/3 companies are compared against the one period for non-R/3 companies? For example: i) You start off with the ending balances for the initial period (when you start work with BCS. ii) After that you just load the period balances. For e.g. quarter 1 AR intercompany is 1000; Quarter 2 AR intercompany is 1200; You load it as follows: Q1 - 1000 Q2 - 200 In such a case you would not need to look at prior period’s eliminations. As long as the 1000 is eliminated in Q1 and 200 is eliminated in Q2 you wouldn’t need to look at prior periods eliminations. What am I missing here? SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 35 - ✍ANSWER Elimination always takes place on a year to date (cumulative) basis. Therefore it always looks at the sum of all periods. The consolidation also takes place on a periodic basis. For your example given: IU elimination looks at YTD values. The eliminations program reads year-to-date values, including previously posted eliminations. The current period elimination then posts the differences so that the year-to- date balance is correctly eliminated. Therefore for data collected or posted quarterly, the eliminations are accurate on a quarterly basis. I recommend that you read the documentation on BCS so you will understand that the values loaded each period may be either balances or activity. The data collection method defines this. The program reading the data into the system then determines the periodic values accordingly. The system determines balances to be eliminated by adding all the periodic values, including the initial/carryforward values, and including the eliminations posted to date. From this sum (or net) balance the new elimination posting is determined. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 36 - ☞QUESTION 29 ANALYSIS VIEW - TREND, ASSESSMENT, AND SCORE I have a screen print where there is an analysis view with financial perspective - objective/measure and then all measures line by line. In each line there is the name of the measure, trend, analysis, score, actual, plan and target values. The problem is I don’t have trend, analysis and score in my scorecard. I don’t know where to configure them to be shown in this analysis view. So I have only the screen print from another system that proves this is possible, but don’t know how to do it in my configurations. The version of SEM is 4.0. I went through also the documentation of version 6.0, but could not find anything there either. How do I configure this? ✍ANSWER In measure analysis you can get the trend, score, and status and value fields for time series but you can’t get these in analysis view of BSC. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 37 - ☞QUESTION 30 SEM-CPM: ATTACHMENT FILES Can the document files (such as .doc, .ppt, .pdf, .xls etc.) be attached to the measure for each presentation period in Balanced Scorecard by end-users? Such as the assessment which can be entered by the responsible person, requirement is attached to the document file too. What is the best way to do this? ✍ANSWER You can attach BW report with the measures of BSC. For other documents you can check the measure configuration after assignment. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 38 - ☞QUESTION 31 ERROR WHEN IMPORTING HIERARCHY IN STS I am facing the problem in importing hierarchy in STS. I am trying to import Profit Center hierarchy. For example: ABC SBUS. But as soon as I execute it I am getting the following message: ‘Hierarchy cannot contain more than one root text node’. How can I resolve the problem? ✍ANSWER Your hierarchy have more than one root text node. You have to resolve this to end the errors. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 39 - ☞QUESTION 32 BSC Monitor What are the close period / reopen period in the BSC monitor? What are they used for? ✍ANSWER This is used as a control to keep users from reloading or reconsolidating a period that is considered closed and final results have been reported. The access to open/close periods should be limited to only a few super users and administrators. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 40 - ☞QUESTION 33 BW Based Consolidation I have several question about BW based consolidation and related issues. An example scenario would be: I would like to consolidate 37 R/3 companies with a 1000 GL’s in my chart of accounts and about 150 odd group accounts. I need to create 1 entity in BCS, which does not exist in R/3 which would purely be for group adjustments journals. Another complication is that we have an additional (3rd local) currency over and above the ones in R/3 which all group accounts balances need to be translated to (P+L a/c’s at an average rate B/S at a closing rate). Could you tell me the difference between R/3 Based and BW consolidation? Do we need to use BW Data targets for R/3 based consolidation? If not, how do I consolidate non r/3 ERP based companies accounts with R/3 based companies accounts? How long does it take to set up the master data in BCS? In R/3 based (EC-CS) consolidation do we need BW system and data targets? If not, where do we upload data of non R/3 accounts for SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 41 - consolidation with R/3 accounts? If we upload non R/3 account in R/3, how do we upload non R/3 accounts? ✍ANSWER You can easily set up the non-R/3 consolidation in either EC- CS or BCS, but you will load financial data to them using a flat file (e.g. .txt or .dat). The consolidation process then works in the same way for all consolidation. EC-CS is R/3 based consolidation. However, if you use EC- CS on a different R/3 system then you’ll need some kind of interface. BCS sits on BW, using OLAP (Online Analytical Processing); it is the latest version of Consolidation, therefore the most sensible choice for implementations now. A principle benefit is that once you enter the data in BCS, you can immediately in BW. Cover the loading process for BCS but you need to set up the units in BCS/EC-CS to receive a flexible upload as part of data collection. Then set up the upload method to match your data file. You should be able to set up the master data in BCS quickly - less than one day. You may also extract the R/3 master data and use the synchronization program UGMDSYNC to copy it into BCS. Also there really is no need to set up a separate entity for adjustments. These may be posted to any existing entity and separately identified by the posting level and document type for reporting. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 42 - If you use R/3 (EC_CS) consolidations you do not need BW or data targets unless you are going to use BW for reporting The non-R/3 data may be loaded in ECCS (and BCS) using a flexible file (flat file) upload method. ECCS (and BCS) may have a completely different chart of accounts than R/3 if desired. When R/3 accounts are used in ECCS, R/3 data may be updated into ECCS either real-time or via rollup. The non- R/3 data must be mapped to the ECCS (and BCS) accounts, so that the data loaded is using ECCS accounts, regardless of whether ECCS is using the same as R/3 accounts or not. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 43 - ☞QUESTION 34 PROBLEM WITH SHOWING HIERARCHY IN A BSP VIA A VARIABLE I have created a variable based upon a hierarchy. The variable is then used as a selection. However when I display the BSP it complains that the variable must be restricted to a single value. I have tried other ways of implementing such as through the User Specific values or Fixed values although there does not appear to be an Authorization one. How do I fix this problem? ✍ANSWER Within the Web application, have a variable selector setup as a dropdown based on the variable. Choose one of the hierarchy nodes allowed for the user so that the corresponding profit centers are displayed in the layout. There is a drawback though, which may or may not be that serious. You may not be able to get the dropdown list to show anything other than the technical name of the hierarchy node. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 44 - ☞QUESTION 35 SEM CPM DEVELOPMENT I need to prototype an existing business score card that’s based in Excel but uses data from SAP BW queries as the source of its data. Our customer wants an estimate before authorizing any work. CPM is installed but no scorecards, measures, cockpits etc are developed. How long does a project like this take? For example if you could give a rough estimate of the number of score cards, measures, and cockpits created and a rough idea of how long it all took in duration and effort (ball park figures mind). Are there any particular sticking points or performance issues to be concerned with? ✍ANSWER The appropriate response to your query is totally dependent on the size of the project. But here are some ideas. To implement one balance scorecard with 1/2 strategy, 4 perspectives, 15-20 objectives and 30-40 measures it usually takes a maximum of one month without any BW consultant. It is also depend on BW data structure and clients SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 45 - requirements. CPM - (BSC and MC) implementation time varies from 1 month to 4 months. ☞QUESTION 36 Time variable CPM How can I define the time variable for CPM? Can it be used in any program? ✍ANSWER Time variable can be defined in periodization and variables navigation. No need of any program for time variable. Just go under various navigation bar and you will find periodization and time variable. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 46 - ☞QUESTION 37 Variable of Replacement Type - Authorization I am having an issue with Variables of Replacement Type Authorization. Basically we have a characteristic which has a value according to the country. For example, Germany is within range 1 - 10, Uk 11 - 20 etc. Can I actually restrict a user down to a particular value of the characteristic? How do I set this action in the BPS? ✍ANSWER Have a variable in the country with type authorization set up with the BW authorization on country with RSSM You can also try Variables of Replacement type -> User specific value. This may meet your requirement and would be easier too. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 47 - ☞QUESTION 38 Problem as a result of query and cockpit management We have some data coming from Query quarter data during the last 3 month data. When we put that Query into Cockpit Management (CM), the result is not the same. What happened with CM? How do I set the system (CM) up in order to the results to be equal? ✍ANSWER If you want 3 months data in MC frame, you have to use customized time variable (-2 offset period) against month time character and set the month time chat on section axis at the time of graph customization. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 48 - ☞QUESTION 39 WEB versus Excel in BPS Can you give me the Pros and Cons Using WEB versus Excel in BPS? ✍ANSWER This may depend on the person using the program. For some, Web is much more flexible. They find that they can easily combine several layouts on the same screen and deciding in which order displaying layout, variable, and text. Still, others find that Excel is better than the Web. They find that some Excel functions are really useful that cannot be utilized in the Web. I suggest that you to go through the standard help provided by SAP. It gives a very good comparison of functionalities in various output formats. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 49 - ☞QUESTION 40 FOX code question How do I get the last two positions of a characteristic’s value in SEM-BPS 32 by FOX? ✍ANSWER I think this is only functionality available with BW-BPS and SEM4.0. Since you are on SEM 32 you need to go ahead with an exit function. Standard FOX will not satisfy the requirements. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 50 - ☞QUESTION 41 Web Interface, Pages I have the following problem when I don’t use the Wizard for my Web Interfaces. I want to create at least three pages which should be liked in the interface (Internet Browser). But when opening the Internet Explorer, it is just possible to work with the first page. There is no link to the other pages. Is this a bug? Or do I need to link the pages manually somehow? ✍ANSWER You need to create a subcomponent ‘navigation button’ to navigate from 1 page to another. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 51 - ☞QUESTION 42 RSDRI_INFOPROV_READ_RFC In one of our planning, there was some performance problems encountered. When I trace the activity via ST05, I got a red on the duration concerning RSDRI_INFOPROV_READ_RFC. What does it mean? ✍ANSWER This is the function module SEM uses to read data in the cube. If possible, try to limit the volume of the data to be read or have a look at all possibilities to improve the performance when reading data. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 52 - ☞QUESTION 43 Function Attribute Save in Planning folder I am executing a function in the planning folder while saving. But it is not able to execute it when I save it. When i try it with a push button, it is working. What is wrong with it? ✍ANSWER It could be because it is a web folder. Try to re-define it as non-web folder. It could also be what happened when one is saving by CTRL+S and not the save button. If that is the case then just ensure that you save by pressing the save button and not CTRL+S. “Execute function before saving”. This can also be assigned a function in the “global functions” area. It is always executed before changed plan data should be saved. If an error occurs then the data is not saved. You can see this help by yourself if you hit F1 in the dialog box “Execution time of functions” when doing settings for you planning function in transaction code: UPSPM. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 53 - ☞QUESTION 44 Automatic save of the data’s We would like to implement something in SEM-BPS which automatically saves the data in the BW cube after a run of a planning function. The problem is that we have a sequence of planning functions and a automatic save has to be executed between each execution of planning function. Which function module has to be used in a user exit? We don’t want use a global planning sequence just for the reason that the data are stored in a buffer until the execution of the last function. We have 2 functions and after the execution of the first one, the data has to be saved in BW before the second one starts, otherwise we don’t get the results we want. An exit which forces the system to save the data before the second function is launched is necessary. How do we determine which one is it? ✍ANSWER When you execute a planning function, the data is stored in the buffer. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 54 - If you have a global planning sequence, the second function in the sequence reads from the buffer, not the BW cube. If you execute a global planning sequence in background, the data is automatically saved to the cube once all the planning functions are executed without errors. In short you don’t need save to the cube for every function in a planning sequence. It is actually simple: 1. Create the planning function as USER EXIT; 2. In this function use FM API_SEMBPS_POST; 3. Use the created function as last in the sequence; SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 55 - ☞QUESTION 45 Year to date I need to calculate the year to date value for a particular key figure. I tried to pass the variable with a range but it is just reading the lower value of the key figure. I also tried to write a user exit which reads the current system date and passes value to the variable one at a time for year to date calculation. Still I am getting the low value of the key figure. Is there any other way I can solve this problem? ✍ANSWER You can get year to date data in the BSC measure. At the time of configuration of value field give the value as current period to fiscal year/period time characteristic and select the aggregation check box. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 56 - ☞QUESTION 46 CPM Variable - to use in presentation I have created a CPM Variable based on the company code to be able to switch between companies during the presentation of my scorecard. I therefore have customized my CPM variable as ‘Enter variables for Variable for Presentation’. Unfortunately, when I go to my scorecard and try in the CPM variables tab to add this variable, it is not available for selection there. Why is this? Is what I want to accomplish just not possible? ✍ANSWER The function should be there. But before giving the value and/or values to CPM variable system will ask for CPM assignment to respective characteristic. For this, click copy to assign value field button and select the check boxes against each measure then you can assign your company to CPM variable. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 57 - ☞QUESTION 47 Define decimal places in Balanced Scorecard How can I define how many decimal places I want to display for measures in Balanced Scorecard? I tried to do that as I described below, but it did not work. 1. SAP menu in BW -> Strategic Enterprise Management -> Performance Measurement -> Measures & Benchmarks. 2. I chose the measure and pressed “Change measure”. 3. There is a definition for “Decimal places” in “Attributes”- tab. I chose one decimal place and saved. 4. Then I activated the master data by choosing Utilities -> BW master data -> Measures: Update BW Master data. I chose the measure and executed. After that, values are still displayed as three decimal places instead of one. Is there something I did wrong? ✍ANSWER Yes. You can restrict decimal values at BW key figure level itself. Go directly to it. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 58 - ☞QUESTION 48 Retraction BPS to R/3 I want to retract data from BPS to R/3; however, this is not standard SAP data. This is planning data especially setup for our customer and this data needs to be retracted to a Z-table in R/3. What do I need to setup in BW BPS and in R/3? ✍ANSWER You may be able to use open-hub to extract data to flat file then simple ABAP to load the z-table in R/3. First, create a function module in the R/3 system that is remotely callable and receives a table of data to be posted. This function module will need to have the necessary logic to update the user tables in R/3. On the BPS side, create an “exit” planning function. In here, the data selected by the planning level is made available to the exit in the form of an internal table. Through some simple restructuring, you can reformat the BPS data into the table structure needed by the R/3 function module. Then just call the function module (remotely) and it will post. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 59 - ☞QUESTION 49 BPS Variables - Multiple Values I am trying to have the user enter multiple single values for a variable (for example, the user would like to enter posting period 1, 4 and 7 instead of a single value or a range). Is there any way to achieve this objective? ✍ANSWER I am trying to have the user enter multiple single values for a variable (for example, the user would like to enter posting period 1, 4 and 7 instead of a single value or a range). Is there any way to achieve this objective? SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 60 - ☞QUESTION 50 Variable in planning folder: pop-up selection via hierarchy I’m trying to figure out how to be able to select, in a planning folder, a variable value (single value) from a hierarchy. Scenario: The user plans on cost center level; in the planning folder, he must select 1 specific cost center to plan on. There is a very large number of cost centers. Therefore, a selection of the cost center via the cost center hierarchy would make it easier and would allow having a functional view on the cost centers. Defining the variable as type ‘hierarchy’ doesn’t do the trick, as this will only display a flat list of cost centers that are attached to the node defined in the variable. ✍ANSWER If you can define CC hierarchy as 2 level tiers you can create 2 variables for each level provided the value list of second variable is calculated from the first one. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 61 - ☞QUESTION 51 Break-point in Fox Code How do I use the ‘break-point’ statement in fox code? I used it and the resulting screen was an ABAP screen and I do not know how to proceed from there. ✍ANSWER With the help of break-point you can debug the code and internal logic. The ABAP screen that the system generates is the same as the debugging of ABAP. You can’t debug the FOX formula itself. As you found out, breakpoint is giving you the underlying ABAP. However, what you can do is to use the “message” instruction with variables, and then do an “execute with trace” to see the content of the variables. If you are not familiar with the instruction ‘message e001 (zc) with variable_name_1’, show the screen to your ABAP person in your office and he will be able to explain to you in detail. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 62 - ☞QUESTION 52 Transport Strategy for Management Cockpit I am not sure what should be the transport strategy for the management cockpit. I’m guessing there are two options: 1. Whenever I make a new cockpit or change an existing cockpit the system would ask me to save the changes in a request. I may transport the request post completion of the changes. 2. In the management cockpit designer there is a transaport vehicle that allows me to transport the individual cockpit element directly (same as in planning area/level/package in BPS). I would like to know which of the above would be the better solution to follow. Furthermore, are the above solutions correct or is there some other way in which cockpits should be transported? ✍ANSWER Option 2 could be followed as the intial transport procedure, if you are transporting the object for the first time. Option 1 is good for subsequent transports for changes. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 63 - ☞QUESTION 53 Weekly Management Cockpit At my clients place they are deciding if it is better to monitor the Management Cockpit on a weekly basis. By default it is on a monthly and quarterly basis. Is this possible? If so, how can it be done? If this is possible, I will need to compare weekly sales. Another question is, is it still possible to also keep the monthly time variable? ✍ANSWER For a weekly cockpit to be implemented for a client, all data loads and buffering should be done on a daily basis but all the underlying queries in the future should be based on a calendar week. Here are the steps you can do to fulfill your client’s requirements: 1. Create the queries at week level ->you can use CALWEEK in the queries; 2. Structure for the x-axis with off sets. You can also mix months and weeks in the same graph. An alternative to this is to get a week wise data on MC frame graph dynamically. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 64 - For your last question, yes this is also possible with additional configuration almost similar to the weekly requirement. ☞QUESTION 54 Dynamic Lead column and Data column What is the concept of dynamic lead or data column about? What are its functions? ✍ANSWER Dynamic data columns and lead columns ensure that the layout created contains all the values of the character that are made dynamic. Example: If one wants all the 12 periods in data column, one option is he defines the same individually in the layout builder. The second and better option is he makes period character as dynamic and restricts it to 1 - 12 in the planning level. This will ensure that the entire 12 columns are shown in the data column of the layout. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 65 - ☞QUESTION 55 BPS - Distributing fix amount over few periods Here is our scenario: We plan our quantities over six a month period. For example: (1) Plan 1: 50 PC 2. 100 PC 3. 50 PC 4. 100 PC 5. 50 PC 6. 100 PC This makes a forecast of: 450 PC/period; (2) We have a budget from 600 PC/period; Now, I want to distribute the 150 PC over these 6 periods: - Equally and - Depending on the proportion of each period My layout looks similar like to this: 1 2 3 4 5 6 YTD Forecast Budget Budget-Forecast x x x x x x 450 500 150 SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 66 - It did not work with the distribution function. Or I did it in the wrong way ✍ANSWER On the face of it, I am not sure if using distribution method is the right way, as you also want to consider existing values and then apportion the difference. There are a few options available, but I think these 2 might help you resolve it: 1. Create a planning function of type formula and then derive the new values. 2. Create a layout, which shows existing values. You can then input the new values manually into the layout. The factors which would drive either of the option would be the volume of changes and combinations possible and the complexity in creating the layout. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 67 - ☞QUESTION 56 BCS master data synchrnonization (Local to BW) I have a question about SEM BCS master data synchrnonization (Local to BW). At the moment, I set the customizing for Automatic synchronization from SEM-BCS (Leading system) to BW system. It seems to be working well. For reporting purposes, I marked the Reverse (+/-) sign as a hierarchy attribute in the BW side. An example of which is to change the sign of Liability & Equity Item to display as positive in BW reporting. The problem arise’s when a user creates a new ITEM in SEM -BCS system. It overwrites the reverse +/- sign attribute in BW hierarchy and needs to re-mark for correctness of BW reports. I am trying to upload the reported financial data. I would like to know whether I need to enter the values with +/- sign or the system will take care based on the (+) and (-) sign while defining the FS items. Is there any standard approach to resolve this issue? ✍ANSWER I have also asked SAP to change this so that the BW reverse sign is not changed. Their response is that it is not in high demand and they will consider this for future SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 68 - enhancements. In the meantime they recommend you update the reverse sign indicator after synchronizing the master data and before reporting again. You can follow the SAP recommendation and manually changed the BW reverse sign indicator in BW after synchronizing the data. Check your data collection method either flexi or Load from data stream, on the Setting tab. When you select the Treatment of Dr/Cr sign attribute indicator for an item, the values in the data stream are multiplied by the debit/credit sign you designated in Customizing for the Master data item or subitem. When you do not select the indicator, the system assumes that the debit/credit sign in the BW data stream or in your CSV file is correct. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 69 - ☞QUESTION 57 DR/CR indicator in Reported financial data I am trying to upload the reported financial data. I would like to know whether I need to enter the values with +/- sign or the system will take care based on the (+/-) sign while defining the FS items. ✍ANSWER Both options are available. You can define in the upload method to read from the FS Item if that is what you want. In this case you don’t need to include a negative sign on the values. If you don’t, then include the negative sign for credit values in the entries. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 70 - ☞QUESTION 58 BPS WebInterface: Selection of values I created a Web Interface with 3 columns consisting of user, client, and project. For each of these columns there is a reference to an InfoObject. All InfoObjects are located in one InfoCube. The InfoCube is filled with data and looks like: User Client Project: me client1 prj1 me client1 prj2 me client2 prj3 you client3 prj4 I already created a WebInterface, where the values of the InfoObjects were shown in a dropdown menu for each InfoObject. Now I want it to make the following selections by itself, regarding to the function “add” (“hinzufügen”), which adds a dataset to the already existing ones. If I choose the User. (e.g. me), the WebInterface should adjust the value entries of the dropdown menu for the Client. It means that if you chose “me” as user, you have only the possibility to choose “client1” and “client2”. Furthermore, these shall work with the Client and Project drop down menus (By choosing client 1, only the selection of “prj1” and “prj2” shall be possible). What could be the problem here and how do I get these to work? SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 71 - ✍ANSWER These are the descriptions of your problem. 1. You have 3 info objects – the person, client and project. 2. There is no relationship between the 3 at the info object level. 3. The master data is loaded for the 3 info objects. 4. The relationship between the 3 info objects is in a layout. The following are steps you can take to resolve your issues: 1. Do not restrict values in a drop down based on a relationship in a layout. 2. Let the drop down menus reflect all valid master data for the info object. One way to prevent users from choosing an erroneous value from a drop down list is to create a validation rule, which would be based on the layout which creates the relationship between the three. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 72 - ☞QUESTION 59 Consolidation fiscal year chang My company has implemented consolidation in which we upload from excel monthly balances of our companies in order to execute consolidation. Our fiscal year was from January to December. However, we now have decided that our fiscal year shall be from October to September. When I reach the month of September the next upload shall be defined as in the period 01 of 2006 which basically will be October? Shall I change the posting variant which is linked in global parameters? What shall I do to comply with the new changes? ✍ANSWER The solution is quite simple. You must change the fiscal year variant to reflect the new fiscal year. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 73 - ☞QUESTION 60 BPS Variables How do I create a variable on fiscper which popups and ask the user what the value is? The problem is the first time the variable executes how I want it, the subsequent executions stores the previous value I keyed, so it does not show the prompt anymore. I tried resolving it with fixed value as well as characteristic value variable with permutation combination with a check box like “Restriction of values required by user” or “Input Allowed by user”. In BW, when the query variable prompts, we key in the value and it executes as simple as that. This is how I want the BPS to work. I do not want to reuse values on subsequent executions. Are there any pointers that I can use to fulfill the requirement? ✍ANSWER I would suggest that while training the users on data entry, tell them to check the variable against which they are entering the data in a planning folder. An alternative solution would be to write an ABAP variable exit function. Call a popup function to get a value - e.g. POPUP_ SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 74 - TO_GET_ONE_VALUE. Write the user input value into ‘eto_ charsel’. You should always supply a result (a dummy value if the user cancels). Create a variable of type ‘User Exit’ and supply the exit function. Use the variable in the required planning level. FYI: Using a popup that allows multiple entries would enable you for example to select periods 2006001 and 2006004. You can load these periods into the return table as a low - high range (select 4 periods), or as two single values (select two non-consecutive periods). Another alternative solution is to refresh or delete the variable value after the user has finished the planning function and saved the data. The tables to clear are ‘upc_var_cha_sel and upc_var_cha_act’. In a nutshell, have an exit-function which executes in your planning folder on save. The parameters you need for the tables are the planning area of the variable, the name of the variable and the user-id. All of which are readily available. The Important parameters for your function will be: I_AREA TYPE UPC_Y_AREA I_VAR TYPE UPC_Y_VARIABLE I_VARUSER TYPE UNAME CHANM TYPE UPC_Y_CHANM SEQNO TYPE UPC_Y_SEQNO SIGN TYPE UPC_Y_SIGN SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 75 - OPT TYPE UPC_Y_OPTION LOW TYPE UPC_Y_LOW HIGH TYPE UPC_Y_HIGH Sample codes: select mandt area var varuser chanm seqno sign opt low high from upc_var_cha_sel into table it_var_cha_sel where area = i_area and var = l_var and varuser = i_varuser. If sy-subrc = 0. * LOOP AT it_var_cha_sel. * it_var_cha_sel-low = 0. * it_var_cha_sel-high = 0. * MODIFY it_var_cha_sel. * ENDLOOP. delete upc_var_cha_sel from table it_var_cha_sel. call function ‘DB_COMMIT’. endif. select mandt area var varuser chanm seqno sign opt low high from upc_var_cha_act into table it_var_cha_sel where area = i_area and var = l_var and varuser = i_varuser. If sy-subrc = 0. * LOOP AT it_var_cha_sel. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 76 - * it_var_cha_sel-low = 0. * it_var_cha_sel-high = 0. * MODIFY it_var_cha_sel. * ENDLOOP. delete upc_var_cha_act from table it_var_cha_sel. call function ‘DB_COMMIT’. endif. This is very simple but effective. Of course, the variables need to be defined with the properties, “Restriction of Values Requiered by User” and “Input Allowed by User”. Using the solution provided, this will force a pop-up selection every time since the previous value in the variable buffer/table has been removed. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 77 - ☞QUESTION 61 Automatic Inversion in SEM-BCS I have a question regarding “automatic inversion”. We use “cumulative” period. Do we need to invert all elimination documents in the next period? (InterCO AP/AR, InterCo Sales/Expense, Mark up elimination, etc.) Do we also need to invert all automated task? (Calculate RE, currency translation, etc.) How does “Inversion” differ from “Reverse”? ✍ANSWER The option exists for inverting elimination documents, but is not necessary. Another option would be to not use inversion and therefore configure document types for reversal, for audit trail purpose. You do not need to invert all automated tasks. Inversion only applies where documents are posted - which usually does not occur for Calc RE or Translation. If you elect to use inversion, it is advisable to have the Period Initialization task as the first task in the monitor. SAP also provides documentation regarding this. Inversion is typically a reversal in the subsequent period. And reversals can occur in any period. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 78 - ☞QUESTION 62 SEM-BCS: Creating a manual JV Is it possible to create a manual JV in BCS similar to one in FI? For example: i) I want to be able to park the document; ii) Once it’s reviewed by the supervisor only the supervisor can post it; ✍ANSWER Only in the R/3-based BCS can the document be placed on hold without posting. For BW-based BCS, one suggestion is to develop a report for the supervisors to review the posted documents. If there are documents that the supervisors disagree with, they can be subsequently reversed. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 79 - ☞QUESTION 63 SEM-BCS Vs EC-CS What are the differences between SEM-BCS (BW Based) and EC-CS? How is SEM-BCS superior to EC-CS? ✍ANSWER Both have pros and cons. However, the direction for future development and enhancements by SAP is clearly with BCS and not ECCS. It is recommended that BCS be implemented in most cases. If there is no need for BW whatsoever, and R/3 is the primary ERP, then ECCS may be easier to implement and maintain. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 80 - ☞QUESTION 64 Extracting CO Transactional data into BPS We can not find any standard extractors for CO Transactional data (planning and actual) into BW-BPS. We are looking to extract Cost Center planning to BW-BPS. Is it predelivered as a standard business content or do we have to configure extractors manually? How about extractors? ✍ANSWER You can try resolving the issue under CO-OM-CCA. Or, an alternative would be: Cost Center Planning: Costs and Allocations Technical name: 0SEM_C18 Cost Center Planning: Activity Type Prices Technical name: 0SEM_C19 Cost Center Planning: Cost Center/Activity Type Prices Technical name: 0SEM_C20 Cost Center Planning: Cost Driver Technical name: 0SEM_C21 SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 81 - For the two other questions, there are a series of Cost datasources/extractors. 0CO_OM_CCA_1 Cost centers: Costs and allocations 0CO_OM_CCA_10 Cost Centers: Commitment Line Items 0CO_OM_CCA_2 Cost centers: Split costs 0CO_OM_CCA_3 Cost centers: Activities 0CO_OM_CCA_4 Cost centers: Statistical key figures 0CO_OM_CCA_5 Cost Centers: Variances 0CO_OM_CCA_6 CostCtr: Layered costs 0CO_OM_CCA_7 Cost centers: Budget 0CO_OM_CCA_8 Cost centers: Rates 0CO_OM_CCA_9 Cost Centers: Actual Costs Using Delta Extraction One of these should at least be able to serve as a base for your solution. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 82 - ☞QUESTION 65 Error when accessing BCS TC UCWB & UCMON We are in BW 3.5 level 13 and SEM 4 level 9. When I try to access the t.c UCWB or UCMON or UCPP I get “No errors found in GUID use”. What is the problem? ✍ANSWER The error message was misleading. You can apply the patches for all the components viz. SAP_BW, FINBASIS, BI_CON and SEM-BW. This would take care of the problem. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 83 - ☞QUESTION 66 BPS: Problem in uploading flat file to BW- BPS We are going to do the text upload into BW-BPS. I found documentation, which is, ‘How To...Load a Flat File Into BW- BPS Using A Web Browser’. I had difficulty in defining the file structure in the global data of the function groups (Z_SEM_BPS_EXIT_FILE_WEB and Z_SEM_BPS_EXIT_FILE_LOAD). I copied the file structure definition from the appendix attached in the documentation (see below for part of the definition I don’t understand). TYPES: yth_data TYPE /1sem/_yth_data_800zfile, yt_data TYPE /1sem/_yt_data_800zfile, ys_data TYPE /1sem/_ys_data_800zfile, yto_chas TYPE /1sem/_yto_chas_800zfile, ys_chas TYPE /1sem/_ys_chas_800zfile, ys_kyfs TYPE /1sem/_ys_kyfs_800zfile. How do we define the ‘/1sem/_yth_data_553zfile’? As I know, we have to replace the client number. What about the rest? In my environment, client number is different between dev,qa and prd. So, how do I setup my global file structure? TYPES: yth_data TYPE /1sem/_yth_data_800zfile, yt_data TYPE /1sem/_yt_data_800zfile, ys_data TYPE /1sem/_ys_data_800zfile, yto_chas TYPE /1sem/_yto_chas_800zfile, SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 84 - ys_chas TYPE /1sem/_ys_chas_800zfile, ys_kyfs TYPE /1sem/_ys_kyfs_800zfile My qa client number is not 800. I get these errors during my transport. How can I fix it? ✍ANSWER That white paper is alright but not all inclusive if you are new to BW/BPS. I bet you will have other problems after this one. For your environment, there is no easy solution. If you want to avoid copying SAP generated structure into one with a fixed name and use it instead, the following should work for you: * Fields for dynamic type allocation of Planning Area data <lt_data> type standard table, <ls_data>. concatenate ‘/1SEM/_YT_DATA_’ sy-mandt I_AREA into dynamictype. CREATE DATA lt_dataref TYPE (dynamictype). Assign lt_dataref->* to <lt_data>. concatenate ‘/1SEM/_YS_DATA_’ sy-mandt I_AREA into dynamictype. CREATE DATA ls_dataref TYPE (dynamictype). assign ls_dataref->* to <ls_data>. * You can now use <lt_data> and <ls_data> instead of your SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 85 - original * table/structure. But you may have problems accessing their * components because they have no structure. Fix that problem by * using dynamic syntax for that as well, e.g. * sort <lt_data> by (‘S_CHAS-0FISCPER’). By the way, the “How to” does not have any conversion of Characteristic values from external format to internal format. I think it would be safer to add it to the INIT function. See “How to Upload user-specific variable selection” for a piece of ABAP that does it. You also have to replace the ZFILE with your planning level. Then it should work. The flat file HAS to be tab delimited and not; delimeted. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 86 - ☞QUESTION 67 How do I check if BCS is installed? How do I check if BCS is installed? We are on 3.5 (Support Package 13). Is there a t-code where I can “see” BCS? How do I check if SEM 3.5 is installed? ✍ANSWER If iSEM 3.5 then yes, BCS is included in the Business Content. If it is BW 3.5 only, BCS is not included. The menu path is: System > Status and for the SAP System data click on the System Component icon. If it says SEM-BW 350 then you have SEM 3.5. The BW 3.5 (alone) is actually BW-SEM component. BCS is already included there in. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 87 - ☞QUESTION 68 SEM-BCS: Flat file load of Elimination entries For Inventory Eliminations we are currently loading the entries thru a Flat file. However later on we plan to use SAP’s standard module to perform this elimination. What preventive care should we take that the entries which we load now and entries which are created later will look similar? The one thing we are doing is loading the entries as posting level 20. Do we need to take care of anything else? ✍ANSWER One suggestion is to make sure the document type for these postings is reversible. Therefore, just prior to changing over to the automatic elimination, you can reverse these postings. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 88 - ☞QUESTION 69 Downloading graphs with CPM We have many BW reports and users wanted to make simple “graphs or pie charts” out of these BW reports and download (or COPY & PASTE to a local file) these graphs onto a local PC. We have many planning projects in SEM-BPS but none in CPM. Are there any CPM “documents” as a guide for this scneario apart from help.sap.com documentation? Can we achieve this using SEM-CPM? What components are needed to achieve this? What check-points do we need to take before starting a CPM project? ✍ANSWER If I understand your requirement is to have BW reports in graphical formats. BW also facilitates graphs, to make it and keep it simple you can use those and user can have local workbooks. You can also use the web reports and make it as an offline web reports and download into the local PC. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 89 - ☞QUESTION 70 Default values in CPM variables Is there a way to enter a default value in a CPM variable and is there a way to limit or restrict the values that it displays? Also, is there a way to sort the values in the CPM variable? Are there books/documentations on SEM with a focus on cockpits? ✍ANSWER There is a way to enter a default value in a CPM variable and there is also a way to limit or restrict the values that it displays. In cockpit design - in frames design - in “selection criteria” option, you can assign/limit values to a variable. On the right hand side screen, if you click on option “selection” opposite to your variable, you get a list of values which you can select and restrict. I don”t think there are any books for cockpit (at least I have not come across any). SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 90 - ☞QUESTION 71 SEM-BCS: Difference between Reverse and Delete What is the difference between reversing a document and deleting a document? I tried deleting some documents which I uploaded. I am able to reverse them but not delete them. ✍ANSWER Deleting documents is not a good idea because the audit trail for the totals data is lost. Reversing is the conservative and preferred approach. If, however you are deleting data from a test system, then deleting the totals data and the corresponding documents is okay. Just make sure you are consistent in deleting documents as well as data. Otherwise inconsistencies arise with the documents data compared with the totals data. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 91 - ☞QUESTION 72 SEM-BCS Transaction codes & BW3.5 We are running BW3.5 system. I checked the IMG but I am not able to see any SEM component. SEM is an addon component for BW3.5 or only BPS. Where can I find the list of BCS base level transaction? ✍ANSWER You can find it in UCWB for the configuration workbench. Use tne UCMON for the problems with the monitor and screen. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 92 - ☞QUESTION 73 BCS: Unrealised profit elimination of inventory I am implementing SEM-BCS for 5 company codes with transfer of inventory amongst the group of companies. Each transfer (in SAP R/3) would generate inter-company profit based on irregular transfer pricing mark-ups e.g. sometimes cost plus 5%, sometimes an absolute amount etc. What is the most optimal way of calculating the unrealised profit of the ending inventory balances of these entities? What is the best practice to eliminate such unrealised profit? The CFO of this company wants to be able to eliminate the unrealised profit per material or SKU. Is this even sensible? ✍ANSWER In my experiences I have not seen the level of accuracy to the material or SKU. Many companies do a simple calculation and or estimation in Excel and post the elimination manually in BCS. What you mention is possible; however, maintaining the product groups at that level as well as the markup is probably not worth the effort, especially if it can be done in Excel or Access faster and easier. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 93 - ☞QUESTION 74 BCS balance carry forward with sub-item specification In BCS release 3.5 I can’t define in ‘Sub-item master data’ the sub-item on which the carryforward open the value for next year. I’m sure in BCS 4.0 it is possible. Could it be a setting missing in wokbench or 3.5 that does not support this definition? In SAP documentation for BCS 3.5 it seems that you can define the subitem for carryforward activity. ✍ANSWER The sub-assignments often used for keeping the opening balances separate from the activity throughout the year is Movement Type or Transaction Type. The master data for these characteristics includes where each is to be carried forward to. These have been used in 3.5 BCS many times without any problems. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 94 - ☞QUESTION 75 Multi Values for character in data columns for Mannual Plan Layout I am working on SEM BPS. We have implemented BPS for Sales Budgeting. I got stuck with a problem. I am creating a manual planning layout. I am using 0plant character in data column of layout. With this we can select only one value for 0plant for the key figure. However, I want multiple values for 0pant. How do I accomplish this? ✍ANSWER You need multiple values of plant in a column. You can get this by making 0plant as dynamic in the planning layout builder. This will generate all the plant values as columns. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 95 - ☞QUESTION 76 Sarbanes-Oxley compliance How do I apply Sarbanes-Oxley with BPS? What sort of SOA training is suggested for BPS? ✍ANSWER Sarbanes-Oxley is more of Management’s Internal Control. It is some sort of audit trail, appropriate authorisations, roles, etc. I had experience applying SOA in the project happened in the USA (for a company) and we had done it with user exits. I don’t think that any SOA training is available now. However, SAP provides a solution for this. It’s called SAP MIC = Management of Internal Controls. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 96 - ☞QUESTION 77 BCS implementation timings and roles Is there any specific team structure for BCS implementation besides FI, CO, and BW consultants at client site? What are the typical roles and other implementations? What are the typical implementation times for implementing 11 company codes, and multiple profit centers with multi currencies (from Europe, and North America) doing monthly consolidations (periodicity)? ✍ANSWER There is no specific template for SEM-BCS. It all depends on Client requirement. Team structure is not sterotyped like R/3. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 97 - ☞QUESTION 78 Creating Custom Elimination Logic + Documents I have a custom Elimination logic which means I create these documents using BPS functionality. I am not sure how to tag those documents e.g. posting level, document type, etc. I need to know how I can make an assignment so that these are separate from the other documents created by the system. Our Company Eliminations are standard but the Business eliminations are non-standard i.e. I cannot use BCS for that. I am able to generate the documents thru BPS but wasn’t sure how to integrate them to the BCS database. When I created a method with Data Stream “Documents”, Collection procedure “Load from Data Stream”, a Method and a Document type with a posting level of 20 the system does not like it. It errors out for data collection methods - you can use only document types with posting levels 01, 10. I’ll try and see whether I can load it thru Flexible Upload. But that would be painful. Are there any other alternatives to fix this? ✍ANSWER Posting level and document type are typical BCS characteristics. If you are referring to BCS, you must define a different document type for elimination. Eliminations are typically SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 98 - assigned to posting level 20 in BCS. The document types must also be assigned a number range in BCS if you are using a documents ODS for documents, which is common for most BCS databasis configurations. Also, with BCS you have the ability to define custom elimination method layouts and therefore should not need to use BPS functionality for this - if you are consolidating in BCS, that is. If you are using SEM 4.0 then you can use the Read-from- datastream method in BCS to bring the documents in from BPS. Otherwise you may have to create a flat file and post them in BCS via Flexible file upload method, which is possible for documents using posting level 20. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 99 - ☞QUESTION 79 BCS master data creation I need to create an update master data for consolidation unit (Company code) via flexible upload. I created the upload method, but when we did the upload, it is not appearing. What are the steps to correctly do this? ✍ANSWER For uploading master data, a method is not necessary. Once the Flexible file upload is configured, you simply right click on it and choose the option to execute it. Make sure you save the data after successfully executing it or the master data is not saved. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 100 - ☞QUESTION 80 SEM-BCS errors I am working on the prototype of SEM-BCS but I am getting a lot of errors. 1. I have copied 0FIGL_C10 Infocube and converted it to Transactional Info Cube and using this in Total Records in UCWB; 2. In Data Model (BCS-CS) I have assigned required Characteristics and Key figures to Role Version,Gr Currency, Consolidation Unit (Profit Center), Partner Unit, Consolidation Group, Item, Document Type, Period, Fiscal Year, Fixed Consolidation Area, Value in Gr.Currency, and Quantity. When I save this data I get a list of Errors which I am unable to understand. They are as follows: ‘ OCS_COI AC, 0CS_COI NR, OBCS_AUTODL, ) BCS_ DTEQI,0BCS_GWPROC,)BCS_ORGCH does not actively exist or cannot be used in system’ Finally, ‘Role PLEVEL’ is not yet allocated in data basis BC. ✍ANSWER You could try installing the InfoObjects identified in the errors from the Business Content, but do not use them. Then generate the Data Basis again. After this, you should have no problems. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 101 - PLEVEL is the posting level required for consolidations. This is necessary for the virtual cube logic for presenting the appropriate consolidated group results in queries. This characteristic can be found in the standard BCS Infocubes and must be added to the Totals infocube you created for BCS totals. You need to have the charcteristic Posting Level in your BW cube. You then need to assign it in the BCS Data Basis. 0CS_PLEVEL is included in the Business Content and is also included with the delivered BCS InfoCubes. You should be able to find this in the Business Content, install it, and then include it in your data model. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 102 - ☞QUESTION 81 Error in query - BCS When I run a query, this message appears: “Error unable to determine consolidation area for data basis CA Error Error al leer los datos del infoprovider ZBCS_CV15 Cancelacion Error de sistema en programaSAPLRRK0 y FORM RSRDR;SRRK0F30-01- “ We have installed these SP: SAP_BW 013 FINBASIS 009 SEM-BW 009 What could be wrong and how could this be resolved? ✍ANSWER You might need to import a note or two. At the same time ensure that the query filters are on the parameters Fiscal Year, Fiscal Year Variant, Controlling Area, and Chart of Accounts. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 103 - ☞QUESTION 82 Bex Query not Matched with UCMON List of Total Records BCS I made a query based on a virtual cube of a BCS cube. I run my query selecting reporting logic ‘None , Standard or Purchase’ but the value is all the same. On the otherhand in UCMON List Total Records in BCS I get a different value for Different Reporting logic selection. Is it safe to assume UCMON values are correct and my BEX query on the virtual cube is wrong? The Query technical is correct but do we have to do something or apply a note to correct this anomally. We are on BCS4 BW 3.5. ✍ANSWER I suggest you first make sure that the master data and master data hierarchies are in synch with BW - especially if the master data maintenance occurred in BW instead of BCS. Note 689229 will help explain the synchronization programs. If the master data is in synch with BW then make sure you have defined a Cons group from the Cons group hierarchy in the BW query and have not defined a Cons unit instead. Then, if still needed, make sure the setting for the Totals records program selections include the exact same selection SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 104 - parameters including cons groups from the query and select the Standard reporting logic. This should, in most cases, return the same results as the query. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 105 - ☞QUESTION 83 Initial load prior to starting SEM-BCS My client wants to go-live during the 4th quarter of the year. However he wants the data of the last year to be available for comparison purposes. I am a bit unsure on how to go about this. If I load stuff in period 12 and do a carryforward in period 1 does the Opening balance in Period 0 have any transaction type? Can you load Eliminations via Document Upload ? If you load it via Flexible File Upload can you assign it a posting level 20 or would it be 00? The reason I ask is we have a situation where we want to just load the Elimination documents. However when I try to do a Document Upload the system can have it only as posting level 01 or 10 so am not sure how I can separate these in the reports. ✍ANSWER The ideal approach is to load historical data from the source ledgers and consolidate the historical data in BCS. This gives you the opportunity to test the configuration. If that is not acceptable, the next best solution I is to load the historical data via Flexible File Upload and separately load SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 106 - documents for the Eliminations via Flexible File Upload. This segregates the data for reporting at the group level. Keep in mind that the Eliminations require the Partner Unit for each line. Another solution is to load the eliminations to separate Consolidation units within the corresponding Consolidation Groups. Then change the hierarchy at go-live to block or remove these to avoid posting to them once live. The data in period 0 will have the same transaction type as it had in period 12 of the prior year - unless you define it otherwise in the master record of the transaction type. The transaction type master records in many cases are defined to carry forward to a different transaction type. It is possible to load eliminations with posting level 20 via flexible file upload. The posting level is defined as part of the document type. Keep in mind that each line item requires both the cons unit and trading partner for this level of posting. If that is not acceptable, the next best solution I recommend is to load the historical data via Flexible File Upload and separately load documents for the Eliminations via Flexible File Upload. This segregates the data for reporting at the group level. Keep in mind that the Eliminations require the Partner Unit for each line. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 107 - ☞QUESTION 84 Transaction Codes Where I can find out transaction codes for BPS? ✍ANSWER Do a SE16 on table TSTC and you’ll see the complete list. If you are specific about BPS, then the following are the important ones, which are very frequently used: (1) BPS0......Planning Workbench (2) UPSPL.......Executing Planning Folder (3) UPSPM.......Customizing Planning Folder (4) BPS_WIF0.......Executing Web Interface Planning Folder (5) PS_WB .......Customizing Planning Folder (6) BPS_STS_START........Executing Status & Tracking system (7) BPS_TC .......Customizing the STS SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 108 - ☞QUESTION 85 BSC guidelines on number of matrix consolidation units I have spoken to some SAP contacts and researched service. sap.com. yet I cannot find any guidelines on the following for BCS: - Recommended number of matrix combination consolidation units - Recommended number of profit centres/ groups (I have been told by an unnoffical SAP contact that this is 9000) - Recommended number of group accounts (again, a SAP contact has said the latest recommendation is approximately 1000) - Possible combination of the above- e.g. Does half the number of accounts mean I can have twice as many profit centers? The number of transactions (assuming account balances) BCS should foreseeably be managed per annum. ✍ANSWER I have read from SAP documents in the SEM media library that the recommended maximum number of cons units (combined) is 10,000. For FS Items, the “best practice” is 1,000 or fewer, but I have seen as many as 2,700 with one implementation. The greater the number of both cons units and FS Items the more records likely that the database will affect the performance with respect to both the processing in the Monitor as well as reporting. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 109 - ☞QUESTION 86 Hierarchies in BCS /BW At first, we had problems seeing our two Consolidation Items Hierarchies in BW. We had 2 hierarchies created in SEM-BCS but only 1 available in BW. As a result of that, and in the meantime, we have created the missing hierarchy manually on BW. Now we have both hierarchies in BW and SEM-BCS. But the problem now is that we are trying to build a Query over the hierarchy we created recently in BW. There we can see a “Not assigned” node with all the accounts for the hierarchy, in addition to the hierarchy itself. As a result of all the process, the query shows the balances twice for hierarchy. We are using the available Queries 4 and 5. In addition, we have the same problem with 2 hierarchies for Consolidation Groups: in SEM-BCS there are 6 Groups and in BW, there are just 4. It seems to be inconsistent for the Master Data between SEM-BCS and BW. What can I do to resolve this? ✍ANSWER See OSS Note 689229 regarding programs UGMDSYNC and UGMDSY20. It is very helpful for synchronizing the BCS and BW master data and hierarchies respectively. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 110 - Meanwhile the problem of ‘not assigned’ is probably because the accounts (FS Items) are not compounded with the chart of accounts in your BW hierarchy. Therefore you are reporting with your chart of accounts and also with non-assigned items. Either exclude non-assigend items from your report, or delete the surplus BW hierarchy. ☞QUESTION 87 SEM-BCS implementation in India Has anybody implemented SEM-BCS in India? If yes, can anybody help me in guiding me as to how much time it takes for our 1000 crore co. which has 3 Plants and 6 company Codes all on SAP and BIW? Does India have any success stories in SEM-BPS? ✍ANSWER It is not the turnover that determines the time. There are other factors. Success is also not country dependent. For your second query, there are very few clients that have implemented BPS. Some did not have a successful project but it could still be a good one. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 111 - ☞QUESTION 88 Lock data acquisition with bps workflow I would like to know if it’s possible to lock data acquisition on a web interface with BPS Workflow (bps_tc). If yes, how could we do it? ✍ANSWER You can create a planning function that updates data slices on your planning area when the status of your workflow changes. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 112 - ☞QUESTION 89 CPM vs. Web Designer We’re currently on 8.3. We are in the phase of requirement gathering, trying to evaluate the solution for management reporting. We have options either to go for cockpit or web designer. Can you suggest the pros and cons of Cockpit/Web Designer and what would you suggest to go with. As far as my knowledge goes, Cockpit provides more graphical options and displays status of the reports like (red, green yellow). Do we have similar functionality in Web designer? We may use only Rows, Column, or Simple Pie chart for our reports and not necessarily all pie charts. We have only Actuals now, no plan data. Which is the best solution and if so, what are the advantages over the other one? Web designer is more flexible in terms of moving all Bex queries into web Templates. How flexible is it in cockpit in moving the same and handling time variables. Can we redo the same thing like showing green, red and yellow in Web Designer? With regards to issues of the performance, time granularity and IGS time outs which one is better and in what scenarios? SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 113 - ✍ANSWER You are correct when you say that cockpit provides more graphical options and displays status of the reports like (red, green yellow). CPM is very capable of handling the situation that you have on hand.Not only will you be able to group the reports into individual frames/views/walls. Also you can use value_ranges on the k.figures to optimise for red,blue,green etc. You can also set up cascaded relationships between measures in one frame to another, provide drill down functionality from the frame to indivisual querries/workbooks/BSP applications. One advantage web designer provides is company wide branding of your interfaces (look and feel) by uploading your custom templates. You could achieve the similar functionality using CSS by web-enabling your CPM iplementation. You can dp all the CPM activities in Web, it looks good and is very easy. CPM is slow, and does not have a lot of flexibility. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 114 - ☞QUESTION 90 SEM-BCS: Tables I want to be able to read the Intercompany Elimination settings i.e. Selection 1 and Selection 2 thru a program. Where are these stored? ✍ANSWER In transaction UCWB expand the process view to Consolidation Functions > Interunit eliminations > methods (dbl click). Then, in the methods view right click on each method and choose list settings to see all of the info. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 115 - ☞QUESTION 91 Corvu and SAP BW/SEM Compared At our site we are currently running SAP BW. We have guys from a Company called Corvu who are talking to senior management in our company. So far they have shown to the senior management what took weeks and months to do in SAP BW what these chaps have done in days and hours. In fact they do everything that SAP SEM - BPS and CPM does and they claim they are 1/5th the cost of BW/SEM in licensing. Apparently these chaps took our business people to some very good reference sites where end users where praising Corvu scorecards and planning applications. Apparently, they seem to have some very high profile customers like the US Army. Are there any reference materials or websites containing a comparative and objective evaluation of the Corvu vis and a vis SAP BW/SEM? ✍ANSWER From my point of view, what SAP provides is business solution. If you simply check the technology of a component, perhaps all software could do it, but if you consider the whole business process of your enterprise, few software could do it. For example, the software you mentioned cannot retract the SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 116 - plan data to an ERP system, like the R/3 does. Nor could it integrate with the HR organizational structure. So to make it short, each software has its own strengths and weaknesses. SAP has its fair share of both but so far, it is still the most comprehensive when it comes to business solutions and operations. You may do a search in the internet for feedback material on both software but only the end users will be likely to have a more fair and objective judgement of this matter. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 117 - ☞QUESTION 92 BPS: How to use a planning function just in one line in layout I am trying to use a planning function in one line in a web layout. I don´t know if this is possible or not. There is functionality in the customizing of the layouts in web interface builder called “Row/Cell Selection” which led to select just one row to execute a planning function, but it just lets me erase the manual values included in the row. Could I select a row and execute a function just for this row in a web layout? I need to be able to select ANY row (not only the first) and apply ANY function I select, and to obtain the calculated values just in this row. Could this be possible? If so, how is it done? ✍ANSWER If your first row selection “Chem and Ethylene” is going to be the same as compared to the second row, then yes, you can give it as a field for condition in your formula. If not, then you can write an ABAP code in BSP Application saying that whenever a particular function is to run, apply the formula changes only for the first row (what-so-ever the row may contain) and retain the rest of values as they were prior to running the function. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 118 - Write a code in your BSP application which will select the row you have selected and the function button you have pressed and it will give the desired result. There is no such a kind of functionality given in standard BPS functions because SEM is more of a “high level” tool. Also, the note OSS 522330 describes how to do it (the note is about the deletion of one line of a layout but you can use the same solution for any kind of function). ☞QUESTION 93 Delivered Roles for SEM Are there any delivered roles for SEM Admin like SAP_***** or do we need to build one with Authorization objects like R_Area, R_plevel etc.? ✍ANSWER Standard roles are delivered for SEM. If you deviate from the standard roles, this will invove much work and careful planning. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 119 - ☞QUESTION 94 Virtual Cube We want to present the financial data in the measure of CPM. In BW, normally we used 0FIGL-VC1 for financial data because of the balance of B/S. What is the best approach in assigningthe key figures in query to the measure? Should we use the query from virtual cube (0FIGL_VC1) or use the basic cube of GL instead? ✍ANSWER Try using regular or multi cube and the results will be the same. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 120 - ☞QUESTION 95 Multiple single values in header I have a scenario where characteristics need to be in header area with variable. (E.g. material. when a person calls the layout based on the user, it collects the material he belongs to). Standard web layout doesn’t allow multiple single values in header. I created a variable within the same container for receiving list of material and then assigned manual layout in the same level. When I publish the layout, I can see the variable with list of material. But still the layout complains that “Multiple single values are not allowed in header” and the layout is not bringing any values. What is the best way to do this? ✍ANSWER In a BPS layout one cannot have multiple single values in the header. The logic for the same is, in case the same is allowed and you enter some data in the layout, against which value should the system store the data in the cube. In case you are creating this layout for some reporting purpose I would suggest using a BW query. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 121 - ☞QUESTION 96 Hierarchies in SEM-BCS synchronization with BW system I am facing a problem where the hierarchies created in BW needs to be transferred to the SEM system. I used the Hierarchy sync program UCM to do that. The hierarchy appears in SEM. I used that in my Inter Unit Eliminations but when I run the eliminations it shows up with no data (as if the hierarchy node did not contain any accounts). It seems there is a bug in the UGMDSYNC20. It seems this program should be used mainly to sychronise between BCS and BW and not vice-versa. If you try to do BW to BCS it brings over the hierachy but might not expand the intervals (of accounts for eg.). The hierarchy node is there but there are no nodes underneath it. How do I move hierarchies from BW to BCS without having any issues? ✍ANSWER Check the FS Items in the BCS workbench to see if they appear there. Make sure that the balances to be eliminated have trading partners. If not, they will not be eliminated. When trading partner is not available an alternative to SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 122 - elimination is reclassification. Before synchronizing the hierarchies you must first synchronize the master data via program UGMDSYNC. Once the master data was synchronized first, you will be able to synch BCS with BW hierarchy. It is better if the hierarchy can be maintained in BCS, but when it is extracted the only options are either to create in BCS separately or the reverse synch. With master data the reverse synch often does not include all the information needed by BCS (breakdown category, etc.). SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 123 - ☞QUESTION 97 Reference Note 117253 for Knowledge Product for SEM BCS As per the note 117253 we can order the Knowledge CD from SAPSHOP link http://service.sap.com/knowledgecat -> Knowledge Products. However the link gives the following error: “Error code: WEBSMP201-20050914065050-0036 Error details: 10020ADF-702/19AC8/3235-5C3B9945- BC4A793-4572DCC Service Name: WEBSMP201 Service Server: ALIAS Process-ID: 556 Thread-ID: 1604” How can we order this CD? Is the CD really useful for implementation? By the way, we are doing this implementation internally without any consultants. ✍ANSWER This CD is very old and outdated, and is for R/3 ECCS Release 4.0. The BCS documentation for Release 4.0 is more detailed and should be helpful for any of the BW-based BCS releases. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 124 - ☞QUESTION 98 Problems with SEM What are some of the problems and risks during implementation of SAP´s SEM? What are the weaknesses of SEM? ✍ANSWER SEM is more of a “Top Level Strategic Management” tool. SEM deals more with top level data and if we try to show data with too much detail - say 4-5 levels of hierarchy then the system performance gets affected. The user may require too much of “user-friendliness” or “ease” while working on BPS layouts. But many times, the standard functionality does not provide that and we need the help of a person who can develop BSP applications in API. Another “problem” in the use of SAP’s SEM is that there are no offline planning support available in BPS. Third, any customisation in BPS is very expensive and it needs a hybrid skill of BW, SEM BPS and ABAP plus the cost of ownership is very high. All in all the above mentioned factors have been contributing a lot to the lack of takers of SAP SEM. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 125 - ☞QUESTION 99 SEM-BCS: Currency Translation I had specified the Balance sheet account in the “Difference” tab. However, when I run the translation it is booked to the Income Statement Clearing Items (specified in selected items). I have a couple of questions regarding Currency Translation: i) Typically what is used as the Reference Rate? (Is it Period end / current / average/. Does it make a difference? ii) My client wants to post Currency translation difference arising in the Income statement to a Balance Sheet account. Is this possible? I tried to configure this but the posting is created in the Income Statement Clearing account. ✍ANSWER The answers are given according to the order they were given: 1) Typically the reference rate End of Month (period end) is used. BS-items are typically translated with EOM, P&L typically with Average. 2) This should be possible by recording this in the tab differnece or under fast entry when more steps are used. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 126 - ☞QUESTION 100 Mapping of FI document types and BCS movement types The customer has a reporting requirement for balance movement such as “Opening Balance”, “Addition”, “Release”, “Reclass”,”Write-Off”, “Mark to Market”, and “Ending balance” for all balance sheet accounts. Since SAP does not have functionality to capture movement, we decided to use FI document types to capture movements for balance sheet accounts. For Fixed Assets, we will use transaction type. Then we need to map FI document types/Fixed Assets transaction types to BCS movement types in a consolidation module. I know that mapping of Fixed Assets transaction types and BCS movement types is standard. How can I map FI document types to BCS movement types? Which among those created in SD/MM has “transaction type” fields? ✍ANSWER If you are using SEM 4.0 try using the load from data stream method and mapping the documnet type from the FI source InfoCube to the BCS transaction type or movement type. Please note that SAP standard functionailty provides for Transaction types. There are 2 types of transaction type. One is for assets, and one for other transactions. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 127 - You could enable transaction types & adjust the existing GL accounts field status to capture. The transaction types are updated in GLT3, GLPCT which can be used as a Datasource for you to extract into BW for your BCS requirements. In BCS source data basis (only version 4), you could do map SAP transaction types to BCS movement types. For example, all SAP operational Accounts with Ttypes = BCS equity fs items with breakdown movement types. Not all transactions will require Transaction Types within the Consolidation perspective. In general, the movement types which we require from BCS perspective to support reporting or consolidation functions can all be technically enabled within SAP environment. An exception is that the Integration from SD/MM or other modules need to be assessed. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 128 - ☞QUESTION 101 Automate creation of FS items We are using BW Based SEM-BCS 4.0. Is there anyway to automatically create FS item in BCS if GL account is created in FI? ✍ANSWER As far as the Meta & Master Data, Integration between SAP and BCS is through BW. There is no automatic creation of FS Items in BCS when there are new GL Accounts in SAP. The best way to manage the Integration aspects of this would be to go through BW. With BW you could always update the Master Data from SAP. From BW, you could trigger the update into BCS. Be cautious of Maintenance of Master data in BW, as you have to perform Data model synchronization job as well to reflect the updates into BCS’ own Financial Data Basis. An alternative way is from BW. Automate the process of extracted Master data to generate a BCS flexi upload file format for FS Item & store it in the application server. Use BCS Job scheduling to load the updates. Based on a different client scenario, the above definitions and functionalities might vary. SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 129 - ☞QUESTION 102 Execute SEM-BCS consolidation tasks via batch In ECCS, we could execute consolidation tasks via batch. Can we execute consolidation tasks via batch in SEM-BCS? If so, how can we do that? ✍ANSWER Yes, it is possible to execute consolidation tasks in the batch mode. You can find within the consolidation monitor under settings on the background job. The batch scheduling of consolidation tasks, require all related consolidation parameters to be saved as a Variant prior to execution. Please pay attention to the task dependencies as well sequence on scheduling the consol tasks in the background. You can also find the scheduling in the Construction Workbench (transaction UCWB) in the menu under Environment > Schedule task. This is also possible via transaction SE38 and then program UCBATCH01. Each task can be called and you can create your own variants. INDEX 0SEM_C18 ................................................................................80 0SEM_C19 ................................................................................80 0SEM_C20 ................................................................................80 0SEM_C21 ................................................................................80 ABAP ........................................................................................61 Analysis view ...........................................................................36 API ............................................................................................59 Attachment ..............................................................................37 Automatic save ........................................................................53 Balanced Scorecard ...............................................................57 BCS ...............................................................................3, 96, 102 BCS conversion .......................................................................33 BCS master data .....................................................................99 Bex Query ..............................................................................103 BIW .............................................................................................7 BIW cube ...................................................................................5 BPS cubes ................................................................................26 BPS layout .............................................................................120 BPS Manual Planning .............................................................28 BPS Variables ..............................................................23, 59, 73 SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 131 - SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 132 - bps workflow .........................................................................111 BPS_STS_START ..................................................................107 BPS_TC ..................................................................................107 BPS_WB .................................................................................107 BPS_WIF0 ..............................................................................107 BPS0 .......................................................................................107 BSC Monitor ............................................................................39 BSP ...........................................................................................17 Business Content ............................................................86, 100 BW ......................................................................................40, 53 BW reverse sign ......................................................................68 BW/SEM .................................................................................115 BW-BPS ....................................................................................83 BW-SEM ...................................................................................86 CALWEEK ................................................................................63 CC hierarchy ...........................................................................60 CM .............................................................................................47 cockpit .............................................................................31, 113 cockpit design .........................................................................89 cockpit management ..............................................................47 CON ..........................................................................................82 Consolidation ............................................................40, 72, 129 Consolidation Frequency .......................................................14 CO-PA .........................................................................................3 Corvu ......................................................................................115 CPM ................................................................................112, 113 CPM Variable .....................................................................56, 89 cube ..........................................................................................28 Currency Translation ...........................................................125 SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 133 - Custom Elimination Logic .....................................................97 Data Collection .......................................................................20 Data column ............................................................................64 data type declaration ..............................................................13 Delete .......................................................................................90 Delivered Roles .....................................................................118 Distributing fix amount ..........................................................65 Downloading graphs ..............................................................88 dynamic type allocation .........................................................84 ECCS ........................................................................................79 EC-CS .......................................................................................79 Elimination ..............................................................................35 environment ............................................................................84 Excel ....................................................................................7, 48 extract ........................................................................................7 FI document types ................................................................126 fields for condition ...................................................................2 FINBASIS .................................................................................82 fiscal year variant ....................................................................72 Fixed Assets ..........................................................................126 Flat file .....................................................................................87 flexible file upload ...................................................................6 FOX code ...........................................................................49, 61 FOX Formula .....................................................................11, 61 frame ........................................................................................27 frames design ..........................................................................89 Freezing lead columns ...........................................................16 Freezing panes in Manual planning ........................................7 FS Item .............................................................................22, 128 SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 134 - Function Attribute ..................................................................52 function module ......................................................................53 function onsave .......................................................................17 graph type ................................................................................27 Group Account Number ........................................................22 GUID .........................................................................................82 Hierarchie ..............................................................................109 Hierarchy .................................................................................43 Historical Conversion ............................................................32 historical data .......................................................................105 implementation .....................................................................110 importing hierarchy ................................................................38 INC ..............................................................................................1 info objects ..............................................................................70 Initial load ..............................................................................105 Integration .............................................................................128 Inversion ..................................................................................77 inverting elimination ..............................................................77 Key Figure .................................................................................1 Knowledge Product ..............................................................123 layout ........................................................................................66 Load from DataStream .............................................................4 Maintenance ..........................................................................128 Management Cockpit .......................................................19, 63 manual JV ................................................................................78 master data ..............................................................................68 master data synchrnonization ...............................................67 matrix consolidation units ..................................................108 MC frame .................................................................................63 SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 135 - module function ......................................................................28 monthly ....................................................................................34 monthly salary ...........................................................................1 MSAL ..........................................................................................1 Multi Values .............................................................................94 Multi-period Consolidation ...................................................18 Multiple single values ...........................................................120 OLAP ........................................................................................41 Online Analytical Processing ................................................41 opening balance ......................................................................32 performance ............................................................................13 period .......................................................................................29 Period category .......................................................................14 Plan Versions ...........................................................................18 Planning Area ..............................................................13, 74, 84 Planning folder ........................................................................52 planning function ......................................................17, 66, 117 product groups ........................................................................92 Q&A DB ....................................................................................21 quarterly ...................................................................................34 query .......................................................................................102 ratio ..........................................................................................28 Replacement type ...................................................................46 Requirements ............................................................................9 retract data ..............................................................................58 Reverse .....................................................................................90 risks during implementation ...............................................124 RSSM ........................................................................................46 Salary Formula ..........................................................................1 SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 136 - SAP ...........................................................................................82 Sarbanes-Oxley .......................................................................95 Save Initiatives ........................................................................24 selection criteria .....................................................................89 selection via hierarchy ...........................................................60 SEM ..........................................................................................51 SEM 3.5 ....................................................................................86 SEM 6.0 ......................................................................................9 SEM CPM .................................................................................44 SEM layout ..............................................................................59 SEM media library ................................................................108 SEM-BCS ..........................................................................79, 100 SEM-BCS consolidation tasks .............................................129 standard copy function ..........................................................13 sub-assignments ......................................................................93 sub-item specification ............................................................93 synchronization ....................................................................121 synchronizing ........................................................................109 Tables .....................................................................................114 task hierarchie ........................................................................30 Time variable ...........................................................................45 Trading Partner .....................................................................5, 6 Transaction Codes ................................................................107 Transport Strategy ..................................................................62 UCBATCH00 ............................................................................18 UCBATCH01 ............................................................................18 UCMON ..............................................................................82, 91 UCWB ...........................................................................15, 82, 91 UGMDSY20 ............................................................................109 SAP SEM Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: SAP BW Strategic Enterprise Management Certification Review - 137 - UGMDSYNC ....................................................................41, 109 UGMDSYNC20 ......................................................................121 Unrealised profit elimination ................................................92 update rules ...............................................................................6 uploading flat file ....................................................................83 UPSPL ....................................................................................107 UPSPM .............................................................................52, 107 variable values ........................................................................31 version ......................................................................................29 Virtual Cube ...........................................................................119 weaknesses ............................................................................124 Web Designer ........................................................................112 Web Interface ..........................................................................50 week level ................................................................................63 Year to date ..............................................................................55 Attention SAP Experts Have you ever considered writing a book in your area of SAP? 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