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Expert Mode

This section contains the following topics:

Overview and Business Application

Budget Loader Expert Mode (available as of version 4.0) allows for the mixing of Planning and History functionality within a single spreadsheet.  It will also allow for a rolling period sheet configuration as well as spanning multiple planning years and supports the independent layout of columns of either plan and/or historical information.

At a high level, apply groups, pick values, and much of the functionality of regular templates is  supported in Expert Mode.  Multi-sheet processing in Expert Mode is not supported, due to the extreme flexibility of the template layout.

Outlined below is a detailed explanation of specific functionality within Expert Mode.

Supported Transactions/Templates

The following transactions are currently supported for Expert Mode.  Every template available in Budget Loader under each transaction listed is also supported.

  1. KP06 – Cost Center: Cost / Activity Inputs
  2. KP26 – Cost Center: Activity Output / Prices
  3. KP46 – Cost Center: Statistical Key Figures
  4. KPF6 – Internal Order: Cost / Activity Inputs
  5. KPD6 – Internal Order: Statistical Key Figures
  6. CJR2 – Project Systems: Cost Element / Activity / Process
  7. CJS2 – Project Systems: Statistical Key Figures
  8. 7KE1 – Profit Center Accounting: Costs / Revenues
  9. 7KE3 – Profit Center Accounting: Balance Sheet Accounts
  10. 7KE5 –Profit Center Accounting: Statistical Key Figures

Initialize a New Expert Mode Template

The process to initialize a new Expert Mode template is similar to the process described in the section Initialize a new Budget Loader Template with one exception.  To switch to Expert Mode, select Set Expert Mode on the Choose Fields screen for any of the supported transactions.

After selecting Set Expert Mode, your Choose Fields screen will change and the Expert Header section and other Expert Mode fields will be displayed.  If the Set Expert Mode is grayed out, then Expert Mode is not available for the selected transaction.

Expert Mode - Choose Fields

The Choose Fields layout is very similar to non-expert mode with the addition of a few items.  The most notable of these will be an Expert Header section with various fields. This block of fields is the common set of criteria which will be applied to each expert column in Excel.  Fields which can be applied to both planning and history columns (such as Period, Fiscal Year, Version, etc.) will be displayed at the top level along with Planning/History fields which are Planning and History specific and have the same name but different sets of possible values. 

There will be another set of History only fields in a sub-section of Choose Fields denoted as ReportFlds.  These fields are only relevant for history columns in an Expert Mode template.

Note: These fields are selection criteria used to limit which historical information is displayed but which cannot be posted to directly for planning/budgeting purposes.

Adding blank columns, for calculation, notes, etc. to the Object and Line Items sections are supported in Expert Mode from this screen. Switching of dimensions by dragging and dropping cost objects marked with the Z icon is also supported as it is with non-expert templates.

In the Choose Fields screen in Expert Mode, you will notice that the value fields are labeled generically as Exp. 1, Exp. 2, etc. This is short for Expert Value 1 and others. Since expert columns can take on any definition as specified in the expert header section, these cells, upon initialization, are labeled in this fashion. Later in the Expert Mode documentation is additional help for quickly labeling all of the cells in a multi-section Budget Loader template.

Initially, 12 expert columns will be displayed, but you can add as many as required and have as few as a single expert column.  You can also right click and quickly select and de-select all of the fields in any given section.  Also keep in mind it will be easy to add more expert columns after the sheet is created if the initial column count is not adequate.

Working within Expert Mode

Once you have finished initializing your Budget Loader Expert Mode template, you can begin defining each Expert column in the worksheet.

The cells in green denote expert header fields which apply to the value types in green in the section below.  They modify what value type will be displayed. The blue cells denote regular selection fields that are also available in regular Budget Loader templates. 

In regular Budget Loader templates you can use a skip, comment, or ignore statement in the first column to denote a skip row.  The same concept applies in Expert Mode, with the addition of the Skip Column. If the Skip column is left blank, the expert column will process.

Other fields can be filled in using static drop down lists which are valid for that particular field.  You can also right-click and select Pick Budget Values for Version, Value Type, and many other fields. 

The Plan/Hist field denotes whether a column is a Planning or History column.  Note that the requirements for field population change when this is modified (If the column was changed to Hist you would need to select a Hist.PerType and so on).

The Period cell can be populated with a single month value, multiple values by using a comma, and a quarter or range by specifying the range with a comma.

As illustrated in the graphic displayed to the right, when using multiple sections, you can quickly change all subsequent value type headers by simply modifying the first label.  When the Apply Groups functionality is utilized in conjunction with Expert Mode, all of the subsequent value types header fields will contain a formula which will take the text of the first section.  Those cells will not be modified on subsequent processing of the template.

Blank columns and Expert columns may be added by right-clicking and selecting Add Blank Column. Selecting Yes will add a new blank column and selecting No will add a new Expert column.

Expert Mode - Processing

To process an Expert Mode template from the Budget menu, select Process from the menu just as you would a regular template.

If the template is an Expert template, the dialog similar to the following will be displayed.

To process the History only columns, select the first radio button, to process the Planning columns only, select the second radio button, and to process both Planning and History columns, select the third radio button.

To refresh, or populate master data descriptions when processing, check the Load SAP Texts checkbox.

Error messages will be handled the same as they are in normal templates.

Expert Mode - One-Cell Concept

When using Budget Loader in Expert Mode, it is important to note a distinct difference in the manner in which data is displayed in Excel.  In a regular budget loader template, especially in history templates, selection criteria are entered and can represent the selection of multiple records, especially in a range of values.  All of the matching records are then sorted and displayed in the template. 

In Expert Mode, each selection field represents a match of exactly one value (as denoted in the example with selection cells E8 – E15, C20, and C24) and one result cell (as denoted in the example as cell E24). The only range selection could be multiple periods.

Also, keep in mind, especially for history processing, if you need to research a quick set of historical information, it may be faster to use the regular history template than using an expert template.  Expert templates should be used for recurring use, where you want to combine budgeting/planning packages into one sheet for recurring use, but can take longer to initially setup and configure depending upon the complexity of the planning transaction in use.

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