Planning and Budgeting with SAP BPC

SAP BPC is a performance management application designed to help companies manage financial KPIs. It supports financial planning and consolidates the data required for informed decision-making.

Who is it for?

Planning and budgeting often become difficult because of:

• Inadequate tools. Building budgets in Microsoft Excel is challenging: it is not designed for true multi-user work, requires manual input, and increases the risk of errors caused by the human factor.

• Lack of process transparency. When branches don’t understand what information headquarters needs and reports are prepared in different formats, data collection drags on and mistakes creep in.

• Human factor. People may not have the required data or may make mistakes—both can be critical when preparing management reports.

SAP BPC helps eliminate these issues. It addresses the key needs of a finance function:

• Forecasting. The system uses practical algorithms to build transparent, well-grounded budgets. It also aggregates all planning data so you can reuse it at any time.

• Strategic planning and budgeting.

• Collaboration. Everyone involved can work with the same data set, and approvals become significantly easier.

What makes SAP BPC stand out?

• A single data repository that can be integrated with transactional systems and common office tools. You can build reports yourself via a Web 2.0 interface or in Microsoft Office—without постоянной involvement from IT. The solution supports Microsoft Office, HTML5, and mobile interfaces.

• Faster budgeting and reporting cycles. Time spent on budget creation, approval, and reporting decreases, while data quality and process transparency improve.

How does it work?

SAP BPC lets you enforce and monitor your budgeting governance. You can define the process step by step and control each stage, including approvals.

The solution supports both top-down and bottom-up budgeting and approvals. With top-down and bottom-up planning, you set target figures and then compare them to detailed amounts—so you can see how far the plan deviates from the target.

You can configure flexible allocation rules and adjust them when needed. Data will automatically follow the rules, and users can add comments where necessary.

Offline data entry is also available: users can complete budget forms outside the system by exporting them to Microsoft Office and then upload them back using the built-in Distribution and Collection functionality.

With SAP BPC, you can set target planning assumptions, cascade them to business units, and run a controlled budgeting process across the organization.

Benefits for you

With SAP BPC, you get a single platform for planning and reporting—based on one toolset and a unified data repository. The system delivers high performance, with data storage and access powered by SAP HANA.

You can track user actions in the system, and the product integrates easily with external data sources. The interface is intuitive and familiar—often compared to Excel.

Budget planning with SAP BPC becomes straightforward:

• Set target planning KPIs and cascade them to all branches, subsidiaries, and departments

• Track the full budgeting workflow—from creation to approval

• Plan annual figures and distribute them using different methods (straight-line, prior year, upward/downward trend, or any custom approach)

• Apply flexible calculation rules—executed either by the system or by users

As a result, the company can shorten planning, budgeting, and consolidated reporting cycles. Human-factor errors are largely eliminated, which improves data reliability.

If you’d like to see how SAP BPC can work for your business, contact a TerraLink manager.