Financial planning with SAC

In practice, it is clear that Excel-based planning is no longer up to date and is also time-consuming and error-prone - which costs a lot of time and ties up resources. Especially in times of crisis like now, however, reliable, flexible and short-term planning is needed - as made possible by SAP Analytics Cloud.

The SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC) comes as a standard solution and is particularly suitable for IT-savvy business users for financial planning. Especially in times of crisis, the potential of SAC can be exploited because it allows simple and fast planning - business users do not have to wait for comprehensive support from IT, but can get started themselves.

Freedom in planning

The SAC also offers more freedom in planning and a high level of time savings. Financial planning is thus possible at short notice, and in addition controllers not only supply figures but also have sufficient capacity to analyze them, i.e. they can question what, for example, inflation of eight percent means and how it affects costs, personnel and production.

To ensure that the introduction of financial planning with SAC goes smoothly, the following points should be taken into account: do not copy the old tool, but use new possibilities. If companies decide to use SAC for financial planning, they should fully commit to it and not try to rebuild the old Excel-based planning. It is important to be open to the new functionalities and to use them. The changeover to the new tool should also be an occasion to question the old planning processes. This is because the solution used up to now has usually grown historically and contains a number of special cases. However, many of these are no longer relevant. Companies should therefore focus on current issues when they start using SAC for financial planning. Many of the previous procedures can be optimized with SAC, thereby reducing the complexity of the entire financial planning: For example, files do not have to be sent back and forth between departments or from the branch office to the central office, because they are stored in the cloud and can be viewed and edited there by all authorized users. In addition to access rights, specifications can also be controlled centrally - an enormous advantage over the arbitrary and changeable Excel formulas.

In the past, specifications were written for financial planning, sometimes containing a three-digit number of requirements. However, these times are over; companies should no longer get lost in small details in their financial planning, but focus on the relevant core areas. After all, sufficient resources must be available for successful planning projects. It is therefore a good idea to create topic blocks and work through them one by one: Controlling starts with a profit and loss statement and builds a balance sheet plan on top of it, in which details on provisions can be added later. In this way, initial reports can be delivered quickly, on the basis of which initial planning can be carried out. Financial planning in topic blocks moves in the direction of agility, which promises speed and adaptability. 

It is important for the content work that the SAC does not provide special consolidation functions. Plans can be created for different levels of the company: For example, simple eliminations, such as an elimination of internal sales, can be used at the headquarters level. However, this requires the use of special formulas.

Business users can therefore create part of the financial planning with SAC; more complex or specialized issues from the subject area of group consolidation can be covered with SAP Group Reporting. In return, however, SAC makes work easier for IT-savvy business users in particular, because they can prepare reports independently and in a short time without the support of the IT department. Although SAC cannot replace a consolidation solution, controllers can provide reliable reports for individual companies or at group level at short notice.

SAC only

Management should not simply impose the SAC on its business users, but should get employees on board early. This has several advantages: The users feel involved and are much more open to the changeover to the new tool. This avoids "Excel shadow reporting": from now on, controllers should mainly use SAC and not send their Excel lists by mail in the background as before. In addition, managers can collect their feedback - keyword agility - and have relevant points implemented that central corporate planning is not aware of. 

Companies should expect a certain amount of IT work after each update so that business users can use the tool again as desired. SAP provides advance information about the time windows for the updates, and IT must then keep capacities free for any adjustments. If companies are prepared for updates, they can expect no surprises and users will quickly benefit from the new features of the updates.

The SAP Analytics Cloud makes work easier for IT-savvy financial planners in particular. It takes the complexity out of planning processes and enables users to create new planning scenarios with corresponding reports independently and at short notice. Especially for times of crisis, such as those experienced by the global economy in recent years, financial planning with SAC is therefore ideal.